Blind Dhritarastra said: “Having assembled to fight a battle on the field of Dharmakśetra (the physical body of human beings), Kurukśetra (the material world around us), what did my men and the men of Pandu do? Tell me, O Sanjaya.” What does the word saiṋjaya mean here? It is the viveka [conscience]. The mind itself is blind. It has to take the help of the viveka to know what happened, what is happening, and what is to happen. Dhritarastra said, Samavetáh yuyutsavah, where yuyutsavah refers to the two belligerent parties; and samavetáh means “assembled together”.

You should know that the nature of the world is such that nowhere in it is there any permanence or freedom from struggle. There is always unrest and conflict. If anyone thinks that there should be peaceful coexistence, and that that is the greatest human treasure, they will be making a mistake. It is not the greatest human treasure, because it goes against jaeva dharma [the nature of living beings].

Hiḿsáy yadi guńa aparádh, kápuruśa tumi, sákśya tár
Devatá-daetye nitya virodh jiṋáti haye, kivá anye chár;
Hiḿsá jiiver sahaja dharma, hiḿsá-anne puśt́a práń,
Dhvaḿse ye biija káler kámya, vaḿshe táhái múrtimán.

[If you consider hiḿsá (violence) a crime, then you are a coward. Don’t you see the constant struggle going on between gods and demons, and even between blood relations? Hiḿsá is the instinctive nature of living beings; even their nourishment comes from food acquired through hiḿsá. In the process of time, new life comes forth out of the ashes.]

Hence, non-struggle – the absence of struggle – is but another name for death. It has been my constant endeavour to arouse this spirit of struggle in you; I have never encouraged aversion towards struggle. Whenever two entities of opposite nature come face to face, both entities prepare themselves for a fight. And so that the other party will not get any hint of their inner preparedness, each party will preach the sweet words of peace. Both parties will declare: “I want peace.” Once a famous English parliamentarian said: “Preach the gospels of peace, but keep your powder dry.”

Vidyá and Avidyá⁽¹⁾ do not exist side by side. They fight. Fortune and misfortune do not exist together either. Even the different aspects of auspicious power are in conflict with one another. The Puranic goddess Lakśmii [goddess of wealth] and the goddess Sarasvatii [goddess of learning] are at daggers drawn. Lakśmii cannot remain where learning predominates; where, on the other hand, wealth predominates, learning runs away. Such is the fact. Kárttika is a lover of beauty; hence his [mount] is the peacock; the mouse of Gańesha will not go near him. The mouse will live inside the big granaries of businessmen and feed on rice particles. Such is the law of the world. The owl of the goddess Lakśmii lives by sucking the bones of other beings. This owl of Lakśmii is a consummate meat-eater, you know, while in appearance so white! The meeting of two contradictory entities will always turn out like this – both go on preparing, while outwardly they preach sweet words of peace.

But dharma is a straightforward affair. Dharmasya súkśmá gatih kálasya kut́ilá gatih – “The path of dharma is subtle, while the path of time is devious.” What happens and how things happen is beyond people’s comprehension. One may be at the height of one’s glory today. But how and when they will be a fallen angel, sunk in the depths of total oblivion, nobody can guess. That is why it is said that kálasya kut́ilá gatih [“the movement of time is devious”]. But regarding dharma it is said: Dharmasya súkśmá gatih – “Dharma walks a straight and simple path, but a very subtle one.”

Yuddhárthaḿ samavetáh mámakáh Páńd́aváshcaeva – “Dhritarastra’s men and the men of Pandu are preparing for a war.” The preparation, however, goes on clandestinely. People will come to know of it only when it explodes, bursts out in public. It is like the dormant volcano in the lithosphere inside the earth, preparing itself for millions of years for its final explosion. People are not aware of it. Suddenly there is a tremor; a great continent turns into an ocean, and a great ocean becomes a desert as a sunken land rises from beneath the earth. So instead of taking recourse to hypocrisy and duplicity, it is always wise to frankly accept the highest truth. Therein lies the greatness of humanity.

What is the meaning of “accept the highest truth”? It means that I will follow the path of virtue and will not tolerate injustice. If the situation so demands, I will fight against injustice. This is sádhutá [honesty]. Secretly preparing for war, while preaching the gospels of peace in public, whatever else we may call this, has not the least trace of sádhutá and saralatá [honesty and simplicity] in it. It is hypocrisy.

