In the previous episode, we had witnessed the Raaja-Suya Yaaga getting completed as per all the protocols and Yudishtra had done an extremely good job in executing it. Of course, not to forget – Bhagawan Krishna’s divine presence and Anugraha, the Raaja-Suya Yaaga went on successfully and during the course of the offering, we had also witnessed Sishupaala being killed as well. As Sishupaala completed his hundredth’s mistake, Bhagawan Krishna employed His Chakra-Aayudha to finish him off, thus, sending him straight to Vaikunta, liberating him from Sage Sanaka’s curse. Meanwhile after the Yaaga was over, Duryodhana and Co. who were also part of the function, wanted to stay back at Indraprastha for a few more days to observe the beauty of the place. As planned, Duryodhana goes around the palace and is wonderstruck upon seeing its beauty! The craftiness with which it was built, stunned Duryodhana beyond words! He did not have words to describe the beauty of the Indraprastha palace. However, instead of appreciating and congratulating Yudishtra for this, jealousy and anger were burning inside Duryodhana as he couldn’t digest Yudishtra’s meteoric rise as a righteous king. Duryodhana was extremely concerned that Yudishtra would excel beyond him and King Dhridiraashtra in terms of name and fame.
As Duryodhana was walking along, there seemed like a wall in between the passage, however, as he went closer, there was no wall there! However, at another place, the passage seemed to go on, but as Duryodhana went ahead, there was a wall, upon which he banged his head! Similarly, it seemed that there was a pond full of water at a distance, but when Duryodhana went closer to it, he found that there was neither a pond nor any water! It was totally dry! It was a beautiful mirage and a 3-D projection! However, at one place, it seemed to be completely dry and unfortunately when Duryodhana walked through it, there was a pond of water and accidentally put his feet into it! Finally, at one point, Duryodhana had accidentally fallen into a place where there was an abundant amount of water! The place through which he was walking through, was extremely beautiful and rapturous as it caught Duryodhana’s eye so much. Gazing at the beauty thus, Duryodhana was walking without seeing what was in front of him! Finally, the passage ended into a pool and he accidentally slipped his feet into it. With this, his entire attire got wet.
Now this was a crucial juncture – Upon hearing a sound of someone falling down, Draupati who was in one of the nearby chambers, came out to check what had happened. To her utter amazement, she saw Duryodhana trying to rise on his feet again after getting drenched in the pool of water. As this was happening, Draupati laughed at Duryodhana’s state! She laughed out loudly, which irked Duryodhana even more! On one side, Duryodhana was embarrassed and wasn’t able to talk anything back, and on the other side, he was fuming in anger over Draupati’s act. With his face getting white with shame and anger, Duryodhana rushed out from that spot and immediately left back to Hastinapura along with Duchhaasana and Karna. He couldn’t bare the insult that was meted out to him by Draupati, who made fun of him!
Thus, as Duryodhana fumes and goes back to Hastinapura, we enter into the all-important “Dyutha-Parva”. As we might know, “Dyutham” means “Gambling”, and it is in this main “Parva” that we’re going to witness the entire proceedings of the gambling game and how things unfolded drastically at Hastinapura. So for today, let us understand up to this point and in the next episode, we shall witness how things unfolded one after the other. Meanwhile, we’ve to see how Duryodhana prepared King Dhridiraashtra for the game of gambling. We shall commence the details of the “Dyutha Parva” from tomorrow! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 