Mananam

 222 -           An enquiry into how to view Mahabharata – as historical or spiritual text or as both? Did Mahabharata actually happen? A question which polarizes people's opinion. The short answer to this question is – Yes. A more complete answer to the question is - It’s happening even now, waiting for us to discover it, enter into it and eventually transcend it. It is not transcendence of just the narrative universe (weaved by Sri Vyasa) but also transcend the alternate-narrative universe, in which - I - the Jeeva, find myself in. The actual events of the Mahabharata are the story of our ancients. Who are our ancients? – the rishis, kings, acharyas, commoners and all those who existed in the past. We must also recognize the fact that we cannot but know about them only through the narrative lens, in situ called the text - Mahabharata. Our sanAthana dharma civilization has explored both the universe – external and internal. Thus this dual exploration (internal and exter

Background:  The purpose of this blog, is to reflect on some basic aspects of spiritual life - namely about choosing sadhana for mental purification. However, this is discussed in light of the nature of one's prārabdha and how the sadhana choice in alignment with one's prārabdha, helps quicker progress in spiritual life.  Section I: Introduction Goal of human life is Peace, Bliss, Cessation of Suffering, Moksha, Vaikuntha, Kailasam, Satyalokam - all these terms are paryAya padam - synonymous terms.  Sastra vachanam and mahatma's vachanam (again these two are also paryAya padam) - convey that for approaching this "Goal" of life - we need  balam.  What kind of  balam  ?  The answer to this question can be given by quoting pages after pages of ecstatic outpouring in scriptures and bhasyams. But to keep the discussion brief, I'm classifying them into two types ~ Sadhana  balam  and Sraddha  balam .  What are these two ?  1.  Sadhana Balam   is mental