Duryodhana character analysis 1 – Are some people innately evil?
Hare Krishna. We continue our discussions on living consciously. Yesterday I discussed about how Dhritarashtra, because of his attachment, could never become conscious of who was actually affectionate and respectful to him.
He was so attached to Duryodhana that he put aside his morality, his dignity, his responsibility, everything, just to try to somehow please Duryodhana. And eventually it was only when that attachment was removed from his life that he could rise upwards and he could be enlightened by Vidura's words and Vidura's guidance. So today we will discuss about the main villain of the Mahabharata, that is, the character of Duryodhana.
So, often we get this question, why do people do bad things? At one level we may say it's because of greed, it's because of their own desires, is it that some people are intrinsically evil? Is it that some people have something wrong within them because of which they can hurt others and they feel no compunction within them at all when they are doing something wrong? And this idea may gain some support when we look at some people who are, say, psychopaths or sociopaths. Such people, they can hurt and injure and kill and they feel nothing wrong with it at all. So is something wrong with them? Is something genetically wrong or something psychologically wrong with them? It's not that some people are bad and some people are good.
It is that everybody is on a spectrum and through every action that we do we move on that spectrum towards virtue or towards vice. Now, if we consider this to be a large spectrum then all of us at the starting point in our life are at a particular side on the spectrum. Some of us may be on the virtuous side, some of us may be more on the vicious side.
So this Krishna talks about in the 16th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita in the chapter The Divine and the Demonic Natures. Daiva Asura Sampada Vibhaga Yoga. So in that chapter Krishna says that actually Abhijatasya Bharata.
Abhijatasya means people are born with these qualities. And there in 16.123 he describes the list of the qualities of the God, of the Divine. And then 16.4 he describes the qualities of the demonic.
Dambhodarpo Bhimanascha Krodhaparushyamevacha Ajnanamcha Vijatasya Partha Sampada Masurim So Sampada Masurim. These are the qualities which everybody has. Prides everybody has.
Anger everybody has. Everybody has harshness. But the demoniac are people who consider these qualities to be strengths.
They consider these to be their wealth. How much anger I can show, I can get things done. How harshly I can speak, that will make people cover before me in fear.
So there are normal vices which are present in everyone. But when a vice is considered to be a strength, then it becomes extremely dangerous. So some people are wise and some are otherwise.
So those people who are otherwise, what happens to them is that they think the negative qualities to be positive. They think that these are my strength. And later on in that same 16th chapter, if you look especially 13, 14, 15 verses when Krishna is describing the mentality of the demoniac, you could almost visualise that Krishna was thinking of Duryodhana when he was describing these qualities.
He says that इदमध्यमयालव्धं इमं प्राप्से मनोरतं इदमस्तीदमपिमेः भविष्यति पुनधनं असव्मयाहतः शत्रुर् हनिष्ये चापराणपि ईश्वरो अहम् अहम् भोगि सुध्धो अहम् बल्वान्सुखे आध्धो अभिजन्वानस्मि कौन्योस्ति सद्रुष्यो मया यक्षिदास्यामिमोधिष्य इत्यज्ञानविमोहितः So he says that, what do these people think? इदमध्यमयालव्धं, this much money I have gained and that much I will gain more. This may seem okay, everybody wants money. Why is this considered demoniac? The craving for money, even if you call it greed, the craving for money is normal and there are almost all human beings.
But, what does a person do to fulfil that? इदमध्यमयालव्धं इमं प्राप्सेवन ओरत्थम् इदमस्तीनमपिमे भविष्यति पुनर्दनम् With this scheme I will get this much, with that scheme I will get that much. But now whenever we make some schemes, there are obstacles in those schemes. So then, this is where the demoniac outlook comes out.
असव्मया हतः शत्रोर् This person is an obstacle in my path, I have eliminated him. That person, I am going to eliminate him now. असव्मया हतः शत्रोर् हनिषेचापरानपि And those person also I have killed.
इश्वरोहम अहम्भोगी I will become the controller, I will become the enjoyer. अर्ध्यो अभिजन्वानस्मी I will have aristocratic people around me. And I will be powerful.
कोन्योस्ति सद्रुषो मया Who is there like me? And if I do all these things and people think I am a terrible person, then I will do some PR exercise. What is the PR exercise? I will do some यज्ञा, I will give some charity. And people will think, oh such a good person he is.
And this way I will enjoy more. And Krishna says, इत्य अज्ञान विमोहितः This conception that one can enjoy in this way is अज्ञान. It is ignorance.
So, in astrology, they said that when people are trying to make a match, there are some people of दैवी प्रकृति, some people of राक्षसी प्रवृति. So now, what does it mean that some people have a divine nature, some people have a demoniac nature? Demoniac nature does not… Everybody is a soul. Everybody is potentially or essentially pure.
Everybody is covered by certain levels of contaminations. So everybody has lust, anger, greed. However, in fulfilling lust, anger, greed, to what extent does one go? That determines whether a person is divine or a person is demonic.
Even the gods have material desires. They also get angry. They also want sensual pleasures.
But they do it in a religious way. Whereas the demoniac, when they want to do something, they will do it in a religious, irreligious way. I don't care for anything at all.
And it is not just religious. It is general, ethical, even basic human concerns. Everybody has anger.
I was at a mental health care centre in New Jersey. I was speaking to the mental health care providers over there. And then, they were telling about the different kinds of people who come over there.
