Speaker 1: Suta Ugrashrava, the son of Romaharshna and a distinguished expert
Speaker 1: in the Puranas, stood before the Rishis gathered in a
Speaker 1: Namesha forest during the twelve year sacrifice that was led
Speaker 1: by Sonaka Kulapati. He had pursued the study of the
Speaker 1: Puranas with rigorous commitment and had acquired exhaustive knowledge of them.
Speaker 1: With hands clasped in respect, he addressed the sages courteously saying,
Speaker 1: I have presented the story of Utanka in complete detail,
Speaker 1: and his narrative was one of the catalysts for King
Speaker 1: Janimajaya's Sarpai Yagna, or the ritual sacrifice of serpents. What O,
Speaker 1: revered ones, do you wish to hear next? What shall
Speaker 1: I recount for you? The Rishi's answer, son of Roma Harshina,
Speaker 1: We will pose the questions we most wish to explore,
Speaker 1: and you must narrate the accounts sequentially. Our leader Sonica
Speaker 1: is presently performing worship in the sacred Agnigriha. He is
Speaker 1: thoroughly acquainted with the divine narratives of the devas or
Speaker 1: demigods and the Asuras or demons. He possesses in depth
Speaker 1: understanding of the histories pertaining to humans, the Nagas and gandharvas. Moreover, Sothi,
Speaker 1: the scholarly Sonica, holds the position of chief priest for
Speaker 1: this sacrifice or yugna. He is competent, adheres flawlessly to
Speaker 1: his fasts, demonstrates exceptional wisdom, excels in the shastras and
Speaker 1: the aranyaka, upholds truth unwaveringly. Foster's peace, exercises self mortification,
Speaker 1: and conducts tapasia in strict accordance with established ascetic guidelines.
Speaker 1: We all accord him the utmost respect. It is fitting
Speaker 1: that we await his return, and when he occupies this
Speaker 1: seat made of dharba grass or dharbashna, you shall address
Speaker 1: whatever that pre eminent Vidya or twice born individual inquires
Speaker 1: of you. Sati responded as you wish. When that illustrious
Speaker 1: soul is seated among us and directs me to do so,
Speaker 1: I will relate sacred narratives covering a broad spectrum of topics.
Speaker 1: Soon after having completed all prescribed rituals, offered prayers to
Speaker 1: the demigods and performed tarbana for the pitters or ancestors.
Speaker 1: The eminent Brahmana Sonka returned to the hall where the
Speaker 1: sacred fire rituals take place, where other Rishis of firm
Speaker 1: resolve sat comfortably with sought the positioned before them all.
Speaker 1: And when Sonica took his seat among the Rithvics and Sadhyas,
Speaker 1: he spoke to them. This is the fourth section of
Speaker 1: the Mahabharata, the fourth canto. Now, I am going to
Speaker 1: proceed to provide you my reflections, my analyzes of this
Speaker 1: specific section in this same episode, because it's a rather
Speaker 1: small section of story or poem that I just read
Speaker 1: to you. Before the story of wars and kings, before
Speaker 1: the cries of Dropadi, or the council of Krishna, or
Speaker 1: the surrender of our Juna, the struggles of our Juna,
Speaker 1: there was silence in a forest in the Mahabarata. The
Speaker 1: Mahabharata does not begin with battle. It begins with listening.
Speaker 1: Here in Nimesha forest, sages gather for a twelve year sacrifice,
Speaker 1: a sacrificial ritual of twelve years. It's not of animals
Speaker 1: or wealth, but of attention. They sit fasting, watching the
Speaker 1: sacred fire and waiting for stories that purify thought. And
Speaker 1: standing before them is Soti or Suta or Ugra Shrava, Suta, Ugrashrava,
Speaker 1: the son of Romaharshna. Those are all the ways in
Speaker 1: which Soti is referred to in the Mahabharata. He's a
Speaker 1: man whose very name means one whose hair stands on end,
Speaker 1: as if forever in awe. Suta has inherited the art
Speaker 1: of sacred narration, which is the ability to hold fire
Speaker 1: in his words, to hold power with the words that
Speaker 1: he speaks or conveys to others. Now, to those of
Speaker 1: you who have read plenty of Hindu stories from Hindu mythology, yes,
Speaker 1: this beginning in the Mahabada that might be very redundant
Speaker 1: to you. It might be highly familiar, very repetitive. It
Speaker 1: just seems very ceremonial. But we are watching a lineage
Speaker 1: of storytelling awaken here. This is what we have to remember.
