Why was Duryodhana so envious of the Pandavas?
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Thank you.
Hare Krishna. Question, why was Duryodhana so envious of the Pandavas? Answer, firstly, he was a spoiled child. Initially, when Pandu had become the king, his son was expected to become the next king.
But Pandu was cursed that he would not be able to beget children, would not be able to unite with his wife. So then he departed. Then he departed to the forest to live a life of almost like a hermit.
So then Dhritarashtra got children to Gandhari. And at that time, so it was expected more or less that Dhritarashtra’s son would become the king because whether Pandu would come back, whether his sons would ever lay claim, all this was unknown. So actually what happened is that Duryodhana was quite spoiled because he was going to become the heir.
So he, all the elders and everyone paid a lot of attention to him. He got pampered and especially Dhritarashtra, for him, Duryodhana was an object of immense disproportionate attachment because he had wanted to be the king and although he was the king, because he did not have eyes, he could not delight in his kingship as much as he would have loved to. He thought that I will be able to enjoy everything vicariously through my son and therefore I will give him everything that I have not got.
So he totally pampered Duryodhana. And because of that, Duryodhana became quite spoiled and then he had developed what we could call in today’s language as the entitlement complex. He expected everyone to pay attention to him.
He would become impudent, he was sometimes discourteous to elders, respectable people, but still because he was going to the king, next king, everybody indulged in him. And then when he had this entitlement complex that even if, no matter how I behave, I am expected to get everything. So then after that, when it turned out that Pandu’s sons were very much alive and they had come back to the kingdom and Yudhishthira in particular and the Pandavas in general, they were so well behaved, so cultured, so respectful, so courteous that the contrast between them was very jarring and Yudhishthira was very virtuous, very dharmic and Duryodhana thought that at least I will be better in terms of strength.
Yudhishthira was not so famous for his physical prowess. But then he was totally outclassed in physical prowess by Bhima. Now Bhima had a guileless heart.
But while playing, the children just play and he was just so physically powerful that he would sometimes, he would lift his own brothers and throw them away sometimes in the water when they would be playing in a pond and sometimes he would lift the Kauravas and he would throw them away into the water, all playfully. But Duryodhana just could not brook the idea that I am the prince, heir apparent, I am the prince, how dare anyone lift me and throw me like this. So for him, because of his entitlement complex, when he saw that the focus of everyone, he was no longer the apple’s eye for everyone.
Yudhishthira was much more courteous and it could well be that Yudhishthira would become the king because as far as birth was concerned, Yudhishthira had been born slightly earlier than Duryodhana. So therefore, it was thought that he would become the king, significantly. Yudhishthira was basically born earlier than Duryodhana, so it was thought that he would become the, some people thought that he might also become the king and naturally he was courteous, so people started respecting him and respecting him more.
So Duryodhana could not tolerate this at all. So his entitlement complex made him feel that he deserved the kingship, he deserved all the prestige of being the heir apparent and when that was not given to him, that was taken by the Pandavas, although the Pandavas had no intention of doing so consciously. But when that happened, he became envious.
He was envious of the respect that Yudhishthira got, he was envious of the strength that Bhima had and then eventually, when they went to the Marshal Academy, although Bhima was powerful, he found that Arjuna excelled all of them in archery and overall Arjuna was the best student and that further fuelled his envy and Bhima was equal if not better than him in mace fighting and that also caused his envy specifically to Bhima to go further and further. And eventually in Draupadi’s swayamvar, Duryodhana had expected that he would win Draupadi’s hand and suddenly it happened that not only the Pandavas emerged, but the Pandavas won Draupadi’s hand also and then his envy went further and eventually when the Pandavas were given the jungle, Khandavaprastha, but they made it into Indraprastha and they performed the Rajasuya yajna, then they not only became more powerful than him, but they just went into a class of their own. Somebody is competing to be the test tennis player, who is competing to be the number one tennis player in a particular state, in a particular country and another person is to be the competitor over there, that person goes on and becomes not only number one in the state, not only number one in the country, but become the number one in the world and this rival is just completely in a different class.
So for Duryodhana, this incredible success of the Pandavas was utterly intolerable and that’s why all that pent up envy burst out in the brutal dishonouring of Draupadi and in the barbaric disposition of the Pandavas of their kingdom that happened during the gambling match. So all this is not to say that Duryodhana’s envy and his actions thereof are justified. When we understand how certain emotions arise in certain persons, that does not mean that it was natural or it was necessary.
He always had choice and Yudhishthira did not do anything specifically to antagonise Duryodhana, but still Duryodhana got antagonised. So all this is not to say that his envy was justified, but we can understand how the envy happened and even if somebody feels envious, to act on the envy and to act on that envy in such a brutal way, that is entirely unjustified. So by understanding the genesis of envy in Duryodhana, when we start finding ourselves becoming envious of someone, we need to stay on guard and check that envy from growing.
Otherwise, who knows if that envy grows, it may take control of us, make us behave like mad and make us do horrendous things as did Duryodhana. Therefore, Duryodhana’s envy was caused because of his own entitlement complex and the evil disposition that he had in trying to grab things in whatever way he could, throwing ethics far apart in the process. Thank you.