Arjuna’s virtuous victory – Don’t challenge God’s wisdom; let God’s wisdom challenge you – 2

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Today we will be discussing about, in one sense, the hero of the Mahabharata, that is, Arjuna. The ultimate hero character in the scriptures is the Supreme Lord. But the Supreme Lord is not glorified, isolated from his devotees.

In fact, his glories come out most beautifully when they are in association with his devotees. So, Krishna, we see, when he manifests as Prahlad and Narasimhadeva, at that time he has Prahlad as his devotee. And the Bhagavata describes Prahlad's glories for many more chapters than Narasimhadeva's actions.

So, similarly, the Mahabharata talks elaborately about Arjuna. And, of course, the Pandavas are together as a unit most of the time. There are times when some of the Pandavas act alone.

So, for example, Vidishti is the primary person who answers the questions of Yaksha and rescues all the Pandavas at that time. Or, when there are big demons like Bakaso or Kirmira, other demons, then it is Bhima who fights with them primarily. And there are occasions, for example, when Durvasa Muni comes and asks for food after the Pandavas are eaten.

And that particular person is Draupadi, who acts as the primary, central character, the heroine. And she comes to the rescue. So, there are times when the Mahabharata focuses on one character specifically.

But like that, whatever happens, the maximum it happens is for a passion. So, today we will discuss about some of the incidents from Arjuna's life which illustrate two distinct things. The life tip that we are going to talk about here is, don't challenge the wisdom of God.

Let the wisdom of God challenge you. What does this mean? So, yesterday, what we discussed, actually these three life tips that we are discussing are in a progression. The first was the blame game leads to shame.

Blame game ends in shame. That was what we discussed based on Duryodhana's life. So, the idea there is, when problems come in one's life, if one tries to thrust the blame onto others for that, then whatever is the problem within oneself, that never gets rectified.

And in the end, that problem leads to disaster. So, if I have got a disease, and because of that disease I am coughing, and whoever comes near me, probably, you know, you are having some perfume, or you have put something on your body, because of which some substances are coming and they are in my nose, and that's what is causing me to cough. So, if I feel, this is a very simplistic example, but if I blame people like that, then I will not treat my cough.

And whatever respiratory disorder has caused my cough may also kill me also. So, when problems are there, rather than just trying to find some scapegoat externally, as was the want of Duryodhana, one needs to turn inwards. So, the first thing that we discussed was, the blame game ends in shame.

It will only lead to disaster if you keep blaming others for our limitations and our faults. So, the second was, we talked about Draupadi, ask not why this, but how now. So, there may be situations in our life, when problems come without any fault promulgating.

The first situation is, there is a problem and the problem has come because of our own mistakes. And if we blame others, then we can't rectify the situation. But another situation can be, that problems come in our life without any fault or mistake, from our side, as happened with Draupadi.

She was just a beautiful wife, who had accompanied her husbands from Indraprastha to Hastinapura. And suddenly, she was summoned into the assembly as degraded from a queen to a maidservant. Actually, the way she was interpreted.

Or something, even a maidservant should not be degraded. So, there is no fault of us. So, when this sort of thing happens in our life, when things go wrong and we can't find anything that we did wrong to make it happen.

Then, instead of finding, instead of trying to be resentful and make ourselves be energized by that. Sometimes, the why question just has no answer. So, ask not why this, but how now.

So, how should I act now? We discussed what Draupadi said, four points. Now, when this devastating news came, that she had been gambled and lost. What are the four things she said? First thing is, he who is the ordainer of all things has ordained this.

That means, Krishna is still in control. And, in this world, bad things happen to even those who are devoted to virtue. But, virtue gets its fruit sooner or later, in due course of time.

Therefore, the wise cherish virtue. Now, what is the ultimate virtue? The ultimate virtue is to stay fixed in the service of Krishna. Because, we are the servants of Krishna.

So, essentially, whenever we face any adversity in life, for which we can find no cause. For example, he was driving a car and suddenly, it was an accident. Anything can happen like that.

So, ask not why this, but how now. How should I deal with the situation now? What should I do now? So, how now is essentially a prayer for service. When Mr. Prabhupada was asked, what should we pray to Krishna for? Prabhupada said, the best prayer is the prayer for the strength to do service.

Krishna, please give me the strength to serve. So, how this is? Krishna, in this situation, how can I serve in this situation? So, that was the thing we discussed, which was Prabhupada's life. So, she found one way out in that situation.

Was I actually in a position to gamble away? And through that, she tried to avert the impending alarm. So, first stage was, we don't blame others. Second is, we try to find out what we should do.

Now, sometimes, we, either by our own intelligence or by the guidance of others, there may be a way out. But somehow, we don't like that way out. That is, we feel that this is not political.

So, at that time, what we are going to discuss from Arjuna's life is, that don't challenge the wisdom of God. Let the wisdom of God challenge you. That means, how is this possible? I can't do this.

Instead of asking that, if this is what I am meant to do, this is what Krishna wants me to do, then let me see how I can do it. Why am I feeling that I should not be doing this? Maybe there is something wrong in my own understanding. So, we see this attitude in Arjuna, especially in the Bhagavad Gita's fourth chapter, fourth verse.