Speaker 1: The forest scene in the Mahabada that at the beginning
Speaker 1: is not just filler. It's not a filler scene. It's
Speaker 1: the DNA of Hindu thought on knowledge. It says truth
Speaker 1: is not found in isolation, it is transmitted. So we
Speaker 1: must continue this lineage of storytelling very actively. And Ugra
Speaker 1: Shava he bows right. The Rishi's question sonica praise. Each
Speaker 1: character represents a link in a chain between silence and speech,
Speaker 1: a chain. This chain defines storytelling. In our modern world,
Speaker 1: we might call this just simply data transfer, right, information transfer,
Speaker 1: knowledge transfer, But what's really happening is energy transfer. You
Speaker 1: have to realize that Ubra Shava has this power where
Speaker 1: his words hold energy. They are fire, right, That's how we,
Speaker 1: maybe the young people in the modern world would refer
Speaker 1: to his words. They fire, they have fire to them.
Speaker 1: So it is actually shukti moving through sound when we
Speaker 1: engage in Hindu mythology, storytelling or Hindu storytelling recounting these
Speaker 1: stories of Hindu ancient Hindu scriptures. So shakti is moving
Speaker 1: through sound. Shakti is functioning. Power is functioning through sound
Speaker 1: through verbal storytelling. And notice the structure here. The storyteller
Speaker 1: saw thee asks what do you wish to hear? The
Speaker 1: listener say, we will ask okay, and you will answer
Speaker 1: all right. That's so conditions are being set here. This
Speaker 1: isn't like bureaucracy or leader like follower command, kind of
Speaker 1: like domination taking place. It's actually teaching us these conditions,
Speaker 1: these rules, so to speak, that are being set between
Speaker 1: the storyteller and the listener, that not every truth can
Speaker 1: be uttered without sacred alignment, without the listener being ready,
Speaker 1: the space purified, the intention clear. Okay, not every truth
Speaker 1: can be uttered without sacred alignment. It cannot be uttered
Speaker 1: without the listener being ready for that truth, without there
Speaker 1: being a sense of purification and clear intention. These are
Speaker 1: the requirements for every truth to be uttered. Okay, this
Speaker 1: is why you know we we don't offer up our
Speaker 1: opinions and advice to p when they're truly not ready
Speaker 1: for it, because we're just going to be facing obstacles anyways.
Speaker 1: In some ways when we give advice, inherent to the
Speaker 1: advice that we give are stories that have demonstrated the
Speaker 1: power of that advice, the effects of that advice, and
Speaker 1: the value of that advice. But when the listeners are
Speaker 1: not ready for that advice, then we should not really
Speaker 1: be offering it up so freely, so liberally. But so
Speaker 1: this is why conditions are set here. The storyteller demonstrates, well,
Speaker 1: what do you want to hear? I'm ready to give
Speaker 1: you the truth, and the listeners these reshe's in the forest.
Speaker 1: They say, wait a minute, we are going to ask
Speaker 1: you what we want to hear. Okay, we'll tell you.
Speaker 1: We'll tell you basically what we want to hear, and
Speaker 1: you will answer. So there's a demonstration here of receptivity. Okay, reception, receptivity.
Speaker 1: Shukti is able to move through this scene. She's able
Speaker 1: to move through sound. She's able to be received and perceived.
Speaker 1: You know, in today's world we consume stories endlessly, so
Speaker 1: many podcasts, reels, opinions, noise. But the Mahabadata opens with
Speaker 1: a warning. Sacred speech requires a ready listener, not just
Speaker 1: a ready listener, a sacred ready listener. And what is
Speaker 1: a listener or what qualities does a listener who is
Speaker 1: sacred have? That individual has clear, clean intentions, not any
Speaker 1: intentions to hurt the provider of advice, the provider of wisdom,
Speaker 1: No envy, no jealousy. We see in the Baga ad Ghita.