And India, sometimes, even now, if somebody needs mental health care, it is considered to be like a stigma. Mental health care centre, in crude Hindi, we call it a pagal khana. It is not like that.
It is not that people who go there are mad. It is just that some people, when certain situations come upon them, see, bad things happen to everyone. We may lose a job.
Somebody may betray us. Our health may collapse. When these bad things happen to us, that is one, tribulation is one thing which may divert us from our course in life.
And the other is temptation. Temptation may also, oh, if you just do this, you will get so much pleasure. So, now, in order, when tribulation comes, when some people are in distress, some people may just, I want to be alone.
Some people may become more religious, pray to God. Some people may just take a bottle and drink. There is no problem whose solution is not there at the bottom of a bottle of alcohol.
Just keep drinking, keep drinking. Some people may just get so angry that they start shouting at others, blasting others. And some people may go on a rampage.
Hitting others, mauling others, killing others. Why is life treating me so unfairly? If I am so distressed, what right does anyone else have to be happy? So, if we are going in the journey of life, tribulations and temptations, both of them test us. Tribulations means when very bad things happen to us, how do we respond to them? And temptation means when great pleasure is promised to us, to what extent do we go? So, everybody may get angry.
But some people, when they get angry, they just become silent. And just not talk with you. Like small children, when they quarrel with you, they are not going to talk with you now.
So, like that some people say, I will give you the silent treatment. I will not talk with you at all. Some people, when they get angry, they just become irritable and just snap at someone.
Some people may go on a tirade. Blast out. Some people may become physical and start assaulting someone else.
And some people, especially if they have some weapons, in America say guns are legal. And some people just take up a gun and start shooting someone. Shooting many people also.
Now, all this is the expression of anger. So, but the degree of the expression of anger is hugely different. Everybody will have, it is very very rare to be free from anger, to be free from greed.
And certainly it is almost impossible in life to never get distress. But when tribulation comes or when temptation comes, what is our response? How far do we go from the normal path of our life? So, those who are demonic, they have no limits practically to how far they can go. Those who are divine, they may also be deviated.
But their deviation is within limits. All of us can look at ourselves and we can think, we all have certain limits. No matter how angry we get, there is something which we will do, but something we will not even consider doing.
Now, this depends on our upbringing. This also depends on our past life impressions. This also depends on our association.
So, when somebody is of a demonic nature, that doesn't mean that they are intrinsically or incorrigibly evil. The soul is never evil. But, they are so much under the control of vice that there is practically no limit to how far they may go to indulge in that vice.
So, when this happens, so basically when it is said that a person needs mental health care, when a person's responses to life's tribulations or life's temptations become destructive, either to oneself or to others. Some people may get depressed and everybody gets depressed because things go wrong in life. But some people may become so depressed that they want to commit suicide and they are destroying themselves.
That means their capacity to respond to life's adversities has weakened substantially. And that's why their responses are becoming destructive. So, evil is not a category.
Evil is simply an extreme degree. I started by talking about there is a spectrum. If you consider virtue here, vice here.
Virtue to vice is a spectrum. But those people who seem to be evil, it's not that they are in a different category. It's not that there are some evil kind of souls around other people.
No. On this spectrum, they have gone down to such an extent by their past actions, by their past indulgences and impressions in wrongdoing. They just keep doing it more and more.
And there is no limit to that. So then, how do we deal with such people? If somebody has got such we could say demonic yesterday I talked about instincts and impulses. So everybody has got impulses.
But some people's impulses become demonic. That means they can become very dangerous and destructive. So Krishna talks about kama in different ways in the Bhagavad Gita.
In the third chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, he talks about kama as our inner enemy. He says that kama is what makes us do wrong things. In 3.37 to 43, he is analysing kama.
But in the 7.10, he talks about kama in a positive sense as dharma artha kama moksha. So he says, dharma aviruddho bhuteshu kamosni bharadarshiva. So kama, which is not contrary to dharma, is I am that.
And this kama can be specifically used to refer to sex. So sex which is not contrary to religious principles. Krishna says, I am that.
But kama can also be used generically to refer to desire or ambition. Ambition that does not cross the limits of dharma. That I am, Krishna says.
So people sometimes ask, if we are working in a company, if we have our own business, at what point does wanting to expand the business, wanting to grow professionally, when does it become greed? So actually, when kama causes us to violate dharma, that is when it becomes global. When our ambition causes us to cross ethical boundaries. When our ambition causes us to act unethically, that is when it becomes greed that is destructive.
So ambition itself is not bad. It is destructive ambition that is bad. So I was talking about Krishna uses the word kama here in a positive sense.
But then again in the 16th chapter, he uses kama in the context of the demoniac. And he says, So everybody has kama, but some people take ashray of their kama. Instead of taking ashray of Krishna, they take ashray of their kama.
And, and when they take ashray of kama, that kama becomes, it is never satisfied. That means, everybody has desires and everybody wants to fulfil their desires. But when fulfilling desires becomes the sole goal of life, and one loses perspective of everything else, that is when it is destructive.
Fulfilling desires itself is not bad. The standard example we give is of a scratch itch. Then if you have itch and you scratch it, it will worsen.
But, when? If, say, we are normally sitting and we suddenly feel a scratch sound, we scratch the nose, scratch it, it's over. If it is already diseased, if there is a rash over there, and in that rash if we scratch, then it will get aggravated. So normal itching, just itch, it's over.
