Some questions to ponder

Here are some wonderful questions that the Mahabharatha asks and provides a framework which people can use to discover their answers for themselves. Feeling the need to seriously engage with all of these!

1. What is happiness/ unhappiness?
2. What is health / sickness?
3. What is pleasure/ pain?
4. What is wealth / poverty?
5. What is truth / untruth?
6. In what relation mind exists in the body?
7. What is nature of sex pleasure?
8. What kind of energy is sex?
9. What are conditions in which it flourishes ?
10. What are the conditions in which it dies?
11. What is violence?
12. From where does violence arise?
13. What kind of relation is there between what one does and thinks and what one becomes?
14. What is it freedom / bondage?
15. Who is wise / fool?
16. What is it to be saint?
17. What is pilgrimage?
18. Why did a thing the way it happened?
19. Is one free to make what one is or is one determined by some other force : fate or God?
20. What is right ordering of one’s relationship with one self and with others?
21. What relation does it have with time and place?
22. What is governance?
23. What  are  its  foundation?
24. What is order / disorder?
25. What relation they have with time and place?
26. What is death?
27. What is that which is deathless?

From the first chapter of the book "The Mahabharata - An enquiry in the human condition" by Mr Chaturvedi Badrinath.

Ramana & Yoga

"Words entertain, silence transforms", said Ramana.
Yoga adds a little detail. "Words entertain, breath heals, silence transforms"

I

I breathe, therefore I am (sane).

Draupadi vs Duryodhana

क्लेशमूलः कर्माशयो दृष्टादृष्टजन्मवेदनीयः
kleśa-mūlaḥ karma-aśayo dṛṣṭa-adṛṣṭa-janma-vedanīyaḥ ||YS 2.12||

Actions born of impurities within will lead to painful consequences if not in the foreseeable, certainly in the unforeseeable future!

Unless Duryodhana repents sincerely and Draupadi wills to heal herself, the only denouement possible is mutual destruction as in the Mahabhartha. But, other denouements are possible. Yoga brings out the potential for these opportunities!

In any asymmetric game, there are multiple Nash equilibriums. Therefore by making the appropriate choices, one can manifest socially optimal Nash equilibriums.

क्रमान्यत्वं परिणामान्यतेवे हेतुः
kramānyatvaṁ pariṇāmānyateve hetuḥ ||YS 3.15||
To get a different consequence, different choices have to be made!

Stress response

Stressful event happens
1. Calf muscles tighten; breath is steady; mind is clear
2. Lower back twitches, Calf muscles tighten; breath is steady; mind is clear
3. Lower back twitches, Calf muscles tighten; breath starts to waver; mind pensive
4. Lower back twitches, Calf muscles tighten; breath deserts completely; mind agitated
5. Nadi sodana fails; hamstring join calves and lower back in indicating stress

Apply will - slowly read Talks with Sri Ramana Maharishi 10 pages
6. Stillness rediscovered; breath returns to an extent; no signals from body
7. Nadi sodana + ujjayi again; breath deepens; stress signals soften in body
8. Mind clear; breath steady and deep; urdhava prasrta padasana, jatara parivrtti
9. Mind, breath, body in harmony

Being ready to face stressful event!

Breath and action

What cannot be willed into action, has a better chance of being breathed into action...!

Bountiful breath

When the breath is bountiful, ......!

1. Silence ensues
2. Gratitude abounds
3. Healer, healing and healed merge
4. All is well 
5. baṇṭu rīti koluviyyavayya rāma

 

Eye lids jerk

A good pranayama practice puts the body in such a state of poise that one can sense even the eye lids jerking a little bit with every beat of one's heart!

Arujna mind

Only when asks the question, 'in doing what I am doing, what am I really doing?', does one enter the Arjuna mind within. Only after agonising over this for a while, is there even a chance of discovering the Krishna mind within!