Bhagavatam study 34 01.7.44-51 Differences in opinion arise from differences in focus of perception

Thank you. Draupadi is here speaking to Arjuna especially.
And she is telling Arjuna has brought Ashwathama bound and flung him in front of her in keeping with his promise that he would bring for her the killer of her sons. But Draupadi on seeing him becomes full with compassion and rather than extracting vengeance, she wants Arjuna to release him and to forgive him. And she is reminding him here of their obligation to Drona and indirectly to his family.
The word obligation, we may say I’m obliged to you. That means I’m not just thankful to you, but I’m bound to do something for you in return for what you have done for me. That is the meaning of obligation.
I’m obliged to you. So here, it’s being spoken here. The secrets of Dhanurveda that you learned, so visarga.
So visarga means here, in this case, it’s releasing. So the secrets of archery, you learn from him, how to release it, how to control it, upasamyamya, controlling it, astragramas of various kinds, chabhavata. You learn shikshito yadanugrahat.
It is by his mercy that you learned all this. So when you learned it by his mercy, how can you forget that now? How can you neglect that now? We should be grateful to him and part of that gratitude should be expressed towards his son also. Draupadi is, she’s obviously proud of Arjuna.
He was the world’s greatest archer. It was by his archery skills that he had won her hand in the Swayamvar. And yet, she’s stating here that your archery skills, you did not get them automatically.
You got them anugrahat by his mercy. He taught you those skills and therefore, you should be, you cannot punish his son. That’s the point which she’s going to make over here.
Next text, text 45. So, Drona, she’s referring to him in a very respectful sense as Bhagwan. He’s a very respectable, worshipable person.
He is living on in the form of his praja. Praja, the word is often used to refer to citizens. A king has his praja.
As is the king, so will be the citizens. That is praja. But the word praja also refers, is connected with the word ja.
Ja is to born. That root means, so praja means the son. So praja rupena vartate means that this sage, that this king, that Drona lives on through his son.
It is the father lives on through his son in general. And in this specific case, then there is a much more tangible meaning of this, that tasyatmano ardham patnyaste. So, a wife is considered to be the half of her husband.
So, she’s often called a better half. And also, there are depictions of, say for example, Shiva and Parvati together in one form, where the combined form half is masculine, the other is feminine. That indicates that the husband and wife are together now.
The wife is called the ardhangini. The half of the body of the husband. They are truly united together.
And tasyatmano ardham patnyaste. So, his wife, who is like his half, she nanvagad virasuh krupi. She did not undergo, she continued to exist.
She did not undergo sati because virasuh krupi. Krupi, his wife, she lived on because she felt her husband lives on as her son. So, in a very tangible sense, not just in a metaphysical sense, in a conceptual sense that the father lives on through the son, but in the practical sense, for his wife, now the shelter was her son.
And that’s why she had lived on. She had not gone sati. And he says, so she goes on and gives her arguments here in 46 texts.
Oh, Arjuna, you are dharmagya. You know the principles of dharma and you are mahabhaga. You are fortunate.
So, when you are fortunate, you should not do an action which will bring misfortune upon you. That is the implication here. And adharmic action will sooner or later bring misfortune.
So, tad sam dharmagya mahabhaga. Oh, Arjuna, you who are fortunate, bhavadbir gauravam kulam. That you are born in the glorious dynasty, gauravam kulam, vrjinam narhati praptam, pujyam vanyam abhikshanashah.
So, vrjinam, you should not do that which will cause pain, praptam, which will bring pain upon those who are pujyam vanyam, those who are worshipable and respectable, abhikshanashah. They are always respectable to us. So, Drona and his family is always respectable to us and we should not cause pain to them.
So, especially here, Draupadi is thinking of Krupi. In the patriarchal culture, often women form much closer bonds than they might otherwise. So, Draupadi, at one level, she is thinking of her own plight that she has lost her son, her sons.
