Trusting God's Will: The Arjun Metaphor

So Arjun, for example, from the Mahabharat, is a very good metaphor for all of us. Besides being a historical character, he's also a very good representative of the human condition. So one more thing that he did was, after Abhimanyu was killed, of course emotions would be running high at that point. He said that 'I will kill Jayadratha.' He said, 'I'll kill Jayadratha before sunset today.' Who is it? It's okay, some supervillain, some Marvel supervillain. He said he's going to kill Ashwatthama, Karna, Jayadratha—all the options are there, you pick whoever. So he said he will do that before the end of the day today, otherwise he will end his own life. And then when he told Krishna this, Krishna got very upset. Krishna literally told him, 'I'm sitting right here. Who has asked you to make these resolutions? You could have at least checked with me.' That's literally what Krishna tells him on the chariot, isn't it? I don't know if some of you have seen that scene.

And then what happens is that because Arjun is a great friend, a Sakha of God, the great Bhakta in the form of a Sakha, then Arjun, as always, is trapped in some war game and it's not happening, it's not happening. The sun is going down. So then Krishna had to hold up the sun, or what he did is he sent some clouds to cover the sun. So then the bad guys felt like the sunset has come and they won the challenge. Now Arjun has to kill himself because a promise is a promise in those days. So this one who was scared of being killed by Arjun comes out in the open and starts laughing, thinking that the sun has set. Just when he comes out, then Krishna removes the clouds and Arjun gets his chance and he's willing to keep up his pledge, you see.

The first part of the story is more compelling for me because that's literally us. Even in our spirituality, we become like that. And I should say I become like that. But He's right there. Why can't we ask? Why can't we be patient for the answer? Why do we think we know? What do we actually know? So the crux of all of this is that He never leaves us, although His presence does seem to get distant the more selfish we are being. But His grace, His mercy is so much that just in a turning away with innocence and through tears of missing Him, He makes Himself available. And He does not leave us and He does not say, 'Don't ask me this. Don't look for guidance about this small matter. How dare you bring this to me? Don't I have other work to do?' So the highest in the universe, that which the universe is made up of, is willing to have a deep, deep relationship with us in any construct that we want.

And we are chasing relationships on the outside. God is saying, 'I'll be your mother, I'll be your father, I'll be your best friend, I'll be your lover, I'll be your beloved, I'll be your son, I'll be your child, I'll be your daughter, whatever way you want.' And all love will come from me anyway. But in the hypnosis of Maya, we think that grabbing onto some flesh and blood will be better for us in our lives. Just a bucket of food. Just food dancing around creating all this drama in our life. What if the food never changes shape? What if all the food we ate then stayed in that shape only? So all the falafels are like—they appear like mini falafels. All the rotis are like mini rotis. So you just see like an aggregate of all the food that we eat. Then would it be that attractive? All this body is made up of that only. So it is just in the hypnosis of Maya we get stuck in all of this stuff, feeling that this grabbing on the outside will give me some everlasting peace and joy and love. Even if that comes, it will come only from God if it is His grace.