Death to Bhishma!

महाभरत

Mahābharata

As retold by

Michael Dolan, B.V. Mahāyogi

AMBA PERFORMS AUSTERITIES

Amba was still not appeased.  

Parashuram

Paraśurāma said to her, “O gentle maiden, as these warriors, brahmaṇas, and gods are my witness, I was your champion. To the best of my power I fought to avenge the wrong done to you. I used all my military and mystic power against my student Bhiṣma, and yet could not overcome him, short of destroying the universe itself.  What more can I do?”

Bhishma, Amba, Shikhandi

Amba replied, “Bhiṣma may not be vanquished in battle, even by such a great champion as your holiness. My only hope now is to appease Shiva. I shall enter the life of a mystic yogi and by the power of asceticism, renunciation, penances and austerities I shall achieve the goal of mystic yoga and aquire such power as shall be necessary to avenge the wrongs committed by Bhiṣma.”

Mount Mahendra

Amba left for the mountains of Mahendra, where she spent long years dedicating herself to austerity and penance. I bade farewell to my ancient preceptor, ascended my war-chariot and returned to the city of elephants whence I had come. In the course of time I appointed certain friends with the task of spying on Amba to ascertain her movements. 

She entered a series of ashrams and practiced austerities beyond the powers of human endurance, elevating by Kundalini yoga her chakra energies to astounding levels. Without food, emaciated, dry, with matted hair, filthy, for six months she lived on air only and remained motionless. 

Worship of Shiva Lingam

And so, after giving up food and drink, passed a whole year like this standing in the waters of the river Yamuna. Amba was still not appeased.

LORD SHIVA APPEARS TO AMBA

The Lord Shiva, carrying his trident and riding a great bull, appeared before Amba. Lord Shiva asked her, “What would you have from me?” Amba, telling Lord Shiva her story, said, “As a woman, I have no longer any desire, neither for marriage, nor children and family. I am, however, resolved to become a man, to take up arms as a warrior and revenge myself on Bhiṣma.”   

Shiva riding Nandi the bull

  

Finally, Shiva promised her, “You shall slay him, but not in this lifetime. You will become a great warrior in your next lifetime, but first you must die to live. 

 You must build a fire and enter into it. In your next life you will remember all the sorrow that Bhiṣma caused you and you shall be born as a man. You shall be born as the son of Drupada and become a Maharatha, a chariot-master expert in the use of deaweapons. As a  fierce warrior known to the world as Shikhandi,  you shall cause the death of Bhiṣma.”        

AMBA ENTERS THE FIRE

With these words, Shiva, disappeared from before Amba. Amba, heartened by his promise, and determined to carry out his orders built a large funeral pyre on the banks of the Yamuna River. Setting fire to the wood, she watched it burn until the flames were hot and high. Calmly, her veins filled with the ice water of cold revenge, Amba entered into the heart of the fire and felt the flames licking higher and higher until she was consumed. 

"Death to Bhishma!"

As her rage burned with the fire, she screamed her final words as an earthly woman, “Death to Bhiṣma!” 

Transmigration with text

Transformations

 Transformations inform our daily life but sometimes we overlook the obvious. What do the changes mean?

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Take a moment to reflect on time. Time and space form the very fabric of the universe. Sunrise and sunset. The rise and fall of the moon, the seasons, mark the changes brought by time. The stars move through the firmament.

Into the world of child is born: he makes his entrance on the stage. Joyful in his nurse's arms, charming his mother with rosy cheeked smiles.

He crawls and learns to walk, frolicking in his happy home, then place the school boy, off to his lessons, studying first his letters, then stories, then books and algebra.

The boy becomes a man. He falls in love. His sentimental education complete he's off to war. He becomes a hero and sails the world in search of fame and fortune.

The hero returns armed with stories of adventure and lessons learned. He hangs up his sword and learns business.

The man becomes a father. He raises a family. Builds his home and castle. And so he plays his part.

