So, don't give up your weapons!
He is the third Pandav brother who is said to have been born to Kunti from Indra—the god of heaven. Arjuna was Krishna’s favourite. He comes up the Mahabharat stage as a multi-talented character—an expert bowman, an expert musician, an expert politician, an expert yogi and a favourite of all teachers. Arjun is loved by Bheeshma---the oldest of the Kauravas, Dronacharya, Kripacharya and so on and so forth. He wins Draupadi’s hand by defeating all in the target-hitting contest. Arjuna shoots an arrow through the eye of a dummy fish circulating overhead by looking at its image in the water container placed on the floor of Drupad’s (father of Draupadi) court. He is praised for his focus and commitment, but this leaves Karna envious of Arjuna. Karna feels he alone deserved to win the contest and the trophy, not Arjuna and vows to take revenge. Later, Arjuna kills Karna under Krishna’s guidance.
But, this is history. The Sanskrit word Arjuna is made up of two words—arja and unnan, tasmaat arjati chittasya unnatti satatah yo arjunah. That means the mind which constantly attains the heights of wisdom is called Arjuna. Therefore, Arjuna represents chitta (crudely described as mind) in us. Bheem has already been described as will power. Both in us represent chidshakti (loosely, the power of the mind, because there is no exact word in English to describe chitta). According to a Sanskrit definition, chitta is described as that something which is conscious in the relative realm (yo chaitanyah itah so chittah). The will power (Bheem) represents the fire properties (agni vritti) in our system, the same way the chitta represents the air properties (vayu vritti)—that is movement and inconstancy (chanchalam).
There are three instruments of chitta through which it executes its functions. They are memory, perception and focal reasoning (smriti gyanam apohanam cha). Arjuna had exploited the three qualities to the full and attained various weapons (shaastram astram shastram cha) for use. The shaastram is the verified repository of knowledge-- that is memory. The astram is used to hit the enemy at a distance (like, sound energy--vaani and arrow--vaan) and the shastram to hit the near ones (like a sword, tark: logic or focal reasoning). All shaastras have come out of memory. All astras have come out of sound vibration—vaani--perception. All shastram have come out of apohanam---that is the power of discrimination to cut the wrong out to achieve the goal. The three--smriti, gyanam and apohanam-- have a progressive support system. Smriti (memory) supports gyanam (perception) and gyanam supports apohanam ( focal reasoning, which leads to target focus).
However, this chitta has the habit of getting lost very soon under the barrage of sensory inputs in the normal human systems. Even Arjuna wasn’t fully above the sensory attacks. Therefore, he chose to make Krishna (the primordial vibration) his charioteer -- guide and navigator and hugely helped the Pandavas in reclaiming their throne from Duryodhan. Do you know when Arjuna left his main astram ( bow and arrow Gaandeev)? Right when the battle of the Mahabharat was to begin and he saw his own loved ones arrayed against him. They included Bheeshma, Dronacharya, Kripacharya from whom he had received love and training. What losing astram means ? It means losing the knowledge of defense and exposing the memory to the sensory attacks. That is what happened with him. He lost sight of the goal, got weak under sensory shots. What happens then? He tells Krishna, “I see all negative signs “( vipareetani pashyami). Why this happened? Because the sensory attacks broke the chain linking memory-perception-focal reasoning. How? By forcing him to let go of perception—the middle link. Consequence: reasoning fell apart and memory was exposed to sensory attacks and what he could perceive was only the negative inputs of the memory. What is the way out? Arjuna should have maintained the focal reasoning which would have kept the middle link working and memory feeding it rightly.
Example: You want to become an IAS officer. So, you make efforts in that direction that keeps your focal reasoning, perception and memory working healthily in unison. But, your mother attacks you saying ‘lazy bees never collect honey, go out and do something.’ This sensory attack weakens your perception about your goal. Now you become depressed like Arjuna and because the attack demolishes the middle link, your focal reasoning is down and your memory is exposed to the attack. Result: You have all the negative inputs from the memory, like ‘ my mom is against me, nobody wants me to achieve my goal, every time I study there is this verbal attack to distract me , I see all negative signs so I can’t become an IAS officer.’
Takeaway: Defend your middle link from sensory attacks and never lose focus from your goal. Because the moment you do, you will start perceiving negativity all around and drop down as a depressed Arjuna.
Next: Nakul and Sahadeva
Vivek Sharma