Family Secrets

महाभरत

Mahābharata

As retold by

Michael Dolan, B.V. Mahāyogi

Bhishma continued: Gandhari bore one hundred sons to Dhritarasthra.

Dhritarasthra and Gandhari

“When the envious Duryodhana was born he began to cry and bray like an ass. Hearing this sound, wild asses, wolves, vultures, jackals, and crows began to fill the sky with their shrieks and cries. Violent winds blew and fires burned in the forests. 

Duryodhana instructing Bhishma

Earthquakes and lightning storms announced the birth of one who would destroy the world. Jackals and tigers howled. Prophets announced the end of the world. 


Within a month the rest of the hundred sons of Dhritarashtra and one daughter, Dushala, were born. In secret, Dhritarashtra begot with a Vaishya woman another son who was Yuyutsa the Bastard.”

Bhishma impaled

Bhiṣma paused and took a sip of water.

King Yudhisthira approached. "You have spoken,  O grandsire of the Kurus,  of the mysterious origin of my father Paṇḍu. Tell us of his deeds. How did the kingdom pass from his hands? And what of our own origin. How did we Paṇḍavas come to Hastinapura?"

The old man smiled, though pierced with thousands of arrows, his royal blood leaking onto the ravaged earth. Thunder pierced the heavens and a light shower fell, cooling to all.

"My dear Yudhisthira," said Bhiṣma. "Some of the stories pertaining to your own birth and that of your brothers are clad in mysteries unbeknownst even to me. But there walks the fair Kuntī, daughter of Kuntībhoja, king of Panchala. She has suffered much to see you king. You and your brothers owe her everything. She alone holds the key to the riddle of your birth. It has often been said that the five of you are godly, more than mortals. If you would know your origin, question her closely. But now the storm is gaining and I must rest my powers. Another day. Another day, I shall tell you all."
And Bhiṣma fell silent.

Ancient Half Karshapana Coin Panchala Dynasty with Indra

Indeed the storm was thickening,  and, with the telling of the birth of Duryodhana, Bhiṣma ended his narrative.  The sun was low in the sky again. The Five Pandavas made for their camp and sat quietly around the fire. 

as the first stars came out, Kunti appeared.  When the fires had burned low and a thousand constellations appeared in the sky, the other men of the camp grew weary and went to rest. 

The time had come to ask about the riddle that Bhiṣma had mentioned. And so Yudhiṣthira and his brothers, asked her to continue the narration of the origin of the Kurus.

Kunti Devi from Artist's Conception

Kunti and Durvasa Muni   कुन्ती

Yudhisthira asked her,  “You have told us how Shakuntala married Dushyant, of the line of Bharata, and his successors and how India was ruled in peace and war. And this morning we heard from Bhishma of the mystery of Duryodhana’s birth and of the birth of his hundred brothers. 

When he recounted the story, he told us that Gandhari, being envious that you had conceived a son effulgent as the sun, struck her belly and so came forth a ball of flesh, hard as leather or iron, and from this ball was produced the hundred sons of Dhritarashtra and the envious Duryodhana. Is this all true?”

“Yes, my son. It is just as you said. The dying Bhishma so revealed the story of the hundred sons of Dhritarashtra and their birth and the birth of the jealous Duryodhana.”

Yudhisthira, surveying the empty battlefield at night, asked his mother, “But what of us? Some say we Paṇḍavas were born of gods. Who was our father? Tell us of his deeds. We have heard many mysterious things spoken of by different sages. No one will tell the story of the Paṇḍavas. We asked our grandsire, the great Bhiṣma, but he referred us to you.

Kunti Devi, Artist's Conception

"O mother, O wise one, was it true that you gave birth to another son, one whose golden effulgence lit up the night sky like a second sun, before we Pandavas were born in the forest? How were this possible if at this time you had not yet married our father, the great king Paṇḍu?”

Kunti replied, “O my son, O great King. You must not trouble your poor mother with so many idle questions.  You must know that even in the greatest families there are secrets which must never be told, and mysteries which will never see the light of day.”

Yudhiṣthira  said, “O mother, help me understand the causes of this Great War, that I shall never repeat the errors of my forebears. Reveal this secret to me and I shall honor and keep it. I promise never to reveal your secret, not even to my brothers.”