Now past his prime, he shifts into the lean and slippered life.

He retires and plays golf, wears spectacles, and checks his cholesterol. He watches his diet. His shrunken shanks and liver spotted cheeks belie his age. His golden baritone withers into a childish treble as he pipes and whistles words to broken teeth. His strange eventful history meets the final scene in second childishness, as he sinks into forgetfulness and sheer oblivion and passes from this world into the next.

The moon shifts again, the stars turn in the firmament.

But where do we go from here? Is there nothing left but ashes? Or beyond the fabric of space and time is there some element that transcends time-- that withstands the changing bodies? A living element. What is this living element or transcendent force? When does it first habit the human experience? Does it begin with the division of cells or with the first heartbeat? What is this powerful force within us that gives us life energy?

The body is constantly changing. transforming, mutating.

If we take a photograph of the changes that we undergo from the miracle of birth to infancy, from early childhood to adolescence and adulthood, we will be shocked by the violence of their changes.

But beyond the violent changes that hold us in their spell from boyhood to use to old age, there is a constant sense of self: an understanding of who we are that withstands change.

Could this constant self withstand the final change?

What if the soul were eternal and lives on to suffer even further transformation even after this body has shuffled off?

The ancient wisdom tradition of India seen in Bhagavad-gita informs us that, "just as the embodied soul passes in this body from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self realized soul is not bewildered by such a change."

Infancy and childhood are bewildering times. We discover our world and its sights and sounds. We learn to speak, to interpret signals and symbols. We learn to count and then to read and play games with our friends. And just as we adjust to childhood, just as we become expert in games and making friends, just as we finally solve the riddles of Alice in Wonderland, we fall through another rabbit hole and confront the shocking changes of adolescence.

These changes affect not only our physical body, we are absorbed in and obsessed with mental and emotional changes as well. The rapid physical changes of puberty arrest our ability to assess who we are as we plunge headlong into the discovery of sexuality provoked by hormonal developments.

And so, obsessed with the fascinating changes of our physical bodies, we forget who we are and we become absorbed in false ego: we become restless, moody, unable to dive deep into the reality of self awareness.

In short, the changes take place so rapidly that we lose our sense of self.

Consider the humble caterpillar: with no skeleton this wormlike creature uses fierce teeth to chew through sturdy fibrous plants. But when his time comes he weaves a cocoon, a chrysalis, and covers himself.

As time passes she is transformed. She leaves her wormlike body behind and is converted into a brilliant butterfly. The disgusting green worm has transformed into a golden wonder: a butterfly has no teeth but lives by sipping nectar. Instead of crawling and chewing leaves she flies and drinks nectar. This is a complete metamorphosis or biological transformation. Is it possible that we too undergo a metamorphosis at the time of death.

According to the ancient wisdom traditions of India and the yoga school of thought which traces to the Bhagavad-Gita this is not only a possibility but a practical reality. Metamorphosis is true not only for the butterfly but also for every living soul. But what is the soul? Who are we? Who am I? What is the nature of the constant and eternal soul or the true self?

OK to be Different

Nonconformism

Celebrate your faith. It's OK to be different, to have an approach to life and love at variance with the general society.

Enigmas

Commentary:

 Bhishma-an enigma

Bhishma is full of enigmas: he is generally faithful to his guru; but obedience to his father forces him to defy Parashurama. He loves the Pandavas but sides with Duryodhana.  His loyalty is with Krishna and Arjuna, but he supports Dhritarashtra.

Bhishma's oath creates problems for the dynasty when he refuses to marry even when it becomes clear that Vichitravirya will not continue the line by providing an heir. Amba's rage has dire consequences when later she is born of Drupada, the King of Panchala, to take her revenge as Shikhandi. 