Speaker 1: When we're going to get to that later on. You know,
Speaker 1: Krishna says that this information, in this spiritual discourse of
Speaker 1: the bug of ad Ghita is not to be provided
Speaker 1: to those who are envious of me. So the a
Speaker 1: listener who is sacred, who will consume shukti through sacred
Speaker 1: listening is an individual who is clear of jealousy and envy,
Speaker 1: especially toward the master teacher or the master advisor. And
Speaker 1: that individual is also truly open and willing to receive. Okay,
Speaker 1: willing to receive the truth no matter how harsh it
Speaker 1: is or how beautiful it is, does not matter. That
Speaker 1: individual is willing to receive. So there's a sense of
Speaker 1: wise surrender within the sacred listener. To here, to listen
Speaker 1: correctly in itself is a form of yoga. Okay, Now,
Speaker 1: why is there this twelve year sacrifice? Why? Twelve years
Speaker 1: twelve is a very important number, right, Twelve marks completion
Speaker 1: twelve sons, twelve cycles, twelve months of the inner zodiac.
Speaker 1: The sages long fire ritual mirrors the human psyche's long
Speaker 1: journey through ignorance into illumination, and the fire they tend
Speaker 1: in the forest is not just a flame, its awareness.
Speaker 1: In psychological terms, this forest scene in this fourth section
Speaker 1: of the Mahabarata represents the preparation of the psyche before
Speaker 1: deep inquiry, deep self inquiry. The ego or Soughty, as
Speaker 1: a metaphor, awaits until or waits I should say until
Speaker 1: the higher self, meaning Sonica returns from worship. Only then
Speaker 1: can revelation begin. And that is because the revelation occurs
Speaker 1: not in the realm, when everything is pure and of
Speaker 1: the highest state. It has to occur where there's still
Speaker 1: more learning and healing and fix seeing left to do.
Speaker 1: Sonica is returning from this deep agnigriha what I describe
Speaker 1: as a sanctum of consciousness, but it's a very deep sanctum.
Speaker 1: It is a place of extraordinarily deep self inquiry. That's
Speaker 1: the area or depth of our psyche that Sonica represents
Speaker 1: prior to him stepping into the worship hall in front
Speaker 1: of Sothi to listen to Soughti. In that place of
Speaker 1: being where everything is of the highest, deepest self, there's
Speaker 1: not a lot there that can be that is left
Speaker 1: to be revealed. It's only when we step back into
Speaker 1: sort of the like the real world and we start
Speaker 1: engaging with others, and in this case Soughti is that's
Speaker 1: where the ego begins. That's where the ego is activated,
Speaker 1: and that's where the ego is alive. That ego is
Speaker 1: represented by Sthi in this very small scene in the Mahabharata,
Speaker 1: and that is exactly where the revelation begins. It's going
Speaker 1: to begin from Sothi's mouth, right, We already know that
Speaker 1: he's going to start answering the requests for stories and
Speaker 1: the lessons from the Rishi's So that's what Sathi is
Speaker 1: going to do. He represents that ego. That's where the
Speaker 1: place where revelation begins exactly there, because there is a
Speaker 1: lot there to be healed. Okay, the place that Sonica,
Speaker 1: being a highly spiritually advanced individual, comes from, that place
Speaker 1: is already mostly purified or nearly purified. Revelation learning can
Speaker 1: only happen where the ego is active and playing. That's
Speaker 1: the meaning of these character placements in just this small
Speaker 1: scene of the Mahabharata. So how is that relevant for
Speaker 1: you in the postmodern world? Well, so many times in
Speaker 1: life we find ourselves saying, how many lessons do I
Speaker 1: have to learn? God? Like? Why do I keep facing
Speaker 1: problems all the time. You have to understand that you
Speaker 1: are playing, in a sense, in the field of ego,
Speaker 1: and in that field there's always going to be obstacles
Speaker 1: and problems, right kind of like you know, imagine like
Speaker 1: soccer players almost in front of each other trying to
Speaker 1: obstruct each other from making a goal, from reaching a goal.
