Krishna would have met so many people in his lifetime on this Earth; in fact, almost all the kings of that time and many great sages. But why did he decide to be the charioteer of Arjuna? Because all the others were busy with their own belief systems and pursuits, and it was only Arjuna who dared to stay confused before Krishna. Bhishma is very sure that he has to honour his vow to protect the kingdom of Hastinapur, Duryodhana was very sure that he has to become the king the Hastinapur at any cost, Karna was sure that he has to prove himself to be a greater warrior than Arjuna, Bhima was sure that he has to take revenge, Yudhistira was sure that he has to follow the path of Dharma, as he understood Dharma to be, Dhritrastra was blind in his attachment to son, Gandhari decided to blindly stay by the side of her husband and sons. Krishna could not find any person other than Arjuna who was ready to listen to the truth and set truth as the sole guiding force of his life.

When we sit in Vipassana, it looks strange that for the first three and a half days, we are asked to concentrate on the breath and every time we try to concentrate, some or the other thought will intervene. We will stay with the breath for a few seconds, and then some thought would sneak into our attention, and our mind will sneak out of our control, and we would realise that 10 minutes have passed in those thoughts. It appears that our attention is compulsively following our thoughts, and we have no control over the same. 

Then we practice vipassana for the rest of the 6-7 days and focus on different parts of our bodies to again become aware of sensations in different parts of the body. We get surprised to see that there are so many different sensations everywhere, and we were completely unaware of those. In fact, while writing this post, there are so many sensations in all my body parts, but I am so focused on the keyboard and the screen that my attention has no bandwidth left to observe those sensations. 

That’s what happens to most of us. The mind is conditioned since childhood to achieve something or the other. As we grow older, our minds are so focused on those things- to eat food, to sleep, to acquire something, to prove something, to believe a thought- that there is hardly any scope to observe reality. In that state of obsession with the world, how can we connect to Krishna? That’s why Krishna had to find Arjuna, who has acquired maturity to see through things and to challenge what the whole of the world believes in. Only then can Krishna give his message of the Bhagavad Gita to the whole of the world by answering very genuine questions of Arjuna. Krishna also needs Arjuna to ask those genuine questions so that he may tell the truth to everybody.

Generally, we are so obsessed with what we believe to be the purpose of life that we do not want to see anything else. Morning meditation and yoga to keep ourselves fit. Prayers to ask God for what we want in our lives. Effort all through the day to achieve what we consider will give us happiness. Spending time with those whom we believe will stand with us in the moments of crisis. Our mind is always fixated on something we believe will give us happiness and keep us safe. But we have no time to actually examine what happiness really is. We just put blinders on our eyes and refuse to see anything other than focusing on what we believe will give us happiness. We don’t observe sensations in the whole of the body. Just that taste on the tongue, that feeling of comfort on the skin, and that feeling of achievement in the mind captivate the whole of our attention. 

How can we meet Krishna when we are so obsessed with the kingdom like Duryodhana, or with our vow like Bhishma, or with revenge like Bhima, or with our own concept of Dharma like Yudhistira, or with our attachment to our son like Dhritarashtra? With those blinders on our eyes, we can’t see reality. If we take out those blinders, we get shocked by the reality, and that realisation is not easy to handle. We are so used to suppressing the pain by taking painkillers every day that if we stop the painkillers for a few days, we will go mad with the pain. But unless a person gets out of the drowsiness and loss of consciousness caused by General Anesthesia, he can’t get cured. We will have to regain that sensitivity to be aware of reality, and only then can we see beyond. If we selectively close our eyes when the hero is being beaten by the villain on the screen, and then come out believing the hero was unbeaten, that’s stupidity. We have to see the whole of the movie on the screen and then also see that it was just a movie. The 40s in life are a very good time, when there is an intermission, and we can see that what looked so real on the screen was just a movie. It’s the best time to realise that what we consider to be so real is just a movie on the screen.