It is all just symbolism

See what  I picked up from my WhatsApp group..

Uttam Kumar: It is said in the texts that 80% of the fighting male population of civilization was wiped out in the eighteen days Mahabharata war.

Sanjay, at the end of the war went to the spot where the greatest war took place; Kurukshetra.

He looked around and wondered if the war really happened, if the ground beneath him had soaked all that blood, if the great Pandavas and Krishna stood where he stood.

“You will never know the truth about that!” said an aging soft voice.

Sanjay turned around to find an Old Man in saffron robes appearing out of a column of dust.

“I know you are here to find out about the Kurukshetra war, but *you cannot know about that war till you know what the real war is about*.” the Old Man said enigmatically.

“What do you mean?”

*The Mahabharata is an Epic, a ballad, perhaps a reality, but definitely a philosophy*.

The Old Man smiled luring Sanjay into more questions.

“Can you tell me what the philosophy is then?” Sanjay requested.

Sure, began the Old Man.

*The Pandavas are nothing but your five senses*, sight, smell, taste, touch and sound...,
and do you know what the *Kauravas* are? he asked narrowing his eyes.

*The Kauravas are the hundred vices that attack your senses everyday but you can fight them*... and do you know how?

Sanjay shook his head again.

“When Krishna rides your chariot!”

The Old Man smiled brighter and Sanjay gasped at that gem of insight.

*Krishna is your inner voice, your soul, your guiding light and if you let your life in his hands you have nothing to worry*.

Sanjay was stupefied but came around quickly with another question.

“Then *why are Dronacharya and Bhishma fighting for the Kauravas, if they are vices*?”

The Old Man nodded, sadder for the question.

It just means that as you grow up, your perception of your elders change. *The elders who you thought were perfect in your growing up years are not all that perfect. They have faults. And one day you will have to decide if they are for your good or your bad. Then you may also realize that you may have to fight them for the good. It is the hardest part of growing up and that is why the Gita is important*.

Sanjay slumped down on the ground, not because he was tired but because he could understand and was struck by the enormity of it all.

*What about Karna*? he whispered.

“Ah!” said the Old man. “You have saved the best for last. *Karna is the brother to your senses, he is desire, he is a part of you but stands with the vices. He feels wronged and makes excuses for being with the vices as your desire does all the time.*

*Does your desire not give you excuses to embrace vices*?”

Sanjay nodded silently. He looked at the ground, consumed with a million thoughts, trying to put everything together and then when he looked up the Old Man was gone....disappeared in the column of dust.........leaving behind the great philosophy of Life! ��������

Inevitable by-product of affluence?

See what I picked up off WhatsApp...


*Parent Induced Wastefulness* (PIW)


When parents strive to give their children the best of everything at an early age, they are sowing seeds for materially insatiable monsters that are prone to sloth, apathy, avarice and fear.

Don’t stand in self-defence as yet. I have proof.
As I sit in my counsellor’s chair day after day I encounter an altogether a new disorder that I have come to label as- *Parent Induced Wastefulness* (PIW).

Here are a few examples:

* 26-year-old Manas does not want to finish his Engineering degree because he does not ‘feel like’ studying.
But he harasses his parents every day for money.
He tells me that whenever he did not feel like doing any particular activity, his parents told him he could quit.
They always said they did not want him to get ‘stressed’ like they were when growing up.

* 34-year-old Raghav is a qualified Engineer and is married for two years but his wife is not ready to live with him hence the counselling.
He is qualified alright but refuses to stick to any job as it makes him feel stressed!
Every two months he runs back home from work and wants his parents to solve his problem like they did every time he refused to go to school.

* 28 years old Anjali does not want to go back to her one-year-old marriage because it is too much for her to work in the office and then look after the household.
She wants her mother to come and live with her and do the household work.

There are many others...
but all originating in overzealous parents wanting to protect their children from even the smallest discomfort in childhood.
You love them alright, but when you shell them from the adversities of life, what you are doing is bringing them up in a sterile environment.
The result: the moment they are exposed to the world their immunity buckles up and they stand threadbare wanting to run away from everything that is anything but comfortable.

They have to live in this very world and away from you.
Do you really love them?
Or do you love yourself more?
If it is them, then you would ensure to make them future ready- let them face, talk to them, provide support, but let them face housework, studies, bullying and adversities.
Tell them money is limited and let them learn to hear a lot of ‘NO’.
That’s what makes them 'FUTURE READY'.

- *Dr. Sapna Sharma*
Psychotherapist, Spiritual Counselor, Life Reinvention Coach & Motivational speaker.