In the previous episode, we had witnessed how the plan was going in favour of Sahuni and Duryodhana as Yudishtra accepted the invitation extended by King Dhridiraashtra through Vidura. Even though Yudishtra had a detailed deliberation with Vidura, as things would have it, Yudishtra ended up accepting the invitation, because he had to protect his “Shabadham” of not hurting anyone, and also had to pertain to the “Raaja-Dharma” of giving reciprocal respect to a king. Thus, the stage was set for the game and Vidura left Indraprastha with a pained heart, knowing where this game is going to take the kingdom to! At every instance till that point, Yudishtra would normally have the final consultation with Bhagawan Krishna before making the final call, but strangely this time around, Bhagawan Krishna was entirely missing in the picture! He had apparently gone to the “Shaalva Desha” for a war and had become unreachable to Yudishtra and Co. This was a perfect move by Bhagawan Krishna, as He had vowed to destroy the root of “Adharma” in this world. If He had to achieve that, He had to allow this gambling game to go ahead without His intervention. If He had been with Yudishtra at that point, certainly He would have been forced to advise Yudishtra not to go for it, and Duryodhana would have never committed all the crimes that he had to! This is how Bhagawan’s divine “Leela” works! At some instances it would seem as if Bhagawan is silently favouring the bad, but at the end, He would return it with interest and protect “Dharma”. This is a perfect example of the same! Now let us see what unfolded next!
As Vidura leaves, Yudishtra prepares himself to commence his journey towards Hastinapura along with his brothers and Draupati. Yudishtra gives all the “Dhaanam” to the Brahmins in the kingdom before he embarks his journey, as per the “Raaja-Dharma”. With the divine blessings of the Brahmins, Yudishtra makes his way to Hastinapura and reaches the palace in a short while. As the Paandavas reach Hastinapura, they start meeting all the great Maharishis in the palace and in the surroundings. With their divine “Anugraha”, Yudishtra goes straight to King Dhridiraashtra’s chamber, meets him and seeks his “Anugraha”. Subsequently, he goes to Gaandhaari and seeks her “Anugraha”. Next comes Vidura – As all of us know, Vidura blesses Yudishtra with the strength and resolve to face any adversities that might come through on the way to protect “Dharma”. Vidura’s sole interest is “Dharma” and nothing else as we’ve witnessed earlier as well. Hence, his “Anugraha” was directed in that way.
Finally after meeting all the others including Bhishmachaarya, Guru Dhronaachaarya, etc. Yudishtra and Co. make their way to the courtroom. King Dhridiraashtra, Bhishmachaarya, Guru Dhronaachaarya, Sage Kripachaarya, and all the other seniors also slowly assemble at the courtroom. Sahuni and Duryodhana take their respective places, and Yudishtra along with his brothers takes his place that was allotted for him. As people were slowly assembling, Yudishtra also tries to make a last-ditch attempt to prevent this game from going forward. In the sidelines of all the arrangements that were going on, Yudishtra meets Sahuni and says thus, “Oh Sahuni uncle! Why should we play this illegal game in front of the entire courtroom? Isn’t it against “Raaja-Dharma”? If we play this game here, there would be so much negative vibrations and negative thoughts against each other. We would end up losing our peace of mind completely and enmity would start brewing! Hence, even now it is not too late! Let us stop this immediately!”
As Yudishtra says thus, Sahuni smartly replies back: “OH Yudishtra! All the arrangements are made and we’re waiting for you to start the game. The dice are here in front of you! You may go ahead, roll them and see if you can win it! If you win, you might be able to become rich extremely fast!” This answer from Sahuni was not very convincing for Yudishtra. He replies back thus, “Oh Sahuni! Why are you talking so high of this illegal business? If I want to make money and wealth, I can do it in so many other legitimate ways. I do not need to make money through this illegal way. Moreover, I’ve always heard that Dyutam is one of the worst things that a king can get into. It is addictive and dangerous. Why are you speaking so high of this illegal game? All of us are excellently trained in various aspects of warfare like bow and arrow, swords, “Gatha”, etc. Hence, as confident “Kshatrya” princes and kings, we should involve ourselves in those kinds of games rather than these! Moreover, such practices would not be appreciated by elders and Maharishis!”
As Yudishtra explains his stance thus, Sahuni gets a bit irritated! He replies back thus, “Oh Yudishtra! Could you please stop all your “Vedanta”? Now this is not the time for your advice! This is the time to play the game and see who wins. It is not fair on your part to keep on saying that Maharishis wouldn’t accept this practice, and elders would scold! Who are they? Are they in the contemporary world? They do not know the practicality and they are in an imaginary world! Hence let us start the game without wasting any more time!” This is exactly how all of us respond when someone renders some important advice to us pertaining to certain aspects of “Dharma”! If someone is trying to mend our way, we would immediately discard their advice saying that there is a “generation gap”, isn’t it? This is exactly what Sahuni is also saying to Yudishtra!
Moreover, we should also understand one important point from Yudishtra’s accord – We should never do any actions that elders and Maharishis discourage us from doing! This is something that is highlighted across the Sanaatana Dharma literature at various points. We’ve seen this during our previous Ramayana project as well. Ravana did something that wasn’t recommended by elders. Vibhishana tried to stop him, but in vain. Ravana had to meet a ghastly end because of what he did to Bhagawan Rama. Similarly here also, Duryodhana and Sahuni are discarding Yudishtra’s golden words of “Dharma” and are trying to push him into this illegal game. At some points in time, words of wisdom (“Vedanta”) might be very painful and we might be unable to accept those. However, if we take that effort to understand the Vedanta and if we try to follow it in our lives, we would start experiencing real happiness as time progresses.
So for today, let us understand up to this point, as Yudishtra and the others take their respective places! The last-ditch attempt of Yudishtra also seems to be on the failing route! In the next episode we shall find this out in detail as we move on further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 