Before the start of Mahabharata and as the preparations for the war were being made, Arjun went to seek Krishna as an ally whom the Pandavas valued above all.
Hearing from his spies about Arjun's visit, Shakuni advised Duryodhan to forestall Arjun in his bid to seek support of Krishna. Duryodhan rushed to Dwarka and reached just before Arjun.
Krishna was sleeping when they both arrived. Duryodhan, who was first to enter, sat on a seat at the head of the bed on which Krishna was asleep, and Arjun went to the foot of the bed and stood there with his hands folded.
On waking up, Krishna's eyes first rested on Arjun and then he saw Duryodhan. On being asked the reason of their presence by Krishna, Duryodhan said that the war with the Pandavas was inevitable and thus he had come to seek Krishna's help, and that because he was first to reach, it was only fair that Krishna joined Kauravas side as Krishna was related to both the Kauravas and to the Pandavas.
Krishna smiled and said, "Due to your pride you sat beside my head so I saw Arjun first. But you are both dear to me so I will help you both. On one hand my famous Narayani army comprising of one akshauhini of warriors, and on the other I shall be alone, I shall not wield any weapon, I will not fight in the war. To one of you I will give my Narayani Sena and to the other I will give my moral support. Arjun being younger to you shall have first choice."
Arjun fell at the feet of Krishna with tears in his eyes and without wasting a second, chose Krishna's moral support. He knew that with his support and guidance, the Pandavas would certainly win the war.
Duryodhan thought Arjun was foolish to choose Krishna who wouldn't even fight in the war, over Krishna's huge army which would certainly be of immense help to Kauravas. Thus he returned satisfied with the army.
____________________________________________________
At some point or other in our lives, we all face the Mahabharata, the war within. The battle between the brain and the heart, where brain has been conditioned and heart has been withered by the world, yet both given by The Almighty, The Universe, and not by the world. A fight between dreams and reality. A conflict between hopes and despairs. A rage between the body and the soul.
Only one thing determines the result. Our choices.
Just as Krishna offered a choice to Duryodhan and Arjun, we too have choices to make, whether we choose the Narayani Sena or The Narayan Himself, is an option granted by God to our Freewill.
Krishna, the Saarthi, the Charioteer, the Inner Voice, will take us wherever we want to go, yet the Freewill to choose where we want to go always rests with us.
We are what we are today because of the choices we made yesterday, and we will be who will be tomorrow because of the choices we make in the present. Our choices make us as much as we make them. We have a choice, to accept conditions as they exist in life, or to accept the responsibility for changing them. We can choose to allow the world to describe us or we can be the author of our own stories which will eventually define us. It is our choices that will lead us to our highest good, far more than our abilities. Life is the sum total of our choices we have made and of those that we shall make.
The choices we face may not always be between good and bad, or between complete and deplete, or between discouragement and encouragement, or between feasting and fasting, or between being miserable and happy, or between materialistic and spiritual. Sometimes the choices are between what's good and what's best, or between what's right and what's easy. Often what is true is forgotten by what is convenient. Often the voice within gets lost in the noises without. These choices are as easy or as difficult as we believe them to be. We can choose to hide with fear and think that our choices at the fork in the road will lead us to a mistake, or we can choose to side with optimism and see the fork in the road as an opportunity to recreate and rewrite our destiny.
Sometimes faced with choosing between two equally good but tough choices, one may decide not to choose, which again is a choice. Whether we believe that we have been blessed by God with freewill to choose or whether we believe that we don't have any freewill to choose is again an individual's freewill, a choice he or she chooses.
The crux however is that we cannot arrive at a different destination by continuing on the same path we chose yesterday. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. We can always choose to ignore the inner voice but by ignoring it, we imbalance our center, we move further away from our true path. Listening to the inner voice, the spirit, the universe is all about trust… trusting that what we are being told or lead to do is what is best for our highest good.
Happy Journey.
____________________________________________________
Since the self-proclaimed opinionated worldly wise around me trust that I am sans any brain, thus effectively the heart has always been and will be the only choice for me. I listen to my heart, which is where The God speaks to me. God gave me this life and The Universe gave me the freewill. I owe it to God that I make choices that are healthy for my body, mind and soul. I choose what I love and I love my choices. I choose feeling alive over anything and everything. I honour the privilege, the right to choose my path. The path I deem fit to keep me emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually fit.
It doesn't matters if the world thinks I am a saint or that I am a sinner. The only thing what matters to me is what I believe, what I feel, what I think, what my inner voice guides me. Neither can I control what others think nor do I wish to. It doesn't matters to me if people will choose to look down upon me for my choices in life, absolutely no worries et all, that is their choice. I can't do anything about that. The only thing I can do is decide how to live my life.
Neither do I hinder anyone's freewill, nor do I allow anyone to obstruct mine. Not out of fear or money, and not even out of love or obligation, no human has the right to take away from me the Freewill given by God. The worldly wise, May God bless them all with a long and prosperous life, can't meddle with my freewill simply because I won't let them.
So help me God. Amen.
____________________________________________________
In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.
~Eleanor Roosevelt~
I won't tell you that the world matters nothing, or the world's voice, or the voice of society. They matter a good deal. They matter far too much. But there are moments when one has to choose between living one's own life, fully, entirely, completely—or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands. You have that moment now. Choose!
~ Oscar Wilde~
There are times in my life when I have been medicine for some while poison for others. I used to think I was a victim of my story until I realized the truth that I am the creator of my story. I choose what type of person I will be and what type of impact I will leave on others. I will never choose the destructive path of self and outward victimization again.
~Steve Maraboli~