His stubborn refusal to marry Amba is his downfall. He even refuses to obey his guru, Parashuram, citing obedience to his father as a higher principle. Even after the death of Vichitravirya, when his vow has become moot, he refuses to continue the line. Bhishma took the matter of giviing his word very seriously. When Duryodhana made him swear loyalty, his oath was more important than his friendship with the Pandavas.  His vow of loyalty to the throne of Hastinapura also causes many problems. Nonetheless, Bhishma is a symbol of righteousness and dharma, so much so that Yudhisthira consults him on the proper way to lead his kingdom. 

 Brahmacharya

The oath of celibacy taken by Bhishma is called brahmacharya in sanskrit. In a very traditional sense, brahmacharya means strict sexual control or total celibacy. In India, when a person takes a vow to never get married, he is referred to as a "brahmachari".

The well-known rishi Yajnavalkya says, "Brahmacharya is abstaining from all kinds of  sexual enjoyment for ever, in all places and in all conditions, physically, mentally and verbally."

The meaning is twofold: "brahma" and "charya". Brahma literally means the supreme consciousness and "charya" means to "live in" or "be established in".  Brahma-charya means "to be established in divine consciousness". 

. Patanjali  uses brahmacharya to mean "total abstinence," celibacy, or chastity.

According to Vedic sources, there are eight forms of sexual indulgence to be avoided by one practicing bhramacharya: Darshan or looking at women with passionate resolve, Sparshan or touching them, Keli or play, Kirtan or praising the qualities of the other sex, Guhya-Bhashan or talking in private, Sankalpa or determination, Adhyavasaya or nearing the other sex with the desire for gratification and Kriyanivritti or the actual sexual act.  

The above interpretation of brahmacharya is especially applicable for those yogis who have taken the vow of sannyasa (renunciation) and have given up attachment to worldly objects. Even they find it extremely hard to follow strictly the guidelines for brahmacharya. Since such strict definition is not applicable for a householder, most commentators have suggested a more practical meaning of brahmacharya – chastity and faithfulness in marriage and moderation in all sensual enjoyments through the five senses.

Devotees of Krishna practice renunciation by engaging their senses in devotional service and so free themselves from worldly attachment.

Sannyasa

 Srila Prabhupada comments: "Lord Caitanya was an ideal sannyasi, and when He was at Puri His feminine devotees could not even come near to offer their respects. They were advised to bow down from a distant place. This is not a sign of hatred for women as a class, but it is a stricture imposed on the sannyasi not to have close connections with women. One has to follow the rules and regulations of a particular status of life in order to purify his existence. For a sannyasi, intimate relations with women and possession of wealth for sense gratification are strictly forbidden. The ideal sannyasi was Lord Caitanya Himself, and we can learn from His life that He was very strict in regards to women. Although He is considered to be the most liberal incarnation of Godhead, accepting the most fallen conditioned souls, He strictly followed the rules and regulations of the sannyasa order of life in connection with association with woman."

 On a personal note, I practiced strict brahmacharya vows for 15 years between 1976 and 1991, having taken sannyasa vows in 1984, at the age of 29. I think it was premature of me to renounce all association with women at the age of 22. I did my best to practice a very strict form of religious belief; perhaps it was fanaticism. I don't regret giving my best years to Srila Prabhupada and Sridhar Maharaja. I benefited greatly by my association with the devotees of Krishna. I learned much from my gurus. I thought I would live my entire life as a celibate monk, but our mission in America was still in embryonic stages. After Shridhar Maharaja passed on it became increasingly difficult for me to live as a sannyasi in the United States.  Perhaps it was the lack of strong devotional communities or my own need to explore a different path; I'm not sure, but I've moved on. From my personal experience I wouldn't recommend sannyasa for anyone under the age of 40, and that only if there's a strong community interested in backing those who have taken to the renounced order of life. To be a true wandering mendicant is not so much sanctioned by the American way of life. Perhaps it works better in India. They used to tell me that there were "too many chiefs, not enough Indians." Well,  perhaps in India there are enough Indians to support the renounced order of life. In my experience, yoga as a practice is too young in the United States to support the renounced order. This is only my own personal perception.

A Plan for Death