Skip to main content

The Mahabharata:


John Kaldawi was inspired by Mahabharata, where the authorship is attributed to Vyasa, which is a narrative of the Kurukshetra War and the fates of Pandava and Kaurava princes, who both claim to be the first in line to inherit the throne, the result of which Pandava was victorious.

Doing more research, John learned that Mahabharata was traced back to Vedic times which are before 3rd century BC.  The battle produced complex conflicts of friendship and kinship and family loyalty and duty, and at the end the death of Lord Krishna, and the beginning of the Hindi age of Kali Yoga.  Kali Yoga is the 4th and final age of humankind in which great values and noble ideas are lost, and people heading towards complete dissolution of morality and virtues.

John Kaldawi also learned that Mahabharata is one of the most widely use holy text in India and is considered as the most precious jewel of Hindu literature.  It offers one of the first instances of theorizing about "just war", such as no attacking people in distress, using only just means and just cause, and fair treatment of the captives and the wounded.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

John Kaldawi opinions about Compassion

John Kaldawi was inspired by the virtues of Compassion which is the complete flowering of true love in human beings. Love is our intrinsic quality, we are born with it, it is just a matter of being aware of it.   Awareness makes our love stronger and makes it a virtue and brings out the Compassion within us.   Doing more research, John learned that Compassion is the ability to identify and understand the emotional state of another person.   It has the element of reducing the suffering of another associated with the feeling to help.   If someone try to hurt us, instead of having negative feeling towards them, we assume instead that they had a good reason for doing what they did given their particular circumstances. John Kaldawi also learned that Compassion is a process of connecting by identifying and feeling one with another person.   This identification with others through compassion can lead to increased motivation to do something in an effort to...

Animal postures, Yogasanas and Prana

John Kaldawi learned that in ancient times and through observation, the rishis understood how animals live in harmony with their environment and with their own bodies.   They understood, through experience, the efforts of a particular posture and how the hormonal secretions could be stimulated and controlled by it.   For example, by stimulating the rabbit or hare in shashankasana they could influence the flow of adrenaline responsible for the 'fight or flight' mechanism.   Through imitating animal postures, the rishis found they could maintain health and meet challenges of nature for themselves. Furthermore, John Kaldawi learned that Prana, vital energy, which corresponds to 'ki' or 'chi' in Chinese medicine, pervades the whole body, following flow patterns, called nadis, which are responsible for maintaining all individual cellular activity.   Stiffness of the body is due to blocked prana and a subsequent accumulation of toxins.   When prana begins to ...

History of Yoga - Part 2

John Kaldawi learned that in ancient times, yoga techniques were kept secret and were never written down or exposed to public view.  They were passed from teacher or guru to disciple by word of mouth.  In this way there was a clear understanding of their meaning and aim.  Through personal experience, realized yogis and sages were able to guide aspirants along the correct path, removing any confusion, misunderstanding and excessive intellectual contemplation. Sage Patanjali's treatise on raja yoga, the yoga Sutras, codified the first definitive, unified and comprehensive system of yoga.  Often called the eight-fold path, it is comprised of yama, self-restraints, niyama, self-observances, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, disassociation of consciousness from the outside environment, dharana, concentration, dyana, meditation and samadhi, identification with pure consciousness. Doing more research, John Kaldawi learned that in the 6th century BC, Lord Buddha's in...