The only conflict humans face

 The only real conflict humans face is between loyalty to the truth and loyalty to oneself. 

Mother Nature unleashes her fury only to save the truth.

When individuals knowingly support a person, a cause, a leader--religious or otherwise--despite evidence of wrongdoing, malice, or crime, they are not being loyal to that person, but to themselves.

It is a calculated move. 

"I know this person is terrible, but it will help me politically, financially, or socially to support this person," or "This person's vision of what the country will look like will benefit my children. "

It is all about oneself. 

When people choose leaders based on how the stock market will do, how it would benefit their children to ethnically cleanse the land without thought of humanity, their hollowness, and moral vacuum explodes through a sham of pretentious statements about family values.

It takes courage to stand up for what is right even if it harms you.

The vast majority of people in this world are not courageous, honest, or truthful. That is human nature.

How can we expect the truth to triumph? Only if we start with recognizing that there is a problem with ourselves and address it--as it is with all problems. We are too familiar with blaming everyone else.

The WHO warned us of a catastrophic moral failure in the context of vaccine distribution i.e younger patients in rich countries are receiving the vaccine before the more vulnerable elsewhere.

It is important to look at the moral failure that has allowed us to be where we are in the world. Whether COVID was one of the many natural disasters facing humanity or not, people are anxious everywhere. And our anxieties over an uncertain future cannot be separated from our own choices and willful ignorance of what matters.

 Just a few minutes every day. Maybe less time than one spends on social media or one's stock market portfolio. Just a few minutes loosening one's stiff and inflexible attitude towards the truth. And our self-serving choices masked in talking points.

The next time faced with a hard unpopular choice to oppose what you know is wrong, are you going to remain silent?

The Shakuni in our lives

Do you know this person?

Happy 2021- Setting intentions despite uncertainty

 

Over the last week, I have had discussions with at least three of my friends about injustice in the greatest story ever told- the Mahabharata.

Karna is a fascinating character. The perfect man. Yet, he thirsted for glory and chose to befriend the wrong person to achieve glory. 

Would Karna have achieved success had he made friends with the Pandavas, rather than challenged them?

Look at what is happening in politics.  Like Karna, some ( millions of ) individuals are throwing their loyalty behind a person. They justify that behavior for reasons that point back to their own perceived benefit. Perceived is key here. 

 Karna's story sends a clear message: it does not matter how good you are if you throw your weight behind evil. Your virtues and skills do not matter if you support someone who feeds into your sense of being marginalized for their own selfish reasons. And even if you can see it clearly,  you choose to justify it using the word "loyalty". Loyalty to what? The truth or a person? There cannot be two truths. Just one: dharma.

Happy New Year to one and all. There are circumstances beyond our control that will shape our future, but our own choices play a role.

The picture above may seem at odds with what I have written. But it isn't. Our health and well-being are tied to making the right decisions. Scientific decisions, not emotional ones.

Here is a free gift for 2021.  Click the links below for review copies, if your New Year resolution is to read more and influence what others read.

I am reading... you guessed it...The Mahabharata 

Free review copies

More free review copies

The eyes of the beholder

The path less traveled, rugged and daunting,

Mountains and valleys, highs and lows

 Snow-capped or bare, the hike leaves a wanting

For a wildflower bedspread, to sink weary toes

Summit or dale, the views are stunning

Hope, not weariness spurs the journey ahead.

 

If I had a choice....

Like an exuberant stream in the woods, I choose the unbridled joy of gliding over and around rocks in my path, ceaselessly advancing to my unknown destination. My journey may seem pointless to those who prefer the restrictive safety of a lake, a pond, or even a well. To them I say, take a moment to watch the waves on a beach....if you can get there.

Why Karna is more of a hero than Arjuna

To the modern-day "woke" Hindustani, Arjuna is the quintessential privileged rich man. Doors opened for him by virtue of his high birth. Yet despite evidence supporting Karna as the superior human being in all aspects, he faced open discrimination from all except Duryodhana.

Had Karna's royal origins be discovered earlier on, would Drapaudi have faced the humiliation she did? After all, Karna was the one she was smitten by at her swayamvar?

Krishna knew what was to come in her life, claimed to be her friend, and yet did not act in her best interests. Even his attempt to persuade Karna to switch sides just before the Kurukshetra battle was only to help the Pandavas win.

 Karna made only two mistakes, as opposed to Arjuna who was arrogant despite his talents. Firstly, the insult Karna lobbed at Draupadi during her disrobing-- " A woman who has relationships with more than 4 men is a prostitute."

 And secondly, his unflinching loyalty to his friend Duryodhana.

Krishna justified Karna's murder by claiming that he was on the wrong side. To the present-day reader, whatever Duryodhana's negative qualities, he did not practice casteism. At least not when it came to Karna. Now one may claim that his hatred for the Pandavas was so profound that Duryodhana would have clutched at anyone he deemed talented to challenge them. But by all accounts, Duryodhana's friendship with Karna was deeper than the bond between the five brothers who shared a wife.

For any person who is a victim of bias, Karna is the ultimate symbol of systemic oppression. A kind, just, immensely talented, generous, and principled human being who is abandoned by his birth mother. He never achieves the glory he should have, whereas Arjuna had it made.

Should Karna have never sided with Duryodhana and chosen to fade into oblivion? I am sure there are many such Karnas the world knows not of, the ones who found no one to support them despite their talent faded into obscurity. It is only because Karna accepted Duryodhana's offer of friendship that we know of him.

A truth universally acknowledged

It is a truth that must be universally acknowledged that behind every frustrated woman is an ineffectual man.

A person who is unwilling to be taken advantage of should expect to get isolated, or labeled a difficult person.