We’re at a critical juncture wherein Draupati finally opens up to her husband Yudishtra over his alleged silence when the entire “Adharma” was unfolding right in front of everybody’s eyes at Hastinapura. Till this point, for some reason, Draupati had decided to remain quiet and had burning questions in her mind. Even though Bhagawan Krishna tried to dose her anger and frustration down to some extent, it really didn’t bear much result. Sage Maarkandeya too tried his best by sending a message of being patient, but that too seemed to have not worked well with Draupati. As everyone opined to be patient, this only fuelled more anger inside Draupati. For how long will she be patient? What is the solution to this problem? Is “silence” over “Adharma” the solution that a “Kshatrya” goes after? Is this not an act of a coward who is not having the ability to fight back? Thus, Draupati pours out all her questions that were boiling in her mind all these days and Yudishtra had to bear the brunt of Draupati’s anger.
Of course, we cannot discount Draupati’s anger just like that. She has a valid point to make here – How can someone desert her like that when she was subjected to injustice in front of the entire courtroom? If that is the “Dharma” Yudishtra is going to follow, why at all did he marry her? We’ve already seen Sage Maarkandeya pointing fingers at Yudishtra at his alleged acceptance to play the gambling game in the first place. He should have anticipated the disaster that would evolve if he commits himself to the gambling game. Moreover, playing the gambling game is an illegal affair and is against the “Raaja Dharma”. Hence, as we’re seeing here, it is not just Duryodhana and Sahuni who are at fault. Yudishtra is also having his part!
As we’re witnessing this context, we might have an innate question within all of us here, which we shall try to address in today’s episode. The question is very simple – Duryodhana and Sahuni are doing so many wrong things, and yet, not many people complain about it. However, Yudishtra just commits one mistake of accepting to play the gambling game, and the whole world talks about it! Why is this so? We’ve seen this during our previous Ramayana project as well, when Bhagawan Rama committed just one mistake during His childhood days of playing against Manthara and because of which, He had to endure fourteen years of forest life! Why is it that people who are honest and sincere are being blamed and feigned always? Why are people who are perennial wrongdoers getting away easily? Even today this scenario prevails isn’t it? Politicians who are perpetual wrongdoers, escape the law so easily whereas common people like us bear the brunt of it even for a small mistake of negligence! Why is this happening in society at all times?
The answer is simple – There is no use of going after perpetual wrongdoers! Only people who have the intent of following “Dharma” like all of us are in the dock! It is like this – We can never lift and straighten a dog’s tail, can we? Similarly, a student who perpetually is mediocre in his / her studies cannot be pushed beyond an extent to score 100% in the exams isn’t it? Only a student who is studious and systematic by nature can be pushed to score well in an exam, isn’t it? To score well in competitive exams, the student should have the intent and the interest to study and secure high marks, isn’t it? Similar is the case with Yudishtra here as well. Yudishtra has the intent to follow the path of “Dharma” meticulously, doesn’t he? It is only Yudishtra who can be pushed and motivated further to walk the path, no matter whatever obstacles come by. This is why we witness an enormous number of sages queing up to meet Yudishtra one after the other, and we’re going to witness all this in our coming episodes.
Thus, the point here is that Yudishtra is meticulously making efforts to follow the path of “Dharma”, no matter whatever obstacle comes by. In fact, it is only due to the “Dharma” that he should not go back from his “Shabadhams” that he had taken earlier, Yudishtra had to keep quiet when Draupati was being insulted in the public courtroom. We’ve seen this earlier as well. It is not that Yudishtra had an addiction towards gambling and he just went with the flow of it, without bothering whatever happened to his wife. He perfectly knew that disasters were unfolding one after the other, but he chose to remain silent at that critical point, only to safeguard his “Dharma” of remaining silent. Draupati, of course, did not understand this point in-depth, and this is the reason she is shouting at Yudishtra now.
So for today, let us understand this point very clearly and in the next episode, we shall see how Yudishtra explains his stance to Draupati, which is a beautiful accord in itself! There are a lot of aspects of “Dharma” that are hidden in what Yudishtra is going to talk! Stay tuned for an interesting accord! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 