Recounting the story of the Mahabharata, Pandu and Dhrtrarashtra were two brothers with Dhrtrarashtra being the elder. Pandu was enthroned because Dhrtrarashtra was considered handicapped due to his being blind. Another problem arose when Pandu too passed away, because of a curse, with his sons still very young. In these circumstances, Dhrtrarashtra, inspite of being handicapped, was made a stop-gap king till Yudhisthir – the eldest son of Pandu - came of age. However, as the children grew up, Dhrtrarashtra’s own son Duryodhan staked claim to the throne. Though Yudhisthir was the legal heir and was also elder to Duryodhan, Dhrtrarashtra preferred his son.

This was not acceptable to the Pandavas and the all-right thinking people. When even a division of the kingdom was unacceptable to Duryodhan and his party, a necessity of war arose. And a war was duly declared between the sons of Pandu and the sons of Dhrtrarashtra.

However, on the battlefield when Arjuna – the great warrior of the Pandavas - saw all the relatives arrayed in front of him, he developed compassion towards them. Arjuna was faced with a very difficult choice : He would have to kill his relatives to win back the kingdom.

Any intelligent person can understand that the bigger the problem, the more difficult is going to be its solution. How else would it be a big problem ? One would require good intelligence, great tolerance, quite a bit of patience, loads of perseverance, a touch of humility, adequate resources and generous help from God to be able to solve big problems.

Arjun, in the Bhagavad-Geeta, was faced a great problem, but his great dilemma was solved by Lord Krishna. How did the Lord do it ? First, he analysed the problem (the first half of the second chapter of Bhagavad Geeta). In the later half of this chapter, the Lord preached how to make intelligent choices. In the third chapter, He directed Arjun to become active. Arjun did what was told to him and the Lord helped him. Arjun, thus, could get over a very difficult problem since nothing is impossible for the Lord.

Since the material world is full of problems ( Bhagavad-Geeta, 8.15), we come across many kinds of problems in our lives which we are forced to face. So how should we go about it ?

One must first accept in all humility that the appearance of a problem must have something to do with us and that is why it has come to us. This is a good beginning in order to be able to solve a problem. The blame-game takes away our useful energy and time besides alienating others who could have otherwise helped us. The next important thing to do is to not give up or lose heart. If we do, who else would try to solve it ? As a matter of fact, we must be the hub around which the solutions must be found.

If we make sincere efforts, others are likely to come forward and help because everyone likes to back a winner, as does God. It is said “God helps those who help themselves”. To get help from God, one needs to meditate on the problem in one’s heart. The solution shall come either this way or from the scriptures.

“The scriptures are your guide” (Bhagavad-Geeta, 16.24). Since we are determined and ready to accept guidance, the kind Lord is bound to help as we have seen others help us when we turn to them. We just need to follow the instructions as we do in case of a competent doctor. Others are always likely to be useful since the merciful Lord may choose someone in order to extend His help. In any case, mutual respect helps us to get assistance whereas blaming does not.

Only great people succeed in coming out of difficult circumstances. Greatness means triumphing over heavy odds. Blind Braille invented the Braille system in order to be able to read. Many a times, medical scientists test a new drug on themselves, taking a lot of personal risk, in order to ascertain its effectiveness. Nothing great or valuable is likely to be obtained without the requisite effort.

Therefore, let us steel ourselves to face problems of life as they appear. Straightaway, with such an attitude, the fear factor disappears, since it is mostly due to apprehensions about what may happen in the future. Solutions can be found for most problems, even very difficult problems, if one is determined and goes about it in a systematic way. Feeling sorry for oneself or giving up in one’s mind is never the solution.