Embark with us on a journey of introspection as we delve into the profound impact of cultivating deep thought in our daily lives. Exploring the timeless narratives of characters like Duryodhana and Arjuna, we unravel the intricate threads of the human psyche. Join our discussion on the wisdom encapsulated in books, spanning generations, offering invaluable insights into the human experience. Discover the importance of discerning between confidence and ego, unlocking the keys to personal and interpersonal harmony.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Why is it that we should slow down and think deeply in whatever we do in our lives?
(00:10):
How is it that while Duryodhana spoke for eons about his own virtues, as soon as Arjuna
saw the rest of the battlefield, his mind too was shattered?
And why is it important for us to differentiate between what is seen as confidence and what
(00:34):
is seen as ego?
Hello and welcome back to Stoic Spirituality, a podcast where I look through, analyze, and
dissect various parts, books, and epics and philosophy in these last few years that I've
learned.
My name is Jugan and I'm a student of the human experience trying to spread some knowledge
(00:55):
out to the rest of the world.
And so this episode is going to be dedicated to kind of summarizing and almost completing
chapter 1 of the Bhagavad Gita where a lot of the setting from the Mahabharata war is
set up and then going into this idea of slowing down but working fast and the idea of finding
(01:20):
confidence while avoiding ego.
So to begin, I want to start off with the Bhagavad Gita and the various kind of characters
we illustrate and see throughout our introduction to the Mahabharata epic and the setting for
the Bhagavad Gita.
(01:41):
So to kind of summarize the last part from last episode, we had Duryodhana who is the
eldest brother of the Kauravas, the hundred brothers who were seen as the embodiment of
evil for the purposes of this epic.
The eldest brother Duryodhana was out here blabbering to Dronacharya who was the teacher
(02:04):
of all the Pandavas and Kauravas about how his army is the best and in a sense developing
a superiority complex over his own supposed superiority to hide the inferiority inside
of him.
(02:24):
And so what happens as a result near the end of our discussion from two weeks ago, Dronacharya,
the teacher of the Pandavas and Kauravas was sitting here watching Duryodhana extol the
virtues of his army and just say the most obvious of facts in an attempt to hide his
(02:45):
nervousness.
What happens is Dronacharya starts getting mad justfully because the verbiage that is
being spoken is then out of fear and is then out of such basic insecurity that a man of
just morals has every right to get annoyed especially when being told to by someone who
(03:11):
side they don't even want to fight on about how they should fight thinking that everyone
has the allegiance of Duryodhana not necessarily the allegiance of Dronacharya and Bhishma
with the point that if Drona and Bhishma were to go to the other side of the army so too
wouldn't much of the army.
(03:32):
So what happens is when Bhishma who is a general and the kind of defender of the Kaurava army
sees that Drona is starting to get mad and he is watching the morals of everyone else
around him fall apart, he blew his conch to snap Duryodhana out of it.
And one point that I made about this conch blowing is that it's the first act of aggression
(03:55):
the first shot fired in an ancient war.
So by blowing his conch first with the intention, the primary intention of snapping Duryodhana
out of his misery filled superiority complex blabbering drivel, the Kaurava army took the
first step in declaring war in terms of the battlefield.
(04:18):
And the idea of the philosophy behind this episode was the idea of being aware that your
mind is not who you really are and the awareness behind it should be acknowledged for you to
cure yourself of all these mental impressions you create over time and clear your karmic
balance throughout your entire life.
(04:41):
So now to continue with the story, so as soon as Duryodhana blows his conch along with the
rest of his Kaurava army, all the Pandavas side started to blow their conches in response.
The five Pandavas blew it, other generals, so did Krishna the charioteer of Arjuna and
the godhead in an avatar form, and as a result Sanjaya who is the person kind of dictating
(05:06):
this entire story to the blind king Dhridrashtra of the Kauravas, what he notices is the heaven
and earth reverberated with this incessant conch blowing and almost in a sense it was
just such a magnification and illustration of the beginning of the war symbolically in
(05:31):
ancient times.
And so now kind of zooming away and moving away from Duryodhana's side and the many
things that he illustrated with the superiority complex, now we see through Arjuna's eyes
another emotion which is just the shattering of oneself, a creation of incredible low self-esteem
(05:56):
and quite literally a nervous or mental breakdown by the hero of the Pandavas side setting up
the divine song of the Bhagavad Gita.
So what happens is Arjuna to kind of get a sense of the battle that's going to ensue,
the people he's going to fight and what is going to be required out of him, he asks Krishna
(06:21):
who is his charioteer to place him in the middle of the battlefield between both armies.
He asks to be set up there so he can see everyone and get a sense of the battlefield and what
lies in front of him, and Krishna obviously obliges.