Speaker 1: That's always going to be the place, but one can
Speaker 1: quickly gather the intelligence or the revelation that they need
Speaker 1: as they are playing on this field to be able
Speaker 1: to quickly bypass the obstacles and reach or score the
Speaker 1: goals that they want to reach. So that's the meaning
Speaker 1: of this. But first we have to be prepared for
Speaker 1: that transmission. We have to be receptive. We have to
Speaker 1: be sacred listeners for those powerful words that Soughty is
Speaker 1: going to speak to us that will help us gather
Speaker 1: develop that intelligence we need. When every time there is
Speaker 1: another player in front of us in this field of ego,
Speaker 1: ready to obstruct us from our goals, ready to keep
Speaker 1: us from reaching our goal or from scoring our goals. Okay,
Speaker 1: we have to be ready for that transmission. And how
Speaker 1: often do we rush also into our own introspection without
Speaker 1: preparing the field, without cleansing intention, without sitting in silence
Speaker 1: long enough for wisdom to approach us. This reminds me
Speaker 1: of what I write in my book Who God Really Is,
Speaker 1: where I say most humans and this is actually in
Speaker 1: the free Preview chapters in the very beginning of the
Speaker 1: book that you can preview, you can read on Amazon
Speaker 1: dot com rite for free. I say, you know, we
Speaker 1: most humans begin their journeys for truth, for real knowledge,
Speaker 1: for expansive knowledge, with pre existing biases. They still hold
Speaker 1: on to biases. That impacts a lot of atheists too,
Speaker 1: It really does, and that prevents us from really gathering
Speaker 1: the knowledge and intention that we excuse me, the knowledge
Speaker 1: that we need to have, the real knowledge that we
Speaker 1: need to have. Even as we are gathering knowledge, it
Speaker 1: prevents us from reaching the most powerful or useful or
Speaker 1: valuable knowledge easily, quickly fast. The mob Hadata begins with
Speaker 1: a pause. It tells us the story of human conflict
Speaker 1: cannot be heard in haste. The Rishi's interrupt Sothie even
Speaker 1: before he begins, in a way they say, wait, let
Speaker 1: Sonica return. Let this chief priest who embodies discipline and
Speaker 1: stop us, who is of the highest spiritual being, Let
Speaker 1: him return. Okay, So before we make our requests to you,
Speaker 1: let this being return. This interruption itself is symbolic. It
Speaker 1: reminds us that even the sacred must be timed. That
Speaker 1: insight forced too early becomes chaos, or can be even
Speaker 1: lost because it's not being transmitted first and foremost to
Speaker 1: the wisest amongst us, the most wise listener amongst us,
Speaker 1: being present, due to proper preparation beforehand, that listener is
Speaker 1: wise enough to pass on though that stories, or those
Speaker 1: stories of wisdom, down right through a hierarchy, so to
Speaker 1: speak amongst the people. So that individual is very important,
Speaker 1: because that individual is wise enough to know that it
Speaker 1: must that storytelling, that shukti that is transmitted through sound,
Speaker 1: must be passed on. Sonica returns right. He has prayed,
Speaker 1: he has offered, and he has cleansed himself. Only now
Speaker 1: does he sit upon that sacred seat made of dha
Speaker 1: daba grass. In Yogic symbolism, the dah daba grass is
Speaker 1: the stable mind, where no wind of emotion can disturb concentration. Okay,
Speaker 1: Sonica's re entry represents the re entry of divine order
Speaker 1: into the human conversation. He has honored the demigods and
Speaker 1: the ancestors, which means that he has balanced the future
Speaker 1: and the past. Sonica is now ready to hold the present.
Speaker 1: When we do not honor both meaning our lineage and
Speaker 1: our aspirations, our storytelling becomes reactive, not revelatory. Sanica sitting
Speaker 1: amid fire and sages is the image of the inner
Speaker 1: witness and the wisest sacred listener. He is the consciousness
Speaker 1: that listens to our own chaos without judgment, first and foremost.