The other day I told you that the mind has ten indriyas as its assistants; and they are the ten blind forces running simultaneously in ten directions. Suppose you are driven by the greed instinct. Your conscience does not work then, nor is it bothered about what others may be thinking of you. You might have sometimes seen a dinner guest eating eighty or even a hundred lucis,⁽²⁾ along with a lot of sandeshas and rasagollás.⁽³⁾ He never cares what others might be thinking of such a glutton. In fact he has lost his common sense. Similarly, whenever people act under the influence of any vrtti [propensity], they lose their common sense. They then run around like mindless lunatics. These hundred blind propensities rushing in a hundred directions are but the agents of Dhritarastra. Mámakáh means “my party”. The hundred blind forces of Dhritarastra’s party are also called Dhritarastra’s hundred sons. In this body, on this kurukśetra of the saḿsára [world] and dharmakśetra of the physical body, there have assembled for a fight the hundred sons of Dhritarastra’s party – of mámakáh, “my party” – that is, Duryodhana, Duhshasana, etc. Dur [difficult] – yudh [fight against] + lyut́ = duryodhana – “one whom even a good man wants to subdue, but cannot.” That which we want to subdue, but fail to subdue – such propensities are called duryodhana. And if I want to control myself – “No, I will not be greedy any more – yet I lose control over my greed, I cannot control it” – this vrtti is represented by Duhshasan, “that which I cannot bring under shásana [control]”. Such are the hundred vrttis – which are the hundred agents of the mind.

Again, you see that the words páńd́ava, páńd́u, pańd́á are all derived from the root verb pańd́. The verb pańd́ means “[to attain] vedojjvalá buddhi [intelligence based on right knowledge]”, which is an acquired intelligence. Vedojjvalá buddhi means that intelligence which is based on samyak jiṋána [right knowledge]. In the scriptures right knowledge is called vijiṋána. These days vijiṋána is used synonymously with “science”; in old Sanskrit vijiṋána meant knowledge of the bhútas [fundamental factors]; but the literal meaning of vijiṋána is “special knowledge”, that is to say, “spiritual knowledge”. Vedojjvalá buddhi – buddhi [intelligence] based on vijiṋána, on right knowledge, on spiritual knowledge – is pańd́á. Some of you might know that in Orissa, there is a surname Pańd́á. Pańd́á means vedojjvalá jiṋána. Ahaḿ Brahmásmiiti buddhih – “That intelligence that teaches people, inspires people to feel, that they are one with Brahma” is pańd́á; and one who has such pańd́á is called a pańd́ita.

Ahaḿ Brahmásmiiti buddhih támitah práptah pańd́itah [“One who has the sense, or intelligence, of knowing that ‘I am Brahma’ is a pańd́ita”]. Simply writing Pańd́ita before one’s name does not make one a pańd́ita. It is only the one who possesses pańd́á who is really a pańd́ita. And a person who is desirous of acquiring pańd́á is called páńd́eya (adding the suffix śneya to pańd́á). Both “Páńd́eya” and “Pánd́ejii” are derived from pańd́á; these days, however, they have become mere surnames.

In the past it was a convention to add “Páńd́eya” only to the name of a person who had reached the highest spiritual knowledge. One who had memorized two of the Vedas was known as “Dvivedii”, which has been shortened today to “Dube” (while “Páńd́eya” has become “Pánd́e”). One who was an authority on three Vedas was “Trivedii”, today “Teoyárii”. And one who had memorized all four Vedas was “Caturvedii”, in modern language “Caobe” – only a surname.

Pańd́á means vedojjvalá buddhi, the knowledge that “I am Brahma.” And pańd́ plus uń becomes páńd́u. That is, that path along which a person becomes established in pańd́á – absolute knowledge – and permanently established in the sahasrára cakra; and along which one who gains the ability to raise oneself from the supreme negativity [to] the supreme positivity, the shambhúliuṋga; is páńd́u.

Footnotes

(1) Vidyá is the centripetal, or introversial, force; the aspect of the Cosmic Operative Principle which guides movements from the crude to the subtle. Avidyá is the centrifugal, or extroversial, force; the aspect of the Cosmic Operative Principle which guides movements from the subtle to the crude. –Trans.

(2) In Hindi, puri – unleavened bread puffed by deep frying. –Trans.

(3) Sweets. –Trans.