However what happens is as Arjuna sees everyone there assembled ready to fight and understands
(06:44):
the cost of the necessary actions, whether it is killing his uncles or great uncles or
his relatives or whoever else he grew with, Sanjaya kind of as a misnomer relates to the
Dhritarashtra, the king of the Kauravas that Arjuna is filled with pity.
(07:07):
And so to take a step back, what is defined really as pity by Sanjaya is really kind of
a misnomer.
Because see real pity as a concept from a sense of justice and compassion would have
been generated far before the battle actually ensued.
In the human heart we have a great tendency to glorify our own weaknesses with some convenient
(07:31):
angelic name in divine pose.
So by calling it pity, it was kind of a misnomer to illustrate that it wasn't really pity
that Arjuna was feeling, it was more like not really vanity but almost in a sense desperation
and self pity, not pity towards others but self pity precluding an anxious and nervous
(07:56):
breakdown.
It's kind of like when a rich man builds a temple in his own name to immortalize himself,
we see that on the outside potentially as charity when it's really just vanity for
the sake of a legacy that lasts beyond one's lifespan.
(08:18):
And so we find this feeling of desperation in Arjuna, this desire to throw down all of
his weapons and sit there weeping and seeping tears rather from his eyes was seen and glorified
as pity towards the other army when truly it was just an anxious and nervous breakdown.
(08:38):
Because Arjuna had a long life of mental repressions which had created this dynamic energy which
was trying to seek a field of expression.
And as soon as kind of like the final domino was added to the overall stack and pushed,
this anxious desire was split and his desire to become the greatest hero of his time against
(09:03):
a faceless army, an egoistic evaluation of himself as such a great hero.
This preoccupation was intensely shattered and what ensued was anxiety, a panic attack,
an incredible acute onset depression, bringing about a divorce between his subjective mind
(09:29):
and his objective mind.
And so what happens as a result as you might expect is that Arjuna now starts blabbering
himself, creating a well of self pity in himself.
So when we saw on the other side it was Duryodhana who was trying to boost his own morale by
pointing out the many benefits of his side and the many war issues that are on his side,
(09:53):
Arjuna here is not creating self pity in himself by continually burning down the necessity
for the war regardless of the justice of it and adding pieces that don't even correlate
with it objectively.
Just think of it this way, when was the last time you found yourself down a rabbit hole,
(10:15):
kind of trying to connect some dots that have no correlation with each other but continually
connecting them, adding pieces that don't correlate and somehow just make sense in your
head?
Just imagine that in Arjuna's visage or his eyes throughout the entirety of this portion
(10:38):
of the episode, he creates a sense of self pity in his head trying to renounce everything
like a sannyasi who is one who renounces and goes to the forest to meditate and live a
life of refuge.
So while this motive, this ideology of renunciation of ego and desire based actions in a life
(11:04):
as a sannyasi is good, the motive behind it was out of fear, not out of true renunciation.
One who has true renunciation has built up this desire over time and has cured himself
of existing impressions in his head and has chosen this life of true renunciation, not
(11:26):
in the way that Arjuna did which was out of fear and refuge from the present and his dharma
or duty as a kshatriya warrior in the mahabhata army.
Arjuna rather seeks to be killed instead of even face his relatives, trying to morally
justify why he can't fight or why he can't draw his weapon using arguments such as what
(11:52):
pleasure will I gain or how will I be happy, single dimensional arguments that really hold
no value when held to the light of your purpose or the light of true awareness.
He then goes on to describe the religious rites and customs being defiled or destroyed
by killing an entire lineage of people.
(12:17):
Same way, a storyteller trying to create some dramatic effect adds details to the same old
story so he can capture a new audience.
Arjuna seems to draw a new inspiration from his foolishness, stacking bricks that don't
match up or are not compatible, using his creative intelligence quote unquote to find fresh arguments
(12:42):
in support of his wrong philosophy, one based on self pity, emotional breakdown, and anxiety
about the battle ahead.
And he continues extolling these reasons.
He starts just blabbering without pause and has pretty much an entire mental breakdown
while trying to justify why there shouldn't be a fight, and he sits down in the middle
(13:06):
of the battlefield throwing away his bows and arrows, and his mind is stressed with
sorrow.
And so this kind of unhealthy mental weakness, which is not only common to Arjuna but is
very present in our daily lives regularly, drains away our heroism, drains away this self
(13:26):
discipline, this courage to do what is right, as you desperately try to put this fake paper
crown on your head to cover your cowardice, to cover the fear you truly have, trying to
justify using reasons such as self pity, that are based on self pity, but reasons such as
(13:47):
holier than thou approaches, the belief that they are doing something for the greater good,
two arguments that may look good on the surface but have no internal benefits for one's
own self.