There he asks, अपरंभवतो जन्म परंजन्मा विवस्वतः कथमेतः विजानिया तमादं प्रोक्तवानिति So there, कथमेतः विजानिया How can I understand this? So what Krishna is asking over there is, or what Krishna has said before this is, that, oh Arjuna, I gave this knowledge to the sun god. इमं विवस्वते योगम् प्रोक्तवानिति अमेयम् I spoke there this knowledge, this spiritual science of yoga to the sun god. And then Krishna continues speaking that.

And then suddenly Arjuna asks, Krishna, sun god no longer there, you are not there. You are almost in the contemporary. अपरंभवतो जन्म Your birth was much later.

परंजन्मा विवस्वतः The birth of the sun god was much earlier. कथमेतः विजानिया How am I to understand तम आदम् प्रोक्तवानिति कथमेतः विजानिया How am I to understand that you spoke this to him. So, here Krishna does not take the attitude that, Arjuna does not take the attitude that you love nothing.

You are just making things up. How could you have spoken to the sun god? No, he takes a submissive attitude. What is submissive attitude? That, how can I understand this? I am not questioning whether what you are saying is true or not.

I am simply questioning, how is it possible? So, now this brings us to the important point of scripture. Sometimes we may get the question, that how do we actually know that scripture is the word of god? Is there some way that scripture comes with a label, made by god? Because sometimes we have a product with a label, made in India, made in America, made in China. Does scripture come with a label like that? No, it doesn't come.

Even if it came with a label, how do we know that label is authentic? So, that question can always come. So, before we go into the specifics, we have to understand the principle. If we look at the world around us, we see that whatever are our fundamental necessities, they are provided for each.

For living, we need air. So, air is the energy. For living, we need water.

Water is the food. So, our fundamental necessities are there in nature. Now, one of the necessities for living is also knowledge.

So, if you look at the world around us, if you look at the complexity, the design of the world that we see, then you will see that it must have come from a very intelligent person. Now, India's greatest mathematician, Vishnuvasa Ramanath, he was a mathematician, so he lived with equations. But he said, an equation for me has no meaning unless it represents the thought of God.

An equation has no meaning unless it represents the thought of God. Now, we may say, E is equal to MC squared, or F is equal to GM1, GM1 is equal to R squared. Who made this equation? It was not the particular scientist Newton or Einstein who made it.

An equation is already there in nature. So, how did it come out? That is the thought of God. So, we see order in nature, and we understand this order comes from some super-intelligent person.

So, now, if that person has made the world and provided the necessities for living in this world, then would that person have also not provided knowledge about the purpose of living? Imagine that some very intelligent friend we have, and on our birthday we find that he sends by mail some very impressive looking parcel. We open it and it looks like a very sophisticated gadget. But, we don't know what is the gadget, and there is no way to know what the gadget is.

And, we look on the internet also, we google it, and there is nothing more about the gadget. What is the purpose of sending a gadget like that? Maybe there is some… In fact, there must be some manual somewhere, where they can understand what this is and what it is meant for. So, just as we will find, if somebody is giving something, and giving it without telling the purpose of it, or how to use it, that would be very lacking in intelligence.

So, in principle, we can understand that if God has created the world, God has provided the necessities of living, then he can provide scripture also. That means, scripture, rather than thinking of it as some book which has come from God, yes, that is also true. But, scripture essentially, in principle, is the direction given by God about how to live in this world.

So, in principle, God will not leave us hanging without the knowledge of how to live. After he has given us the provided necessities for living. So, once we understand this principle, God will provide knowledge, then we can move forward and say, okay, how do I know whether a particular book is a scripture, which is like a manual for living? Then, normally, say, if I get a device, and then somebody says that this is a manual for this device, how will I know whether this is a manual or not? If somebody who has used that device, who is very experienced, an expert in that device, that person tells me, okay, this is a manual.

I will tell you to have some, that you have some credibility. But, if I open it, and say, okay, this upper part is called a monitor, and this part is called a keyboard, and, okay, this upper part, that is a computer screen, it does a screen. So, basically, if the manual helps me to make sense of that device, and, secondly, the manual helps me to operate that device better.

Okay, do this and this will happen. Do this, this will happen. Do this, this will happen.

So, it basically, these two things happen. If a manual should help us to make sense, and a manual should help us to make use of that device. If both of these happen, then that is, we can make a reasonable inference, using logic, that it's a good possibility this may be a manual.

The same way, with respect to scripture, yes, we can have the Bhagavad Gita, we can have the scripture as objects of reverence, which we keep on the family altar. That is good, but they are not meant to be kept as objects of reverence. They are not just to be respected, but, they are actually meant to act as tools of transformation.

So, we study, after studying it, does it help us to make sense of life? Does it help us to understand what is happening? Why is it happening? Basic, fundamental questions of life, who am I? Why am I living? Does it help us to understand and answer these questions? And, if we study the scriptures, with the guidance of advanced spiritualists, then we'll find that it just makes a lot of sense. And then, if we apply the scripture, we'll find that our mind will become more peaceful, our life will become better, we'll become more satisfied, our relationships will improve, even if other people don't change, but our capacity to deal with other people will improve. So, we'll find that it helps us make sense and it helps us to make use.

And this way, we can develop in the preliminary faith that scripture is the guiding revelation of God. And further, as we practice scripture more and more, we will get realization of the scriptural truths. We'll realize how we are different from the God and we are the soul.

