~~OM~~

~~OM~~

Shantanu had a son Devavrat. And Devavrat was the son of Ganga, and he was the most knowledgable. He had Brihaspati as his Guru, Parashuram taught him how to use weapons. And he had the greatest teachers, he lived in Heaven with Ganga for his formative years and had the best education. And he was the most capable to take over the kingdom.

And Ganga, after giving birth to Devavrat, Ganga said, "I'm leaving you now." And she left Shantanu, her husband. And some years later, when Devavrat was a young man and already appointed the crown prince, Shantanu saw Matsyagandha who was exuding this delectable fragrance and the beauty of eternal youth. And her beauty was so captivating, he fell in love immediately.

So he went to Dasaraj, Matsyagandha's father and he said, "I'd like to marry your daughter." And the fisherman said, "That's wonderful, any girl in the nation would be privileged to marry the king, but I saw in a dream that my grandsons, the sons from Matsyagandha, are going to be the next king." And Shantanu said, "That's impossible, I already appointed Devavrat the next king; how can the unborn sons of your daughter become the crown prince when I've given away my right to give you that promise?" Then Dasaraj said, "Well, then you can't marry my daughter, that's all there is to it."

Well, Devavrat saw that his father was unhappy and he found out what was the cause of his unhappiness. And Devavrat went to Dasaraj and he said, "Hey fisherman, why won't you give your daughter to my father?" And the fisherman said, "I'll give my daughter to your father, I have no hesitation; but I saw in a dream that her sons are suppose to become the king after your father dies, when he passes on his kingdom. And your father said he already gave away the kingdom, he already appointed the crown prince the heir to the throne, he can't do it again."

And Devavrat said, "What my father told you was absolutely correct, he appointed me the heir to the throne and he cannot give it to you, but I can. Because my father's happiness is more important to me than the kingdom, what good is the kingdom to me if my father's not happy? I give you the promise that the sons of Satyavati, of Matsyagandha, will become the new kings."

And so Dasaraj gave his blessing and gave his daughter, and Devavrat took his daughter Matsyagandha, back to Shantanu his father. And he said, "Father, I brought you something that will make you happy, and I give you your wife. And now Matsyagandha is my mother, and I have given away my right to the kingdom, her sons will be the king."

And Shantanu was stricken and he said, "Oh my gosh, such a fearless vow you have taken, such a tremendous vow you've undertaken, I'm going to call you Bhishma. He who is free from fear, who knows no fear, who can conquer all fear." So Devavrat became Bhishma, and Matsyagandha became Satyavati, his mother.

And Dasaraj had said to Bhishma, "You can make that promise for yourself, but you can't make that promise for your children." And Bhishma said, "I promise you I won't have children, and therefore there will be no contenders to the throne."

And Satyavati had two sons. And they grew up, Vichitravirya and Chitrangadha, both became the heirs apparent to the throne. Chitrangadha was the oldest, and he ascended to the throne, and died. And then Vichitravirya also died, and now there was no heir to the throne.

Satyavati called Bhishma and said, "We need an heir to the throne, I want you to cohabit with the wives of Vichitravirya and give a son to the throne." And he said, "I'm sorry mother, I'm bound never to have children." And then Satyavati said, "Well, what will we do, the lineage is about to die out?" Bhishma said, "I'm sorry mother. This is not my problem, I am the defender of the kingdom, I gave up the kingdom for your children. You think about what to do." And Satyavati said, "There's nothing else to do, go to the forest and find Veda Vyasa, and tell him to come here."

And through Veda Vyasa the lineage of kings and the Hastinapur Lunar dynasty continued.

~~OM~~

Question: What is the importance of Arjuna's elder brother Karna?

Oh, Karna is extremely important. Of course he is the elder brother, he is the sixth of the Pandavas. And Karna of course, he led a very sorrowful life. He had much suffering in his life. And we'll talk more about that in the Swami Purana, in the stories about why everybody assumed the positions that they did in the cast of characters of the Bhagavad Gita.

Karna was the first son of Kunti, who was the mother of the first three, Yudhishtra, Bhima, and Arjuna. Of course, Madri, was the second wife and she was the mother of Nakula and Sahadeva.

But when Kunti was a young girl, she did seva for the Rishi Durvasa. And Durvasa came to stay in the palace, and Kunti said, "I'm going to serve him." And she cooked all his meals and she served him the food. And she said, "Please, tell me, what is dharma?" And she listened to his discourses and in this way he was very pleased with her seva.