By deliberately misconstruing the very aim of the war and tilting his perspective toward
(14:11):
illustrating himself as an unjust warrior, killing his family, and negating the many
arguments, the many fights, and the many injustices done to the Pandavas, he misconstrues the
aim of the war and imputes this low motive to the righteous side of the Pandavas just
to justify his pacifist idea.
(14:33):
But this pacifist idea does not gurgle or does not originate rather from his known strength,
but it comes out from his mind.
Because similarly to this idea of renunciation, and similarly to this idea of pity, this idea
of pacifism, and these kinds of thoughts should have come far before the war happened itself,
(15:01):
if they were real.
However these ideas, these rabbit holes that he generates out of nowhere is really seen
more as based on self pity and a lack of courage to do the right thing and take the right step.
So we end chapter 1 here with Arjuna in a mental breakdown with no desire to fight for
(15:29):
any reason whatsoever.
And so now let's go a little bit into the analysis portion of this section.
So one thing is when we are not ourselves, when we are tilted by events around us and
not who we describe as the most ideal version of ourselves, we project our own weaknesses
and impurities on those working around us as subordinates.
(15:54):
Because in the human heart there is always a great tendency to glorify one's weaknesses,
with some convenient angelic name and divine pose.
In Arjuna's case, self pity was disguised as true pity, self pity and anxiety was disguised
as pacifism, and the non-desire to destroy an entire religious lineage.
(16:17):
It's disguised as this holy-than-thou approach.
When someone tries to tell you that you shouldn't do something, or you shouldn't follow this
characteristic when they themselves would do that at a heartbeat, this holy-than-thou
approach manifests.
For a little bit of context as to what a holy-than-thou approach is, it's kind of the concept of a
(16:40):
social justice warrior.
Someone who finds it and makes it their business to preach every single good thing that you
should do as a person, but when asked to do such a thing, will immediately fold and bulk
at the idea.
It's the idea of all bark, no bite, and the idea that you should do this because it's
morally right, but if I was asked to do the same exact thing, or I was put in a similar
(17:05):
dilemma, I would not follow the same exact ideology.
That kind of summarizes the holy-than-thou approach.
But so, when you're in the state of mental confusion, when your logic has kind of left
the building, when your emotions have been divorced from your intellect, your objective
mind runs wild to unintelligent conclusions, goes down rabbit holes trying to seek some
(17:30):
vestige of comfort and self-pity to kind of cover up what has happened, or cover up the
mental confusion you have.
And this kind of leads to the idea of seeking out pleasures in order to numb the mind, to
block it off from what is true and what is good for you, with the goal of supposedly
(17:53):
taking a break or taking care of yourself when it's really just trying to avoid what
reality is.
Just imagine how many times you may have found confirmation bias or tried to numb yourself
in your own day-to-day life to justify what you were feeling, adding pieces that didn't
fit in a puzzle just for you to feel better.
(18:18):
Justifying your actions with this idea that you were doing it for the greater good, or
you were doing it for the benefit of the whole.
This kind of leads into one of the core tenets of the Bhagavad Gita, which is the anxiety
for the fruits of our actions.
A lot of our anxiety as a concept comes from our fear toward the future.
(18:42):
What is going to happen as a result of the present, or what situations will I not be
able to control that will manifest throughout my life.
What really happens is we leave Arjuna in this state of mental confusion, in this incredibly
lowered state with incredible mental pressure on him in order to accentuate the message
(19:06):
of the Bhagavad Gita, to illustrate the many things that Krishna will say to someone who
was brought to his lowest point to raise him up.
And all the while, us as readers pick up on the same insights, may it be the incarnation,
reincarnation, may it be the way you should have desireless actions, unrestrained moderation
(19:30):
illustrated in a spiritual manner, and the very many ways to reach this state of quote
unquote enlightenment, finding the self behind the mind and destroying the ego in the present.
So throughout these next few months and weeks, you will go through the Bhagavad Gita now
that we have set up the stage for it, trying to connect the many aspects of this philosophy
(19:55):
to Stoicism and other spiritual texts such as the power of now and the untethered soul.
In terms of generalized spiritual philosophy and Stoic philosophy, a few points that we
can really see a lot of in Arjuna's manifestation and Duryodhana's manifestation as well is
the idea of finding confidence and avoiding ego.
(20:18):
So what happened for both Arjuna and Duryodhana is that they were both present with large
swaths and large quantities of ego.
It was disguised as confidence, but it was just a lot of pride and conceit.
In Duryodhana's case, you can see that it's a lot of blabbering coming from the attempt
(20:40):
to establish his superiority complex, the presence of a large amount of conceit and
supposed confidence in his own abilities and his own desires to conquer and win.
And a superiority complex has nothing more than inferiority complex which is based on
(21:04):
this fear of what is going to happen, the fear for the fruits of your actions and the
fear for the future in general.