And we'll move forward in our spiritual life. But essentially, we understand the principle that God provides guidance. And, ultimately, we all need some basis for making decisions in life.

Now, some people say that, why do you need any Guru at all? So, when Prabhupada was asked about this, this girl said, don't follow anyone. Prabhupada said, why are you following him? He said, don't follow any Guru. If you don't follow any Guru, you are following him.

When he said, don't follow anyone. So, in principle itself, it's impossible to not follow anyone. don't follow anyone is a self-contradictory statement.

The self-contradictory statements are, suppose if I say, I can't speak one word of English. I have already spoken so many words, isn't it? It's a self-contradictory statement. Or, if I say, I don't exist.

Well, I have to exist to say that I don't exist. So, there's no, these are self-contradictory statements. Some people say, okay, it may be true for you, but it is not true for me.

Okay, Mahavidya may be true for you, but it is not true for me. So, this seems to be, in today's post-modern humanistic culture, it may seem very appealing. But then, we can ask this question.

We are saying, it may be true for you, but not for me. Is this statement also, it may be true for you, but not true for me? That means, if we say, it may be true for you, but not true for me. Now, is this statement a relative truth, or is it absolute truth? If I say, it may be true for you, but not true for me.

Well, I may say, that may be true for you, but not true for me. So, ultimately, we cannot get away from the point that we all have to accept some point. We have to accept some point.

Now, in the history of Europe, especially after the Second World War, and before that also, there were many atheistic philosophers. One atheistic philosopher, he did not, his philosophy was existentialism. And at the end of it, his whole conclusion was, life is meaningless.

Therefore, the only philosophical question is, whether to commit suicide tomorrow or today. So, ultimately, existence ends in frustration. If we don't, take some kind of guidance.

So, we all have to take guidance from someone or something. And generally, we base our decisions, now, what should I wear? What walk should I take? Where should I try to stay? What are the many reasons in our life? We generally take our decisions based on four factors. That is, tradition, culture, logic, and mood.

I'll explain to you. Tradition. Tradition means, we have always done like this.

Okay, why do we do like this? For example, people in the West, when they get married, they get married in a church, the husband and wife take a vow of following the priest. And India, when people get married, they go around in a circle around a fire. The vows are not spoken by the couple, but the vows are spoken like blessings by the priest in their incantations.

So, now, why do we do like this? Well, that's a tradition over there, that's a tradition over here. So, certain things we do because it's a tradition. That's how we have always done it.

The second reason we may do something is culture. Culture means everyone does it. So, for example, in the West especially, there is a very sad biological fallacy, that when the children love animals, small animals, cats, dogs, they love to have them as pets.

But when those same children eat meat without the slightest compunction, and only when they eat, but now if they have a pet dog, the pet dog has a small scratch. They feel the scratches come on my body and they feel they are crying. But then their breakfast involves causing murderous pain to animals just like the animals they love so much.

They don't even think about it. Why? Because everyone does it. So, culture means everyone does it, so I do it.

That can be one reason why we do certain things. Third is me-man. Oh, somebody goes to a shopping and he is supposed to purchase 10 things and he comes back with 50 things.

Why? I felt like purchasing. Now, there is, when there was a discussion around 5-6 years ago, so I have written a book, discussion on Adversity and Opportunity. So there, you see that how shopaholism is an addiction that is worse than alcoholism.

More widespread. Alcoholism is people can't resist the urge to drink and shopaholism is people can't resist the urge to purchase. Shop till you drop.

That is all. Just keep purchasing, keep purchasing, keep purchasing. So, and of course, the whole current media with its advertising and very aggressive marketing of things that induces, creates desires within us.

So, anyway, we may do certain things because of you. I felt like doing it. And the fourth factor may be logic.

It made sense. Okay. Why did you decide to take a job, take this job instead of that job? Because that job is less time to work, less time work is there and more pay is there, better prospects are there, whatever.

So it makes sense. So now all these four are our usual parameters that we design things. And they are useful.

But none of these are completely reliable parameters. Now just because everything is, just because something is done in the tradition, that does not make it right. Even in the Indian tradition we see there are so many things which are superstitions.

And these superstitions don't have to be entertained. For example, the idea that caste is determined only by birth and people who are no more have to be forever looked down upon, that is not a scriptural idea. That is an idea which is socially gaining a lot of prominence.

And even when there was the caste system, the purpose of that was cooperation, not discrimination. So people may today just go on, especially from other villages in the north or in the south, whatever the century old caste discrimination goes on, all the social reality today is quite different. So just because something has been done in the tradition doesn't mean it has to go on.

It has to be right, it has to go on. We have to understand the difference between scripture and tradition. Tradition simply means that it has been going on for a long time.

That doesn't necessarily mean that that is something which is taught by scripture. Then culture. In culture there can be so many things.

I give an example of meat-eating itself. That would be wrong. So with respect to mood, our moods are notoriously unreliable.

Our moods, often our moods end up making us, making a fool out of ourselves. We feel like doing something and after a while we don't do that. So what was this to me to do that? So moods can be very unreliable.

And then similarly, logic. Now something may make sense to us based on the information that we have. But because we are limited, our information is incomplete.

So for example, if a person has a particular, say a person has got cough, and calls a doctor, the doctor will take this medicine. And then suddenly that person's cough becomes ten times worse. It's like, oh this person already has a heart problem.