But then she is also thinking of Krupi and she is thinking that she has already lost her husband. At least I have my husband. I have not one husband, five husbands I have.
Krupi has already lost her husband and now if she loses her son also, what will be her plight? So, she doesn’t want her to undergo that plight and she is pointing out that they are always respectable to us irrespective of whatever actions they have done. Their family is respectable to us and we should not cause pain to them when it is avoidable. Indirectly, there is an implication that already pain has been caused because Drona has been killed but at least now further pain should not be caused by killing Drona’s son.
And she makes that point more explicit in the next verse, text 47. यथा हम्रत वच्चारता रोधिम्य अश्रुमुखीमुहुम् मा रोधीत अस्यजननी Don’t make his mother cry. अस्यजननी Don’t make his mother cry.
रोधीत गौतमी पतिदेवता So, पतिदेवता She is a chaste wife. She considered Gautami, she considered her to be, so गौतमी पतिदेवता She who considered Gautami, Drona to be her husband, to be like God. So, don’t make her cry further now.
She has already lost her husband. यथा हम्रत वच्चारता So, just as I have now, मृतवच्चारता वच्चा was not वच्चारता. It’s वच्चा.
That वच्चा is son. So, मृतवच्चा, my son is dead and I am aggrieved, आर्ता, I am distressed. Just as I am distressed, यथा हम्रत वच्चारता रोधिम्य अश्रमुखमुखीमुखु And I am filled with tears.
And let’s not cause similar tears for her. It’s different people can respond to grief in different ways. And often the way they respond to grief reveals the nature of their character.
So, sometimes we may say that the way I have been made to cry or the way my loved ones have been made to cry, I will make my opponents and their loved ones cry in the same way. So, instead here, especially because Drona is a Brahmana and Brahmanas are to be respected by Kshatriyas, keeping that foremost in mind, Draupadi is telling Arjuna that don’t make Krupi cry the way I am crying. Now, don’t let her have to be bereaved of her son and suffer the unbearable agony of losing her son also the way I have been afflicted by this agony.
So, here our forgiving, non-vengeful, sensitive nature is being very graphically depicted. Further, text 48, she goes on. यही कोपितं ब्रह्मकुलं राजन्येर अजितात्मभी तत्कुलं प्रदहत्याशु सानुबन्धं शुचार्पितं यही कोपितं ब्रह्मकुलं If the Brahmakula, if a Brahmana dynasty becomes angry with us, कोपितं राजन्येर अजितात्मभी the royal dynasty, if the kings, the rulers being uncontrolled, being impulsive, if they act in a violent way and they anger the Brahmanas, then तत्कुलं प्रदहत्याशु, that whole dynasty can be destroyed, सानुबन्धं शुचार्पितं along with that whole dynasty, they will be destroyed along with their family members, शुचार्पितं for having put the Brahmanas in distress.
So the point being made over here is that Arjuna should not agitate the Brahmana dynasty. Even Yudhishthir, he felt great reservation, compunction, remorse after Drona had been killed. He did not exhibit that kind of remorse, although he was a Dharmagya, but other warriors were killed because he knew that Drona was a Brahmana.
So earlier we see that Draupadi said that, I do not want their family to feel the same kind of pain that I have felt. Now somebody would argue that, but then couldn’t she have thought of the same way for Gandhari? You know that Gandhari was going to feel pain because her sons were going to die and if she had that much sensitivity for others’ pains, she could have just avoided, she could have told her husband not to fight the war itself. So why did she do that? Even we could say that there were Duryodhana’s widows who would also have to suffer because Duryodhana’s sons had been killed.
Yes, that is true. But there is a difference. Here the point is not just of not being non-vengeful.
The point is of being non-vengeful towards Brahmanas. Amongst Kshatriyas, war is a fact of life. And when a princess marries into a Kshatriya family, she knows that along with the along with the prestige of royalty that she gets, she also codes the danger of widowhood at any time.
