ESOTERIC ASPECT OF BHEESHMA
- Radha Gupta
Story of Bheeshma can be read on websites Bheeshma1 and Bheeshma2 etc. He is the eighth son of Shantanu and Ganga and is the incarnation of eighth of the gods classified under Vasus whose name is Dyo. His real name is Devavrata but due to his fierce declaration, he got to be called Bheeshma. His three declarations are not to marry, not to get progeny and not to ride on throne. In the story, the wife of Dyo wants to oblige her friend’s daughter on earth by providing her divine milk of the cow of sage Vasishtha. For this purpose, all the vasus combine to steal the divine cow of Vasishtha. Upon this, he curses these vasus to get birth on earth and that the eighth one will have to stay on earth for a long time. Subsequently, Dyo is born on earth as the son of Shantanu and Ganga. Let us try to understand the symbolism behind the story. Shantanu in heavens is called Mahaabhishaka, the great physician. Mahaabhishaka may be the conscious element of God which has manly nature. This treats the rigidity type of illness in nature. This conscious element is able to remove the darkness of nature and at the same time, this also gets attracted towards nature. When this removes the rigidity of nature, it will be called the great physician of heavens. But when this gets attracted towards nature in the form of Ganga, then this will be called Shantanu on earth. This fact can also be said in other words that the great physician in heaven is the consciousness of soul and when it falls, it becomes the consciousness of individual soul. This consciousness is weak. Hence it is called Sham – tanu, the dilute one. This Sham – tanu gets the eighth vasu as his son in the form of Bheeshma.
Ganga is symbolic of nature. She embraced the consciousness of individual soul for emancipation of vasus from their curse. This nature provides this consciousness in the form of the eighth element called self. One can get rid of this self in human body only. Vasu means desire and when one calls vasus the gods, then it means divine cravings. It seems that the eight elements which form the gross and subtle body of a man – earth, water, fire, air, sky, mind, wisdom and ego – the divine craving in these are the eight vasus. Dyo in the story is somehow connected with that which illuminates the soul element through self. A man is the combination of consciousness of individual soul and nature. In this human body, the eight vasus reside in their cursed form. As a person steps up on the ladder of development, the earthly desires get converted into divine desires. All except the eighth vasu get liberated one by one, but not the eighth one, which means that the feeling of self continues for a long time. Why this does not get converted into divine desires? The story indicates that Dyo vasu stole the cow of Vasishtha. This means that the power which is needed to feel the divine self gets lost in feeding of the earthly desires in the form of daughter of Usheenara. Vasishtha means one whose consciousness develops vertically. As has been stated in context with comments on cow, the rays of sun at noon are called cow. Here in our context, cow may mean the strong soul power. This can be called the divine cow of sage Vasishtha which is able to fulfill all divine desires. Usheenara means earthly desires. So, when the divine desire called vasu Dyo wants to convert earthly desires into long lasting and young, then he loses his powers in this act. In other words, he is the cursed form of Dyo which has been represented by Bheeshma in the story.
The consciousness having the traits of vertical development ( that of Vasishtha) does not want that soul power should be spent for making earthly desire strong and long lasting. This is the misuse of soul power and also of divine desire( vasu god). The proper use of element self can be made when it is able to reflect the presence of constantly flowing soul element. If, instead of using self for this purpose it is used to strengthen the ego, then this will be called the cursed form of vasu Dyo. Mahaabhaarata in the form of character Bheeshma tries to explain how Bheeshma in his lifetime remained attached with earthly desires for a long time and how he could recognize his real self at the last moment.
There are eight vasus which can be equated with eight elements like earth, water, fire, air, sky, mind, wisdom and ego. It is difficult to explain the first five, but one can try to explain the last three. The divine craving of mind is Soma, the moon which provides cold and happiness. The divine craving of wisdom is to attain judgement, discrimination. The divine craving of self is to get illumination. If the presence of self is able to illuminate the personality, then it should be understood as the divine self.
Shri Sheshadri from Bangalore has informed that in Mahaabhaarata, Dhritraashtra is symbolic of mind and Paandu is symbolic of wisdom. For a balance in life it is necessary that there be a balance between mind and wisdom or in other words, mind is guided by wisdom. If mind does not rely on wisdom, then it is blind. In the story, Dhritraashtra does not want to share kindom with Paandavaas. It is no surprise therefore that Bheeshma in the story may be symbolic of ego or self. It can be even more appropriate if out of mind, wisdom, unconscious mind/chitta and Ahamkaara/self, Bheeshma may represent chitta.
भीष्म
टिप्पणी : भीष्म शन्तनु व गङ्गा के ८वें पुत्र हैं और द्यो नामक वसु देवता के अवतार हैं । इनका मूल नाम देवव्रत है लेकिन भीषण प्रतिज्ञा करने के कारण भीष्म नाम पड गया है । विवाह न करना, संतान उत्पन्न न करना तथा राज्य सिंहासन पर आरूढ न होना इनकी तीन भीषण प्रतिज्ञाएं हैं । ये वसु देवता के अवतार हैं । एक बार आठों वसु देवता वसिष्ठ ऋषि के तपोवन में घूम रहे थे । वहां इन्होंने वसिष्ठ की नन्दिनी नामक कामधेनु गौ को देखा । द्यो नामक वसु ने कामधेनु गौ की विशेषता बतलाते हुए कहा कि जो इसका दुग्ध पान कर लेता है, वह सदा युवा बना रहता है तथा उसकी आयु भी दीर्घ होती है । यह सुनकर द्यो की