I should have told you all this. A person with a heart problem cannot take this medicine. He has to be on some other medicine.

So with the limited knowledge that this person is having cough, one particular medicine may make sense. But when we give it to a greater knowledge, that person has some heart problems, which makes the person allergic, or vulnerable to certain medications, then that past issue may prove to be incomplete. So science, to a large extent, is based on logic.

Now what is considered true by science today, may not be considered to be true in the future. So science is in some way progressing, but science doesn't move towards anti-microbials. This may seem a little theoretical, but we'll come to Mahabharata in a few minutes.

I'll just talk one important thing about science, and then I'll move forward. You know, sometimes some people think that there's a war between science and spirituality, or a war between science and religion. And we have to choose.

And some devotees may give this portrayal, and they say that, oh, scripture is very advanced, science is all bogus, science is all wrong. It's not exactly like that. The point is that science has its domain, and scripture has its domain.

So scripture primarily gives us directions about how to live, and what is the purpose for which we live. Science does not answer these questions. Why? Because science focuses on hows, not whys.

How things happen. Science doesn't focus on why things happen. So, for example, now, in science, basically, there are three methods by which science tries to acquire knowledge.

They are called as reduction, induction, and abduction. So why are we talking about all this? Our theme is, don't challenge the wisdom of God, let the wisdom of God challenge you. So what is this wisdom of God, and why we should let it challenge us, that's what we're going to discuss.

And then we will move to Arjuna, and we'll see how Arjuna let this happen in his life. So, deduction is, for example, maths. 3 plus 6 is 9. 12 squared is 125.

These are deductive truths. They are not going to change anything. So, science is based on maths, it uses deduction.

Then another is induction. Induction means what? We observe 10 times, 50 times, 100 times, and based on that, we infer that this is true for the time we have not observed it. So, for example, Newton observed on fruit falling.

Now, most people, if they observe the fruit falling, they just pick it up and eat the little one. But what Newton did, he said, why is this fruit falling? And we thought, is this fruit falling? Are different objects falling? So, now, neither Newton nor all scientists in the world have observed all objects whether they fall or not. But they made a large number of observations, and based on that, they made an inference.

That, okay, if all objects fall, all objects move closer to each other because of the force of gravity, then this must be universal. So, induction means what? We make a finite number of observations, and then we extrapolate it. But this is replicable.

It's not that I have to just believe Newton when he says things will fall. I can drop a ball and it will fall. Now, this is the primary methodology of science by which it has made all its technological advances.

So, you know, we send this, type some email, and go to somebody in America. Just press some button, and you can talk to somebody in Australia. Now, all these advances seem to be tremendous.

And in one way, it is tremendous. And sometimes people may think, you know, if science has given us all this, how can science be wrong? If science says that everything has come from a Big Bang, or humans have come from monkeys, or things like that, how can science be wrong? We have to understand that all science does not fall in the same category. The principles of electronics, principles of gravity, they are inferred by induction.

But with respect to origin of life, origin of universe, science cannot use induction. Why? Because the origin of universe is something which happened long ago. You cannot do another experiment to repeat it and see how the universe originates.

So, for this, science uses another method called abduction. Abduction means, it's an inference to the best explanation. It is used especially in, in, say, crime research.

Now, if somebody, if a police is, you know, so-and-so owner of a flat, so-and-so in this building, has been murdered. They are not in the police room. The police, if they want to find who is the criminal, they cannot re-enact the murder.

They cannot call the people and keep a camera and say, oh, there's a murder in there. You cannot re-enact. So what do they do? They find it.

Okay. Who was the last person who went into the room? Are there any cameras over there? Okay. Was the knife that went into his stomach, you know, with how much force was it sent? Could it have been put by a child, or could it have been put by a woman, or could it have been put by a man? And how do you do the post-mortem to find out, okay, what time did it happen? And then, through multiple lines of inference, they come, okay, this wound happened between, say, 10 to 12.

And then you ask the watchman, who went in between 10 to 12? Okay, three people. And then all of them, two were children. They could not have lost 10 to 12.

So therefore, third person went in. So it becomes likely that that person was the killer. So, now when you do inference to best explanation, it is never certain.

So what happens when science talks about how the world came about, how life came about, science cannot do any repetition of things. It simply does inference to best explanation. And that's why it's never reliable.

It's never reliable. So, when we choose to have taken scripture, we are not rejecting science. We are contextualizing science.

Rejecting means to say science is wrong. Contextualizing means saying that science does not have answers to these questions. And, listen, I'll just go back to what I published article on the scientism.

Scientism is the idea that science has answers to all questions. And there, the Nobel laureate, he says that, you know, the biggest disservice that a scientist can do to humanity is to claim that science has answers to all questions. There's a Nobel laureate scientist, and he's saying that if a scientist says that science has answers to all questions, such a scientist is doing disservice to humanity and disservice to science.

Because science doesn't have answers to all questions. There are many questions for which we have to turn to other sources of knowledge. And that's where we turn to a scripture.

So, for example, now, coming to our Mahabharata context, when we have to take decisions, how do we take decisions? Now, science can tell if there is a young man and his grandmother has left a big estate for him, science can tell him that if I put arsenic in my grandmother's breakfast, she'll die and I'll just get the estate tomorrow. But whether I should do it or not, science will not tell that. You understand this point? How and why? Okay, should I kill? That is a decision science is about.