If her husband goes for a war and does not come back alive in one moment, all their royal opinions can be lost. And that’s, as they say, it’s the risk of the trade. It’s the Kshatriya vocation means that danger.
The king, when the princes are young, prince, masculine, princes are young, at that time when they grow up, they know they have the royal prestige, the royal honor, the royal opulence. But along with that, there is a danger of death at any moment when a war takes place. And even the princes are aware of this, the princesses, the males and females, all the Kshatriyas in the steel, they know that they live under the threat of war.
And war itself cannot be given up, because sometimes it is required for the cause of dharma. But even when such a war is taking place, the Kshatriyas do not usually fight with the Brahmanas. And so here, it is not just non-vengefulness that Draupadi is exhibiting.
She was certain, she certainly, when the Kauravas dishonored her publicly, she herself was furious. And seeing her fury, the Pandavas, and seeing her dishonor, the Pandavas became furious. And they took vows to avenge this dishonor that had been done to their wife.
And they were right in doing so. And there, Draupadi did not say that we should be non-vengeful, because otherwise, if the Kshatriyas are allowed to get away with that kind of barbarous actions, they will become more and more brutal and they will become more and more outrageous in their actions. So that sort of thing definitely needs to be countered, avoided, stopped.
And their violence is required as a fact of life for Kshatriyas. But for others, it is not required. And that is especially for Brahmanas.
We are dealing with Brahmanas. One should not act violently. And Draupadi is making that point that Brahmanas have powers far greater than Kshatriyas.
And if we anger them, then the offense to the Brahmanas, the distress caused to the Brahmanas can rebound on us in very terrible ways. You know, the offense to a Brahmana, that itself is considered one of the most fearful things that can happen to a person. And one should take all precautions against such a thing happening.
So Draupadi is giving various reasons. First reason she gave is that we are grateful to them, to Drona and his family, because he taught you archery skills. Second is that, you know, we shouldn’t, I don’t want, he is the maintainer of his mother, who will take care of her otherwise.
Third reason is that I don’t want his mother to suffer bereavement because of losing a son the way I have lost. Fourth reason she gives is that, actually, we can get very grievous reactions if we perceive her in this course of action. Because they are Brahmanas.
Therefore, she says that you should not kill them. So now, as she has her say, what is the response of others, that is being depicted. And so the camera, the focus moves backwards.
And we say, the Suta Vacha, Suta speaks. That is, Acts 49, Suta Vacha, धर्म्यं न्यायं सकरुणम् निर्वेलिकं समम्महत् राजा धर्म सुतो राज्या प्रत्तिनन्दद् वचोद्विजा So, धर्म्यं न्यायं सकरुणम् So her words were, according to the principles of Dharma, they were according to the principles of justice, and they were filled with compassion. So three laudatory adjectives are used here by Suta Goswami to appreciate the words of Draupadi.
He says, धर्म्यं न्यायं सकरुणम् After speaking this, he goes further, निर्वेलिकं समम्महत् They were निर्वेलिकं There’s no ulterior motive, there’s no duplicity in what she was speaking. It was not that there was some quid pro quid that she would, by doing a favour to Ashwathama, she would be getting a favour in back, in return. So that might be happening in some situations, where we show mercy to someone, we show some favour to someone, and we expect that person to return the favour later.
निर्वेलिकं समम्महत् So in this way, they were glorious words. And it was with, although she was distressed, but still she had spoken these words with an equipoised mind, without being carried away by emotions. राजा धर्म सुतो राज्या So the king, that is Maharaja Yudhishthira, he approved.
So Maharaja Yudhishthira, when he heard these words of Draupadi, he fully supported her words. He seconded her word. Here दुज्या refers to, Siddha Goswami is speaking to the Brahmanas in saying that, Draupadi’s words, he appreciates her words, and he says that they were supported by Maharaja Yudhishthira.