Speaker 1: And once he sits the narrative of the Mahabharata, which
Speaker 1: is of chaos, destiny, dharma and destruction can begin because
Speaker 1: now the wisest of the wise is ready, or I
Speaker 1: might even say the wisest of the wisest listener is ready,
Speaker 1: and so the Shakti can begin to truly move through
Speaker 1: sound without obstruction, and then it will be truly transmitted
Speaker 1: down even amongst all the different rishis and generations, because
Speaker 1: the wisest of the wisest was present, and he knows
Speaker 1: that this storytelling must be passed on. Soughty, on another level,
Speaker 1: represents the voice a symbol or a or the seat
Speaker 1: of creative expression, a seat of creative expression. Sonica represents
Speaker 1: the mind symbol of awareness, ritual discipline, a mind truly ready,
Speaker 1: a mind who understands the value of what the voice
Speaker 1: Sauty is about to convey. The sacred fire ritual. The
Speaker 1: fire itself is the heart, purified, charged, ready, but truly
Speaker 1: truly purified, transformational. Together they form the trinity expression, creative expression, awareness,
Speaker 1: and transformation. The story will flow when these three are aligned,
Speaker 1: and they are now aligned in this fourth scene in
Speaker 1: the Mahabarata. In the modern psyche, these often fall apart.
Speaker 1: Our voices speak before, our minds are still, Our emotions
Speaker 1: burn without ritual form, Our words lack sacred gravity. Many
Speaker 1: people just use words for the sake of using words.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, So this scene becomes a
Speaker 1: spiritual diagram. Here from the Mahabada, the section four, don't
Speaker 1: begin your storytelling your inner storytelling to yourself meaning your
Speaker 1: self analysis. You're healing your shadow work until your inner
Speaker 1: Sonica has returned from worship, until you have actually used
Speaker 1: the Hindu mantras to purify your mind. Right, Sonica represents
Speaker 1: the mind, the highest awareness, So don't beginner your self
Speaker 1: analysis your shadow work until you have used the Hindu
Speaker 1: mantras to purify your mind much more to you know,
Speaker 1: to bring it closer to the kind of mind that
Speaker 1: Sonica Kulapati has. Otherwise, your your voice, your sauti, your
Speaker 1: creative expression will speak still from womb and misunderstanding, not
Speaker 1: from understanding and wisdom, as I explain in my book
Speaker 1: Who God really is, which I encourage you all. I
Speaker 1: encourage you all to pick up on Amazon today. So
Speaker 1: what is this all leading to? These symbols that are
Speaker 1: lost often, or these meanings that are lost often under
Speaker 1: the surrealism and longevity of the Hindu myths, or even
Speaker 1: like the Mahabadata itself long world's longest epic poem, what's
Speaker 1: it all leading to? Here? The Mahambadata is itself a
Speaker 1: sacrificial fire into which various characters egos, kings, and gods
Speaker 1: are all offered. But this scene here in section four
Speaker 1: reveals something that the rest of the epic only dramatizes.
Speaker 1: Every act of storytelling is in itself a sacrifice. Right
Speaker 1: when Sothi speaks, he burns his breath into the offering.
Speaker 1: That's the fire, and that fire itself will be purifying
Speaker 1: not just himself, but it purifies the sacred listeners. When
Speaker 1: the rishis listen, they offer their silence in return as fuel.