That is something which one's ethical and spiritual fabric has to decide. When Albert Einstein said, we can talk about the ethical foundation of science, we cannot talk about the scientific foundation of ethics. The ethical foundation of science means science has to be decided how to use it based on ethics.

Is this right? Is this wrong? Should I use this medicine? Should I use this machine gun? Should I use this bomb? These are ethical decisions. Scientists can make a nuclear bomb which can destroy one whole city. But science cannot tell whether to use the nuclear bomb or not.

That is something that should be decided by someone else. So, science can tell us how to do things. Science cannot tell us why to do something or why not to do something.

The why questions, we need some other source for deciding. So, now, okay, I should not poison my grandmother because it's unethical. Now, where do I learn that from? I have to learn it from the disciples.

I don't learn that from science. So, to say that science has a particular domain of knowledge is not to disrespect or reject science. It is simply to acknowledge the truth of life.

So, when we turn towards scripture, we turn primarily for making decisions. So, what was the decision that Arjuna had to make? Arjuna was a formidable warrior. And, throughout his life, he prepared for the war.

Not just a war, but the war. What do you mean by a and the? War means it can be any war. War means a specific war.

So, Arjuna was right from his childhood. He was very virtuous. In fact, after Kunti and Pandu, they begot, they begot by mystical means, their first two sons.

So, first, when Pandu thought, Pandu came to know from Kunti that she has this benediction by which she can get a child from the gods. So, he called Dharma, invoke Dharma and get a child from him. Because, ultimately, a ruler has to be Dharma.

But then, he thought, so then, he called Dharma and then, they begot this issue. Then, Pandu thought again and he said, Dharma is important, but Dharma without Bala is not of so much use. A person has to have strength also.

Therefore, very strong is wine. It can make everyone and everyone move around. So, call wine and begot a son from him.

And then, Bhima was born. And then, he thought, that actually, Dharma is good. Bala is good.

But, we also need a combination of both. So, the combination of Dharma and Bala is found in Indra. Now, sometimes, from the Bhagavatam's perspective, Indra may almost seem like a cartoon character.

You know, Indra is pulling thunderbolts on the Brajavasis. But, that is, you have to understand, because the Bhagavatam is talking about pure emotional service. From the point of pure emotional service, any other goal is minimized.

But, from the point of view of this world's material success, dharmic success, Indra is a glorious person. One has to do a hundred Ashwamedha Yajnas to become Indra. So, Indra is a great person.

So, when Indra is minimized or caricatured in the Bhagavatam, it is not because Indra is a silly person. It is simply because Bhakti is so great, that in contrast with him, even somebody as great as Indra becomes infidel. So, we shouldn't minimize Indra based on that.

Atleast in Mahabharata, Indra is discussed a lot, and you will see that in Arjuna's dealings with Indra also. So, anyways, let us invoke Indra. And they said, so what Pandu and Kunti decided is that if we want to get a protein from Indra, then we should purify ourselves.

And actually, for one year, they do fasts and austerities. Not exactly fasting entirely, but a specific kind of fast. But, they do fasts and they do purification and austerities.

And then, after that, Kunti chants the mantra to invoke Indra. And then, when Arjuna is born, at that time, the celestials, they shower flowers, and they sing, and drums and bugles that are heard, celebrating the appearance of a great person. And then, Arjuna, as he grows up, he is not only virtuous, but he is also an expert.

And soon, when the Pandavas return back, he excels far beyond everyone else in Jnana's academy. Becomes not just his favourite student, but his best student also. Favourite is one who you like the most, best is one who is actually out of the group.

So, he is favourite because he is the best. And, Arjuna, as he excels, now, he envies himself to everyone. Of course, the Kauravas are envious.

But still, he is not just brilliant, but he is also very, as the word Arjuna, Arju, simple, pure, clean. So, he is very virtuous and straight kind of person. And then, he is already in Drona's academy, he becomes famous as the greatest as the greatest archer.

But the moment of glory for him, there are many moments of glory, but the first moment of undisputed glory that comes for him is in Drupada's land, in Draupadi's land. When what nobody else is able to do, he alone does that. And, he actually outclasses everyone.

And not only does he outclass everyone, but after that, the Kshatriyas get angry. Because at that time, when the Pandavas were living in the forest, they have been living in the garb of Brahmanas. So, while they have been living in the garb of Brahmanas, they come to the assembly of Drupada, and initially, it is Kshatriyas who are competing.

And when none of the Kshatriyas are able to meet the target, then, Arjuna gets up, and then he asks Drupada, He says, Are Brahmanas allowed to compete? So, Drupada is actually disappointed. Because, he has arranged this whole assembly. And now, if nobody wins the test, then what do you do? He cannot let his daughter stay unmarried.

At the same time, he doesn't want to decrease the standards also. Actually, he has set the standards as a target, with the hope that that Arjuna will become his son-in-law. So, what had happened is, earlier, there had been a fight between Drupada and Arjuna.

And Arjuna had defeated Drupada, and arrested Drupada, because Drona had instructed him to do that. So, at that time, although Arjuna defeated Drupada, Drupada had not become angry with Arjuna, because he knew Arjuna was simply carrying the instructions of someone else. That is Drona.

