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<title>Arjuna or The Ideal Disciple</title>
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<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center; text-indent:27pt; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">&nbsp;</p>
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<b>
<span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'><font size="4">Arjuna
or The Ideal Disciple</font></span></b><i><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:18.0pt;
color:blue;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<div class=Section1>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><i><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>W</span><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:
italic'>HAT</span><span lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:
italic'> makes a true disciple? For it is not everyone that can claim or be
worthy of or meet the demands of the title. Disciplehood, like all great
qualities, that is to say, qualities taken at their source and origin, is a
function of the soul. Indeed, it is the soul itself coming up and asking for
it'! native divine status; it is the call of the immortal in the mortal, the
voice of the inmost being rising above the clamours and lures of the world,
above the hungers and ties of one's own nature. When that rings out clear and
unmistakable, the Divine reveals Himself as the Guru, the Path is shown and the
initiation given. Even such a cry was Arjuna's when he said: <i>sisyaste</i> <i>ham
</i></span><i><span lang="en-gb">sadhi</span></i><span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'> <i>m</i></span><i><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-family:"Lucida Console";mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Console";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>a</span></i><span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'><i>m twam prapannam</i> –
it is a most poignant utterance in which the whole being bursts forth as it
were, and delivers itself of all that it needs and of all that it gives. It
needs the Illumination: it can no longer bear the darkness and confusion of
Ignorance in which it is entangled; and it gives itself whole and entire,
absolutely and without reserve, throws itself simply at the mercy of the
Divine. Arjuna fulfils, as very few can so completely, the fundamental
conditions – the sine qua non – of discipleship.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>A certain
modern critic, however, demurs. He asks why Arjuna was chosen in preference to
Yudhisthira and doubts the wisdom and justice of the choice (made by Sri
Krishna or the author of the Gita). Is not the eldest of the Pandavas also the
best? He possesses in every way a superior </span><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-family:"Lucida Console";mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Console";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>a</span><span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>dh</span><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-family:"Lucida Console";mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Console";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>a</span><span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>ra. He has knowledge
and wisdom; he is free from passions, calm and self-controlled; he always acts
according to the dictates of what is right and true. He is not swayed by the
impulses of the moment or by considerations relating to his personal self;
serene and unruffled he seeks to fashion his conduct by the<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

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<span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>Page- 76<o:p></o:p></span></p>

</div>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>highest possible
standard available to him. That is why he is called dharmar</span><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-family:"Lucida Console";mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Console";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>a</span><span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>ja. If such a one is
not to be considered as an ideal disciple, who else can be?<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>To say
this is to miss the whole nature of discipleship, at least as it is conceived
in the Gita. A disciple is not a bundle of qualifications and attainments,
however high or considerable they may be. A disciple is first and foremost an
aspiring soul. He may not have high qualities to his credit; on the contrary,
he may have what one calls serious defects, but even that would not matter if
he possessed the one thing needful, the unescapable urge of the soul, the
undying fire in the secret heart. Yudhishthira may have attained a high status
of s</span><span lang=EN-GB style='font-family:"Lucida Console";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Lucida Console";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>a</span><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>ttvic
nature; but the highest spiritual status, the Gita says, lies beyond the three
Gunas. He is the fittest person for this spiritual life who has abandoned all
dharmas – principles of conduct, modes of living – and taken refuge in the Lord
alone, made the Lord's will the sole and sufficient law of life. Even though to
outward regard such a person be full of sins, the Lord promises to deliver him
from all that. It is the soul's love for the Divine given unconditionally and
without reserve that can best purify the dross of the inferior nature and
render one worthy of the Divine Grace.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>Such was
Arjuna's capacity; herein lay his strength, his spiritual superiority. It was
because he could be so intimate with the Divine as to call him his friend and
companion and playmate and speak to him in familiar and homely terms – even
though he felt contrition for having in this way perhaps slighted the Lord and
not paid sufficient regard towards him. Yet this turn of his soul and nature
points to the straightness and simplicity and candidness that were there and it
was this that helped to call in the Divine and the Divine choice to fall upon
him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>Yudhishthira
may have been and is great-greater perhaps than Arjuna-in many ways. But the
Divine is no respecter of greatness: he looks only for the little thing no
larger than the thumb secreted within the heart,– what is the quality, how it
rings. We might recall in this connection that the first anthropoid ape who
evolved into man or showed the definite turn towards humanity could not have
been a mighty ape, great in the qualities of its species; rather the probability<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>Page-77<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>is that it was a
very commonplace, unpretentious, inglorious ape in whom the first ray of human
reason dawned, and perhaps with his frail and delicate physical frame he was at
a great disadvantage in the struggle for existence with his big and burly and
&quot;great&quot; comrades. And yet it was such a one who surmounted apehood.
Similarly, a great man, great in the human qualities need not necessarily be
the most eligible for the spiritual realisation. <i>Na medhay</i></span><i><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-family:"Lucida Console";mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Console";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>a</span><span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'> na bahun</span><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-family:"Lucida Console";mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Console";
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>a</span></i><span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'><i> srutena¹.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>All this,
however, is not to say that Arjuna was in his external human nature, built of
an inferior stuff; indeed, even from the human and profane standpoint Arjuna's
was a heroic nature, if ever there was one. Still what one remarks in him is
his representative character, that is to say, he is an average man, only the
strengths and weaknesses are perhaps stressed and intensified in him. He is a
hero, to be sure – we must remember also the other condition that a spiritual
aspirant is to fulfil, n</span><span lang=EN-GB style='font-family:"Lucida Console";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Console";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:
italic'>a</span><span lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:
italic'>yam</span><span lang=EN-GB style='font-family:"Lucida Console";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Console";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:
italic'>a</span><span lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:
italic'>tm</span><span lang=EN-GB style='font-family:"Lucida Console";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Console";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:
italic'>a</span><span lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:
italic'> <i>balahinena labhyah</i></span><i><span lang=EN-GB style='font-family:"Lucida Console";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Console";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:
italic'>a</span><span lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:
italic'> </span></i><span lang=EN-GB style='font-family:"Lucida Console";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Console";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:
italic'>²</span><span lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:
italic'>– but that did not immune him to the normal reactions of a normal man;
on the contrary, the reactions were especially strong and violent, necessary
indeed to bring out the whole implication of a spiritual crisis. Arjuna's
doubts and depression, misgivings and questionings (Vishada Yoga) are what more
or less every aspirant has to pass through when he arrives at the crucial point
of his soul's journey and has either to choose the higher curve or follow the
vicious circle. And at this threshold of the spiritual journey what is required
of the true aspirant, the ideal disciple, is the resolution to face the
situation, to go through to the end at the command and under the loving
guidance of the Master. On this line Arjuna stands for us all and shows, by his
example how we can take courage and march out of the inferior nature into the
peace and light and power of the higher divine nature.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'><span
style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>¹ <span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>&quot;Nor by
brain-power, nor by much learning of Scripture.&quot; – Katha Upanishad, 1. 2.
23<span style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'><span
style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>² <span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>&quot;This Self cannot
be won by any who is without strength.”–Ibid.</span></span><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:
italic'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

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<span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>Page-78<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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