Every person has his own pride or self-esteem and if it is hurt, it leads to confrontation. We find plenty of examples in the mythological stories of how the situation turned into catastrophe because somebody's pride was hurt.
In Mahabharata, many monarchs had assembled for Draupadi Swayamvar. The Pandava brothers were also present in the guise of brahmins. The condition or challenge set for the Swayamvar was that a contestant must accurately pierce the eye of a golden fish revolving overhead, with an arrow, by looking at its reflection in the water. And whosoever could pierce the eye of a fish may marry Princess Draupadi.
The Pandavas, in symbolical sense, represent the panchamahabhootas and Arjun in particular, is the 'Arjan' by nature. He is the mumukshu; who seeks liberation. He is an instinctive aspirant, who always strives to attain something exceptional. That's why he has the qualities of 'Arjan'. He represents a common man with extraordinary attributes, who strives to attain something phenomenal which is beyond his reach.
Coming back to the Swayamvar challenge … It was about piercing the eye of a fish revolving overhead. The fish symbolises the soul or jeevatman who transcends through the entire rashi-chakra; and it has its reflection in the water which is the symbol of mayaa or illusion. This is the delusive world; not real. But it appears to be real and the challenge for us is to stay in this world and pierce the fish which is the symbol of truth. The fish represents the meen rashi (pisces) - the twelfth house of the horoscope. This illustration is about piercing the eye of a fish, which means unbinding ourselves and achieving liberation from the unending cycle of birth, death and rebirth.
Arjun is the one who could achieve this extraordinary feet symbolically. He had attained this capability. The Pandavas, as I said represent the panchamahabhootas and Draupadi is the symbol of 'Shakti'. She is the divine force of these panchamahabhootas. She is the wife of all the Pandava brothers, which means this divine force is divided into the panchamahabhootas. She is the energy or power after all. As such, when you have such a power with you, your responsibility grows manifold.
Although the Pandavas had this power with them, Draupadi the symbol of superlative divine force, committed a big blunder of her life. When the Kauravas visited the "Mayasabha" - a grand palace specially built for the Pandavas by Mayasura, they came across number of illusionary wonders. When Duryodhana casually walked into the hall of illusions he mistook the pool of water as a piece of land and fell into the water. Draupadi, at that time ridiculed him. She took pot shots at him and remarked, "Blind man's son is also blind". But mind you when a person is jeered on account of any physical deformity he gets hurt and humiliated beyond bounds. It has highly extreme, far-reaching effects which one cannot imagine.
As a matter of fact, Draupadi was the most powerful empress; a symbolic form of divine force and she was expected to behave responsibly. But she mocked Duryodhana over physical deformity, which hurt his pride. He started seething with anger and it led to the journey of revenge.
The great epic Ramayana also has many such stories, prominent amongst them is the Seeta Swayamvar. Here, the challenge was to lift the Shiv-dhanushya (Shiva's bow) and string it. Many dignitaries had attended the swayamvara. The most powerful king Ravana was also one of them. When he attempted to lift the bow he could not do it and fell down crushing under the mighty bow. Seeta laughed at him sarcastically. Ravana's ego was hurt. He was enraged and it led to the journey of revenge. Ultimately it brought lot of miseries in Seeta's life. You will find many such stories in the Hindu scriptures. Everywhere in today's world, we are also witnessing similar happenings across the world and same mistake is committed again and again.
In our day-to-day life, we humiliate someone knowingly or unknowingly and if the person is hurt because of humiliation, he may not react to it openly. But the wounds of insult never get healed. He keeps the fire of revenge ignited for years together and waits for the opportunity. "My day will come, sooner or later and I will wait for my day," he keeps boiling from within. But this needs to stop. We need to avoid this. Especially when working in the competitive environment, we need to have harmonious and cordial relations with everyone.
Therefore, it is necessary to listen to others with due respect and patience. You may not perhaps agree to his / her views fully. But you should not turn him down disdainfully. Try to listen and respect his view and instead of ruling out his views, put forth your opinion with conviction and assertiveness without hurting his pride. "Well, you have wonderful ideas, we will definitely think over it, but I also have some fantastic plans. Let's talk about it and if you don't find it worthwhile, we will abandon the idea."
What does it mean? It means respecting the views of the others first and avoid hurting anybody's feelings while putting your opinion. This is what they are teaching in today's Corporate world. If this is followed in professional and personal life there won't be any room for conflict. If there is no conflict every one of us will enjoy the real essence of pleasant and peaceful co-existence. The concept of "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" (Entire universe is indeed a family) and "Live and let live" will come into reality. It is therefore, necessary not to waste our energy in fighting with others, instead it can be used for self-development and welfare of the society.
Imagine that today the Corona virus that has wreaked havoc across the world is because of discord, disharmony and disorder in the society. Somebody must have been hurt and offended or perhaps because of infernal lust of power this virus has spread across the world, leading to conflict and war. If we realize that this poisonous seed has originated from a particular place or from particular community, the rest of the world is bound to be hostile with them. Although this is an endless conflict, it needs to be stopped somewhere. Left to itself, it will spread like a wildfire. Hoping that somebody else will take initiative has no meaning. Better it should begin from ourselves. Therefore, it is imperative upon all of us to cast aside the feeling of revenge and take initiative for the universal peace and harmony, because it is now or never. So, let's uproot the poisonous weed of revenge completely from our life and make the world a better place to live with secured future.
Kalyanamastu !
Tejasvi Bhava !!
Blog by:
Dr Sunil Kale
Motivational Speaker
Maharashtra