Speaker 1: But they know not only offer their silence, their attention,
Speaker 1: That's the key attention. They are willing to be attentive
Speaker 1: to what Soti is going to or how Soughty is
Speaker 1: going to deliver on their requests. Okay, so together they
Speaker 1: create a cycle of shruti, hearing as worship, hearing itself
Speaker 1: as worship a form of worship. This reminds me a
Speaker 1: lot of what I write in the chapter on worship
Speaker 1: in my book Who God Really Is. That's all in
Speaker 1: the book. You have to read the book Who God
Speaker 1: Really Is by me Sana Katiagi to understand that important
Speaker 1: distinction between various forms of worship or activities of worship. Now,
Speaker 1: every conversation can be a form of sacrifice if we
Speaker 1: approach it with the same reverence, if we speak truthfully,
Speaker 1: if we speak words that are meant to help others,
Speaker 1: to assist others rather than to waste their minds, waste
Speaker 1: their time. Unfortunately, a lot of that is happening in
Speaker 1: our world, in our hypersocial media world, where people just
Speaker 1: you know. It reminds me on Twitter, somebody just said,
Speaker 1: you know, tweeting to just tweet right or posting just
Speaker 1: we just post stuff like stuff that doesn't help your
Speaker 1: mind grow, It doesn't create great conversation, it's untruthful, it's
Speaker 1: not truthful. But they're just posting to post right, to
Speaker 1: get monetized, and that's a lot of what we have
Speaker 1: in this world. So one has to really be able
Speaker 1: to distinguish between information that is worth having and information
Speaker 1: that is mind wasting. That's very, very important we can
Speaker 1: strive in our post modern world to you know, have
Speaker 1: every conversation that we begin and engage in be a
Speaker 1: form of sacrifice in the for the highest good. And
Speaker 1: notice that the type of conversation that I am advocating
Speaker 1: for here, based on the analysis and spiritual meanings of
Speaker 1: this small section section four of the Mahabarata, notice that
Speaker 1: that type of communication actually ends up building communion develop
Speaker 1: allowing community communion to develop. And so when we wonder
Speaker 1: why are we humans so fragmented in this world, because
Speaker 1: we are very fragmented, you know, if you just think
Speaker 1: about it broadly, and not to just think about just
Speaker 1: the community that you are a part of, but when
Speaker 1: you think about the bigger world, there is this fragmentation
Speaker 1: that defines us. And a lot of that is because
Speaker 1: we are not using we are not being sacred communicators,
Speaker 1: and therefore we are not receiving sacred listeners back. Okay,
Speaker 1: we're not putting sacred communication out. Therefore we are not
Speaker 1: receiving sacred listening. Okay, we are not receiving sacred listening
Speaker 1: as the result. That's why there is so much fragmentation
Speaker 1: rather than communion. Naymesha forest is not a place. It
Speaker 1: is a state of consciousness, the moment that we are
Speaker 1: fully present before the divine conversation begins. The Rishi's sitting
Speaker 1: around the sacred fire are our thoughts in meditation. Sonica
Speaker 1: is the highest being, spiritual being and just a fun
Speaker 1: fact to close off. In Sanskrit metrics, I believe, if
Speaker 1: I'm correct here, that twelve years equals one complete cycle
Speaker 1: of Jupiter, the guru planet whose orbital resonance regulates monsoon cycles,
Speaker 1: crop yields, and civilizational memory. Okay, civilizational memory. What we preserve,
Speaker 1: what we choose to preserve, what we value now. In
Speaker 1: the previous episode, I had mentioned Janamajaya's ritual genocide or
Speaker 1: ritual sacrifice eyes I should say not genocide but sacrifice
Speaker 1: of serpents, and that was in Mahabadata section three that
Speaker 1: was discussed in the previous two episodes. This you know,
Speaker 1: this is a monarch's grief, right Janamajia being a king,
Speaker 1: that's a monarch's grief weaponized in two ecological collapse or disaster. Spiritually,
Speaker 1: the Nagas guard groundwater and Kundalini shakti. Their mass sacrifice
Speaker 1: metaphorically fracts the subtle body of the earth. Now the
Speaker 1: most wise sacred listener Sonaka Kulapati, he embodies an eightfold
Speaker 1: Dharma operating system. The rishis tell us this in Mahabadata
Speaker 1: section four. These are his qualities. Competence, flawless adherents to
Speaker 1: fasts or sacrifice, self sacrifice, exceptional wisdom, mastery of shastras
Speaker 1: and aaranyaka, unwavering truth, fostering peace, self mortification and the
Speaker 1: basia right. So he has. It's almost like he's a
Speaker 1: system or code, a nearly per near perfect code, almost flawless,
Speaker 1: and he's capable of leading or upholding a twelve year
Speaker 1: ritual without crash so to speak, or glitch so to speak.
Speaker 1: That's another way to look at Sonica Kulapati. Now Sothi
Speaker 1: is awaiting Sonica's direction his request. When Sonica speaks next,
Speaker 1: the universe will download more than one hundred thousand verses
Speaker 1: of the Mahabarata. Until then, we are all meant to
Speaker 1: sit in Naimisha forest with hands clasped, breath synchronized, awaiting shuck.
Speaker 1: These movement through sound