In the previous episode, we had witnessed Bhagawan Krishna accepting Yudishtra’s request to travel to Hastinapura and broker peace between the two rival camps. As Yudishtra thinks this, Bhagawan Krishna immediately responds to Yudishtra positively as Bhagawan cannot turn down any request that comes from an ardent devotee and an ardent follower of “Dharma”. Even though Bhagawan Krishna knows clearly that there is no use of such attempts, He cannot turn down Yudishtra’s request. This is the significance of a “Bhakta”. Even if things aren’t really possible, Bhagawan comes down to the level of the “Bhakta” to give it a try if the “Bhakta” really wants this to happen. In this way, Bhagawan Krishna prepares Himself to travel to Hastinapura and as He does so, He asks Yudishtra for the message that he wants to convey through this peace talk attempt. For this, Yudishtra’s message is loud and clear – Return back Indraprastha amicably and the entire problem would get resolved on its own. If not the entire kingdom, atleast return five villages that come under Indraprastha and still we would be happy!
Moving on thus, Yudishtra lists out the five villages that he is asking for from Duryodhana. Yudishtra says thus, “Oh Bhagawan Krishna! Please ask for these five places atleast, if not for the entire kingdom – Avisthalam, Vrikasthalam, Maakandhi, Vaaranaavatham and along with these four, Duryodhana can choose any other place of his choice and hand it over to us!” Readers should remember that this is the same “Vaaranaavatham” wherein the wax palace was built by Duryodhana to burn down the Paandavas earlier. Yudishtra concludes thus, “Oh Bhagawan Krishna! Please tell Duryodhana that if he can give us these five places, it is more than enough for me. I don’t even want the entire Indraprastha kingdom!” Saying thus, Yudishtra now explains a very important point to be conveyed to Duryodhana. He says, “Oh Bhagawan Krishna! Please tell this to Duryodhana clearly as my message – Oh Duryodhana! If you are being taken over by greed, you will lose your intellect completely! If you lose your intellect, you will lose the sense of inhibition when you’re doing an act that pertains to “Adharma”. The moment you lose this sense of inhibition completely, there is no stopping from any source to perform any kind of “Adharmic” act in this world!”
This is a very important point that Yudishtra is explaining here, which is applicable to all of us as well! For instance, we’re witnessing these useless politicians in our country who are looting poor people’s wealth through various means of corruption, isn’t it? How do these listless politicians who do not even have the basic educational qualifications make crores and crores of money so easily by cheating all of us? The first thing that makes them go behind truckloads of money is greed! With more and more greed, these politicians lose their intellect (if at all they have one)! Subsequently, if they lose their intellect, or if they do not have any intellect of their own (true in most cases), they lose that inhibition and conscience when they touch public money with their dreaded hands! Normally if we’re stealing others’ property, our conscience would inhibit us from doing so, isn’t it? Our conscience would alert us that whatever we’re doing is a gross mistake and we would have to face a huge punishment sooner or later, isn’t it? Do these politicians have such conscience in them even for a moment? The answer is a big “No”! Hence, Yudishtra’s third step is also validated! The moment this conscience is lost, automatically the inhibition goes for a toss, and these listless politicians indulge in large-scale corruption across the country!
Now we can see how Yudishtra’s words are coming true in today’s context too. This not only applies to our politicians but also for us of course in several other ways! Hence, the bottomline that Yudishtra explains is very simple – Do not desire for others’ property! Now the question here is that, are we following Yudishtra’s advice? For today, let us introspect within ourselves, and we shall wait till the next episode to continue this discussion further! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 