So like that we have so many normal desires in life. Today I feel like hitting this. Today I feel like doing this.
Today I feel like doing that. These are just normal desires. They are not destructive.
We have desires and we will all feel like dressing this, wearing this dress. Today I feel like doing it like this, doing it like that. That's fine.
These are just normal desires which all of us have and they to some extent reflect our individuality. But, when there is a rash and at that time we scratch, then that itching, that scratch, scratching only worsens the rash. So similarly, when our desires become disproportionate, when our desires make us cross ethical boundaries, that is like scratching a diseased part of the body.
And that's when it becomes destructive for oneself, so destructive for others. So when people act in evil ways, it means that they have they already have a disease and they are scratching it more and more and more. And then it will aggravate.
It will hurt them, it will hurt others. So people are not, in one sense some people may be born with more of virtuous qualities, some people may be born with more of vicious qualities. But nobody is irredeemable.
Nobody is irreformable. However, to be reformed, the person has to have a desire to be reformed. If I recognise that my anger is bad, then I have a chance of overcoming my anger.
But, I was at a place where many devotees were upset with the temple manager because the temple manager was shouting at everyone. And then I was talking with him and he said, if people did what I told them to do, I wouldn't have to shout at them. So, rather than acknowledging that he had a problem where he was shouting at, yelling at people, he said, because they are not doing what they are told to do, that's why I am yelling at them.
Okay, even if they are not doing what we are telling them to do, there is a way to tell them. Especially in our movement, almost everyone is a volunteer. Nobody is bound to do anything.
So, in that sense, if we don't recognise that we have a problem, then we can't rectify it. And, everybody has lust, anger, greed. But, just the presence of lust, anger, greed doesn't make a person demonic.
It is when we start thinking that lust, anger and greed are desirable things, are my strengths. When we start thinking these are our strengths, that is when they become problems. So, going back to the metaphor of the inner screen, which we discussed yesterday, if we consider that certain things will pop up on our inner screen.
Now, when they pop up, as I said, what pops up is not simply an image. It is an image which soon becomes a movie. What pops up comes from the outer perception or it can come from inner recollection.
So, we may see something and suddenly some desire comes up. Or, we may remember something and then a desire comes up. Now, the more we keep watching the movie, the more the movie will further, further, further.
And, even if, for example, there are sex and violence there in almost all movies. And, even with respect to sex and violence, there are degrees. There are some movies which you watch under parental guidance.
Some movies are adult movies. Some movies are extreme violence movies. So, now, there is a degree to all this.
Now, of course, the word adult movie is simply a euphemism. They are not adult movies. They are adulterous movies.
There are many ways in which harsh realities are made soft. That is called euphemism. So, that way people do not feel that there is something terribly wrong that is going on.
But, the fact is that it is something which is seriously wrong. Now, everybody wants some entertainment. But, what kind of movies somebody watches for entertainment, that will depend on their nature.
So, if we consider our mind to be like the inner screen everybody has some lust within them. Everybody has some anger within them. And, that will trigger some imagination.
That will start showing some movie. But, for those who are demoniac, there is no extent to which the lust and the anger and the greed will go in imagining things. So, the inner movie may go to barbaric degrees.
So, it is and to the extent something is shown in the inner movie again and again and again, then slowly that starts becoming acceptable. Sometimes we see something, this is horrible, I do not even want to see this. But, if the same thing is seen once, twice, thrice, four times, then what happens? We go habituated to it.
Similarly, sometimes a thought may come, this cannot be done. But, after sometime, what is wrong with that? So, gradually this deadening of our moral sense happens. All of us have an inner moral compass which tells us this is right, this is wrong, this is acceptable, this is unacceptable.
But, when the mind's imagination goes on and on and we keep entertaining that imagination, the mind will imagine many things. But, when the mind will imagine and okay, this comes up, we do not entertain it. Or, we entertain it.
Not only we entertain it, but we are entertained by it. When that happens, when whatever the mind starts imagining, we entertain it, we allow the mind to imagine whatever it wants and then we also go along watching it. Hey, that is nice.
That person deserves this. It should happen to them. Maybe I will not do it, but somebody should do this to them.
So, when we are angry with someone, when we entertain the mind's destructive imagination and we become entertained by the mind's destructive imagination, that is when we start going way, way down on this spectrum of virtue to vice. So, people become evil not just by some one act which they do and that is evil. Yes, at one act that may express the evil tendency.
But, a lot has gone in the past. And, occasionally one lapse may just happen because suddenly the impulse came up and it was expressed destructively. But, if the same thing is happening again and again that means that it is being something which is cultivated internally.
So, now in the case of Duryodhana, with this background, I said that when the inner movie starts, how do we respond to it? Do we entertain it or do we try to stop it? Do we turn away from it at least? So, in the case of Duryodhana, he grew up as the imagining himself to be the rightful heir. That means he thought that ok, Pandu has gone, Pandu has no sons, so I am going to become the king. And, because he was supposed to become the king, so everybody pampered him.
And, in today's language, he became a spoiled brat. So, many times children who are born in prosperous countries, they have what is called an entitlement mentality. I am entitled to this.
I am entitled to that. I am entitled to that. So, when this entitlement mentality comes up, the more we think we are entitled, the more we become endangered.
What is the danger? That when what we are entitled to doesn't come, we may become aggressive, we may become destructive. So, just like sometimes some children, when they have a favourite toy, that is my toy, and somebody else comes and takes that toy, they may beat up that child. Some children may start crying, some children may become violent and beat up the other child.
