Articles for Saadhana

The other day a woman came here. “I and my husband, we were carrying on well. We had a business. I also used to drive, many, many years back. So in Chennai, I was driving. And suddenly I found my husband coming in a car from the opposite direction and a woman is seated by his side. It was a very traumatic sight for me.”, she says. Suppose something happens, what will you do?

In Ramayana we have the sweet brotherhood. But in Mahabharata the situation became different. It is a change in a yuga. And now we are in Kaliyuga. Situations have worsened. What shall we do? These are the questions raised in VedaVyasa's mind, to which he gives a beautiful and a comprehensive answer. Valmiki started with the epic narrations, where the spiritual and the fundamental truths and substratum of life and world came to the rescue in a very functional, interactional and applicational manner, relevance. Now, Mahabharata climaxes and fulfills the whole epic process. There is nothing in Mahabharata which does not amply cover your complex life, challenging life in this world.

I am reading the Sabha Parva of Mahabharatam. You know, I am a very impatient reader. I cannot read and I am a very fast reader. But I have to get at the details of everything. So it becomes very difficult for me. Nevertheless, I have to do the job. That itself is a conflict and a challenge for me.

So, in the Sabha Parva, right from the beginning, Dhuryodhana, victimized by greed, intolerance, impatience, jealousy and what not, he was burning with jealousy. I was telling somebody, if you want to treat your jealous mind, read the portion from Sabha Parva on Dhuryodhana. Indraprastha was a barren land. That was intentionally given to Yudhishthira team. They (Yudhishtira) went there, struggled and strove hard, ultimately had stupendous, enviable progress. Yudhishthira performed Rajasuya Yaga. Krishna stayed with them for a while and went. Dhuryodhana along with Shakuni, his uncle, stayed there to see how beautiful and glorious the palace was, the Sabha Griha was. When he was moving about, in some places he found there was water. So, he lifted his dhoti. Actually, there was no water. In another place he thought it was ordinary floor and then he walked, then he was steeped in water. In one place he thought there was a door and it was actually a glass, and he hit, completely he was bruised. In another place it was the reverse. All these things happened and some of the people were laughing also and smiling. Yudhishthira coolly sent fresh dress for him to wear.

Now, after seeing all these things, Dhuryodhana says, “I cannot live at all. All this prosperity should belong to me and it belongs. I cannot tolerate it. I cannot! Either the enemies should be liquidated and everything should come to me or I am going to commit suicide.”  

Then Shakuni was giving him some relief and consolation saying that, “Don't say, so many people love you, regard you.”, and all that.

“We are there, I am also there. These Pandavas cannot be vanquished by normal process. We cannot attack them as we do the enemies. As long as Krishna is there they are unconquerable. The only way will be to adopt a stealthy method and that is by inviting them for a dice play. Yudhishthira has got a flair and a weakness for dice game. So when he is invited, he will come. There is nobody on earth to defeat me. I know the stealthy play. So the best would be to construct a dice palace.”

They went and proposed it to Dhritarashtra, the blind king. He refused. He was not inclined. Then Dhuryodhana spoke quite a lot and he said, “I am going to commit suicide, abandon my life.” Shakuni also explained the consequences and also the prospects. Finally, Dhritarashtra gave permission. The dice palace was made and Yudhishthira was invited.

Right from the beginning, it was stealth, wrong, and what not! Dhuryodhana said, “I will not play. In my place, Shakuni will play.”

(Yudhishtira said) “It is not at all right that one substitutes another in the form of play. Nevertheless, I accept it.”

Like that it went on and ultimately, one after the other Yudhishthira started losing, losing, losing. Shakuni started saying, “Jitam, Jitam, I have won, I have won.” A number of people were there, Dhritarashtra was there, Gandhari was there. All the people were assembled there. In such a place ultimately, he staked himself, lost. Thereafter, Yudhishthira said, “I have nothing more.”

(Shakuni said) “Yes, you have Draupadi there.” So Draupadi also was staked. 

The way he (Yudhishtira) describes Draupadi before staking, one should read it. “She is such a wonderful woman. Moderate height with a very narrow waist and there is a beautiful smell when she sweats.” and so many things he speaks. Ultimately, Draupadi also was lost. And they were waiting for that moment.

Instantly Dhuryodhana sends Pratikāmi to where Draupadi was. Draupadi was having her monthly period and she was remaining at a distance, away from the others.

Pratikāmi went and said, “You have been asked to come there to the Kuru assembly because you have been won over and you have been a dāsi.”

She said, “What?”

“Yes, your husband staked you.”

“He did not have anything to stake?”

“No. He staked everything that he had in the form of prosperity and so many items of fortune, then one after the other the brothers were staked and ultimately he staked himself, thereafter he staked you.”

She said, “Go and find out very clearly, whether he staked himself first and me later or what?”

He went back and said, “Yes this is the sequence.”

“Okay. How can a king who had lost himself stake me? So I don't accept the fact that I have become a slave before you. You go and get a reply.”

Dhuryodhana was excited and he said, “This fellow will not take my mission, fulfill my mission. Dushasana, you go.”

Dushasana went there. Draupadi was not in a mood to accept what had happened. So there was a use of force. He first of all caught hold of her hair and started pulling, pulling.