Pandavas with Draupadi, right

Kunti Devi, that most chaste of all the queens in the history of India, revealed the following secret to the young king, that he should know the true story of the Paṇḍus and their rivalry with the Kurus. And so she told her story, saying:

“I will tell you everything, my child. But you must not judge me too harshly for the silly things I did when a child. When I was a fresh girl, barely 14, I lived in the palace of my father Kuntibhoja by the banks of the river Ganges where the elephants played. My birth father was Surasena, but Kuntibhoja was his relative, his cousin. As Kuntibhoja had no children and was loved me, he raised me. He gave me the best of educations in the sixty four arts, my father Surasena gave me to him to do so. Kuntibhoja loved me as his own daughter. I had my own living quarters and serving-maids and a beautiful garden with a great banyan tree. Kokil birds would sing in the banyan tree as the sun rose over the Ganges bringing each new day."

Banyan Trees

Original Guru

The Original Guru

The original Spiritual Master is Nityānanda Prabhu. He is the general representation of Guru. In the spiritual world, He is the Guru-tattva principle in the four primary mellows of devotion, excluding the conjugal mellow. In madhura-rasa, Baladev’s representation is Anaṅgā Mañjarī, the sister of Rādhārāṇī.

The position of Nityānanda is greater than that of Baladev. Why? He is distributing prema, divine love. And what is prema? It is higher than all other achievements. If one can give divine love, then all others must be subordinate to him. If Kṛṣṇa is subordinate to Mahāprabhu then, of course, Balarām is subordinate to Nityānanda. They are similar, but when magnanimity is added, Balarām becomes Nityānanda. That Balarām who can distribute divine love, who can perform that higher function, has come here as Nityānanda. Our foundation must be solid and proper. Then the structure should be erected. Otherwise the whole thing will go down (heno Nitāi vine bhāi Rādhā Kṛṣṇa pāite nāi). We can get a solid foundation from Nityānanda Prabhu.

One day Nityānanda Prabhu came to Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu’s house in Mayapur. Mahāprabhu’s mother, Śachī Devī, and Viṣṇu Priyā Devī, His wife, were also there, as well as other devotees. Suddenly Nityānanda arrived, quite naked.

Mahāprabhu managed to give Him some cloth. And perhaps He was concerned that the devotees might have some misconception about Nityānanda Prabhu. So, to prevent this He asked Nityānanda Prabhu for His kaupīn, His loincloth. He tore it up and distributed it amongst the householders that were present, instructing them, “Keep a piece of His loincloth as a kavacha, an amulet, and tie that with a thread to your arm or wear it around your neck. Please keep it with you. Then you will be able to achieve sense control very soon.”

Nityānanda Prabhu has control of His senses to the extreme degree; He does not know anything of this world. His vairāgya, indifference to the world of mundane transaction, is of such a degree that He can appear naked amongst both male and female. So, the grace of Nityānanda Prabhu will construct a firm foundation for us. If there is a firm foundation, then we may build a great structure over it. If we have faith in Nityānanda, then that faith can bear any amount of weight. It won’t betray us.

So, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Prabhupād has laid stress amongst the Westerners on devotion to Nityānanda. First, we must get His mercy. And then, afterwards, we can get the mercy of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu means Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa: Śrī Kṛṣṇa Chaitanya Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa nahe anya. First achieve the mercy of Nityānanda Prabhu, and then Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu, and then Śrī Rādhā-Govinda. In these three stages, we must raise ourselves up.

Devotee: How does one attain the mercy of Lord Nityānanda?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: One who finds more inclination to serve Gaurāṅga and His Dhām, His transcendental land, and His servants can get the mercy of Nityānanda Prabhu. Nityānanda is very much kind to one who has some special tendency towards Gaura-līlā.

“Take the Name of Gaurāṅga”

Nityānanda Prabhu walked from door to door in Bengal, saying, “Take the Name of Gaurāṅga! I’ll become your servant. You can purchase Me if you only take the Name of Gaurāṅga. I’ll be sold to you without any price or condition.” That was His temperament. When Mahāprabhu was in Purī, He sent Nityānanda Prabhu to Bengal. At that time He said, “Without You I don’t find anyone who can spread the Holy Name of Kṛṣṇa, or devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, in Bengal. They are more engaged in the tantric method and smṛti. They make too much of these trifling things. They are puffed up, thinking that they have finished all knowledge. So, Bengal is a very hard field for preaching. Without You, no one will be able to awaken the masses. Separate Yourself from the higher castes and approach the masses with the Holy Name of Kṛṣṇa. You are the fittest person for this work.”

