Why did Arjuna want to be the greatest archer?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Why Arjuna want to be the greatest Arjuna? Why should he not want to be? A devotee’s desire is to offer the best of everything to the Lord and in many ways we can offer the best only when we ourselves are doing our best it is only when we strive to do the best that we can and thereby we move forward in our lives only then we can actually offer something constructive and worthwhile to the Lord so it is important for each one of us to recognize that the if ambition is not contrary to dharma then that is Krishna dharma aviruddho bhuteshu kamausmi bharata shabha the word kama can be specifically translated as sex desire generically it can be translated as ambition just as we have Yudhishthira Maharaj he and that was how Krishna was glorified by him so there are different ways in which we may glorify Krishna and the important thing is that we glorify him that is so a devotee in the world for example if there is a student the student tries their best to come first in the class then by that effort if the student does very well in the academics and then people want to know what is this how does the student do so well and then because the student has that fame that position that excellence people want to know about it and that is how the student can attract others to Krishna then the student can talk about say my bhakti you know I practice bhakti I have this spiritual aspect of my life that helps me to stay calm and focused so bhakti is never against material ambition and the desire sorry bhakti is never against ambition if that ambition is also incorporated within the realm of devotion and bhakti is inclusive enough to have space for ambition and ambition itself does not necessarily indicate the worldly desires the desire for excellence in this world can also be harmonized with the desire for transcendence in fact the two desires can very well be different aspects of the same desire it’s not that they are two separate desires it is for many people they can be two separate desires because they are seeing it as I have to do something for Krishna if they don’t see it that way if it is for their own prestige and their own accumulation of wealth then that is a worldly desire but otherwise the two desires can be combined together