Right from that time, Draupadi was very, very vocal. She was always insisting upon “Don't do this - don't do this. Give me an answer to my question, give me an answer to my question.”

You can imagine VedaVyasa spends quite a number of verses to narrate what all things happened in the open assembly.

Meanwhile, Yudhishthira had sent a message to Draupadi saying that, “I know that you are having your monthly period. Wear a single dress and come to the assembly. Take refuge, generally stand by the side of elders. Let the whole assembly see what is the extent of cruelty that will be inflicted upon you.” This is the message Yudhishthira had already sent.

So she came and then the argument started, started. There was nobody to answer. Many, many things happened. What concerns me while reading it is that, this was not a moment’s torture. Many people may perhaps think that Draupadi's dress was pulled and suddenly Hari came and relieved and all that. No! It must have lingered for at least two or three hours. Draupadi was on the floor. Initially the hair was pulled. Thereafter the dress was pulled. She leaves both her hands, lifts up and then calls, “Lord Hari - Lord Hari.” And finally, one after the other colorful dress appeared on her body. And Dushasana was pulling and pulling and pulling and pulling. It was heaped - heaped, several heaps. Ultimately, there was only one way. What is that? He got tired and he withdrew in all shame, reluctance, and to the ridicule of the entire assembly. This is what happened.

Now, we are all complaining about God is not helping us in distress. You know the imagination is very much in my head. Draupadi was given only a transitory relief. What is that relief? Dress was inexhaustible. That's all. But the cruelty did not abate. Thereafter, the question was raised. Nobody was there to answer. She started insisting upon an answer for her question. “Tell me whether I am a Dāsi or not. There are so many people, elders here, wise people, so many are there. So give me an answer.”

Bhishma says, “Dharma is very-very subtle and abstruse. This is a time when whatever the strong does becomes Dharma and whatever the weak does becomes Adharma. Now, this is a game which Yudhishthira had accepted and he started staking everything out of his own accord. Will he stand up and say, that I only did it in play. I did not mean it in reality? Will he be prepared to say? He will not say that. He will standby whatever he has said. So I cannot say at all.”

Can women be staked at all in a game of dice? That also was questioned. Bhima was raising a question to his brother. “There were Dāsis already in the palace. But whenever there was a game of dice, they did not use them. Even immoral women were there. But none of them were staked. Why is it that, my dear brother, you staked Druapadi? What is this? Where is it written?” No answer. No answer.

Though Bhishma said, “I acknowledge your dispute but I am not able to give you a verdict. The whole fate, the whole plight had been clamped by Yudhishthira. So, Yudhishthira should speak.”

Mind you, this lady is being pulled and pushed there, all this while. What do you say about it, you devotees and other people? The moment we have a distress, instantly God should appear and relieve it in a matter of half a second or quarter second. No! It did not! It did not happen! She was being tortured, tortured, tortured. She continued to lament, she continued to insist upon, insist upon, insist upon. And finally, matters came to a climax.

Dhuryodhana said, “Let all of you say that Yudhishthira is not our leader and Lord. If you say this, I can relieve her.”

Now, Arjuna said, “No. Till Yudhishthira lost himself in the game, he was our Lord. Now, all of us are slaves before you. If there is a Lord for us, who is that? You yourself will have to say.” he said.

Can you imagine? Do you have the power of imagination? In such a crucial moment, absolutely critical, excruciating situation, seeing their wife being dragged, dragged, tortured, inflicted, the words that come out of Arjuna, it is this.

In between Bhima got so angry, he said, “What is it that you have done? Even Dāsis are not staked and you staked Pānchali. Sahadeva bring fire. I will burn his hands, both the hands.”

Then Arjuna interfered and consoled him. Bhima repents saying that, “But for your interference, I would have burnt Yudhishthira's hands.”

All these things are taking place in the palace and quite a number of people are there, were there. I don't know whether our society is so bad today. If such an assembly was there, and this kind of a scene was enacted, I don't think all the people would tolerate it.

Vikarna was one figure who came up and said, “Why are you keeping quiet, elderly people? If all of you keep quiet, I shall tell you what is my feeling.” And he was saying, Draupadi has five husbands. Yudhishthira alone cannot stake her. Moreover, he had staked himself and lost. Being so he had no right to stake Draupadi.”

Now, Draupadi's argument was that, “If I was not surviving with freedom, why did Shakuni say you stake me, you stake Draupadi? So according to the opponent's view itself, I was surviving with my freedom. I stand upon my freedom. I only want this assembly to say, whether I am won over by the opponents not. Give me an answer.”

So it was an absolutely indefinite argument. No answer even today has been given. When Yudhishthira was asked to say, he kept quiet.

And finally Karna interferes to say, “This lady has no claim at all. She is already the wife of five husbands. A woman can have only one husband, ‘eka pati’. Because she is not, she does not deserve to be treated as anybody at all. Whether it is with single dress or with no dress, it does not matter at all. So Dushasana, get her clothes, get the clothes of the husbands also.”

Then Yudhishthira and party, they removed their uttareeya and kept it on the stage and the others, all of them followed. And finally Draupadi's sari was again pulled to disrobe her.

So much took place. I would like you to think about it. Let us be very clear. It is true that she had inexhaustible dress but the crisis was not redressed at all.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.