In Arjuna's case, he was brought down to a much lower point where all of his confidence
which was really ego was sucked out of him and he was put in such a low self-esteem place
(21:27):
that all of his whatever he referred to as his confidence just dissipated and was replaced
by self-pity, self-misery, and just absolute lack of desire to fight inactivity or inaction.
(21:47):
And one thing you can see in both of these cases is that there is no one less at peace
than an egomania, people who are full of their own grandiosity.
In Duryodhana's case, he spoke incessantly about his army and in Arjuna's case, he had
this idea that he was his great hero.
(22:08):
But confidence as a concept needs neither congratulations or glory to revel because
it's an honest understanding of your strengths and your weaknesses to become someone better.
And in both cases on both sides to the both characters we did a deep dive into, neither
(22:34):
of them had confidence, both of them assumed or presumed they had it, but as soon as the
situation called upon an expression of said confidence, it disappeared.
Just like writing in Sam.
People who are confident know not only their strengths but also their weaknesses.
(22:54):
And the part about the weaknesses really defines someone who is confident.
Because confidence breeds humility, ego breeds loudmouth pride.
People who are confident, while they may seem like they really are egoistic, it's more really
(23:18):
just a projection of the other person who sees them as egoistic.
They're trying to hide and illustrate their ego upon you and when someone knows their
things, knows when to ignore other people's opinions, their insecurity complex goes up
and they presume someone who is confident is seen as an egomania.
(23:40):
The difference between confidence and ego as well is that ego is unsettled by doubts,
afflicted by hubris and conceit.
But you're not allowed to ask questions to this ego, for it will flare up out of anger,
frustration or mistrust.
However, confidence does feel the same doubts but doesn't allow it to affect one's daily
(24:06):
life.
Hubris is always present but it never gains a firm purchase in the slick surface of confidence.
And you cultivate a clear mind and inner peace allowing for criticism, feedback and humility
in the long run.
(24:29):
You will have doubts.
Doubts is present whether or not you manifest confidence or ego but it's your choice to
determine if you're going to take it as a challenge or if you're going to take it as
something that breaks you.
And to differentiate between this confidence and ego, one thing you must do is slow down
and think deeply.
(24:51):
A lot of us think that the best way to cultivate confidence is through a fiery blaze of action
while in truth it is the calm stillness of our inner peace that really cultivates confidence.
Because the ego touches the surface, it is on top, but confidence is a more deep understanding.
(25:15):
Ego is perturbed and disturbed by impressions, just like how Arjuna was disturbed by the
impression that it was such a large and hard fought battle that he would have to conquer
until he saw who was fighting.
The same way that Triodhana saw the impression of one army versus the other and the impression
(25:40):
that everyone fought for him, these two manifestations of ego hide the confidence that people are
fighting for their dharmas or fighting for their purposes or because they are bound by
their word to, and that the true purpose of a warrior's life and true dharma is to fight
(26:06):
and for us to deny it for the sake of self pity is just ego.
And there's kind of like a paradoxical contradiction that may arise from this idea of stillness.
You would think that someone who is fully present is someone who is constantly thinking
about something or constantly analyzing and ticking in information when it's rather
(26:31):
just someone who is empty, someone who is just present, not attaching a label or not
attaching a mind to thought pattern to something, who is still and who is confident, ready for
the challenges of life, but someone who is egoic lives anywhere but the present, thinking
about the past, projecting for the future, with emotional insecurity attached to the
(26:58):
overall ideology.
Remember and think of the last time you had a clear idea or a revolutionary or aha moment.
Did it come from a long string of thoughts that continually cascaded in your mind or
did it come when you quieted your mind and allowed yourself to just simply be and allow
(27:23):
your mind to think so deeply you weren't really thinking anything?
That is what stillness is, and stillness and confidence boost each other.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode on the idea of finding confidence and avoiding
ego, slowing down and allowing ourselves to think deeply to find this idea of stillness,
(27:47):
all in the backdrop of the Mahabharata epic, setting up the grand philosophy of the Bhagavad
Gita.
My goal is for the next few episodes is to alternate as usual between considering Stoic
philosophy and applying it in a practical sense and illustrating the spiritual philosophies
(28:12):
and principles of Hinduism applicable to general spirituality.
Dive a little bit into the philosophy of Vaita Vedanta which is the philosophy of non-duality.
Touch a little bit on the concept of pantheism which is the idea that there is one creator
above all in all religions are man-made manifestations of said godhood or one creator and the arguments
(28:37):
for and against it.
And finish off with a greater continuation of discipline of the body, of the mind and
soul, the courage to cultivate said discipline, and the creation of opportunities from the
obstacles that stand in our way.
(29:00):
So join me as we continue over the next few months to cover these various Stoic philosophies
and spiritual realizations.