Now, Yudhishthira is, in one sense, among the Pandavas, he was the most soft-hearted. And even when there was offence, he would be inclined towards forgiving the offence and taking the path of minimal confrontation. When after the Rajasuya Yagya, Vyasadev told him that, in future, there is going to be a great war, which will be fought to maintain, to ensure that you remain the king.
So at that time, Yudhishthira took a vow that, you know, I will not speak angrily and I will be utterly impartial as much as possible, so that there will be no dissension. You know, dissension is solved by partiality. So I will be as non-confrontational, as impartial as possible.
And so the point is that, he was of a gentle disposition and when he saw Draupadi speaking such words, he supported her. He seconded those words. And when he spoke thus, Nakula and Sahadev, the two of the youngest Pandavas, the sons of Madri, they also supported her words.
Yudhana Satyaki was among the few other warriors, practically the only warrior apart from the Pandavas and Krishna, who had survived in the Kurukshetra war, because all the other warriors have been killed by Ashwathama in the night slaughter. And so Yudhana, Dhananjaya, Dhananjaya is Arjuna and Bhagavan Devaki Putra. So here the list is given of all those who supported Draupadi.
And others also supported. So it is interesting now here, Bhagavan Devaki Putra, Krishna also supported Draupadi. So Krishna had, just a few verses earlier, Krishna had provoked Arjuna, warning him that he should not show any mercy, he should not deliver Ashwathama and yet here Krishna seems to have changed his stand.
How or why is that? The point to know here is that Krishna, when he was speaking earlier, he was testing and here the test has been completed. Test has been completed means that actually he was trying to see Arjuna would act impulsively and Arjuna had passed the test by not acting impulsively. And Krishna did not want in one sense Arjuna to act vindictively.
And here Krishna reveals that side, that the earlier words were more as a test and not as a intent, were more as a test and not as an instruction. That becomes clear here where Krishna supports Draupadi’s positions, Draupadi’s actions. But then what happens? Takes 51.
At that time he spoke So Amarshita is with anger, he spoke with anger. What did he speak? Who spoke with anger? Bhima. What did Bhima speak? He said that actually it is auspicious, the Shreya, the right thing to do is to kill him.
That is what is recommended. Why? Because He said what he did was not good for his master Duryodhana was not pleased by his actions. Nor did he do anything for his own good.
For a Brahmana to act un-Brahmanically and kill warriors is utterly unbecoming. So it is not good for him also. Yohan Suptanshishun Vratha.
He has killed Suptanshishun Vratha. Waste. What did he achieve? He was not changing, he was not going to change anything.
The Pandavas had already won the war and his father whose death he was grieving, his father is not going to come back. So what is he going to achieve by this murder? He has achieved nothing at all. So in this way, he has actually achieved nothing.
He has Vratha, he has been killed. So Bhima is in general an angry person and he was the most furious among all the Pandavas when Draupadi was dishonored. And he would have pounced on the Kauravas at that time only if he had the freedom to.
And one time he had got so angry that he had told Nakul and Sahadev that I will burn Yudhishthira’s hands. Because it is with these hands that he has gambled Draupadi away and because of that, Draupadi has to suffer like this now. At that time Arjuna checked him.
So Bhima is also individual. Each of the Pandavas is individual. Bhima has his individual nature.
So when he was in the forest, he would just sit all alone, breathing heavily with his head in his hand or looking down, stretched out, wanting to fight and take revenge against the Kauravas for the dishonor that they had done. And he was just itching for war. So here he just couldn’t bear the thought that this person who had killed their sons, he should be forgiven.
He said that what did he achieve by doing this? You know, what gain is he going to get? The war is over and they have lost now by this a ghastly, brutal, despicable act. He has achieved nothing. Why should he be forgiven for such an action which was neither for his good nor for his master’s good? And if there is some point in some action, then there may be some understanding.
But you are simply considering his connections and you are not considering his action at all. His action was utterly pointless. It did not deserve and he is remorseless and there should not be any mercy bestowed upon him.
So in this way, there is a difference of opinion and how the conflict resolution is run, we will see in our next talk.