When one reads the Mahabharata through the eyes of Yoga, every myth becomes a mirror of inner evolution.
The story of Ganga and her eight sons—the Vasus—appears as an ancient drama of curse and compassion. Yet within it flows the hidden current of Kundalini Shakti, moving between heaven and earth, spirit and matter.
The eight Vasus were radiant beings of light, guardians of nature’s elemental powers. But once, out of a moment’s desire, they stole the celestial cow Nandini from Rishi Vashishtha’s ashram. The cow was not a mere creature—it was Maya, the wish-fulfilling field of creation itself. By desiring her, the divine energies turned toward possession, and thus, the fall began.
Vashishtha’s curse was not punishment—it was the law of descent. When pure pranic forces seek pleasure rather than purpose, they must enter the limitation of birth. The eight Vasus, once infinite, were destined to experience the density of form.
Ganga, the river of consciousness, took mercy. She agreed to bring them into the world and return them swiftly to her waters.
As she gave birth, each of the first seven sons was immersed back into her flow—symbolizing the seven levels of energy that dissolve into the Source when purified by surrender. These seven represent the seven chakras, released one by one as consciousness ascends beyond them.
But the eighth—Prabhasa, the chief offender—had to remain. He was born as Bhishma, the son who could not be freed. He became the embodied energy, the Kundalini retained—not dissolved, but disciplined. Bhishma’s legendary vow of celibacy mirrors the highest yogic restraint, where desire is transformed into awareness, and energy no longer flows outward but stands still in eternal witnessing.
Thus, in the language of Yoga:
- The eight Vasus are the eight pranic currents that animate creation.
- The theft of Nandini is consciousness seeking fulfillment in the external.
- The curse is embodiment—karma’s necessity.
- Ganga’s flow is the river of purification, where energies return to their origin.
- Bhishma is the enlightened awareness that remains in the world but not of it—the realized yogi who lives amidst dharma yet stays untouched.
Kundalini, too, descends and ascends through these very layers. Seven streams rise and merge back into the ocean of spirit; the eighth, the witnessing consciousness, abides on earth as the dharmic flame.
When one reads this story not as history but as inner scripture, Bhishma’s silence on the bed of arrows becomes the silence of the awakened mind—pierced by the arrows of karma yet unmoved by pain, waiting only for the auspicious hour to return to the Eternal Ganga.
Demystifying Kundalini 