And he was very pleased with her demeanor, and her behavior and her thirst for knowledge. And he said, "I'm giving you a boon, choose from me a boon." And Kunti said, "You know what, Rishi, you are a seer of past, present and future and I am an ignorant little girl, and I've never been outside the palace. How will I know what boon will be beneficial to me? You give me the boon that you think is the most appropriate for me."

And Durvasa went into meditation and he came out and he said, "I give you the boon that when you call on any God, and you will become pregnant immediately." And Kunti said, "What? What kind of a boon is that to give to a little girl who is unmarried, never been outside of the palace?” Durvasa got up and he left.

Kunti said, "Wait a minute, how could that possibly be the boon that the Rishi gave to me. I mean I did so much seva, and I respected him so highly? Is it true if I use this mantra any Deva will come and give me a baby?" And she looked at the Sun, she didn't even think, she just looked at the Sun and she said the mantra. And immediately she became in a motherly way. And she said, "Oh my God, what am I going to do? I don't have a husband, I'm a princess, if my father finds out I'm really up the creek without a paddle. I'm in deep doo doo."

So she hid herself for awhile, and finally she gave birth to the baby. And she said, "Oh baby, you please excuse me, but there is no way you can be brought up in my household." And she put the baby in a basket just like Moses, and she put the basket in the river and gave it a push.

Well, the basket floated down the river. And Adhiratha was the king's charioteer, he use to drive the chariot for Dhritrashtra, the king of the country of Hastinapura. And Adhiratha didn't have a child, and one day his wife went down to the river to bathe, and she was bathing and taking a bath and up comes floating this basket. And from inside the basket came the crying sounds of a child. And she said, "Certainly God has blessed us with a child."

They took the child home, and Adhiratha began to raise the child as his own. And when the child grew a little bigger he went to the king and said, "Dhritrashtra, king, my lord, I've got this baby now, I found him in the river, I kept him as my own and I can't drive your chariot anymore. I got to stay home, I'm a house-daddy, I became a soccer pop. (I'll tell the story my way, it's my privilege to update the story to every culture and civilization) So, I got you a new charioteer to take my place, and I hope you don't mind, but I brought you Sanjaya. And he will be your charioteer. Of course later were going to find out that Sanjaya became endowed with Divine Vision, and he narrated the entire story and the entire Bhagavad Gita to Dhritrashtra. So, the first verse of the Bhagavad Gita is, "Dhritrashtra said, "Hey, what happened?" And Sanjaya says (Sanjaya Uvaca). And Sanjaya narrates the entire Gita to Dhritrashtra.

Well, Karna grew up in a house of a chariot driver and said, "I don't want to drive a chariot, I want to be a warrior, I want to be an archer." And his father said, "Oh son that's silly, you can't be a warrior, you can't be an archer, you were raised in the family of a charioteer." And Karna said, "Ability doesn't know any caste. I won't accept that I'm socially stigmatized, I want to learn archery." And he went off and found a Guru. His Guru was Parashurama, the finest Guru he could ask for, he was the same Guru who taught Bhishma.

And there was a graduation ceremony for all the students of the academy. And when Arjun shot his arrows in different ways, Dronacharya, the teacher of all the students of Hastinapura, of the kingdom of the kingly families. He said, "I declare that Arjuna is the finest archer." And Karna came into the arena and said, "Wait, you haven't seen me shoot an arrow yet. How can you say Arjuna is the best acher?"

Well, Arjuna said, "Who are you?" And Karna said, "Just see my arrows, and you'll know me, my arrows are my introduction." And Arjuna said, "Well, what is your parentage, what is your lineage, by what authority are you a member of this royal assembly?" And Karna said, "I am the son of a charioteer."

And nobody but Kunti recognized him. And Kunti was ashamed to say, “that that's my son.” The oldest son of Kunti. How could she say, "I was unmarried, and I had this baby and he grew up." So, Duryodhana said, "Well, If he is an enemy of the Pandava brothers, he is a friend of mine." And Duryodhana said, "I'm making you a member of the royalty and I'm giving you a kingdom of your own."

And so, without his knowing that he was fighting against his own family members, Karna joined the supporters of Duryodhana, and became a defender for the defender of evil. Great story.
And every one of the characters in the Mahabharata, in the great war for light, every one of the characters had their own restrictions and their own compulsions which required them to join one side or the other.

And in this way, the armies lined up to do battle. And in the midst of the battlefield when everyone was ready to blow the conch shells and pronounce the declaration of war, Arjuna said, "One moment. Krishna, drive my chariot into the middle of the battlefield. I want to see the faces up close of who will be fighting with whom." Krishna drove into the middle of the battlefield and Arjuna opened his eyes, and saw his Grandfather and his uncles and his cousins, and his cousin’s brothers. And then he turned around and he saw his brothers and his uncles and he said, "This is the destruction of our family, this is our family that's fighting each other."

