Character Sketch🔗

• Śakuni, the maternal uncle of Duryodhana embodies the pattern of self-hatred, which is cunningness personified.
• Droṇa represents all the best knowledge one imbibes and the teachers one encounters, who guide us but are unable to take us through to the ultimate flowering of enlightenment. It is difficult to give them up since one feels grateful to them. This is where the Enlightened Master, the incarnation steps in and guides us.
• Duryodhana, represents one's ego or root-pattern, the most difficult to conquer as it leads one to self destruction. One needs the full help of the Master here. It is subtle work and even the Master's help may not be obvious, since at this point, sometimes the ego makes us deny and disconnect from the Master as well.

• Karṇa is the repository of all good deeds and it is his good deeds that stand in the way of his own Enlightenment. Śrī Kṛṣṇa has to take the load of Karṇa's puṇya, his meritorious deeds, before he could be liberated. The Enlightened Master guides one to drop one's attachment to good deeds arising out of what are perceived to be charitable and compassionate intentions. He also shows us that the quest for and the experience of enlightenment is the ultimate act of compassion that one can offer to the world.

Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa, the 8th most powerful purnāvatar of Ṃaha Viśnu, is the embodiment of pure celebration, boundless love, compassion, and completion.

Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa is the only incarnation demonstrating and expressing Ṣarva Ṃangalatva all the auspicious qualities and all dimensions of an avatar during His physical happening. The līla Bhagavan Ṣri Krsna is one of sheer innocence and simplicity, in a peace-loving, diplomatic, conflict-free way.

Karṇa is the repository of all good deeds and it is his good deeds that stand in the way of his own Enlightenment. Śrī Kṛṣṇa has to take the load of Karṇa's puṇya, his meritorious deeds, before he could be liberated. The Enlightened Master guides one to drop one's attachment to good deeds arising out of what are perceived to be charitable and compassionate intentions. He also shows us that the quest for and the experience of enlightenment is the ultimate Till now everyone blames Bhagavan Sri Krishna for this Kurukshetra war but that's the greatest sacrifice Bhagavan Sri Krishna did to save the planet Earth. If Kurukshetra was not conducted at that time under the controlled conditions and direct supervision of Bhagavan Sri Krishna, planet Earth would not have survived more than three years.

Character Sketch act of compassion that one can offer to the world. Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa, the 8th most powerful purnāvatar of Ṃaha Viśnu, is the embodiment of pure celebration, boundless love, compassion, and completion. Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa is the only incarnation demonstrating and expressing Ṣarva Ṃangalatva all the auspicious qualities a nd all dimensions of an avatar during His physical happening. The līla Bhagavan Ṣri Krsna is one of sheer innocence and The wide spread availability of the Astra shastras without Shastra, without the knowledge and vision, was posing a huge threat to the whole of humanity and planet Earth, and for life itself. The greatest achievement of Bhagavan Sri Krishna is destroying all the weapons in one controlled condition and saving planet earth, eliminating the nuclear weapons and the knowledge of these nuclear weapons to save humanity from total annihilation.

conflict-free way.

simplicity, in a peace-loving, diplomatic,

Bhagavad Gītā appears in the heart of Mahābhārat in Bhīṣma Parva, the sixth chapter of its eighteen chapters. Veda Vyāsa, the narrator, in glorifying the Gītā sings, 'the one who drinks the water of Ganges (the sacred river for Hindus) attains liberation, what to speak of the one who drinks the nectar of Gītā?

Gītā is the essential nectar of the Mahābhārat, bhāratamṛta sarvasvam as it is directly spoken by Nārāyaṇa, Bhagavān kṛṣṇa Himself.'

The armies assembled in the vast field of Kurukṣetra, now in the state of Haryana in modern day Bharat. All the kings and princes were related to one another, and were often on opposite sides. Facing the Kaurava army and his friends, relatives and teachers, Arjuna was overcome by remorse and guilt, and wanted to walk away from the battle out of total powerlessness unbecoming an invincible warrior among warriors.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa's dialogue with Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra out of His utmost concern and love for him and humanity is the content of Bhagavad Gītā. Of its seven hundred and forty-five (745) verses, Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa sings the Gītā in six hundred and twenty (620) verses responding to Arjuna's fifty-seven (57) enquiries.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa persuades Arjuna to give-up his powerlessness unfitting an Ārya—the spiritually evolved one who understands human life and urges him to raise himself again as Parantapa—the conqueror of enemy, and take up arms and vanquish his enemies. They are already dead,' says Śrī Kṛṣṇa, 'All those who are facing you have been already killed by Me. Go ahead and do what you have to do. That is your responsibility. Do not worry about the outcome. Leave that to Me.'

na dveṣtyakuśalaṁ karma kuśale nā'nuṣajjate tyāgī sattvasamāviṣṭo medhāvī chinnasaṁśayaḥ

Those who neither hate disagreeable work nor are attached to pleasant work are in a state of intelligence, goodness and renunciation, free of all doubts.