So, now, to what extent they may go, that will depend on person to person. So, for Duryodhana, the kingdom was like his toy. He grew up, he became a teenager, but still that toy, this kingdom is what I am going to have, and I am going to enjoy it.
And when the Pandavas came, he felt threatened. Because the Pandavas were cultured, they were courteous. The Pandavas already had a godly nature.
Along with that, they had been born and brought up in the forest, where they associated frequently with the sages and brahmanas over there. Because of that, they also had a godly disposition. And anyway, if a new child comes in a family, there is curiosity, there is attention to the new child.
And on top of that, if the new child is very well behaved, then that child gets even more attention. So then, Duryodhana started feeling, Hey, what is this? I am meant to be the centre. How are all these people stealing the attention that I am meant to have? And he was very strong.
He was the strongest among his brothers. But he found, to his fury, that Bhima was stronger than him. And sometimes, as kids, they would all play together.
So they would go in a river and play. And Bhima would playfully just pick up everyone and start throwing them into the water. And here, Duryodhana thought, I am the next king.
And he just found himself picked up and thrown nonchalantly by Bhima. He just couldn't tolerate. How dare he do like this? So, when this happened, he just became so angry that, I have to do something about it.
And the first conspiracy that he planned, some people say that it was Shakuni. Duryodhana was a good boy. It was Shakuni who spoiled him.
But that's not entirely true. The first conspiracy that Duryodhana planned was without the aid of Shakuni. He was just barely a teenager at that time.
And he said, to the Pandavas, let's go for a party. And everybody knew that Bhima had a huge appetite. So, the Pandavas would be in the forest.
At that time, when they were living like Brahmanas, whatever alms they would get, that alms, whatever they would get divided into two parts. And then one part was divided into five parts. So, one half was divided into five parts.
And that was given to the four Pandavas. And first it was Kunti, later it was Draupadi who was with them. And the other whole half was given to Bhima.
So, Bhima was known as Vrukodara. Vrukodara means one who has a huge appetite. The wolf-bellied one.
Literally it means. So, Duryodhana told, Oh Bhima, I have prepared a special feast for you. So, he invited everyone for food.
But he prepared a special meal for Bhima. And he personally said, Take this, I will serve you more. Bhima had grown up among Brahmanas.
He was at that time unsuspecting. Just ate it. And in that food, Duryodhana had put poison.
He had put poison. Now to put poison in someone's food, there must be a lot of poison in one's mind. Now without that, one will be angry with someone.
But to want to kill someone, to go through a whole scheme for that. Then, among his brothers also, some were close to him, some were not so close to him. So, those who were especially close to him, he told of them.
And then when Bhima fell asleep, that sleep was a prelude to the death that would be caused by the poison. So, then he had him tied up. He didn't want to take any chances.
So, he said, normally if you commit a crime, there may be some signs of the crime. He said, no sign of the crime should also be left. So, what to do? They tie him up and throw him into the water.
So, they had gone nearby to a river to play. He tied him up and threw him into the river. It's not finished now.
So, he considered Bhima to be a threat. And when he considered him a threat, to what extreme did he go? He just wanted to kill him straight. And this was still when he was a teenager.
So, this is how, just like when a child doesn't get a toy, the child becomes angry. Bhima, sorry, when he felt that my kingdom is being threatened, he went to any length. And he did not feel anything wrong in that.
Rather, as Krishna describes, such people think, see, I am so clever. I can come up with such schemes to destroy my enemies. That's the proof of my cleverness.
And when this happens, then such people are actually very, very difficult to reform. If there is even a little conscience within someone, then that little conscience can be activated. Ultimately, nobody's conscience fully dies.
Everybody has some conscience. But that conscience can become so totally muted that it's almost as if it is not there. So, there are other examples also of some people who do wrong.
Ashtara, he did have some sense. Oh, I have not treated Pandu's sons fairly. In the Ramayana also, it is described, Wali.
He drove Sugriv to the forest. He took away all the royal things that Sugriv is meant to have as a prince. He took away Sugriv's wife.
But there was some doubt within him. Maybe Sugriv is not a bad person. But he didn't pay attention to it.
He neglected it. Eventually, when Ram's arrow pierced into his chest, and he was humbled by that because he had been defeated by that arrow, fell because of this one arrow. At that time, Ram spoke arrow-like words to him, pointing out to him how he had wrongly treated Sugriv.
At that time, he accepted. He accepted and he regretted. He apologised to Sugriv.
And he reconciled with Sugriv. So, if there is even a little conscience within people, then they are redeemable. Now, what about those who have no conscience, almost no conscience? It becomes very, very difficult.
In scripture, there are broadly speaking two ways to keep law and order. There is Shastra and there is Shastra. So, Shastra is wielded by the Brahmanas.
And Shastra is scripture. And Shastra is weapons. Weapons are wielded by the Kshatriyas.
And in this way, the Brahmanas and Kshatriyas keep order in society. So, for most people, if you give them knowledge, knowledge of the consequences of bad actions, knowledge of the benefit of living rightly, they understand and they accept. So, the Brahmanas giving education about right and wrong is extremely important.
But there are some people who just don't accept that. Then, for them, the Kshatriyas are required. Kshatriyas have to discipline.
Kshatriyas have to punish. There are some people who are such wrongdoers that they cannot be so easily reformed. So, punishment is required.
