Every one of us is an Arjuna! Part 2

Hello all,

Namaste! Last week we discussed how Arjuna was given 'upadesa' or divine advice by Krishna, the divine Self in the human form. We analyzed the scenario where Arjuna was reluctant to fight the battle. How about today we discuss a new version of the same scene with a twist that can happen in anyone's life.
Arjuna is standing on the same battlefield and overwhelmed with a different kind of problem, namely a mid-life crisis. Sometimes in our life, a crisis pokes its head around the middle of our life and then suddenly we are jolted into the realization that something, which we had perceived as worthwhile to do loses its importance and we are thrust into an entirely new terrain with no experience or skill. Let me elaborate this landscape more with two examples.

Scene 1:  It was Durban, South Africa on 7th June 1893. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (now Mahatma Gandhi) was a young lawyer who had come from India on indentured labor. He was supposed to travel to Pretoria for a court case and although he had a first class ticket, the ticket collector ordered him to aboard the third class based on his race.

Image courtesy- PictureQuotes.com

Mahatma Gandhi declined to do that as he had a valid ticket and traveled in the first class itself, but he was ejected from the train at the Pietermaritzburg station. He spent an entire freezing night in the waiting room contemplating on how he was treated unfairly due to his race even with a legal ticket and whether it is worthwhile to spend his time in South Africa and should he return to India and take part in the freedom fight of India.


Scene 2:  Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.A., December 1, 1955. A Mrs. Rosa Parks was riding a bus in the public transport system. She was sitting in one of the middle seats and was asked to surrender her seat to a white man; she refused and was arrested due to the city's segregation law.

At that time Martin Luther King Jr, a young Baptist minister in Alabama was active in civil rights movement; a dynamic voice in the community, a respected leader, and a minister. He was also well educated and had excellent oratorical skills. He was put in charge of the Montgomery Improvement Association to boycott the segregated public transport system of the Montgomery city.

Now let us come back to our Arjuna and assume both Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr, as the Arjuna in their own respective stories. Here at a particular moment in their life, both the great souls were asked to step into the battlefield of  Freedom fight of India and Civil rights movement respectively. 

Image Courtesy- PictureQuotes.com

Remember the story where Arjuna was overwhelmed and struggled with the decision to fight and threw away his bow and arrow and sat on the chariot. That was the same point in their respective lives, where Mahatma Gandhi was sitting in a waiting room and contemplating on his decision to return to India and Martin Luther King Jr. was asked to step into the leadership position in the Montgomery Improvement Association.

They had the choice to either leave the battlefield or step into the position of Arjuna, control the horses, take up the rein with the help of their charioteer, the inner guidance or Krishna and charge the chariot to fight the battle. Both men have elaborated in their biography the internal struggle they went through to take the right decision. It was not a minor decision to start with, as in one case the destiny of a whole country (India) and in the other case the fate of a whole community (African Americans) was involved and in both cases, the country as well as the community where putting their faith and confidence in the two leaders. Not a light responsibility!

What did they do? They realized that the battle or the cause was greater than a single person and at that point in time their destiny was calling them to take up the challenge and fight for a cause greater than themselves. The Arjuna in both men awakened to their true destiny, which was much greater than the fight, fighter or the battlefield. It is clear from their autobiographies that at every step of the fight they were tested, challenged and put on a knife's shining edge. But each test or challenge made their resolve stronger, will steelier and character powerful. Now the world celebrates them as the 'Mahatma' (great soul) and the reformer who gave the 'I have a dream' speech. 

In the same way, many of us sometimes in life can have a pull at the heartstrings to step into a greater and more authentic role in life. We may come to a crossroad where either we can go down the same beaten path we were till now or take the other path, which is beckoning us to give it a try. But in this new path many a time we may not have any previous skills or experience and always we will be asked to step way out of our comfort zone. There may be tests, challenges, and difficulties and we may be asked to take part in a cause greater than ourselves. So should we go by the beaten path or be a pathfinder? It is always our choice and our free will!

So like Arjuna and the great souls discussed above should we pay attention to our higher calling or should we carry on with the path we already know? On contemplating more on this premise, we may come to realize that everyone is given a life, but we have no idea whether we will be given a chance at another life. So why not take up the challenge, step out of the comfort zone and push ourselves to serve a cause greater than ourselves?

But as a trailblazer, it is never going to be easy; there will be challenges, trials, tribulations, and hardships. We may not have adequate tools, needed information or a well-trodden path; but each one of us is given a mind to tackle the challenges, wisdom to separate grain from chaff and our built-in Krishna or inner guidance who is there always ready to give guidance to our chariot of life. Choosing this option, we may find ourselves having the satisfaction and fulfillment that we are stepping into a higher calling in life and using it to a greater cause than ourselves. Wishing everyone to find their highest calling and live a life full of purpose!

I wish you a good weekend and I'll see you next Friday! 😉

Next week: Science and Spirituality - A Jugalbandi or entwined twins!

Note: Images taken from PictureQuotes.com.
Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried".  

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