Suta Ugrashrava, the son of Romaharshna and a distinguished expert in the Puranas, stood before the Rishis gathered in a Namesha forest during the twelve year sacrifice that was led by Sonaka Kulapati. He had pursued the study of the Puranas with rigorous commitment and had acquired exhaustive knowledge of them. With hands clasped in respect, he addressed the sages courteously saying, I have presented the story of Utanka in complete detail, and his narrative was one of the catalysts for King
Janimajaya's Sarpai Yagna, or the ritual sacrifice of serpents. What O, revered ones, do you wish to hear next? What shall I recount for you? The Rishi's answer, son of Roma Harshina, We will pose the questions we most wish to explore, and you must narrate the accounts sequentially. Our leader Sonica is presently performing worship in the sacred Agnigriha. He is thoroughly acquainted with the divine narratives of the devas or demigods and the Asuras or demons. He possesses in depth
understanding of the histories pertaining to humans, the Nagas and gandharvas. Moreover, Sothi, the scholarly Sonica, holds the position of chief priest for this sacrifice or yugna. He is competent, adheres flawlessly to his fasts, demonstrates exceptional wisdom, excels in the shastras and the aranyaka, upholds truth unwaveringly. Foster's peace, exercises self mortification, and conducts tapasia in strict accordance with established ascetic guidelines.
We all accord him the utmost respect. It is fitting that we await his return, and when he occupies this seat made of dharba grass or dharbashna, you shall address whatever that pre eminent Vidya or twice born individual inquires of you. Sati responded as you wish. When that illustrious soul is seated among us and directs me to do so, I will relate sacred narratives covering a broad spectrum of topics.
Soon after having completed all prescribed rituals, offered prayers to the demigods and performed tarbana for the pitters or ancestors. The eminent Brahmana Sonka returned to the hall where the sacred fire rituals take place, where other Rishis of firm resolve sat comfortably with sought the positioned before them all. And when Sonica took his seat among the Rithvics and Sadhyas, he spoke to them. This is the fourth section of
the Mahabharata, the fourth canto. Now, I am going to proceed to provide you my reflections, my analyzes of this specific section in this same episode, because it's a rather small section of story or poem that I just read to you. Before the story of wars and kings, before the cries of Dropadi, or the council of Krishna, or the surrender of our Juna, the struggles of our Juna, there was silence in a forest in the Mahabarata. The Mahabharata does not begin with battle. It begins with listening.
Here in Nimesha forest, sages gather for a twelve year sacrifice, a sacrificial ritual of twelve years. It's not of animals or wealth, but of attention. They sit fasting, watching the sacred fire and waiting for stories that purify thought. And standing before them is Soti or Suta or Ugra Shrava, Suta, Ugrashrava, the son of Romaharshna. Those are all the ways in which Soti is referred to in the Mahabharata. He's a man whose very name means one whose hair stands on end,
as if forever in awe. Suta has inherited the art of sacred narration, which is the ability to hold fire in his words, to hold power with the words that he speaks or conveys to others. Now, to those of you who have read plenty of Hindu stories from Hindu mythology, yes, this beginning in the Mahabada that might be very redundant to you. It might be highly familiar, very repetitive. It just seems very ceremonial. But we are watching a lineage
of storytelling awaken here. This is what we have to remember. The forest scene in the Mahabada that at the beginning is not just filler. It's not a filler scene. It's the DNA of Hindu thought on knowledge. It says truth is not found in isolation, it is transmitted. So we must continue this lineage of storytelling very actively. And Ugra Shava he bows right. The Rishi's question sonica praise. Each character represents a link in a chain between silence and speech,
a chain. This chain defines storytelling. In our modern world, we might call this just simply data transfer, right, information transfer, knowledge transfer, But what's really happening is energy transfer. You have to realize that Ubra Shava has this power where his words hold energy. They are fire, right, That's how we, maybe the young people in the modern world would refer to his words. They fire, they have fire to them.
