How do we increase our ‘state of being’? The Bhagavad Gita highlights three key aspects for this: Ananda Lahari (waves of joy), Prema Lahari (waves of love), and Soundarya Lahari (waves of beauty). We should approach this understanding with ananda, or joy. If we do not fully understand it, our happiness should not depend on achieving that understanding. Instead, we should set our consciousness free. Our happiness should not be dependent on success or failure. This freedom leads to awakening: if your happiness is not tied to success or failure, you transcend them both. This is awakening, or jnanam jagrata.
Why should our happiness depend on success or failure? It will depend on them only when there is a flaw in our consciousness. Therefore, whatever we do should be accompanied by Ananda Lahari, which leads to a different ‘state of being’.
We can delve into the situations of life, state of mind, and state of being, which are three essential pointers in the Bhagavad Gita. How do we change our state of mind? If our state of mind needs to change, our samskaras must change. This means our patterns should transform. A Hindu is traditionally required to go through sixteen samskaras over the course of life.
Duryodhana followed a bad pattern. When he visited Indraprastha, he encountered the pride of the city—the palace of illusions. As Duryodhana entered, he felt an air of mystery. An entourage of maidservants appeared through a wall and lined up before the guests.
The courtyard was divided into two sections: one part had a surface that appeared to ripple like the surface of a lake, while the other seemed as solid as granite flooring. Duryodhana stepped onto the seemingly solid part and found himself waist-deep in water, drenched.
Draupadi, observing from the balcony, burst into laughter, though she later felt embarrassed, as she had not intended to insult her guest. However, Duryodhana felt deeply humiliated that Draupadi and her maids had witnessed his plight. In revenge, he swore that Draupadi would one day pay for this embarrassment.