He thought, how gallant! He says, I am an old, experienced, expert king, and this young lad has so easily defeated me. Now, how valorous! How expert! I wish I had a son-in-law. And, if I cannot have another son, I wish that I could have another son-in-law.

And therefore, later on, he goes and performs a yajna, by which, to get a son who will defeat Drona. But at that time, when the yajna is being performed, the Brahmin says, if you want, you can have a daughter also. He says, yes, I want a daughter who will become the wife of Arjuna.

In this way, I will have Arjuna as my daughter, son-in-law also. That is what he desires. So, when that happens, so he is, when he hears, afterwards, that the Pandavas are being burned in the fire at Varnaavar, he is dismayed.

What will happen to the promise of the gods? That Arjuna will become a loving god. He hopes privately that maybe the Pandavas have survived. And some rumours are going around, maybe the Pandavas are still.

And now, when he sees Arjuna, at that time, there were no photographs. So, when he sees Arjuna, he says, this is Arjuna. This is a Brahmin god, and he says, oh, this is a Brahmin god, but he looks so majestically with regal, aristocratic carriage to him.

He will be a worthy bride. Worthy groom for my daughter. So, he says, yes.

Tells Arjuna that, you know, the Brahmin god is respected by everyone, even by the Kshatriyas. So, it is on the for us, the Brahmin god wants to come. Please come.

And Arjuna goes forward and actually, when Arjuna is moving forward, the other Brahminas, they are divided in their own way. So, one of the Brahminas says, yes. The proud Kshatriyas will be humbled by the Brahminas.

Arjuna, they don't know who he is. Oh, young lad, go and win. And then some other Brahminas say, this young man, he has become mad by lust on seeing the beauty of the Brahmin.

If the world's great archers could not hit the target, how will this brave Brahmin hit the target? Another Brahmin, do you think he is brave? Just see how well made he is. Surely, he will win. And then he says, the Brahminas are discussing and when Arjuna is given the permission by Drupada, then Arjuna is marched forward and that bow itself is so big and heavy that many of the competitors are not willing to lift it.

So, Arjuna just took one bow and he slips it up. And he lifts it up and the whole assembly, there will be different people, some jeering, some cheering, but everybody is all silent. And Arjuna lifts up the bow and actually there are three stages to it.

First is, one has to lift the bow. Most of the competitors fail at that. They don't pass the qualifying round.

After that, you have to string the bow. Stringing the bow also requires a lot of strength because the bow, in order for it to have its tensile strength, it is stretched out. So, when it is to be tied, the bow, when it is short, the speed of the arrow depends on how much the tension in the string.

And that's why the bow needs to be bent, so that the string will be tied. Now, a huge bow, to bend it itself is very difficult. So, the few competitors who have been able to lift up the bow, when they have tried to bend it, many of them will be knocked down and fallen.

And they have to go. So, Arjuna uses powerful muscles and bends it. And he bends it.

At that time, all the assembly mounts follow and Krishna and Bhima are also sitting. Now, the swayamvar, when it is performed, it is not just a marriage ceremony. Yes, it's a marriage ceremony.

But along with that, it's also a social and religious celebration. So, when the Dwarkavasis come, they know that Draupadi is meant to be the bride of Arjuna. So, Krishna tells none of you should compete in the swayamvar.

So, either Krishna or Balram, none of them compete in the swayamvar. And then, Krishna called Balram and told him, there's a new excuse, Krishna said, Hey, that's Arjuna, isn't it? And Balram exposes it. Now, they have to say, yes, that looks like Arjuna.

And let's watch. And then Arjuna picks up the bow and then he points it, he actually has to point downwards, he has to look downwards and shoot upwards. He takes the arrow, he shoots downwards and there is a wheel moving round and round and through and the wheel has spoke.

So, from within, he has to shoot the arrow and there is a fish above. He has to pierce the eye of the fish. He shoots and immediately the target is hit.

And the whole assembly erupts. The brahmanas are cheerful. They say, yes, brahmana has won here.

And the kshatriyas erupt in anger. As they are watching, Drupada signals to Draupadi and she comes and she offers the garland to Arjuna. And as actual kshatriyas see that this beautiful princess has been won by a brahmana, the kshatriyas start getting angry.

He says, while Drupada, he has brought us here to be incited in front of the whole world. Now, let us teach him a lesson so that in the future, nobody will dare to incite us kshatriyas like this. So, now all the kings suddenly start they take out their swords, they pick up their bows and start charging towards Drupada.

And Drupada shrinks back and the odds are heavily against him. So, at that time, now the bride and groom are just about to depart. So, Yudhishthira is watching.

He is always mindful of his duty. He tells, Arjuna, now Drupada is our father-in-law. It is our duty to protect him.

So, Arjuna is still carrying the sacrificial boards and he immediately takes the board. And then, Bhima is actually, Bhima rarely likes to come out on any action. So, he immediately springs up.

Arjuna has the board. He does not have any weapon. He just looks around.

In that courtyard, there is a huge sand tree. He just goes there and one swoop uproots the whole tree. And then, Balram looks at Krishna.

He says, if there is any doubt about the identity, it has disappeared now. It is gone. Bhima could have uprooted a tree like that.

And then, they start swinging. And then, at that time, as the Kshatriyas charge towards, Arjuna starts shooting arrows. And the Kshatriyas are surprised at the speed of the arrows.

