The Pandavas could have won a kingdom anywhere by defeating someone else – why did they win it by killing their own relatives?

Anwser Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you, Ray Krishna see the Pandavas were so powerful now why did they have to fight and kill their own relatives just to get five villages or just to get a kingdom they could have got the villages or a kingdom elsewhere by fighting somewhere else yes, there are two different things going on over here that just before the Kurukshetra war there are multiple peace efforts that are made so first the Pandavas send Drupada’s Brahmin priest to negotiate some peace and he speaks very persuasively and Dhritarashtra says I’ll send Sanjay as my messenger with my reply and then after that Krishna himself goes now at one point Sanjay Dhritarashtra sends Sanjay with the message, Sanjay says actually you know when people are grahasthas after they are grahasthas they have to take vanaprastha you have already taken vanaprastha, why do you want to become grahastha now so you already renounced why do you need a kingdom now so why do you want to fight a war to gain a kingdom so Yudhisthira replies Sanjay you misunderstand I do not wish to fight a war and I certainly do not wish to fight with my relatives if we had desired to fight we would not have been having this negotiation, we simply want to do our dharma now see the concept of responsibility that is there at that time is substantially different and deeper than what in today’s ethos we may understand the royal family that was there the royal family it was a dynasty where generation after generation they would become kings of course they would be trained and become qualified also but right from their birth they would be inculcated a sense of responsibility this is your kingdom and the citizens are your responsibility you have to take care of them so the Pandavas also had that sense of responsibility towards their citizens and their concern was that if a person like Duryodhana who had been so unrighteous so vicious that he had tried to dishonor the honorable royal lady in public if he was allowed unfettered rule, there was no limit to the depravity that he could go to when the Pandavas were exiled at that time Duryodhana did not directly do anything vicious because he knew that his rule was not yet secure but if he felt that the Pandavas are no longer a factor they are no longer a threat then he could just abuse power in a horrendous way so it was the Pandavas sense of responsibility for their citizens Drupada was also a very powerful king at that time if you look at the geo-political history of India at that time the two main kings were the Panchala king and the Kuru king the Kuru king was of course through various yajnas they have become extremely powerful but Panchala king was also very powerful so the Pandavas were already affiliated with Drupada being his son-in-law and Drupada could easily have given them a kingdom if they had wanted but the point was they had a sense of responsibility towards their citizens and they felt that even if they had five villages just their presence in the Kuru kingdom would reassure the virtuous citizens and would be a deterrent for the Kauravas especially for Duryodhana from doing atrocities that is the first aspect of it it is not that they were attached to the kingdom it is rather they had a sense of responsibility towards their citizens secondly when they were asking only for five citizens the point is not for five villages the point is not just five villages the point is that that request for five villages was actually an expression of their willingness for accommodation how much ready they were ready to extend themselves so it is not that they were ready to fight for five villages it is rather in order to avoid fighting they were ready to settle even for five villages so those who were actually the rulers of the whole world they were ready to settle even for five villages to that extent they were ready to go to avoid fighting and when Duryodhana then Krishna comes to comes to Hastinapur at that time the night before the meeting happens in the Kuru assembly he stays at Vidura’s place and Vidura tells Krishna Krishna why have you come here to negotiate with Duryodhana he is not going to listen and Vidura is also apprehensive that he has also heard rumors that Duryodhana may try to arrest Krishna so Vidura feels as if his worst nightmare is going to be reenacted now the same assembly in which Draupadi was dishonored tomorrow his lord Krishna is going to be dishonored he says Krishna why do you want to do this why are you negotiating with him and Krishna says I know that Duryodhana is not going to listen to me but I want to proclaim to the world that the Pandavas did everything possible to avoid war normally sometimes we say that I will do everything humanly possible in the case of Krishna he said that Pandavas did everything not only humanly possible but everything divinely possible also so God himself came and still Duryodhana was so obstinate so adamant that he did not listen so it was their sense of duty which made the Pandavas feel the need for a kingdom so that they could protect their citizens and it was their willingness to avoid war or it was their eagerness to avoid war at all cost that made them make an offer that we will settle even for 5 villages does that answer your question Hare Krishna any other questions