More and more responsibility adds more and more life energy into you.

na hi dehabhṛtā śakyaṁ tyaktuṁ karmāṇyaśeṣataḥ yastu karma-phala-tyāgī sa tyāgītyabhidhīyate

Human beings cannot give up all activities. Therefore the one who has renounced the fruits of such activity is one who has truly renounced.

Act without expectation and attachment to the result of our action.

aniṣṭamiṣṭaṁ miśraṁ ca trividhaṁ karmaṇaḥ phalam I bhavatyatyāgināṁ pretya na tu sannyāsināṁ kvacit

For one who is not renounced, the three kinds of fruits of action—desirable, undesirable and mixed accrue after death, but not to one who has renounced.

Decide from your being that you will feel responsible for the whole world.

says that a person in the sātvic space of completion, calmness and awareness is undisturbed by external conditions. He is not bothered whether someone appreciates or condemns what he does. He just feels responsibility in his being. He is clear what he should do and he carries on with excitement. Renunciation is in the true spirit of completion and is done out of goodness, only when a person renounces the expectation of result.

It is natural that a human being cannot remain still without doing some work. Man must be doing something, anything, all the time. If not physically, at least mentally he does something. Even in sleep, he dreams. If we close our eyes, we watch our inner television. Mentally we think the whole day, but it is not directed in one direction, we are not useful to ourselves and to others. Please understand, when you lack integrity, when you have incompletions mentally, even if you think, it will not be useful thinking.

Only an Enlightened person truly keeps his body and mind still. So the normal man is never without activity. This being the case, the only way man can be comfortable and at peace with himself is by not having any expectation of the result of his thoughts or words or actions. This can be achieved by every one of us. Kṛṣṇa says that one who is not concerned about the fruits of his action has truly renounced.

Even when an action has been completed and the expected result achieved, as long as one is attached to that action and its result, another desire crops up. Even when one desire is fulfilled, another unfulfilled desire rises. This is a constant, consistent sequence of incompletions. This is what I call karma.

Karma is nothing but unfulfilled, incomplete desires. As long as we have attachment to the action as 'doer', which in turns creates an expectation of reward or punishment, we are caught in the cycle of karma and saṁsāra. Our concern about whether an action or the result is good, bad or a mix of both, follows us as our mental patterns or vāsanā after death.

No one is 'up there' keeping an account of our deeds and misdeeds. Our own spirit does that job. So we can never escape! No amount of propitiation or contribution to 'noble' causes will erase the knowledge from our inner Self of what we have done. When we die, the body perishes but the spirit moves on to another body. That spirit carries its earlier mental patterns, its vāsanā. There is no exception to this rule. Saṁskāras or root patterns are the carried-over incomplete desires and they cause the cycle of saṁsāra, birth, death and rebirth.

We have no unfulfilled desires, karma, saṁskāra or vāsanā left when we renounce attachment to 'doership' and become a mere witness to both the action and the result. This means we act without expectation and attachment to the result of our action. Such a person breaks out of this cycle of saṁsāra.

Helping students understand what is karma and how to break out of the cycle of samsara.

• 1. How can you tell if you have truly renounced? 2.What is karma? 3.What happens to us when we have attachment to the action as "doer"? 4. What causes the cycle of
• saṁsāra, birth, death and rebirth.
• 5. How can a person break out of the cycle of saṁsāra?

Paper, Pen, Pencils, Eraser, Markers

Engage in a short discussion about what is the cycle of samsara (you can refer to the explanation given below in the "inference" section) and ask the students to draw a representation of it in any way they want. Once they are done, ask them to share their drawing and to explain in their own words how attachment, desires, action and result are related to one another.

As long as we have attachment to the action as 'doer', which in turns creates an expectation of reward or punishment, we are caught in the cycle of karma and saṁsāra. Our concern about whether an action or the result is good, bad or a mix of both, follows us as our mental patterns or vāsanā after death. However we have no unfulfilled desires, karma, saṁskāra or vāsanā left when we renounce attachment to 'doership' and become a mere witness to both the action and the result. This means we act without expectation and attachment to the result of our action. Such a person breaks out of the cycle of saṁsāra.

Materials required: Have material required to do power manifestation (blindfold, kumkum, bhasma, paper, pen, scale, etc.).

Tell the students to choose any power and to practice manifesting it for the next 11 minutes without being attached to the result. Tell them to simply remain as a witness and to allow Paramashiva to flow through them while chanting Mahavakya. At the end, ask them about their experience. How does being a witness feel? Was part of them hoping for a particular result to occur? Did they feel any emotion (pride, fear, disappointment, frustration, etc)?

End the activity by discussing the importance of completing with our mental patterns of "good", "bad"...

Our concern about whether an action or the result is good, bad or a mix of both, follows us as our mental patterns or vāsanā after death. Saṁskāras or root patterns are the carried-over incomplete desires and they cause the cycle of saṁsāra, birth, death and rebirth.

Ask the students to write a list of all the actions they perform on a dayto-day basis. Then ask each student to share what expectations they have attached to these actions. Finally, ask them to discuss how their expectations impact their state and how they can come out of the cycle of samsara.

Attachment to action and to the results of action creates more desires. When we act without expectation and attachment to the result of our action, we become a mere witness and break out of the cycle of samsara.