And if you would like to hear more content, be free to drop me a follow at Stoic Spirituality
on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram and feel free to follow this podcast for any new episodes
that are released every single Wednesday at 4am PST.
(29:23):
Thank you so much for listening and see you guys next time.
Why is it that we should slow down and think deeply in whatever we do in our lives?
(00:10):
How is it that while Duryodhana spoke for eons about his own virtues, as soon as Arjuna
saw the rest of the battlefield, his mind too was shattered?
And why is it important for us to differentiate between what is seen as confidence and what
(00:34):
is seen as ego?
Hello and welcome back to Stoic Spirituality, a podcast where I look through, analyze, and
dissect various parts, books, and epics and philosophy in these last few years that I've
learned.
My name is Jugan and I'm a student of the human experience trying to spread some knowledge
(00:55):
out to the rest of the world.
And so this episode is going to be dedicated to kind of summarizing and almost completing
chapter 1 of the Bhagavad Gita where a lot of the setting from the Mahabharata war is
set up and then going into this idea of slowing down but working fast and the idea of finding
(01:20):
confidence while avoiding ego.
So to begin, I want to start off with the Bhagavad Gita and the various kind of characters
we illustrate and see throughout our introduction to the Mahabharata epic and the setting for
the Bhagavad Gita.
(01:41):
So to kind of summarize the last part from last episode, we had Duryodhana who is the
eldest brother of the Kauravas, the hundred brothers who were seen as the embodiment of
evil for the purposes of this epic.
The eldest brother Duryodhana was out here blabbering to Dronacharya who was the teacher
(02:04):
of all the Pandavas and Kauravas about how his army is the best and in a sense developing
a superiority complex over his own supposed superiority to hide the inferiority inside
of him.
(02:24):
And so what happens as a result near the end of our discussion from two weeks ago, Dronacharya,
the teacher of the Pandavas and Kauravas was sitting here watching Duryodhana extol the
virtues of his army and just say the most obvious of facts in an attempt to hide his
(02:45):
nervousness.
What happens is Dronacharya starts getting mad justfully because the verbiage that is
being spoken is then out of fear and is then out of such basic insecurity that a man of
just morals has every right to get annoyed especially when being told to by someone who
(03:11):
side they don't even want to fight on about how they should fight thinking that everyone
has the allegiance of Duryodhana not necessarily the allegiance of Dronacharya and Bhishma
with the point that if Drona and Bhishma were to go to the other side of the army so too
wouldn't much of the army.
(03:32):
So what happens is when Bhishma who is a general and the kind of defender of the Kaurava army
sees that Drona is starting to get mad and he is watching the morals of everyone else
around him fall apart, he blew his conch to snap Duryodhana out of it.
And one point that I made about this conch blowing is that it's the first act of aggression
(03:55):
the first shot fired in an ancient war.
So by blowing his conch first with the intention, the primary intention of snapping Duryodhana
out of his misery filled superiority complex blabbering drivel, the Kaurava army took the
first step in declaring war in terms of the battlefield.
(04:18):
And the idea of the philosophy behind this episode was the idea of being aware that your
mind is not who you really are and the awareness behind it should be acknowledged for you to
cure yourself of all these mental impressions you create over time and clear your karmic
balance throughout your entire life.
(04:41):
So now to continue with the story, so as soon as Duryodhana blows his conch along with the
rest of his Kaurava army, all the Pandavas side started to blow their conches in response.
The five Pandavas blew it, other generals, so did Krishna the charioteer of Arjuna and
the godhead in an avatar form, and as a result Sanjaya who is the person kind of dictating
(05:06):
this entire story to the blind king Dhridrashtra of the Kauravas, what he notices is the heaven
and earth reverberated with this incessant conch blowing and almost in a sense it was
just such a magnification and illustration of the beginning of the war symbolically in
(05:31):
ancient times.
And so now kind of zooming away and moving away from Duryodhana's side and the many
things that he illustrated with the superiority complex, now we see through Arjuna's eyes
another emotion which is just the shattering of oneself, a creation of incredible low self-esteem
(05:56):
and quite literally a nervous or mental breakdown by the hero of the Pandavas side setting up
the divine song of the Bhagavad Gita.
So what happens is Arjuna to kind of get a sense of the battle that's going to ensue,
the people he's going to fight and what is going to be required out of him, he asks Krishna
(06:21):
who is his charioteer to place him in the middle of the battlefield between both armies.
He asks to be set up there so he can see everyone and get a sense of the battlefield and what
lies in front of him, and Krishna obviously obliges.
However what happens is as Arjuna sees everyone there assembled ready to fight and understands
(06:44):
the cost of the necessary actions, whether it is killing his uncles or great uncles or
his relatives or whoever else he grew with, Sanjaya kind of as a misnomer relates to the
Dhritarashtra, the king of the Kauravas that Arjuna is filled with pity.