Now, the Kshatriyas fall back. And then, leading among the Kshatriyas, there is Karna. Because, everybody knows, Karna is a great archer.

So, Karna comes forward. And in the other Kshatriyas who are coming, Bhima tackles them. And Bhima swings around his tree.

And everybody falls back in fear. And Shalya, he is a formidable wrestler. So, Shalya and Bhima and Arjuna and Karna, they start fighting.

And as they start fighting, Karna shoots a few arrows. Arjuna counters all of them. And Arjuna counters all of them.

And Karna is surprised. He says, who are you? He says, are you Indra? Or are you Parashurama? Who are you? So, Arjuna decides that, I will not reveal my identity till Yudhishthira decides not to reveal that identity. So, he says, I am simply a student who has been blessed by his teacher.

And, if you have courage, fight. And then, Karna voluntarily puts his board down. He says, the martial power of the Kshatriyas can never be matched with the spiritual power of the Ramayanas.

So, I do not desire to fight with you. So, basically, he passes the box. And then, while Bhima and Shalya are fighting, Bhima suddenly catches Shalya in a fierce grip and hauls him around.

Shalya crashes onto the ground and falls unconscious. And, seeing this, all the kings shrink back in fear. And then, Bhima, Arjuna and Draupadi, they are revolted.

Now, the kings are still angry. Then, Krishna comes into action. And, Krishna says, actually, the bride was won fairly.

Whatever was the target that was set, this grandma won and hit the target. So, there is no need for you to get angry. There is no insult to the Kshatriyas because the contest was fought fairly.

And, the princess was also won fairly. And, it's sweet when he pacifies all of them. And then, after that, Balaram asks him, what are the Pandavas doing here? It's very fortunate that they are still alive.

Let us go and meet them. Now, the Pandavas are living in a small hut as Brahmins. They are living in Sutra city.

And then, this is the time, there is the first meeting between Krishna and Arjuna. So, Krishna comes and introduces himself. I am Balram and I am Krishna.

And, the Pandavas say, we know you. The whole world knows you. We are so blessed that you have come to our place.

And then, Krishna says, Arjuna recognized you at that time. He said, then, you picked up the bow. And, he said, I am so happy that you are still alive.

And then, what happens behind them? Krishna has also come. Now, as a concerned father, Drupada is still worried. Who has married my daughter? Some unknown person comes and the contest will be done in such a way that some great warrior will win.

But, the condition will be met by some unknown person. Who is it? So, as a concerned father and a concerned brother, Krishna goes and instructs the behest of Drupada. These Brahmins, why are the mighty Yadava princes gone to meet him? Surely, there must be somebody special.

Now, Drupada is in the heart. She said, okay. And then, when the Pandavas depart, when the Yadavas, Balram and Krishna depart, Nrishudina hides secretly outside their house and watches.

And then, from the conversation, you can see that they are all talking about the weapons and the events that happened. From what a person talks about, also one can understand what is the person's nature. So, Brahmins mostly talk about scriptures.

They are talking so much about weapons. There must be something else. And then, eventually, their identity is detected.

And then, Krishna, this is the first interaction that happens between Krishna and Arjuna. And after that, their friendship grows more and more. I am not going to all the incidents.

The second interaction between them is our Subhadra's marriage. So, Krishna helps Arjuna to marry Subhadra. The third interaction is when Krishna comes to the Indraprastha, Khandavaprastha.

And then, he helps them to transform to Andhraprastha. And then, they are in the forest. And then, they are in the forest.

At that time, Krishna and Arjuna are together. Actually, Arjuna is fighting. And they kill all the gods at Khandavaprastha.

And at that time, that is the first time that Krishna acts as a charioteer for Arjuna. It's a long story. Agni comes and says that I want to destroy, I want to devour this forest.

It is filled with all kinds of inofficious evil creatures. And the creator Rama has ordained that this forest be burned. So, I want to burn it.

But Indra is not allowing me to burn it. Because Indra has his friend Takshata Singh over him. So, I will please help him.

So, at that time, at Arjuna's request, till now, Arjuna is not his Gandhi. So, Arjuna says, I will surely do it. But I will need a chariot and I will need a bow.

So, then Agni calls Varuna and through Varuna, he arranges for a huge chariot, a huge bow and he arranges for a conch shell. And Arjuna is fully equipped. And Krishna says, I will be the charioteer.

And then, they start fighting. So, what they do is, we know that Krishna, during Govardhan Leela, what he did was, he created an umbrella so that the Vrajivasis below could be protected. Now, here, in the Khanda, the Hanleela, also, Arjuna creates an umbrella.

How does he create an umbrella? He shoots arrows, arrows, arrows. And Indra is showering down rains. Arjuna creates an umbrella with arrows.

And the purpose of this umbrella is not to protect what is below, but to destroy what is below. And the fire keeps blazing, blazing, blazing. And everything gets, as it's burning, now Indra is showering down more and more rains.

And it's a waterproof, completely waterproof umbrella of arrows, so closely aligned together. And then, Indra, himself sends his representatives, the Gandharvas and they come and they start attacking. He says, defend it.

So, now, some of the Asuras who are there in that Khanda forest, they also flee. So, Arjuna is simultaneously fighting at three fronts. The first front is, he is, the gods are attacking, he is countering them.

