CONTENTS:
- LESSONS FROM BHISMA A GREAT HERO
- SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPRECIATION
- GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
1. LESSONS FROM BHISMA A GREAT HERO
Mahabharata is the greatest drama that was ever written for the history of this world. The greatest drama and this are factual. 
The facts are often more exciting than fiction. What is drama? Does anybody know here? Is anyone studying literature? Good point a lot of emotions are added into it but with what purpose? The purpose of a drama is creating excitement through conflict. The more the conflict the better the drama, right? Therefore, in a drama we need three things a hero and a villain and there must be a heroine. The hero and the heroine, the conflict between the hero and the villain is over the heroine or the kingdom or something.
Good drama must have conflict. If there is no conflict then there is no drama. In Mahabharata who are the Heros? The Pandavas are the Heros. Who are the villains? Duryodhan and his party. Who is the heroine? Draupadi. What is the struggle for? Over the kingdom and the heroine, beautiful woman. That is why Mahabharata is so interesting for common people, very very interesting for common people because of the conflict. When they go deep into it what will they find? The immediate aspect to be seen in Mahabharata is the series of suffering. In the material nature they make all kinds of arrangements but ultimately what you are getting? Look at the Mahabharata, the whole history of the holy land of India, the great Bharatvarsha.
There is this conflict we are seeing like if we start from Bhisma, the grandsire, the grandfather, we are seeing that he is such an exalted personality, such a great hero but look at his life. He is the son of Mother Ganges, he is a celestial personality, and he is the son of Ganges, the eternal consort of Krishna. In Gokul Ganges is one of the four eternal; consorts of Krishna. The Ganges is the mother of Bhisma and an illustrious King Shantanu is the father. Shantanu was a personality who was elevated to Brahmaloka in his previous life and in spite of going to Brahmaloka, due to Brahma’s curse he had to come down to the earth planet. Bhisma, the son of Ganga and Shantanu, he is one of the demi-gods, one of the eight Vashus and he was one of the greatest warriors.
He had been trained in the heavenly planets and who is his guru? His guru is Parashuram, an incarnation of the Lord who slain the Ksatriyas 21 times. Greatest warrior and he personally taught Bhisma, Devavrata, the art of warfare, the art of using weapons. He is such a noble character, when he found out that his father is interested in some girl whom he wanted to marry, so he went there to find out why the father of the girl did not offer his daughter to such a qualified person such as his father who was practically the ruler of the entire earth planet. Then he found out that this person wanted his daughter’s son to become the King but his father could not fulfil that desire of that person. 
Bhisma was the eldest son and he was such a qualified person so he would rule the kingdom. His father may have thought that way but Bhisma’s consideration was different. Bhisma said, “I relinquish my claim over my father’s kingdom don’t worry, I don’t want the kingdom. Yes, your daughter’s son will get the kingdom.” This person was very cunning the king of the fisherman, he said, “You may relinquish your claim of the kingdom but what about your children?” Bhisma said, “Ok, I won’t have any children, I won’t get married.” Such a sacrifice just for the sake of his father’s pleasure. Later on, what do we see? We see that although this person the king he wanted that his daughter’s son become the king both the sons of his daughter died prematurely.
There was no one to succeed the throne and Bhisma already promised to relinquish the throne. This is a perfect example of man proposes and God disposes. We may make our plans but ultimately it happens according to Krishna’s arrangements. He so much wanted that his grandson should be the king and for that matter he made Bhisma take such a terrible vow and no there was no one to succeed the throne. The same Satyavati is asking, “Bhisma you take over the kingdom.” Bhisma said, “Look I have taken a vow and made a promise to never have any claim over the kingdom so I will not break my vow. She said, “You produce children” He said, “I have vowed to lead a lifelong as a Bramachari so I cannot break those vows.” Now for the same personality that he had to take the vow, she is begging that do something, get married, produce some children, and take over the kingdom. Bhisma said NO.
