Often, when a spiritual aspirant progresses on the path of self-realization, the five virtuous tendencies residing within their inner psyche are referred to as the Five Pandavas:

Yudhishthira represents duty, Bhima stands for emotional intensity, Arjuna signifies devotion, Nakula implies discipline, and Sahadeva embodies the spirit of virtuous companionship.

These five are the sons of Pandu, who symbolizes virtue, and Kunti, representing duty. When duty and virtue coalesce, the Five Pandavas are born. Meanwhile, there also stands a warrior, Karna, who is the son of the Sun, or Surya, symbolizing life force. The activity generated in the psyche through this life force (breath) is what Karna represents.

When the breath ceases, the movement within the psyche halts.

Consider Abhimanyu, whose name signifies a fearless mind – a mind devoid of fear. Abhimanyu is the son of Subhadra and Arjuna. Subhadra means one whose foundation is auspicious. Thus, when one’s foundation is auspicious and there is devotion (Arjuna), then Abhimanyu is born.

The mind of a person who practices spiritual disciplines eventually becomes fearless. This fearless mind, undaunted, operates in the entire world. However, the world conceals Dronacharya, symbolizing duality. This duality, which is constantly creating traps in the world, attempts to ensnare the spiritual aspirant repeatedly. The aspirant is immortal and invincible and doesn’t get ensnared, but their fearless mind, referred to as Abhimanyu, fearlessly penetrates these traps.

Even if the mind is noble, it is, after all, just the mind. Its knowledge has always been imperfect. Complete knowledge comes from discernment, not the mind. Therefore, the mind, poor thing, with its incomplete knowledge, falls into the trap and is destroyed.

With the death of the mind, the illusion (moha) in the spiritual aspirant begins to shatter. The family that the aspirant had considered their own betrayed them? It’s all an illusion. Nobody belongs to anyone. The spiritual aspirant understands this. The greatest sorrow is not Abhimanyu’s death, but who killed him? His own people did.

Those whom the spiritual aspirant considered their own throughout their life, today the aspirant’s attachment to them has shattered. There is anger towards duality. In this shattered illusion, a resolution is taken. What is it? How is it?

It is this – to kill Jayadratha before sunset. That is, to eradicate the hostile tendencies from within before the cessation of breath. The general belief here is that sunset refers to the setting of the physical sun, but here, the sun symbolizes breath. Thus, the setting of the sun is the cessation of breath, which signifies death. Arjuna declares that he will kill Jayadratha before his breath ceases, or else he will die.

This isn’t only Arjuna, every yogi does this. The vow to eradicate all evils from the psyche before the cessation of breath is equivalent to Arjuna’s vow to kill Jayadratha. There is nothing wrong in this. Isn’t it that every spiritual aspirant wishes to eradicate these hostile tendencies before the cessation of breath? That’s what Arjuna, the devoted spiritual aspirant, did.