Vedanta
ULLHAS PAGEY
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Our Daily Conflicts
The Mahabharata war at Kurukshetra, as the story goes, was fought only once between the Pandavas and Kauravas.But there is another, or several, Mahabharatas, so to speak, the wars we wage every day `within ourselves' and these seem to go on forever. Why?
Let's take a closer look at this phenomenon. The Pandavas symbolise noble qualities like compassion, truthfulness, kindness and fairness, whereas the Kauravas signify deceit, untruth and evil designs.
So, when we talk of the war going on within us, we're talking of the ongoing tussle between the positive and negative forces. If positive forces win the war, it will result in dharma, righteousness; if negative for ces win the war, it would lead to dys functional be haviour. So, what decides `who' wins the war within?
For that, we need to understand the behavioural dynamics of our body , mind and intellect from the stand point of the Kathopanishad that says that our body is like a chariot, with the soul being its sole owner, with intellect in the driver's seat, controlling horses (sense organs) with the mind as the reins.
Materialistic objects constantly pull these sense organs towards them, resulting in the horses going haywire; but the winner is one who uses his intellect to control the horses by holding a tight leash over the reins (the mind). Anyone putting his intellect to intelligent use will always generate positive forces in the cosmos and would attain the strength to transcend all states, to achieve the Supreme Reality .
The Mahabharata war at Kurukshetra, as the story goes, was fought only once between the Pandavas and Kauravas.But there is another, or several, Mahabharatas, so to speak, the wars we wage every day `within ourselves' and these seem to go on forever. Why?
Let's take a closer look at this phenomenon. The Pandavas symbolise noble qualities like compassion, truthfulness, kindness and fairness, whereas the Kauravas signify deceit, untruth and evil designs.
So, when we talk of the war going on within us, we're talking of the ongoing tussle between the positive and negative forces. If positive forces win the war, it will result in dharma, righteousness; if negative for ces win the war, it would lead to dys functional be haviour. So, what decides `who' wins the war within?
For that, we need to understand the behavioural dynamics of our body , mind and intellect from the stand point of the Kathopanishad that says that our body is like a chariot, with the soul being its sole owner, with intellect in the driver's seat, controlling horses (sense organs) with the mind as the reins.
Materialistic objects constantly pull these sense organs towards them, resulting in the horses going haywire; but the winner is one who uses his intellect to control the horses by holding a tight leash over the reins (the mind). Anyone putting his intellect to intelligent use will always generate positive forces in the cosmos and would attain the strength to transcend all states, to achieve the Supreme Reality .