It should not be the first course of action. But it should not be rejected as a course of action also. Even nowadays, people want to have peace.
And many people feel uncomfortable that the Bhagavad Gita is spoken on a war field and that a war was fought. The Bhagavad Gita was spoken to make somebody fight. But then, if you look with a bigger context, what all had happened before that? Even when the United Nations wants to maintain peace, for peace, they often send a peacekeeping force.
That force means violence. So, to keep peace, sometimes violence is required. So, in that sense, actually, for some people, Shastra is required.
In Hindi we say, लातों के भूत बातों से नहीं मानते हैं. So, many of these sayings, you cannot translate them into another language. The ghosts of kicks don't learn by words.
It doesn't make any sense. So, some people have to be taught the hard way. So, Duryodhana, right from the beginning, had this very strong demonic nature.
And then somehow, I will not go into the whole story, by Krishna's arrangement, each one of Duryodhana's conspiracies failed. It appeared to be successful temporarily, because for almost 10 days Bhima disappeared. And in those 10 days, Duryodhana was gloating.
Yeah! You know, same scheme succeeded. But then Bhima came back, and Bhima came back even more powerful. Because he had gone to the abode of Varuna, and he had drunk a celestial drink, which made him even stronger.
Similarly, when he sent the Pandavas to Varanavarth, and there, the house was burnt, then the Pandavas disappeared for several months. And again, at that time, he gloated. Yeah! I am successful.
But, when the Pandavas re-emerged, they re-emerged as the sons-in-law of Drupada. Again, earlier they were almost like orphan children, and now they were sons-in-law of one of the most powerful kings. At that time.
So, through each conspiracy that Duryodhana tried to inflict on the Pandavas, they emerged stronger. Then he arranged that let the Pandavas be given a barren part of the land. But then, eventually it happened that by Krishna's arrangement, Khandavprastha became Indraprastha, it became so prosperous that many of the eminent citizens from Hastinapur emigrated there.
That just infuriated Duryodhana. So, every conspiracy that he tried to do, it actually ended up, it seemed temporarily successful, but eventually it worked against him. And he became, through each conspiracy, he started becoming more and more malevolent.
So, when Shakuni came along, the Shakuni who proposed to him, that let us invite the Pandavas for a gambling match. And this was among all the activities, what happened in this gambling match, among everything that Duryodhana did, this was the most brazen. Brazen means, it is done fully in public view.
All the earlier things, he tried to cover it up. It is said that, hypocrisy is the last tribute that virtue offers to vice. Tribute means a sign of respect.
So, hypocrisy, hypocrisy means pretending to be something which we are not. It is not good to pretend, but at least if somebody is pretending, that means one thinks that I have to appear to be good. Hypocrisy is the last tribute that vice offers to virtue.
That even vicious people want to appear virtues. But if somebody does not even want to appear virtues, then there is no justification for it at all. They just become openly wrong.
So, till this point, he was trying to cover up even the division of the kingdom that happened, there is at least a pretence of fairness. Half of the kingdom is being given. Kanda was definitely half, but it was a barren half.
That is the pretence of fairness was there. But here, Duryodhana became so brazen that he abandoned even the pretence. Now, when the, just before this gambling match, Yudhishthir performed the Rajasuya yajna.
And in that Rajasuya yajna, the Kauravas, Duryodhana was very resentful. Why should he become the monarch? I want to become the monarch. But obviously, Yudhishthir was more powerful or more virtuous.
So, because it was in the family, so, Kauravas also went along to join the festivities. And somehow, it happened that Duryodhana became in charge of receiving the gifts. See, all of us have our own weaknesses.
And if we have our weaknesses, it is our responsibility to guard ourselves. Yesterday, I said that we all have our triggers. And, we have to stay away from our triggers.
But, if somebody, say, is an alcoholic, and then, they go to a party, get together among family members or relatives, and then say, okay, I'll give up alcohol. But then that person takes up the service in the party of being the bartender. That is a recipe for disaster.
Isn't it? You see, everybody else drinking. Naturally, the desire to take one sip. So, now, there were many different roles which Duryodhana could have taken.
But somehow, it happened that Duryodhana got the role of receiving the gifts which the various kings brought to Yudhishthir. This was, practically speaking, the worst service he could have got. Because there, he felt, he had that entitlement, and he said, I should be getting all this.
He was getting this gift, and this gift, and this gift. It's like, if we know somebody is wealthier than us, that may cause us some envy. But if we see all the details of the wealth that they have, that makes us even more envious.
Isn't it? So, that's what happened to him. And he saw all this wealth, his envy was burning more and more and more. And finally, the Rajasuya Yagya happened.
And then, everybody else left. Bhishma left, Drona left. Duryodhana said, I want to stay on for some time.
He said, Mayadana had made a majestic palace. I want to see this palace. Now, actually, he had already lived in the palace during the festivities.
This was another big mistake. When he lived in the palace, he was seeing the opulence of the Pandavas more and more. And we saw the opulence of the Pandavas more and more, that fuelled his envy more and more.
So then, two incidents happened. One, it was the palace of illusion. So, at one particular place, he thought there's a door over there.
And he went to open the door. And he walked in, he thought the door will open and then banged his head. And then, some of the attendants in the palace opened, the door is over here.
It's one thing to do something wrong, it's another thing to be seen by others doing something wrong. So, he felt very, he felt annoyed by that, he felt humiliated by that. Another time, he was just walking along and he thought there's water over there.