So it is actually shukti moving through sound when we engage in Hindu mythology, storytelling or Hindu storytelling recounting these stories of Hindu ancient Hindu scriptures. So shakti is moving through sound. Shakti is functioning. Power is functioning through sound through verbal storytelling. And notice the structure here. The storyteller saw thee asks what do you wish to hear? The listener say, we will ask okay, and you will answer
all right. That's so conditions are being set here. This isn't like bureaucracy or leader like follower command, kind of like domination taking place. It's actually teaching us these conditions, these rules, so to speak, that are being set between the storyteller and the listener, that not every truth can be uttered without sacred alignment, without the listener being ready, the space purified, the intention clear. Okay, not every truth
can be uttered without sacred alignment. It cannot be uttered without the listener being ready for that truth, without there being a sense of purification and clear intention. These are the requirements for every truth to be uttered. Okay, this is why you know we we don't offer up our opinions and advice to p when they're truly not ready for it, because we're just going to be facing obstacles anyways.
In some ways when we give advice, inherent to the advice that we give are stories that have demonstrated the power of that advice, the effects of that advice, and the value of that advice. But when the listeners are not ready for that advice, then we should not really be offering it up so freely, so liberally. But so this is why conditions are set here. The storyteller demonstrates, well, what do you want to hear? I'm ready to give you the truth, and the listeners these reshe's in the forest.
They say, wait a minute, we are going to ask you what we want to hear. Okay, we'll tell you. We'll tell you basically what we want to hear, and you will answer. So there's a demonstration here of receptivity. Okay, reception, receptivity. Shukti is able to move through this scene. She's able to move through sound. She's able to be received and perceived. You know, in today's world we consume stories endlessly, so many podcasts, reels, opinions, noise. But the Mahabadata opens with
a warning. Sacred speech requires a ready listener, not just a ready listener, a sacred ready listener. And what is a listener or what qualities does a listener who is sacred have? That individual has clear, clean intentions, not any intentions to hurt the provider of advice, the provider of wisdom, No envy, no jealousy. We see in the Baga ad Ghita.
When we're going to get to that later on. You know, Krishna says that this information, in this spiritual discourse of the bug of ad Ghita is not to be provided to those who are envious of me. So the a listener who is sacred, who will consume shukti through sacred listening is an individual who is clear of jealousy and envy, especially toward the master teacher or the master advisor. And
that individual is also truly open and willing to receive. Okay, willing to receive the truth no matter how harsh it is or how beautiful it is, does not matter. That individual is willing to receive. So there's a sense of wise surrender within the sacred listener. To here, to listen correctly in itself is a form of yoga. Okay, Now,
why is there this twelve year sacrifice? Why? Twelve years twelve is a very important number, right, Twelve marks completion twelve sons, twelve cycles, twelve months of the inner zodiac. The sages long fire ritual mirrors the human psyche's long journey through ignorance into illumination, and the fire they tend in the forest is not just a flame, its awareness. In psychological terms, this forest scene in this fourth section of the Mahabarata represents the preparation of the psyche before
deep inquiry, deep self inquiry. The ego or Soughty, as a metaphor, awaits until or waits I should say until the higher self, meaning Sonica returns from worship. Only then can revelation begin. And that is because the revelation occurs not in the realm, when everything is pure and of the highest state. It has to occur where there's still more learning and healing and fix seeing left to do.
Sonica is returning from this deep agnigriha what I describe as a sanctum of consciousness, but it's a very deep sanctum. It is a place of extraordinarily deep self inquiry. That's the area or depth of our psyche that Sonica represents prior to him stepping into the worship hall in front of Sothi to listen to Soughti. In that place of being where everything is of the highest, deepest self, there's not a lot there that can be that is left
to be revealed. It's only when we step back into sort of the like the real world and we start engaging with others, and in this case Soughti is that's where the ego begins. That's where the ego is activated, and that's where the ego is alive. That ego is represented by Sthi in this very small scene in the Mahabharata,
and that is exactly where the revelation begins. It's going to begin from Sothi's mouth, right, We already know that he's going to start answering the requests for stories and the lessons from the Rishi's So that's what Sathi is going to do. He represents that ego. That's where the place where revelation begins exactly there, because there is a lot there to be healed. Okay, the place that Sonica, being a highly spiritually advanced individual, comes from, that place
is already mostly purified or nearly purified. Revelation learning can only happen where the ego is active and playing. That's the meaning of these character placements in just this small scene of the Mahabharata. So how is that relevant for you in the postmodern world? Well, so many times in life we find ourselves saying, how many lessons do I have to learn? God? Like? Why do I keep facing
problems all the time. You have to understand that you are playing, in a sense, in the field of ego, and in that field there's always going to be obstacles and problems, right kind of like you know, imagine like soccer players almost in front of each other trying to obstruct each other from making a goal, from reaching a goal.
