Atmodhara: I am my own friend and my own enemy

Let us take the key word ātmodhāra आत्मोधार for Psychological analysis here.

उद्धरेदात्मनात्मानं नात्मानमवसादयेत् ।
आत्मैव ह्यात्मनो बन्धुरात्मैव रिपुरात्मनः ॥ गीता ६- ५॥

At times do we feel like, I have been my own best friend and I have been my own worst enemy. Yes, many of us feel like that. Many people say, I have made a mistake because of which I am experiencing these difficulties. People make such mistakes only when they do not have full control over themselves.

Day in and day out, our own teeth works along with the tongue and help chew and digest the food. But at some moment, when we lose focus, the same teeth might bite and cut our own tongue. When mind gets distracted, we would end up in such situations. Why does it happen? In such situations, mind would not be there in present; either it would have gone back to the past or thinking about future.

Once there was a Saranga (male deer) in the forest. It had big and beautiful horns with multiple branches. It was very proud of its horns. It used to go to the lake all the time and look at its own reflection and feel proud of its horns. While doing so, it also used to look at its feet and feel disgusted about them. Long slender feet, most of the time smeared with mud and not at all looking good. Once, while this Saranga was at the lake, a hunter came to shoot it. The Saranga got a sense of it and started running, the hunter followed, he never let go of it. This running and chasing went on. With the help of slender legs, Saranga was able to run for a long distance quickly. After some time, it became overconfident that the hunter cannot travel such a long distance and then relaxed for a moment. A little while later, the hunter covered the distance and came chasing the deer. The very next moment Saranga started running again; there was a small crevice between the trees which it wanted to jump through. While jumping, its big, beautiful horns got stuck in between the trees.

Saranga tried all means to escape, but the sharp branched horn had got stuck deeply in between the trees. At that moment Saranga felt the irony, “All along I had been cursing these long slender legs, which today helped me escape from the hunter, but I was proud of these horns, which themselves have become a death trap for me”.

Bhoga vada and Krodha vada

Today on one side we see this un-controlled consumption of resources without any regard to nature, consumerism or Bhoga vada. On the other side is this fundamentalism, born out of anger against bhoga vada. We can call it Krodha vada. These two vadas are the two haunting ghosts of today's world.

I and II world wars had its origin in Ego clash, ego clash between powerful leaders. The current situation of terrorism is nothing less than a war, a perpetual war. In this we can see a clash between Bhoga vada and Krodha vada, clash between consumeristic mind set and fundamentalism. Consumerism is born out of Kama and fundamentalism is born out of Krodha leading to destruction. The entire world is suffering because of this fight between Bhoga and Krodha.

Every person is born divine, however because of culturing and circumstances they end up being either consumeristic or religious fundamentalist. Yoga can help us avoid this situation by normalizing both these extremes, resulting in everlasting peace.

                                            भोक्तारं यज्ञतपसां सर्वलोकमहेश्वरम् ।
                              सुहृदं सर्वभूतानां ज्ञात्वा मां शान्तिमृच्छति ॥गीता ५- २९॥

Kama krodha resulting in Mano Vega

Currently Karthika masa is running, Kritika nakshatra is the celestial body governing now. For Kritika nakshatra Agni is the devata. This understanding is very important. Krishna says, there are two types of journeys, one is Shukla journey (journey from darkness to light) another is Krishna journey (journey from light to darkness). We can examine our own life journey in this context. Some people like more and more Tamas, they never prefer to be in light, some other people want more and more light. They will continue to move depending on their Karma phala. With this in mind, it is good to analyze our own lives.

Currently our journey is going on in 5th chapter; Krishna has dealt with the biggest challenge of today's modern world, Kama krodha resulting in Mano Vega.

शक्नोतीहैव यः सोढुं प्राक्शरीरविमोक्षणात् ।
कामक्रोधोद्भवं वेगं स युक्तः स सुखी नरः ॥गीता ५- २३॥

If we can control this Vega, we get Shanti, the very last shloka of this chapter ends with Shanti. But how is it that we end up in Ashanti? It is because of this speed originated from Kama and Krodha. The urge to earn money as much as possible, as quickly as possible, the attitude of grabbing things through whatever means is resulting in this Mano Vega. This uncontrolled speed of mind is the root cause of all modern day psychosomatic ailments like Diabetes, Hypertension etc.

There is a famous story "How Much Land Does a Man Require?" by Russian philosopher, Tolstoy. Story goes something like this. Once upon a time, a person by name Pahom, desirous of owning a big land mass approached a Jamindar (Bashkir) who was ready to sell the land at a small price. However, the Jamindar imposed a strange condition. For one thousand rubles, he can have as much land as he wants provided he covers it on foot from sunrise to sunset and returns back to the starting point. Pahom agreed to the condition and setoff at daybreak marking the land that he wants. Driven by the greed to grab as much land as possible, he went too far without remembering the condition of returning back to the starting point. As the sunset approached, he started running back, as fast as he can towards the starting point. Finally, he could arrive at the starting point just before sunset. However, he was very much tired and fell down, he never woke up. In the greed of grabbing maximum land, he ended up losing everything including his life. We need to tell this story to all modern men and women.