He lifted up his cloth and started walking. And it was a dry cloth. There's nothing over there.
And he thought, there's water over there. And bang, he slipped and fell. Now, when he slipped and fell, everybody laughed at that time.
Now, this was just, you could say, it was just, it was fun. There was no enmity in it. There was no rancour in it.
And Yudhishthira said, don't laugh. Because he saw that Duryodhana was getting very angry. To mistake the humorous to be malicious is indicative of an insecure mentality.
Some people may just make some joke. Now, generally, if you make jokes about someone, that person may feel a little bad, but some people are good natured, they just laugh with us. Okay, yeah, I made a mistake, I'll just laugh.
So, it's humorous. But, if somebody says, you think like this about me, you want to make fun of me, that's why you made a joke like this. So, then, he took it like that.
He said, the Pandavas delight in insulting me. Actually, it was he who delighted in antagonising the Pandavas. It was he who had conspired to try to kill the Pandavas.
But, he thought, you delight in doing like this. Now, there are many retellings of the Mahabharata, and not all of them are equally authentic. So, sometimes, in some retellings of the Mahabharata, some retailers, some narrators of the Ramayana, they spice things up.
So, in some retellings, they just said that Draupadi said, when Duryodhana fell, Andhe ka beta andha, that the son of a blind person is blind. Now, Draupadi never said this. The Mahabharata, the huge book, but there is no reference to this.
So, he felt outreached by this. So, basically, for all of us, it depends on how secure or insecure we are. If we are already secure, if we have a healthy self-esteem, then even if somebody speaks negatively about us, okay, we just neglect it.
But, if we already have a low self-esteem, and then somebody speaks and disturbs us too much, that disturbance will be either inwards, where we start going into depression, we start becoming, we start self-loathing, we start hating ourselves, or that leads to aggression. How dare you speak like this? So, basically, our reactions to life's ups and downs, they can introduce us to ourselves. When somebody does something and makes us very angry, we become angry.
We can try to say, okay, what is it that made me angry? And then, sometimes, our reactions can help us to understand ourselves better. So, because, at one level, he was himself insecure. I am a great person, but everybody is thinking these Pandavas are great.
How dare they think like this? So, because of that, when this, it was not, the Pandavas had not designed, some people say, actually, the Pandavas also did wrong to Kauravas, and the Kauravas also did wrong to the Pandavas. Now, if we compare, planning a whole conspiracy to build a palace in which to burn someone alive, and compare that with, say, laughing at someone when he falls down, there is no comparison, actually. And the Pandavas had not built that house to dilute Duryodhana.
They had built that palace primarily to burn the Pandavas. So, they had just, they had just built that house, or the Mayadana had built that house for them. And Duryodhana himself chose to stay there for longer than necessary.
So, again, it is the point, right? Now, if we have some triggers, there is no need to expose ourselves to the triggers more often. It is best to keep a distance from the triggers. Duryodhana unwittingly and dangerously exposed himself to the triggers.
And therefore, he felt so insulted. He says, I can do anything for this. I have to get back.
They have insulted me. I am going to insult them. And how did he do that? Shakuni told him that you call the Pandavas for a gambling match.
Now, before this happened, when Duryodhana had left, just when the Yajur Yajna was getting over, so Vyasadeev, who had presided over the ceremonies, he came to Yudhishthir and he told Yudhishthir that this is just one Yajna. In future, you will perform many Yajnas like this. But before that, there is a lot of tribulation that may happen.
He says, a great war will be fought. And in that war, you will be enthroned as the king. Then you will perform more such Yajnas.
Because Yudhishthir actually had an enquiry. If you do one good thing, will we be able to do more good things? So he said, will I be able to perform more Yajnas? So when Yudhishthir heard that a great war will be fought, he decided, I will do my best to avoid the war. And he said, war is caused by dissension.
And dissension is caused by disobedience. Dissension means conflicts. So war is caused when the conflicts escalate to a big level, that is when war happens.
So war is caused by dissension and decision is caused by disobedience. So he said, henceforth, he took a vow, I will always obey my elders. And thus, I will try to avoid dissension.
Now, little did he know that this vow that he took would come back to bite him in a very unfortunate way. So he was naturally deferential towards his elders. Naturally he treated, although Dhritarashtra neglected him, but Dhritarashtra, Yudhishthir was Dharmaraj.
Dharmaraj means, the idea is that, no matter how the other person is acting, I will act dharmically. So with this attitude, when Duryodhana and Shakuni manipulated Dhritarashtra and told him, we will never match. So, Yudhishthir could not refuse.
Because he saw it as an instruction of his elder. And even then, the first thing he, when he came to the, from Indraprastha to Hastinapur, when he entered, the first thing he said to Duryodhana, in the hearing of Dhritarashtra, he says, why do you want to take the wealth with which I want to serve the brahmanas? Not just to live in royal pomp. His purpose was to establish dharma.
And the brahmanas are those who are very instrumental in the establishment of dharma. So that was his attitude. Yudhishthir said, if you are not afraid, if you are afraid to gamble, only to gamble.
So now Duryodhana could not refuse. Prabhupada explained that Kshatriyas when they are challenged, so then, as this gambling match started, so as I explained yesterday, it was rigged because Shakuni was going to play instead of Duryodhana. And Shakuni was way, way too expert.