Gauranga

Nityānanda Prabhu went to Bengal, but without trying to preach the glories of the Holy Name of Kṛṣṇa, Nityānanda began to preach the Name of Gaurāṅga. Nityānanda Prabhu found that there is some danger of thinking that Kṛṣṇa’s Pastimes are very much akin to the mundane debauchery, lying, and stealing of a degraded soul. Kṛṣṇa’s Pastimes are of a highly confidential nature. It is very difficult for the masses to understand the purity of Kṛṣṇa-līlā. The mass mind cannot accept Kṛṣṇa-līlā as the highest attainment. So, Nityānanda Prabhu found it would be difficult to preach Kṛṣṇa-līlā, but He found it would be easy to preach Gaura-līlā, where Kṛṣṇa has come to distribute Himself to the public with so much capital in His mind. Gaurāṅga means a dynamo which wants to distribute Kṛṣṇa surcharged with the most magnanimous, intensified pity and kindness for the ordinary people, with the greatest affection even for the criminals. Nityānanda Prabhu wanted to bring them in connection with Gaurāṅga, for then Kṛṣṇa-līlā would automatically be within their fist. So, He began to preach about Gaurāṅga, not Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, as commanded by Mahāprabhu. So, Nityānanda Prabhu says, “Bhaja Gaurāṅga kaha Gaurāṅga, laha Gaurāṅgera Nāma: worship Gaurāṅga, speak only of Gaurāṅga, and chant the Name of Gaurāṅga.”

There is another instance of the relationship between Kṛṣṇa and Balarām, and Gaurāṅga and Nityānanda, which is described in the Chaitanya-bhāgavat. Śachī Devī had a dream that Kṛṣṇa and Balarām were sitting on a throne, and Nityānanda was fighting with Balarām, “Come down from the throne. It is no longer Dvāpar-yuga. The Age of Kali has come, and My master Gaurāṅga must occupy Your position on this throne. You come down!” Balarām began giving some opposition. “No, no, why should We come down? We have been sitting on this throne for such a long time.” Nityānanda Prabhu began forcibly taking Him down, and Balarām submitted slightly. Nityānanda Prabhu said, “My master Gaurāṅga wants to take the position now. The age for Him has come.” So Nityānanda is very partial to Gaurāṅga. He says, “Kṛṣṇa is far off. My Lord is Gaurāṅga.”

So, we must be very grateful to Nityānanda Prabhu, for He is our Guru. And Guru’s grace is so important that Raghunāth Dās Goswāmī says, “O, Rādhārāṇī, I want Your grace. Without You, I don’t want Kṛṣṇa separately. I never want Kṛṣṇa without You.” That should be the healthy attitude of a devotee. This has been explained by Śrīla Viśvanāth Chakravartī Ṭhākur in his Gurvāṣṭakam:

yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo
yasyāprasādān na gatiḥ kuto ’pi
dhyāyaṁ stuvaṁs tasya yaśas tri-sandhyaṁ
vande guroḥ śrī-charaṇāravindam

“I bow down to the lotus feet of Śrī Gurudev. By his grace, we achieve the grace of Kṛṣṇa; without his grace, we are lost. Therefore, we should always meditate on Śrī Gurudev, and pray for his mercy.”

This is the position of Śrī Guru, by whose grace we can get everything, we can get the grace of Kṛṣṇa, and without whose grace, we have no other prospect. So, in this way, we must have reverence for he who has given us our first connection with Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Guru is not a doll

But at the same time, as we offer reverence to Gurudev, we must not conceive that the Guru is a doll, a lifeless figure.

"The important thing is what he says, his instructions."

Because we are familiar with a particular figure and accept that as our Guru we should not become misled. The important thing is what he says, his instructions. That is attracting our inner hearts. I am not this body. I am the enquirer. That thing which is satisfying me, drawing the enquirer to the enquired—I must try to locate that thing in him. I must not rely on material calculation. I am not this body. Who am I, the disciple? Am I only this body, this figure, this colour, this caste? Or am I this temperament, this scholarship and intellectualism? No. I am he who has come to seek. Who is the party within me, and who is the party in Guru? We must be fully awake to that. What is the inner thing? I have come for that. We must be awake to our own interest.

There is the relative principle and the absolute principle. We shall have to eliminate the form, ignore the form; we shall always have to keep the spirit. Otherwise, we become form worshippers, idol worshippers.

