Shakuni within us: Identifying & destroying!

Let’s 🔭 explore 🔬 the significance for us 🎯 here & now ⏳of the 5-millennia old historical character of Shakuni, on the occasion of the 🌻auspicious 🌺 partnership 🤝 of 2️⃣ long-term 🧘‍♀️ austerities 🧘🏽‍♂️ :

1. the inaugural 1️⃣ amongst 1️⃣6️⃣ weekly 🗓 opportunities this year to responsibly access 🏪 the powerful 🥊 fists 🤜🏿 of our own nothingness <Shi-va Mushti vrata>; &
2. the 2nd of 5️⃣ weekly 🗓opportunities this year to responsibly ensure the welfare 👼🏻of our own ⚖️ fairness ⚪️ <Mangala-Gowri vrata>.

Though literally prescribed primarily for newly married women for five years, these two vratas are of eternal significance to all seekers of all genders in vanquishing doubts forever from their minds.
 

Therefore, in this convention/heritage <Iti-hāsa>, Bharatēya🇮🇳 history consists of 2️⃣ 📕magnum opuses📗:

1. Travels (or rather travails!) of our soul, stabilised in bliss <Rām-āyanā> &
2. Great 👍 🇮🇳 emotion, melody & rhythm within us <Mahā-bhā-ra-tā>.
    

The second of such a magnificent tradition <Mahābhāratā> traces 📈 the 🤰🏻 origin 🤱of Prince 🤴 Shakuni 🧟‍♂️ to his kingdom 🤴 of Gāndhāra, presently Kandahar, Afghanistan 🇦🇫. While there’s no ‘doubt’ 🧐 about that historical 📖 fact, the metaphorical 😕 way in which Sri Veda Vyāsa had his most able single-penned 🖌stenographer <Eka-danta @ Ganesha> 🐘document ✍️ such facts, was to make them relevant to all of us at all times within us.

In this context, let’s discover the 🤨doubting 🤔 🦅 bird 🐦<Shakuni> flying 🪁 in the space within everyone of us & check out the established or potential methodologies for his 🧜‍♀️ destruction 🧜, axed 🪓 right in the forehead by our targeted cooperative Venetian radiance <Sahā-devā>. That is if we aren’t yet amongst the rare few who’ve already accomplished that essential feat for all 🧘‍♀️ sādhaks 🧘🏽‍♂️, as a critical prerequisite in sādhanā is trust, neither 😼 doubt nor 🙈 blind belief!!! But it’s no mean feat as history shows: Sahādevā could accomplish it, fulfilling his vow to 🪓demolish doubt , only on the last day of the Great War.

There’s a subset of our overall 🦾 actions 🦿, words 🗣 & thoughts 💭, <pāndavās> which arise from our own 🤺aggressively-passionate qualities <devas @ rajasic gunas>. Then, there’s another subset of our overall 🦾 actions 🦿, words 🗣& thoughts 💭, <Kauravās> which arise from our own 💤 inertially-lethargic 😴 qualities <asuras @ tamasic gunas> of blind faith <Dhritrāshtra> & self-inflicted blindfolding <Gāndhārī>. These 2️⃣ sets of our own activities are always at 🤼‍♀️ loggerheads 🤼‍♂️with each other.
 

Despite being 🤰🏻born 🤱 of our great 👍 strength <Su-balā> 💪 & righteousness <Su-dharmā>, our own egg 🥚 of self-doubt <Shakuni> hatches 🐣 to become, under strange circumstances, the chief strategist 🤺 for our dull & lazy interactions <Kauravās> with our otherwise awesome tools 🧰 of body, mind & intellect as well as with our environment.
 

Recollect that this 🤦🏻‍♀️dimwit 🤦🏻inertia 😴 was born 🤰🏻of blindfolded 🙈blind faith <Smt. Gāndhārī Dhritrāshtra> & hence can be easily taken for a ride by the sharp bird of self-doubt <Shakuni>, whose main weapons are its re-vengeful attitude & expertise in the shrewd game of probability 🎲! Made out of the very bones 🦴 of doubt’s own source, it’s not for nothing that ‘dice’ 🎲 & ‘dies’ 💀 rhyme, fooling autocorrect systems, both in AI & real I! Shrewd doubt 😼doesn’t spare anyone or anything to chance.

Deftly handling permutations & combinations, towards its own narrow-minded goals, our own doubt  <Shakuni> operates 🤺 exclusively on what we consider as ‘good.’ How often have you heard anyone or even yourself 😼doubting that something is ‘bad’⁉️ You seem to know that for sure. In utter contrast, if something is construed ‘good,’ then our 🙀doubt  <Shakuni> gets to work almost right away! That’s its domain of 💪strength, watch out‼️
 

So, if anyone’s genuinely interested in avoiding Shakuniplaying dice 🎲 either with themselves or with their 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦families 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧, there’s no point in 🔍 searching 🔎 for him outside of themselves. Instead, they ought to begin exploring & self-destructing him 😼<Shakuni> within themselves through the pauranik prescriptions of today’s Shiva Mushti vrata 🤸‍♂️over 16 consecutive Mondays & the Mangala-Gowri vrata 🤸‍♀️over 4~5 Tuesdays.
 

History is replete with success ✌️stories of those who’ve been able to 🗡 destroy 🔨 their own 🙀self-doubts 😼<Shakuni> with this simple 🧘‍♀️ penance 🧘🏽‍♂️ & avoid self-inflicted suffering, unnecessarily blaming it on others.
 

Continually recognise that pain 😖 is inevitable, based on one’s own past karmā, but suffering 😫 is optional! Arise & awaken to the respons-I-bility, 🤣 laughing 😂 off 🙀self-doubt  <Shakuni>!!!