“I mean in theory it sounds a lot different than it appears when we’re in the battlefield looking at each other. And saying, "Hey, I'm going to lift up my arrows against my Grandfather, against my Guru who taught me to shoot, against my family priest, against my cousins, my brothers, my uncles, how can I face my aunts when I go home and I say I killed your children. And I won the kingdom, what kind of kingdom would that be? How many of my own brothers, my own cousins, my own well-wishers, our friends and family will die in this battle? For what?! For a few particles of dust of the soil of this country, I'm going to destroy my family and proclaim myself the king?"

And he dropped his bow.

And he said, "Krishna, you are the charioteer, you drive my vehicle and maneuver it in the war, tell me how do I maneuver my vehicle in this inner battle. What is Dharma? And what is right? And what should I do in these circumstances? Can you tell me what is action, and what is appropriate action, and how did we come to this situation, and what is the way out."

And that's the dilemma of the Gita. And that's the role that Karna plays.

~~OM~~

Draupadi found a lotus, it was a mountain lotus that we call Pahari lotus, (Pahari Pomo) and they grow up above the snow line. She said, “Bhima, I love this lotus, could you go up in the mountains and see if there are any more. Go find me some lotuses. I want to offer them in Puja."

Bhima went off into the mountains, and he started climbing higher, and higher and higher, and he came to a place where there was an old monkey sitting on the side of the path with his tail lying across the path. And he didn't want to insult or offend anyone by stepping over the tail. So he said, "Mr. Monkey, please, move your tail." The monkey said to him, "You see I'm an old monkey, and I just came to a lonely place where I could take a little rest by myself. So if the tail is bothering you, you please just move it yourself."

Bhima said, "Wait a minute, you have to understand, I'm Bhima, I'm one of the Pancha Pandavas. I am the son of the King. I have the strength of a hundred elephants. Your tail is across the path, and it's not appropriate, move your tail." And this old monkey said to him, "Hey, sing the name of Ram. Ram Naam Gao Bhai! (That's comparable to, hey, go chant the name of God, buzz off!) Leave me alone, I'm an old monkey, I came up here in the lonely place on the side of a mountain, there's nobody around for thousands of miles, I just want to rest."

And Bhima said, "Hey, if you don't move that tail right now, I'm going to pick it up and move it myself!" And the Monkey said, "As you like, whatever you like to do, you do. I'm just resting. When I'm through resting I'll move the tail myself. But if you can't wait, go ahead and move it." So Bhima went down, and he bent down and he tried to pick up the tail, and he tried to pick up the tail, and he struggled to pick up the tail; and he grunted and he groaned and he tried to pick up the tail and he couldn't budge it. And he said, "You are no ordinary monkey, how did you get a tail that heavy to this place? You can't be an ordinary monkey, show me your real form."

And Hanuman said, "I told you to sing the name of Ram." And showed him his form.

Now Hanuman was born from the wind, and Bhima was formed from the wind as well. And they were both sons of the Wind God. And Bhima said, "My brother, we’re about to fight this humongous war, please come and lead our armies to victory." And Hanuman said, "You know my time of fighting is passed, I'm an old monkey now, and I'm just engaged in monkey business. So, I'll give you a blessing, I will come on your flag, and I will lead your army to victory from the flag.

And so Arjuna had a monkey on his flag, and he raised his bow.

~~OM~~

Bhishma got the boon of "ichcha mrityu" which means you can choose the time of your death. So when Bhishma was shot by arrows from Arjuna, the sun had just moved over the equator into the southern hemisphere. Bhishma was laying there on a be of arrows, shot so many times by Arjuna, he could lay down flat.

He said, "Well, I am not going to leave my body when the sun is in the southern hemisphere. I am going to wait until the sun goes into the northern hemisphere. So everybody gather around. Stop the war. All the disciples, all the grandchildren on both sides of the dispute, the whole family gather around me and I am going to tell you about the code of Manu and I am going to tell you about Indian philosophy and I am going to tell you about so many of the traditions and customs and heritage and I am going to tell you what you want to remember everytime of your death."

And there were so many stotrams and stavs and many, many jewels that came from those discourses and they have been collected into many volumes. Much of it was included in the Mahabharat, some of it came in later traditions. Bhishma became the mouth through which all of the vedic knowledge was expounded and preserved. Whoever wanted to preserve a tradition or point of history said "Bhishma said" and it became a tradition just like Vyas.