In the previous episode, we had witnessed Bhagawan Krishna making a startling revelation to Arjuna that both of them are none other than the “Nara-Narayana” combine of the Bhadrinatha Kshetra. “Nara” is the human being who is the greatest disciple of “Narayana” who is Bhagawan Vishnu Himself. Thus, it is this “Nara-Narayana” combine who had reincarnated in this world as Arjuna and Bhagawan Krishna respectively. It is for this reason, Arjuna was sticking on to Bhagawan Krishna constantly at every instance in the entire Mahabharata story. In fact, we’re going to witness later during the Kurukshetra war episodes that at one point, Bhagawan Krishna Himself feels worried that He cannot imagine a world wherein He has to spend His days without Arjuna, and hence for this reason alone, He worked hard to protect Arjuna at any cost! Thus, such is the relationship between Arjuna and Bhagawan Krishna and we’ve witnessed this close bonding in the past as well.
Now coming back to the current context thus, Bhagawan Krishna feels extremely bad and guilty that He couldn’t respond on time to save Yudishtra and Co. He also feels bad that He let down Draupati at a time when she needed His “Anugraha” the most. Even though Bhagawan Krishna saved her invisibly by extending her saree length, Bhagawan Krishna thinks that this is just not enough! For an ardent devotee like Draupati and the Paandavas, Bhagawan Krishna feels that He should be with them 24*7 physically as well, to guide and protect them! Such is Bhagawan’s intention towards ardent devotees and this is a great lesson for all of us to learn with regards to “Bhakti” and “Sharanaagathi”. If we’re true to Bhagawan and surrender to His divine lotus feet, many a time we’ve witnessed that Bhagawan would completely take care of us in all ways. This is a perfect example of how Bhagawan takes care of His Bhaktas who exhibit complete surrender. If Bhagawan has to feel bad that He did not do enough to protect the Bhakta, we can imagine the extent to which Arjuna and Draupati were extremely pure in their heart and devotion towards Bhagawan. This is what we’ve to slowly inculcate in us – We should realize that Bhagawan is the ultimate savior of all of us, and we should take steps to mend our ways and direct ourselves towards Him! Of course, saying this is very easy, but it might not be that easy to do it practically! Our egos and arrogance would come to the fore and prevent us from moving forward towards Bhagawan! This is where we’ve to exhibit control over our mind and our senses. Bhagawan Krishna Himself is going to talk about this in a great detail in His Bhagawad Gita to Arjuna, and we shall witness this point in detail during that context. Hence, as ardent Bhaktas of Bhagawan Krishna, let us start thinking about this important point and let us start taking baby steps towards achieving our goal.
As Arjuna finishes his accord thus, it is now Draupati’s turn to welcome Bhagawan Krishna and sing in praise of Him. But here is a small difference – As Draupati does so, unlike Arjuna, she doesn’t exhibit complete surrender. She was having that little bit of thought that Duryodhana and Co. have to be avenged somehow for what they had done to her and to her husbands. This was burning within her right from the day when she was physically assaulted by Duchhaasana, and even to this day when Bhagawan arrives to meet her, she doesn’t relent from her stance. This is where many of us make mistakes – If we’re completely surrendering to Bhagawan, we should not have any pre-conditions within us. We should give ourselves 100% to His divine lotus feet. Draupati couldn’t do this – Of course, she surrendered herself to Bhagawan, but she couldn’t get over the fact that she was insulted in the public. In the sidelines of her “Stothram” towards Bhagawan, she requested Him to help her and her husbands avenge the insult that Duryodhana had meted out to them!
This is a big problem here – Of course, at that stage, Bhagawan calmly replies back to her that He would definitely take it upon Himself to seek that revenge and to punish Duryodhana for his crime, but within His heart, Bhagawan wasn’t really happy with Draupati. He felt that Draupati was a little opportunistic and her surrender wasn’t unconditional. Bhagawan Krishna of course guided her until the end and He tried His best to protect her at all instances of her problems, but still, something kept Him at bay! This is a very important point and needs to be discussed in a bit of detail. What makes Bhagawan Krishna really happy with His Bhaktas? This is the question that we should discuss. Let us do this in the next episode! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 