Ingratitude!

 

As Dhrishtadyumna rushed towards the venerable Drona, everyone watching the drama, called out for him to give up his sinful intention

 

Drona himself was perfectly peaceful, for his mind had already become fixed upon the transcendental form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna. With his eyes closed & his head bent sightly downward, Drona engaged in softly repeating the syllable Om

 

When Dhrishta reached Drona’s chariot, five persons could perceive that the preceptor had already given up his body in a trance of mystic Yoga. These were Sanjaya, Arjun, Krpa, Sri Krsna & Yudhisthira. Indeed, as his eternal self proceeded on the path back home, back to Godhead, it illuminated the sky like a second sun. The demigods & sages saw this, and so they joyfully proclaimed Drona’s good fortune

 

All this was unknown to Dhrishtadyumna, however, and so he grabbed Drona’s lifeless body by the hair & began dragging it along the ground. As everyone tried to forbid Dhrishta, Arjun ordered him: Do not kill the Preceptor! Instead bring him to us alive

 

Disregarding Arjuna’s plea, Dhrishta raised his sword & severed Drona’s head, after which he shouted wildly with joy while brandishing his sword victoriously. Covered with blood, Dhrishta picked up the severed head, jumped from Drona’s chariot, and threw it towards the Kaurava warriors. As the Kauravas fearfully fled from this ghastly scene, Bhima came & embraced Dhrishta, saying: O Prince! I will embrace you once more when Karna & Duryodhana are slain

 

Bhima roared like a mighty lion, making the terrified Kaurava soldiers retreat to Duryodhana’s shelter. The Kaurava king was also mortified & fearful after witnessing Drona’s death & so he decided to leave the battlefield. All the great Kaurava commanders including Karna, Krpa, Salya, Susarma, Sakuni & Dushasana, also gave up fighting and so their armies followed them. As the Pāndava warriors watched this mass exodus, it appeared to them as if the Kauravas were vanquished for good

 

Asvattāma was engaged in creating a great massacre of the Pāndava army at a distant place on the battlefield. When he saw the massive retreat of the Kaurava army, he could intuit that his father had been killed. To confirm his feeling, he anxiously went to Duryodhana & asked about the Kaurava army’s withdrawal. Duryodhana could not bear to break the heart-breaking news to him. With his head lowered due to shame & his face bathed in tears, he requested Krpa to give reply

 

When we lose a loved one, our heart is broken, anger & despair rage inside and we lose sense. But if we have the element of gratitude, rather than being shattered by the terrible loss, we can shift our focus to what we still have. By doing this, rather than feeling empty, our heart wound will start healing & we can see and hold on to things which are still there to enrich our lives

 

The inability to contemplate & appreciate the things we still have is the essence of ingratitude. When a person is ungrateful, then even a small loss can seem unbearable. They lose peace & joy and also make lives of those around them, miserable. If we compare our heart to a garden, ingratitude is like a toxic weed that can ruin the entire garden

 

Gita’s wisdom enables us to shift from a state of ingratitude to a state of gratitude. It recommends that we consciously cultivate contentment as an austerity of the mind. By thus disciplining the direction & focus of our thoughts, we can make our hearts more resilient so that they don’t get wounded by small losses & heal faster from big losses

 

Thoughts? #gameoflife