That's always going to be the place, but one can quickly gather the intelligence or the revelation that they need as they are playing on this field to be able to quickly bypass the obstacles and reach or score the goals that they want to reach. So that's the meaning of this. But first we have to be prepared for that transmission. We have to be receptive. We have to be sacred listeners for those powerful words that Soughty is going to speak to us that will help us gather
develop that intelligence we need. When every time there is another player in front of us in this field of ego, ready to obstruct us from our goals, ready to keep us from reaching our goal or from scoring our goals. Okay, we have to be ready for that transmission. And how often do we rush also into our own introspection without preparing the field, without cleansing intention, without sitting in silence
long enough for wisdom to approach us. This reminds me of what I write in my book Who God Really Is, where I say most humans and this is actually in the free Preview chapters in the very beginning of the book that you can preview, you can read on Amazon dot com rite for free. I say, you know, we most humans begin their journeys for truth, for real knowledge, for expansive knowledge, with pre existing biases. They still hold
on to biases. That impacts a lot of atheists too, It really does, and that prevents us from really gathering the knowledge and intention that we excuse me, the knowledge that we need to have, the real knowledge that we need to have. Even as we are gathering knowledge, it prevents us from reaching the most powerful or useful or valuable knowledge easily, quickly fast. The mob Hadata begins with a pause. It tells us the story of human conflict
cannot be heard in haste. The Rishi's interrupt Sothie even before he begins, in a way they say, wait, let Sonica return. Let this chief priest who embodies discipline and stop us, who is of the highest spiritual being, Let him return. Okay, So before we make our requests to you, let this being return. This interruption itself is symbolic. It
reminds us that even the sacred must be timed. That insight forced too early becomes chaos, or can be even lost because it's not being transmitted first and foremost to the wisest amongst us, the most wise listener amongst us, being present, due to proper preparation beforehand, that listener is wise enough to pass on though that stories, or those stories of wisdom, down right through a hierarchy, so to
speak amongst the people. So that individual is very important, because that individual is wise enough to know that it must that storytelling, that shukti that is transmitted through sound, must be passed on. Sonica returns right. He has prayed, he has offered, and he has cleansed himself. Only now does he sit upon that sacred seat made of dha daba grass. In Yogic symbolism, the dah daba grass is
the stable mind, where no wind of emotion can disturb concentration. Okay, Sonica's re entry represents the re entry of divine order into the human conversation. He has honored the demigods and the ancestors, which means that he has balanced the future and the past. Sonica is now ready to hold the present. When we do not honor both meaning our lineage and our aspirations, our storytelling becomes reactive, not revelatory. Sanica sitting amid fire and sages is the image of the inner
witness and the wisest sacred listener. He is the consciousness that listens to our own chaos without judgment, first and foremost.
And once he sits the narrative of the Mahabharata, which is of chaos, destiny, dharma and destruction can begin because now the wisest of the wise is ready, or I might even say the wisest of the wisest listener is ready, and so the Shakti can begin to truly move through sound without obstruction, and then it will be truly transmitted down even amongst all the different rishis and generations, because the wisest of the wisest was present, and he knows
that this storytelling must be passed on. Soughty, on another level, represents the voice a symbol or a or the seat of creative expression, a seat of creative expression. Sonica represents the mind symbol of awareness, ritual discipline, a mind truly ready, a mind who understands the value of what the voice Sauty is about to convey. The sacred fire ritual. The fire itself is the heart, purified, charged, ready, but truly
truly purified, transformational. Together they form the trinity expression, creative expression, awareness, and transformation. The story will flow when these three are aligned, and they are now aligned in this fourth scene in the Mahabarata. In the modern psyche, these often fall apart. Our voices speak before, our minds are still, Our emotions burn without ritual form, Our words lack sacred gravity. Many people just use words for the sake of using words.