Guru: more than meets the eye

It is said, of course, that the connection with the Spiritual Master is eternal (chakṣu-dāna dila yei, janme janme Prabhu sei). But we must not identify our Guru with the appearance we perceive with our physical senses. Our inner identification of him will be clarified according to the growth of our vision. When our vision increases and takes shape from material to transcendental, his look will also change accordingly.

A man is sometimes known, most externally, by his uniform, and then by his body, then by his mind, then by his intelligence. As much as our eye will develop to see things rightly, what we are seeing will also change its face. Kṛṣṇa says, “Āchāryaṁ Māṁ vijānīyān: ultimately it is I who am the Āchārya.” It is the function of divinity, and in different stages there may be different forms. Different Āchāryas may work at the same time.

The knowledge, the ideal, is growing from subtle to gross. And the depth of the vision of the eye will disclose the different figures of the different Āchāryas. It will go in different rasas to the highest position, by a gradual process of realisation. Otherwise our knowledge will be based on the material conception. And to force the material conception onto divinity is a crime, it is ignorance, it is erroneous.

We have to free ourselves from the snare of identifying reality with the physical form presented to our senses. The eyes deceive us; they cannot give us the proper form or colour. The ears cannot give us the proper sound. The concrete reality is beyond the experience of our senses. So then, what is that thing? Because we are in such a low position, we can gradually go there to the inner world only with the help of our Guru.

But how can we recognise our Guru? Sometimes in the winter he wears a particular dress, and in the summer he wears another dress. If we attach so much importance to the external dress, then what should we do? Should we think that the dress is indispensable to the body? The Guru may come to us in a particular body. Suppose the Guru appears as a young man. When he has become an old man, and the young form has grown into another form, how are we to recognise him? How are we to differentiate? Again, in one birth he may have come in a particular body, and another time he may appear in a different body. The same Guru may appear differently at different times. How are we to recognise him? From the external consideration we must go to the internal.

If I am devoid of flesh and blood and I exist only in a subtle body, then I shall also find my Guru there, in a subtle body. The demigods, Gandharvas, and siddhas, the perfected beings in the heavenly planets, also have their gurus, but they do not have a material body, nor does their guru have a material body.

So, by eliminating the external conception we have to enter into the internal, and that will be all-important to a progressive disciple. That does not mean that one should disregard the physical form of our guru. But the real importance is within. We must worship the remnants of the Guru: his coat, his boot, his sandal. But that does not mean that his shoe is superior to his body; we must serve his person. In a similar way, if we are eager to do some physical service for him, if we want to massage his feet, but he does not desire that and says, “No, no, no”, then should we do that? Our internal obedience to him will be higher. In this way we have to make progress from the gross to the subtle.

Who is Guru? Where is he to be located? What is his ideal? What does he really want me to do? These things must not be dismissed from our ears. We must not give only formal adherence. We want the spiritual way. The spiritual man is going to the spiritual world to have the spiritual realisation. It is all a spiritual transaction. And all conceptions of mundane, whether physical, mental, or intellectual, should be eliminated in our journey if we want to go to the inner world of substance.

Progress: elimination and acceptance

This attitude will decide our real progress, our real design of life. Our fulfilment comes always from the inner side. If one can catch up that thread, then he can go and get things of that higher, spiritual quality. We may appreciate the beautiful figure, style, movement, and intellectual delivery of the Spiritual Master, and so many other things may be appreciable. But what should be the highest focal point of our realisation? What should be our highest aim, for which we will eliminate everything else?

Progress means elimination and acceptance. And our spiritual life must always be a dynamic thing; otherwise we shall be dead. Progress means acceptance and elimination. The scientists also say this in their theory of natural selection, “survival of the fittest”. Nature is selecting some and eliminating others. Life is dynamic; we are living in a dynamic world. Everywhere we find acceptance and elimination. That is progress. And our life must be progressive, not static.

To get the grace of Nityānanda Prabhu, we should try as far as possible to study the character of Śrī Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu, to serve Him, to serve His Dhām, and His devotees. That will easily help us attain the grade of Nityānanda Prabhu. And there will always be so many practical dealings in our present stage, but we must always keep the highest ideal over our heads. With this ideal we shall be able to make progress. Our ideal, our highest model—that is our all-in-all in life. To be acquainted with the conception of the highest ideal and to be on the path of realisation of that goal is the greatest wealth in one’s life.