(07:07):
And so to take a step back, what is defined really as pity by Sanjaya is really kind of
a misnomer.
Because see real pity as a concept from a sense of justice and compassion would have
been generated far before the battle actually ensued.
In the human heart we have a great tendency to glorify our own weaknesses with some convenient
(07:31):
angelic name in divine pose.
So by calling it pity, it was kind of a misnomer to illustrate that it wasn't really pity
that Arjuna was feeling, it was more like not really vanity but almost in a sense desperation
and self pity, not pity towards others but self pity precluding an anxious and nervous
(07:56):
breakdown.
It's kind of like when a rich man builds a temple in his own name to immortalize himself,
we see that on the outside potentially as charity when it's really just vanity for
the sake of a legacy that lasts beyond one's lifespan.
(08:18):
And so we find this feeling of desperation in Arjuna, this desire to throw down all of
his weapons and sit there weeping and seeping tears rather from his eyes was seen and glorified
as pity towards the other army when truly it was just an anxious and nervous breakdown.
(08:38):
Because Arjuna had a long life of mental repressions which had created this dynamic energy which
was trying to seek a field of expression.
And as soon as kind of like the final domino was added to the overall stack and pushed,
this anxious desire was split and his desire to become the greatest hero of his time against
(09:03):
a faceless army, an egoistic evaluation of himself as such a great hero.
This preoccupation was intensely shattered and what ensued was anxiety, a panic attack,
an incredible acute onset depression, bringing about a divorce between his subjective mind
(09:29):
and his objective mind.
And so what happens as a result as you might expect is that Arjuna now starts blabbering
himself, creating a well of self pity in himself.
So when we saw on the other side it was Duryodhana who was trying to boost his own morale by
pointing out the many benefits of his side and the many war issues that are on his side,
(09:53):
Arjuna here is not creating self pity in himself by continually burning down the necessity
for the war regardless of the justice of it and adding pieces that don't even correlate
with it objectively.
Just think of it this way, when was the last time you found yourself down a rabbit hole,
(10:15):
kind of trying to connect some dots that have no correlation with each other but continually
connecting them, adding pieces that don't correlate and somehow just make sense in your
head?
Just imagine that in Arjuna's visage or his eyes throughout the entirety of this portion
(10:38):
of the episode, he creates a sense of self pity in his head trying to renounce everything
like a sannyasi who is one who renounces and goes to the forest to meditate and live a
life of refuge.
So while this motive, this ideology of renunciation of ego and desire based actions in a life
(11:04):
as a sannyasi is good, the motive behind it was out of fear, not out of true renunciation.
One who has true renunciation has built up this desire over time and has cured himself
of existing impressions in his head and has chosen this life of true renunciation, not
(11:26):
in the way that Arjuna did which was out of fear and refuge from the present and his dharma
or duty as a kshatriya warrior in the mahabhata army.
Arjuna rather seeks to be killed instead of even face his relatives, trying to morally
justify why he can't fight or why he can't draw his weapon using arguments such as what
(11:52):
pleasure will I gain or how will I be happy, single dimensional arguments that really hold
no value when held to the light of your purpose or the light of true awareness.
He then goes on to describe the religious rites and customs being defiled or destroyed
by killing an entire lineage of people.
(12:17):
Same way, a storyteller trying to create some dramatic effect adds details to the same old
story so he can capture a new audience.
Arjuna seems to draw a new inspiration from his foolishness, stacking bricks that don't
match up or are not compatible, using his creative intelligence quote unquote to find fresh arguments
(12:42):
in support of his wrong philosophy, one based on self pity, emotional breakdown, and anxiety
about the battle ahead.
And he continues extolling these reasons.
He starts just blabbering without pause and has pretty much an entire mental breakdown
while trying to justify why there shouldn't be a fight, and he sits down in the middle
(13:06):
of the battlefield throwing away his bows and arrows, and his mind is stressed with
sorrow.
And so this kind of unhealthy mental weakness, which is not only common to Arjuna but is
very present in our daily lives regularly, drains away our heroism, drains away this self
(13:26):
discipline, this courage to do what is right, as you desperately try to put this fake paper
crown on your head to cover your cowardice, to cover the fear you truly have, trying to
justify using reasons such as self pity, that are based on self pity, but reasons such as
(13:47):
holier than thou approaches, the belief that they are doing something for the greater good,
two arguments that may look good on the surface but have no internal benefits for one's
own self.
By deliberately misconstruing the very aim of the war and tilting his perspective toward
(14:11):
illustrating himself as an unjust warrior, killing his family, and negating the many
arguments, the many fights, and the many injustices done to the Pandavas, he misconstrues the
aim of the war and imputes this low motive to the righteous side of the Pandavas just
to justify his pacifist idea.