Second is that the umbrella, because of the gods' attack, leakage is created, he is sealing the leakage. And third is, whoever Asuras are fleeing from the forest, he is challenging them and killing them. So, that, it's a complete purification of the forest.

So, in theory, this is the time when I offer the Khanda earth of Agni. Arjuna is remembering this in the Bhagavatam. Because he was at me, by his mercy, able to do all this.

Satisfy Indra and Amarga. Satisfy Indra This is the one battle in which Indra is assisted by all the gods. There is Varuna, there is Vayu, all of them come and Arjuna single-handedly defeats all of them.

Indra uses his celestial weapon and Arjuna counters all of them. And now, at one level Indra is pleased because Arjuna is after all a son. But still he wants to test his force.

He keeps attacking, attacking. And finally, when all his weapons are countered by Arjuna, Indra says, stop. And he lets the Khanda of the forest burn.

And then, Brahmaji also tells Indra, don't worry, Takshita is not here. So, there is no need for you to oppose. That is ordained.

And then, Brahmaji also says, that immortal sage Narmada and Rishi, they have now incarnated as Krishna and Arjuna. Their plan cannot be stopped. Therefore, O Arjuna, O Indra, do not oppose the burning of the Khanda of the forest.

So, hearing this word, Indra stops. And then Indra appears. And he says, O Partha, I am pleased with you.

Now, here, as I said yesterday, as I told, in the Mahabharata, Krishna doesn't always act as God. Krishna often acts like a human being. And especially when dealing with the Devatas, he often takes a deferential role.

Like, I am a human being, and you are a Deva. So, he takes a deferential or respectful role towards the Devatas. So, Indra says, the darshan of the God should never go in vain.

Therefore, he says, please ask for some blessing. If I appear to you, I must give you some blessings. So, at that time, Arjuna says, please bless me with your celestial weapons.

So, Indra smiles and says, yes, O Partha, surely I will give you those weapons, but not now. In the future, when you will please Mahadeva, he will give his ashtar to you. At that time, I will call you to the heavens.

And I will personally give you all my weapons. And Indra turns towards Keshava. And Krishna, when he treats Indra like a God, will give him blessings.

Although, he is the blesser of everyone. And although, he and Arjuna have defeated Indra. But, although they have countered Indra, they do not rub salt on his wound.

They accept his position. And then, what does Krishna ask from Arjuna? Very sweet. He says, Indra, please bless me so that my friendship with Arjuna will never be broken.

What is the God asking? Let my relationship with my devotee go on forever. These are the some places where you get the glimpses of such intense and sweet bhakti than the normal. Normally, when we want to ask for something, we ask for something which is extreme.

If we are going to ask someone for blessing, what do we normally ask for blessing? Generally, if it is a thoughtfully asked blessing, there are two factors in it. One is something which is very important for us. And secondly, something which is not in our power to get.

If something is in our power to get, we may not ask it as a blessing. So, when Krishna is showing this, that, please let my friendship with Arjuna continue forever. This shows how important he considers his relationship with his devotees.

And secondly, also what is it demonstrating? It is demonstrating that Krishna, he is a supreme controller. He controls everything in the universe except one thing. Krishna controls everything in the universe except one thing.

And the one thing Krishna controls is our heart. Our heart. Now, that is something which is up to our freedom.

Now, in the Bhagavad Gita, in the seventh chapter, when Krishna is talking about different kinds of people who approach him, so there, in 7.18, he says, उदारः सर्वेवईते ज्ञानित्वात्मय्वनेवत्म आसितास्युत्तात्मा मामेवानत्मनंगते उदारः सर्वेवईते There are four kinds of people who come to him. Those who are distressed, those who are in need of money, those who are inquisitive, those who are knowledgeable. So, all of them are उदार.

Now, normally, what does the word उदार mean? आप उदार दिलके हैं उदार means charity. He gives a lot of charity. Very kind heart.

Now, normally, we consider the lord to be उदार. But the lord is calling the living entity to be उदार. And what kind of living entity? Not even those who are pure devotees.

Just those who are approaching him. The lord is calling them as उदार. So, why is that? Ramanacharya in his गिताराश्य, explains that the lord is hungry for the love of all living beings.

And this is a hunger which he himself doesn't have the power to do. No, he cannot force our love upon him. He cannot, he does not.

Because he respects our love. And that is why, because he hungers for the love, but because he can't get it on his own, therefore, if any soul offers his love to the lord, the lord feels so grateful. The lord says, Oh, you are so उदार.

You are so charitable. उदार सर्वेवई ते So, this is Krishna. That he pressures his relationship with his devotees.

And he loves everyone. We may not have a place for Krishna in our heart, but Krishna has a place for our heart. We may not have a place for Krishna in our heart.

Whatever reasons, we may resentful, we may doubtful, but Krishna has a place for us in his heart. And Krishna wants us to love him. And that's why he reveals to the scriptures the wonderful pastimes that he has performed.

So, this is a meeting, this historical interaction in Khanderao is the time when the role which Krishna will play for Arjuna in the momentous Kurukshetra war is first form of life. Krishna becomes the charioteer and Arjuna becomes the warrior. And together they fight.

So, how they fight? We will discuss after the break. We can have a five-minute break, and then we will discuss further about Arjuna. Thank you.

Okay.