There is a game which is played as entertainment and there is a game which is played as a profession. And somebody who is playing as entertainment, they can never match the way somebody plays as a professional. So, having a match between those who are playing for entertainment and playing for profession, it's just an unfair match.
So that's what happened. And then Yudhishthir started gambling and losing one thing, second thing, third thing, fourth thing. And at one point, he lost his whole kingdom.
And that time, now as they were losing everything, Bhima was getting more and more angry. Duryodhana and Dushasana were gloating. We got this, we got that.
And finally when they lost everything, Arjuna touched Yudhishthir on the shoulder and he shook his head. Stop now. So Yudhishthir looked at him and Yudhishthir was lost in a daze.
Actually there are two aspects to it. One is that the mania of gambling got to him. The second is that he was also a responsible person.
He felt, I have lost so much, I have to get it back. He considered himself to be like the surrogate father of the other Pandavas. I have to take care of them.
How will I take care of them without a kingdom? Just once you take, I will get back what I have lost. I will get back what I have lost. And then he lost everything.
He lost their kingdom, he lost their weapons. And finally he said, what do I stake? Then he started, he was so frantic, he started taking Nakula. He said, serve you.
And then, at that time he said, I have lost both of them. He hesitated. And at that time Shakuni, this ever manipulating person, he said, oh Yudhishthir, it seems that the sons of Madri are not as dear to you as the sons of Kunti.
That's why you have gambled them out of curiosity. He said, you wicked person. All five Pandavas are one like the hands of the arrow.
Don't try to create dissension among us. He says, oh. Shakuni immediately, he changed his face.
He said, oh forgive me, forgive me. In the excitement of gambling, we speak things which should not be spoken. Actually you are more virtuous than me in every way.
You know the codes of virtue. Please do what you feel best. He had incited.
He had no option. Then he gambled Arjuna. Then he gambled Bhima.
Then he gambled himself. And now everything was lost. Everything was lost.
Now, about four, five months ago, I had gone to, in America, to what is known as the Sin City. Sin City is Las Vegas. There are so many people who go there and they go with a fortune and they come back bankrupt.
I just said, you lose everything. And what happens, it's such an organised system that you may go with credit cards and then you lose your credit card and there are people ready to give you a loan. And then you get a loan and people are so caught in the fever of gambling that they don't even notice.
So then you take a loan, you mortgage your house, you mortgage everything. And then people go into some casino with everything and they come out not only with empty pockets but everything else they've lost. So, it's horrendous.
Some people argue that if Yudhishthir gambled, then why can't we gamble? He's Dharmaraj. If he gambled, why can't we gamble? Actually, the lesson of the Mahabharata is that even a person who is as virtuous as Yudhishthir, when he gambles, he can get caught in the fever of gambling that he may lose everything. And we are nowhere like Dharmaraj.
So, if we gamble, we will be completely ruined. Some people may say, I gamble but, you know, I gamble within reason. And many people say, drink but don't become drunk.
Even in materialistic society, nobody appreciates the alcoholic. But they say, drinking is part of a cool life. In fact, there's a Christian who has written a book called The Taste of Wine Proves That God Loves Us.
It's peculiar. So, their idea is drink but don't become drunk. It's like saying, go to the edge of the cliff and you may not fall down.
Yeah, it's possible that some people may go to the edge of the cliff and they may not fall down. But what is the guarantee? And what is the need? You know, sometimes you may go to the edge of the cliff and you may come back. Some other time you may go to the edge of the cliff and that time a sudden stormy gust of wind comes and you are swept away.
Or sometimes you may go near the edge of a cliff and at that place, the cliff is slippery and you slip and fall. So, he said, it's best to avoid things which can spell greater and greater danger. So, anyway, Yudhishthir lost everything.
At this point, he decided that also Duryodhana said, you have lost everything now. And he said, what are you going to gamble now? And then he said, I will gamble Draupadi. At this point, the whole assembly was there.
The assembly was silent in shock. But now, everybody is wailing and protesting. This is not to be done.
How can you gamble a woman? How can you gamble not just a woman but a woman as respectable as the daughter of Draupadi? You cannot do that. But then, Yudhishthir was lost at that time. He was lost in gambling fever and at the same time he was frantic to get something back.
And he gambled Draupadi and Draupadi was also lost. When Draupadi was lost, at that time, Duryodhana, he started gloating. He said, Draupadi has now become our maid servant.
Karna suggested summon Draupadi to the palace and summon her to the palace and have her disrobed. This was a heinous, heinous suggestion. The difference between Karna and Duryodhana is that Duryodhana later, Karna regretted.
Later when Karna spoke to Krishna, Karna spoke to Bhishma, he said, that was a terrible thing I did. Because Karna, somehow at that time, Karna is an example of a good person who becomes bad by bad association. He wanted to please Duryodhana, that's why he went along with his nefarious schemes and he went further.
Now at that time, Draupadi was dressed in a single cloth. She had just done a purificatory ritual after her period and she was wearing a single cloth. So, when she was summoned, she refused to go.
She argued at that time. She told the messenger that if Yudhishtira had already gambled himself before he gambled me, then how was he my master to gamble? So, then he went back and then he said, tell her that come into the assembly and ask this question. So, then the messenger went back and told, he said that I am in a condition, I cannot come now.
So, tell the assembly to answer this question first. When he went back, the messenger came and told, at that time, Duryodhana got angry and says, Vishasana, go and get Draupadi. And then he dragged Draupadi by the hair and brought her.