We see how bad association can affect the mind of a noble and great personality. Bhisma although he is a devotee of Krishna but still, he is standing against Krishna. Why? This has also been pointed out in Mahabharata that the ultimate consideration should be Krishna. But Bhisma's ultimate consideration was not Krishna, Bhisma's ultimate consideration was morality. What is moral and what is immoral? I am a Ksatriya, I am being maintained by the king therefore I must side with the king. So, this is a moral consideration. In this situation the ultimate consideration of good and bad is not considered. Although he gave good advice to Dhrtarastra, he tried to dissuade Duryodhana many times but ultimately, he considered that these are my maintainers. This is a sense of morality, it is the side of the king you will have to follow the king, you cannot judge the king. A citizen of the king cannot judge the king if he does that and goes against the king then he will be considered to be a rebel. That was the consideration but what is the ultimate consideration? These are all relative considerations: good and bad, piety and sin, virtue and impiety and morality and immorality. This is just a mental speculation, the material consideration of good and bad. A duality. What is the absolute consideration? Absolute, ultimate spiritual consideration? Wherever Krishna is, is right and going against Krishna is wrong.
It is not that Bhisma was a Mahajana right from the beginning. Mahajana is a pure devotee and Bhisma was not a pure devotee at the beginning he was a jnana misra bhakta. His devotion was affected by jnana and he was concerned about morality but a pure devotee is not concerned about morality but he is only concerned about Krishna. We have to understand at first Bhisma was a jnana misra bhakta but then Bhisma became a sudha bhakta so much so that Krishna came Himself at the time of Bhisma’s departure from this planet. If you are in bad association no matter how exalted you maybe, all your good qualities will be lost.
That also has been demonstrated very nicely by Bhisma. 
When Bhisma was lying on the bed of arrows after the battle was over, he was waiting for the sun to move to the northern course because the battle of Kuruksetra took place when the sun was in the southern course. When someone dies at the time the sun is in the southern course one goes to the lower planets but when one leaves his body when the sun is in the northern course then he goes to the higher planets.
Bhisma was waiting for the sun to move north and when he was about to leave his body and the war was over the Pandavas came to see him and he was giving valuable advice to Yudhisthira how a Ksatriya should rule the kingdom, what is right and what is wrong and how to bring justice and punish injustice. At that time Draupadi smiled and Bhisma noticed it and asked her why she was smiling. Draupadi asked Bhisma, “Where was your wisdom when the Kauravas were dishonoring me in the royal assembly? You were there and you did not protest and now you are speaking these wise words of advice.” Bhisma replied, “Actually, Draupadi at that time my consciousness became affected because I was eating food given by Duryodhana therefore my consciousness was affected by that but now that bad blood has drained out of my body lying on this bed of arrows so now my consciousness has become purified.
So this is how we can see how consciousness can be so subtly affected just by eating food cooked by somebody whose consciousness is bad and this affects the consciousness of others. Duryodhana was not even cooking, he was sponsoring the food but because the food was purchased with the money of Duryodhana the consciousness was affected. So, this is the effect of bad association. On the other hand, we can also see how good association influences the consciousness of others. What is the lesson we learn from that? Should we go for bad association or should we remain in bad association? What should we do? We should be in good association, give up bad association and remain in good association. You may not get money in good association but what will you get? You will get peace of mind whereas in bad association you will get so many material facilities and that’s the problem that Duryodhana’s accomplices had faced.
They were getting material benefits due to Duryodhana. Karna got a kingdom due to Duryodhana’s association. So many material facilities were available but what was the result of that? The mental peace was lost. Dhrtarastra had so much, he was the king but he could not sleep. He told Vidura to please help him because he could not sleep. Why could he not sleep? Because his consciousness was affected by his bad actions. In this way one thing becomes clear: The right action leads to real enjoyment and the bad action leads to suffering. We notice devotees have bright faces so what does it indicate? Bright faces mean they are internally joyful whereas materially people maybe opulent but their face looks so unhappy. Faces are the mirrors of the mind. The way the mind is the face will depict. If the mind id depressed then the face will look depressed and if the mind is happy the face will look happy. So, what do we really want happiness or suffering? We all want joy and the way to become joyful is by being Krishna Conscious.
2. SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPRECIATION
So always remember that cooperation amongst devotees is the most important thing. How you cooperate with each other that will be the real sign of our love for Srila Prabhupada.
3. GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
- This is a perfect example of man proposes and God disposes. We may make our plans but ultimately it happens according to Krishna’s arrangements.
- What is the absolute consideration? Absolute, ultimate spiritual consideration? Wherever Krishna is, is right and going against Krishna is wrong.
- So, what do we really want happiness or suffering? We all want joy and the way to become joyful is by being Krishna Conscious.
(The content of this E-magazine was based on a Lecture given by His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami in ISKCON Ujjain on 26 March 2008)
(Compiled and Edited by Hemavati Radhika Devi Dasi)