(14:33):
But this pacifist idea does not gurgle or does not originate rather from his known strength,
but it comes out from his mind.
Because similarly to this idea of renunciation, and similarly to this idea of pity, this idea
of pacifism, and these kinds of thoughts should have come far before the war happened itself,
(15:01):
if they were real.
However these ideas, these rabbit holes that he generates out of nowhere is really seen
more as based on self pity and a lack of courage to do the right thing and take the right step.
So we end chapter 1 here with Arjuna in a mental breakdown with no desire to fight for
(15:29):
any reason whatsoever.
And so now let's go a little bit into the analysis portion of this section.
So one thing is when we are not ourselves, when we are tilted by events around us and
not who we describe as the most ideal version of ourselves, we project our own weaknesses
and impurities on those working around us as subordinates.
(15:54):
Because in the human heart there is always a great tendency to glorify one's weaknesses,
with some convenient angelic name and divine pose.
In Arjuna's case, self pity was disguised as true pity, self pity and anxiety was disguised
as pacifism, and the non-desire to destroy an entire religious lineage.
(16:17):
It's disguised as this holy-than-thou approach.
When someone tries to tell you that you shouldn't do something, or you shouldn't follow this
characteristic when they themselves would do that at a heartbeat, this holy-than-thou
approach manifests.
For a little bit of context as to what a holy-than-thou approach is, it's kind of the concept of a
(16:40):
social justice warrior.
Someone who finds it and makes it their business to preach every single good thing that you
should do as a person, but when asked to do such a thing, will immediately fold and bulk
at the idea.
It's the idea of all bark, no bite, and the idea that you should do this because it's
morally right, but if I was asked to do the same exact thing, or I was put in a similar
(17:05):
dilemma, I would not follow the same exact ideology.
That kind of summarizes the holy-than-thou approach.
But so, when you're in the state of mental confusion, when your logic has kind of left
the building, when your emotions have been divorced from your intellect, your objective
mind runs wild to unintelligent conclusions, goes down rabbit holes trying to seek some
(17:30):
vestige of comfort and self-pity to kind of cover up what has happened, or cover up the
mental confusion you have.
And this kind of leads to the idea of seeking out pleasures in order to numb the mind, to
block it off from what is true and what is good for you, with the goal of supposedly
(17:53):
taking a break or taking care of yourself when it's really just trying to avoid what
reality is.
Just imagine how many times you may have found confirmation bias or tried to numb yourself
in your own day-to-day life to justify what you were feeling, adding pieces that didn't
fit in a puzzle just for you to feel better.
(18:18):
Justifying your actions with this idea that you were doing it for the greater good, or
you were doing it for the benefit of the whole.
This kind of leads into one of the core tenets of the Bhagavad Gita, which is the anxiety
for the fruits of our actions.
A lot of our anxiety as a concept comes from our fear toward the future.
(18:42):
What is going to happen as a result of the present, or what situations will I not be
able to control that will manifest throughout my life.
What really happens is we leave Arjuna in this state of mental confusion, in this incredibly
lowered state with incredible mental pressure on him in order to accentuate the message
(19:06):
of the Bhagavad Gita, to illustrate the many things that Krishna will say to someone who
was brought to his lowest point to raise him up.
And all the while, us as readers pick up on the same insights, may it be the incarnation,
reincarnation, may it be the way you should have desireless actions, unrestrained moderation
(19:30):
illustrated in a spiritual manner, and the very many ways to reach this state of quote
unquote enlightenment, finding the self behind the mind and destroying the ego in the present.
So throughout these next few months and weeks, you will go through the Bhagavad Gita now
that we have set up the stage for it, trying to connect the many aspects of this philosophy
(19:55):
to Stoicism and other spiritual texts such as the power of now and the untethered soul.
In terms of generalized spiritual philosophy and Stoic philosophy, a few points that we
can really see a lot of in Arjuna's manifestation and Duryodhana's manifestation as well is
the idea of finding confidence and avoiding ego.
(20:18):
So what happened for both Arjuna and Duryodhana is that they were both present with large
swaths and large quantities of ego.
It was disguised as confidence, but it was just a lot of pride and conceit.
In Duryodhana's case, you can see that it's a lot of blabbering coming from the attempt
(20:40):
to establish his superiority complex, the presence of a large amount of conceit and
supposed confidence in his own abilities and his own desires to conquer and win.
And a superiority complex has nothing more than inferiority complex which is based on
(21:04):
this fear of what is going to happen, the fear for the fruits of your actions and the
fear for the future in general.
In Arjuna's case, he was brought down to a much lower point where all of his confidence
which was really ego was sucked out of him and he was put in such a low self-esteem place
(21:27):
that all of his whatever he referred to as his confidence just dissipated and was replaced
by self-pity, self-misery, and just absolute lack of desire to fight inactivity or inaction.