Śrīla Raghunāth Dās Goswāmī prays, “I only aspire after one thing. I cherish the hope that one day I may be welcomed into the plane where Rādhikā and Mādhava are in Their glory, sitting and playing.” That should be our prospect. This is found in Raghunāth Dās Goswāmī’s prayer to his Guru.

He says:

nāma-śreṣṭhaṁ manum api śachī-putram atra svarūpaṁ
rūpaṁ tasyāgrajam uru-purīṁ māthurīṁ goṣṭha-vāṭīm
rādhā-kuṇḍaṁ giri-varam aho rādhikā-mādhavāśāṁ
prāpto yasya prathita-kṛpayā śrī guruṁ taṁ nato ’smi

“I am fully indebted to Śrī Gurudev. Why? He has given me so many things. He has given me the highest conception of the Holy Name of Kṛṣṇa, the highest form of sound which contains the highest form of thought, aspiration, ideal, everything. And next he has given me the mantra.” The Name is there within the mantra. Without the Name, the mantra is nothing. If the Name of Kṛṣṇa is withdrawn and replaced with another name, the mantra will give the opposite result. The Name of Kṛṣṇa is all-in-all. And within the mantra, the Name is couched in a particular way as a sort of prayer.

And then he says, “He has given me the service of that great saviour, the son of Mother Śachī, Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu, who is like a golden mountain standing to show the direction of Kṛṣṇa-līlā. And Gurudev has brought me to the lotus feet of Mahāprabhu’s most favourite personal assistant, Svarūp Dāmodar, who is the representation of Lalitā Devī, the most favourite friend of Rādhikā.

“Then he has brought me in connection with Śrī Rūpa, who was ordered to distribute the highest kinds of devotional love, rasa.” Vaidhī-bhakti, the worship of the Lord in awe and reverence, is of a lower order. But rāgānuga-bhakti, spontaneous love, the heart’s innermost dealings, was distributed through Śrīla Rūpa Goswāmī. Mahāprabhu considered Śrī Rūpa the best to deal with rāgānuga-bhakti.

Dās Goswāmī says, “Then, by his grace, I have achieved the association of Śrīla Sanātan Goswāmī, who adjusts our position in relation to rāgānuga-bhakti. He explains the path of vaidhī-bhakti, and gives us sambandha-jñān: the knowledge of what is what, a proper acquaintance with the environment.” Then he says, “Gurudev has given me Mathurā Maṇḍal, where Rādhā and Govinda have Their Pastimes; where the forest, the hills, every creeper, shrub, and grain of sand, everyone is bearing the acquaintance of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa-līlā, and wherever I shall cast my glance, they will help me in my remembrance of Rādhā and Govinda. I have received all these things from my Gurudev: Vṛndāvan, where the cows and the milkmen have their village constructed. I am becoming acquainted with their association, their nature, and their feelings of love for Kṛṣṇa.

“By the grace of Gurudev, I have become acquainted with Rādhā Kuṇḍa, the favourite place of Rādhā and Govinda for Their Pastimes, and this great Govardhan. And lastly he has given me the hope that one day I can get the service of Śrī Śrī Rādhikā and Mādhava. I have been given all these assurances by my Gurudev, so I bow my head with all my respects to his lotus feet.”

So, if we are conscious of all these spiritual matters, then we can think that we have approached our Gurudev properly. What is our Guru? What is his Mission? It is filled with all these things. Devoid of that, what is our interest?

What is ISKCON?

Devotee: There are so many visions about the International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness (ISKCON). But what should the real vision of ISKCON be?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: In this verse, Raghunāth Dās Goswāmī gives the real acquaintance of what is ISKCON, Nāma-śreṣṭhaṁ manum apiŚachī-pūtram atra Svarūpam. ISKCON must not deviate from this line. We have not come here to deceive ourselves, but to fulfil ourselves. Krishn will fulfil everyone’s inner demand, even extending to the vegetables and stones, taking them to the feet of Mahāprabhu and the Goswāmīs. From village to village, everyone, in every place, should be hunted and approached, “Take the Name of Kṛṣṇa! Come under the flag of Mahāprabhu!” This grand worldwide Mission will thrive like anything; it will touch the heavens and cover the earth, and other planets also. That was the aim of Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Prabhupād, and we understand and appreciate that.