You know what I mean, So this scene becomes a spiritual diagram. Here from the Mahabada, the section four, don't begin your storytelling your inner storytelling to yourself meaning your self analysis. You're healing your shadow work until your inner Sonica has returned from worship, until you have actually used
the Hindu mantras to purify your mind. Right, Sonica represents the mind, the highest awareness, So don't beginner your self analysis your shadow work until you have used the Hindu mantras to purify your mind much more to you know, to bring it closer to the kind of mind that Sonica Kulapati has. Otherwise, your your voice, your sauti, your creative expression will speak still from womb and misunderstanding, not from understanding and wisdom, as I explain in my book
Who God really is, which I encourage you all. I encourage you all to pick up on Amazon today. So what is this all leading to? These symbols that are lost often, or these meanings that are lost often under the surrealism and longevity of the Hindu myths, or even like the Mahabadata itself long world's longest epic poem, what's it all leading to? Here? The Mahambadata is itself a sacrificial fire into which various characters egos, kings, and gods
are all offered. But this scene here in section four reveals something that the rest of the epic only dramatizes. Every act of storytelling is in itself a sacrifice. Right when Sothi speaks, he burns his breath into the offering. That's the fire, and that fire itself will be purifying not just himself, but it purifies the sacred listeners. When the rishis listen, they offer their silence in return as fuel. But they know not only offer their silence, their attention,
That's the key attention. They are willing to be attentive to what Soti is going to or how Soughty is going to deliver on their requests. Okay, so together they create a cycle of shruti, hearing as worship, hearing itself as worship a form of worship. This reminds me a lot of what I write in the chapter on worship in my book Who God Really Is. That's all in the book. You have to read the book Who God Really Is by me Sana Katiagi to understand that important
distinction between various forms of worship or activities of worship. Now, every conversation can be a form of sacrifice if we approach it with the same reverence, if we speak truthfully, if we speak words that are meant to help others, to assist others rather than to waste their minds, waste their time. Unfortunately, a lot of that is happening in our world, in our hypersocial media world, where people just
you know. It reminds me on Twitter, somebody just said, you know, tweeting to just tweet right or posting just we just post stuff like stuff that doesn't help your mind grow, It doesn't create great conversation, it's untruthful, it's not truthful. But they're just posting to post right, to get monetized, and that's a lot of what we have in this world. So one has to really be able to distinguish between information that is worth having and information
that is mind wasting. That's very, very important we can strive in our post modern world to you know, have every conversation that we begin and engage in be a form of sacrifice in the for the highest good. And notice that the type of conversation that I am advocating for here, based on the analysis and spiritual meanings of this small section section four of the Mahabarata, notice that that type of communication actually ends up building communion develop
allowing community communion to develop. And so when we wonder why are we humans so fragmented in this world, because we are very fragmented, you know, if you just think about it broadly, and not to just think about just the community that you are a part of, but when you think about the bigger world, there is this fragmentation that defines us. And a lot of that is because we are not using we are not being sacred communicators, and therefore we are not receiving sacred listeners back. Okay,
we're not putting sacred communication out. Therefore we are not receiving sacred listening. Okay, we are not receiving sacred listening as the result. That's why there is so much fragmentation rather than communion. Naymesha forest is not a place. It is a state of consciousness, the moment that we are fully present before the divine conversation begins. The Rishi's sitting around the sacred fire are our thoughts in meditation. Sonica is the highest being, spiritual being and just a fun
fact to close off. In Sanskrit metrics, I believe, if I'm correct here, that twelve years equals one complete cycle of Jupiter, the guru planet whose orbital resonance regulates monsoon cycles, crop yields, and civilizational memory. Okay, civilizational memory. What we preserve,
what we choose to preserve, what we value now. In the previous episode, I had mentioned Janamajaya's ritual genocide or ritual sacrifice eyes I should say not genocide but sacrifice of serpents, and that was in Mahabadata section three that was discussed in the previous two episodes. This you know, this is a monarch's grief, right Janamajia being a king, that's a monarch's grief weaponized in two ecological collapse or disaster. Spiritually,
the Nagas guard groundwater and Kundalini shakti. Their mass sacrifice metaphorically fracts the subtle body of the earth. Now the most wise sacred listener Sonaka Kulapati, he embodies an eightfold Dharma operating system. The rishis tell us this in Mahabadata section four. These are his qualities. Competence, flawless adherents to fasts or sacrifice, self sacrifice, exceptional wisdom, mastery of shastras and aaranyaka, unwavering truth, fostering peace, self mortification and the
basia right. So he has. It's almost like he's a system or code, a nearly per near perfect code, almost flawless, and he's capable of leading or upholding a twelve year ritual without crash so to speak, or glitch so to speak. That's another way to look at Sonica Kulapati. Now Sothi is awaiting Sonica's direction his request. When Sonica speaks next, the universe will download more than one hundred thousand verses
of the Mahabarata. Until then, we are all meant to sit in Naimisha forest with hands clasped, breath synchronized, awaiting shuck. These movement through sound