(21:47):
And one thing you can see in both of these cases is that there is no one less at peace
than an egomania, people who are full of their own grandiosity.
In Duryodhana's case, he spoke incessantly about his army and in Arjuna's case, he had
this idea that he was his great hero.
(22:08):
But confidence as a concept needs neither congratulations or glory to revel because
it's an honest understanding of your strengths and your weaknesses to become someone better.
And in both cases on both sides to the both characters we did a deep dive into, neither
(22:34):
of them had confidence, both of them assumed or presumed they had it, but as soon as the
situation called upon an expression of said confidence, it disappeared.
Just like writing in Sam.
People who are confident know not only their strengths but also their weaknesses.
(22:54):
And the part about the weaknesses really defines someone who is confident.
Because confidence breeds humility, ego breeds loudmouth pride.
People who are confident, while they may seem like they really are egoistic, it's more really
(23:18):
just a projection of the other person who sees them as egoistic.
They're trying to hide and illustrate their ego upon you and when someone knows their
things, knows when to ignore other people's opinions, their insecurity complex goes up
and they presume someone who is confident is seen as an egomania.
(23:40):
The difference between confidence and ego as well is that ego is unsettled by doubts,
afflicted by hubris and conceit.
But you're not allowed to ask questions to this ego, for it will flare up out of anger,
frustration or mistrust.
However, confidence does feel the same doubts but doesn't allow it to affect one's daily
(24:06):
life.
Hubris is always present but it never gains a firm purchase in the slick surface of confidence.
And you cultivate a clear mind and inner peace allowing for criticism, feedback and humility
in the long run.
(24:29):
You will have doubts.
Doubts is present whether or not you manifest confidence or ego but it's your choice to
determine if you're going to take it as a challenge or if you're going to take it as
something that breaks you.
And to differentiate between this confidence and ego, one thing you must do is slow down
and think deeply.
(24:51):
A lot of us think that the best way to cultivate confidence is through a fiery blaze of action
while in truth it is the calm stillness of our inner peace that really cultivates confidence.
Because the ego touches the surface, it is on top, but confidence is a more deep understanding.
(25:15):
Ego is perturbed and disturbed by impressions, just like how Arjuna was disturbed by the
impression that it was such a large and hard fought battle that he would have to conquer
until he saw who was fighting.
The same way that Triodhana saw the impression of one army versus the other and the impression
(25:40):
that everyone fought for him, these two manifestations of ego hide the confidence that people are
fighting for their dharmas or fighting for their purposes or because they are bound by
their word to, and that the true purpose of a warrior's life and true dharma is to fight
(26:06):
and for us to deny it for the sake of self pity is just ego.
And there's kind of like a paradoxical contradiction that may arise from this idea of stillness.
You would think that someone who is fully present is someone who is constantly thinking
about something or constantly analyzing and ticking in information when it's rather
(26:31):
just someone who is empty, someone who is just present, not attaching a label or not
attaching a mind to thought pattern to something, who is still and who is confident, ready for
the challenges of life, but someone who is egoic lives anywhere but the present, thinking
about the past, projecting for the future, with emotional insecurity attached to the
(26:58):
overall ideology.
Remember and think of the last time you had a clear idea or a revolutionary or aha moment.
Did it come from a long string of thoughts that continually cascaded in your mind or
did it come when you quieted your mind and allowed yourself to just simply be and allow
(27:23):
your mind to think so deeply you weren't really thinking anything?
That is what stillness is, and stillness and confidence boost each other.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode on the idea of finding confidence and avoiding
ego, slowing down and allowing ourselves to think deeply to find this idea of stillness,
(27:47):
all in the backdrop of the Mahabharata epic, setting up the grand philosophy of the Bhagavad
Gita.
My goal is for the next few episodes is to alternate as usual between considering Stoic
philosophy and applying it in a practical sense and illustrating the spiritual philosophies
(28:12):
and principles of Hinduism applicable to general spirituality.
Dive a little bit into the philosophy of Vaita Vedanta which is the philosophy of non-duality.
Touch a little bit on the concept of pantheism which is the idea that there is one creator
above all in all religions are man-made manifestations of said godhood or one creator and the arguments
(28:37):
for and against it.
And finish off with a greater continuation of discipline of the body, of the mind and
soul, the courage to cultivate said discipline, and the creation of opportunities from the
obstacles that stand in our way.
(29:00):
So join me as we continue over the next few months to cover these various Stoic philosophies
and spiritual realizations.
And if you would like to hear more content, be free to drop me a follow at Stoic Spirituality
on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram and feel free to follow this podcast for any new episodes
that are released every single Wednesday at 4am PST.
(29:23):
Thank you so much for listening and see you guys next time.
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