Chapter 1 Shloka 13

तत: शंखाश्च भेर्यश्च पणवानकगोमुखा:।

सहसैवाभ्यहन्यन्त स शब्दस्तुमुलोऽभवत्।।१३।।

After Bhishma Pitamah blew his conch:

Simultaneously several conches, kettle drums,

trumpets, drums and horns blared out

– causing a terrible sound.

Chapter 1 Shloka 13

तत: शंखाश्च भेर्यश्च पणवानकगोमुखा:।
सहसैवाभ्यहन्यन्त स शब्दस्तुमुलोऽभवत्।।१३।।

After Bhishma Pitamah blew his conch:

Simultaneously several conches, kettle drums, trumpets, drums and horns blared out – causing a terrible sound.

Look little one! When one’s justifications gain strength, the mind creates a similar din. Bhishma Pitamah supported Duryodhana and proclaimed war.

Through this proclamation:

1. Bhishma Pitamah declared to the world that he had decided to follow his wrong principles and tread the path of delusion.

2. Though he knew that Duryodhana was evil, he proclaimed that he was fighting for Duryodhana.

3. Thus he announced his final decision – to side with injustice and with one who represented deceit and sin.

Little one, first the blind intellect aids the unmanageable mind. Then strong justifications rise in support of that mind. The mind thus begins to believe in its own righteousness.

When there is a subsequent uproar in the mind:

1. Countless opposing and hitherto concealed latencies arise, clashing as deafeningly as many drums beating together.

2. When these hidden tendencies flare up with fury, the mind’s devices begin to increase.

3. Each negative trait sheds its inhibitions and gains great impetus.

4. Attachment to falsehood creates a terrible flare up and the evil tendencies attain frightening dimensions. The ego’s intensity resounds deafeningly.

5. Temper gets an opportunity to prove itself faultless.

6. Hatred stands alert, waiting to strike in revenge.

7. Pride and arrogance roar thunderously.

8. Greed gets an opportunity to quench its thirst and clamours for fulfilment.

Thus the latent tendencies of the mind loudly play their trumpets and beat their drums, creating a terrible din!

This is what happened when Bhishma Pitamah blew his conch. The evil forces were alerted and all Duryodhana’s supporters blew upon their respective conches and trumpets.

Bhavana

Little one! This is how we deceive ourselves through justification. Bhavana basically deceives itself.

1. The mind and its likes predominate in bhavana;

2. All its arguments are in its own favour and based on illusory premises;

3. Its primary objective is to absolve itself of all duties;

4. Its only task is to prove itself right, great and just; it veils its own reality even from itself and chooses to remain a stranger to its own self;

5. It attempts to hide its sins from its own knowledge: to do this, it even takes cover under the Lord’s name or under a false sense of duty! Even worship at such a level is farcical and illusory because it is not based on facts and is an escape from reality.

Little one, knowledge always reveals our inadequacies to us. If we consider that we measure up to the knowledge we have acquired, that knowledge becomes meaningless. If after reading the Gita we do not live by its tenets, and yet want to be known as devotees of Lord Krishna, we are hypocrites. The intellect can never consider itself to be a true devotee – it is only the deceptive mind and its supporting bhavana which makes judgements. If we begin to feel that we are right or on the path of Truth without measuring upto the knowledge of the Scriptures, this is the work of bhavana. It is this very bhavana which sustains and nourishes our misconceptions.