He hurled her into the assembly. And then Draupadi still remained, remained very, she was crying, but she remained very dharmically strong. And he, he offered her respects to the elders in the assembly.
He says, forgive me for coming in this condition in front of you. I was dragged here against my will. And he said, I ask all of you, all of you know dharma better than me.
Yudhishtira had gambled me after he gambled himself. How could he have gambled me when he was not his own master? How could he be my master? And she asked the question, everybody remained silent. And everybody remained silent.
Actually, the question was primarily towards Dhritarashtra. Dhritarashtra remained silent. And then the onus fell, the king was silent, his eldest minister.
So, Bhishma, he said, oh Draupadi, even amidst such tribulation, you are faithful to dharma, glorious is your character. They said, but regarding your question, he said, I am confused. He says, a wife is always, a husband is always the master of the wife.
But if the husband is not his own master, he has lost everything, then how can he possess his wife? How can he be the master of his wife? He said, there are these two principles, and both, a slave does not own anything. There is the husband, who is the caretaker and protector of his wife. So, he says, I am confused about this.
So, actually, this is an example of Niyamagraha. Niyamagraha means getting caught in the letter of the law and forgetting the purpose of the law. Okay, whether a wife, wife, wife is the master of the wife or not, that is not important.
The important thing is, women are to be protected. A man or a woman certainly deserves protection. So, that is the ultimate purpose of whatever law is there.
But they are caught in the technicalities. And then, at that time, when Bhishma fell silent, Vidura strongly spoke. He says, this whole assembly, this whole gambling match is wrong.
And so he stopped. But Vidura's voice did not have much standing because he was not a Kshatriya. And anyway, the Kauravas repeatedly neglected Vidura's voice.
Then, the whole thing transpired as it went on. Vikarna was the least vicious of the brothers among the Kauravas. And he got up and he said, Oh, learned assembly, Draupadi has asked a question to all of you.
You cannot remain silent. Please answer her. And then, nobody answered.
He says, if nobody answers, and he said that I feel this whole gambling match is invalid. He said that first of all, Yudhisthira was pitted against a professional gamester. On top of that, he said that whatever a person does, he said there are four activities which drive people mad.
He says that is womanising, hunting, gambling and drinking. And what people do under the spell of these four activities should not be taken very seriously. So, he says that means that it should not be held against them.
People may speak a lot of things when they are drunk. So, therefore, I feel this whole gambling match should be declared null and void. Yudhisthira gambled against his will.
Yudhisthira was pitted against a trained gamester. And the gambling mania caught him. On top of that, Yudhisthira gambled himself first.
So, he had no right to gamble Draupadi. So, he said not only should Draupadi not be considered a slave, but even the Pandavas should be given back their property. When he spoke this, everybody cheered.
The whole assembly cheered. But Karna got up. And he said, with a huge arm, he said, there are many improper things that I have seen in this assembly.
But, O Vikarna, and he said that nobody forced Yudhisthira to gamble. He chose to gamble. And, in a gambling match that happened in front of us, Yudhisthira will stake Draupadi and lost her.
And he said, as far as the honourable lady will be dishonoured, she already has five husbands. What kind of honourable lady will have five husbands? She is already a prostitute. Now, this was an grievous, improper cause.
Draupadi had done nothing to get five husbands. It was by higher arrangement that it happened. And she just accepted it.
And on top of that, Vyasadeva and Naraguni both certified it. And they said this was the will of Lord Shiva. In a previous life, Draupadi, she had been wanting a husband and she had been performing austerities.
She asked for Lord Shiva. And finally, Lord Shiva appeared and she was so anxious. She said, I want a husband.
I want a husband. She asked five times. So, Mahadeva said, yes, you will get five husbands in your next life.
So, anyway, she was an honourable lady. To compare her with a prostitute was outrageous. And then he said, let us disrobe her.
They tried to disrobe her and Krishna appeared over there. She called out to Krishna and Krishna came as inexhaustible sari. You know, the disrober became exhausted, but the robe did not get exhausted.
The robe remained inexhaustible. And thus, Draupadi's virtue was protected. Her honour was protected.
Now, this whole pastime, it is understood at various levels. At one level, which I analysed till now, Yudhishthira was wrong in gambling so much. He was carried away with gambling people.
Bhishma was wrong in remaining silent, being caught in a technicality. At another level, we understand that this whole pastime is orchestrated by the Lord for teaching us that ultimately, He alone is our protector. Draupadi had five husbands in such a way that she was not protected by any of them.
And then she had to take shelter only of Krishna. Similarly, sometimes it may happen in our life. Now, normally, Draupadi was Dharmic, the Pandavas were Dharmic.
And they all did Dharma together. But in this situation, she was left completely alone. It may happen similarly with us that we want to take shelter but normally, we take shelter of Krishna through the association of devotees.
But sometimes it may happen, life is so peculiar, that even in the association of devotees, we may be misunderstood. And when we need help, even devotees are not able to help us. They misunderstand us or they keep a distance from us.
And then at that time, we have to take shelter of Krishna alone. Actually, Prabhupada was put in such a situation when he went to America. You know, Gaudiya Math was still a big institution.
But somehow, none of his godbrothers had that zeal. They were too caught in their petty infighting. They were all great souls.
But somehow, it happened at that time, they got caught in the petty infighting. You know, this Math is mine, this Math is mine. There were court cases going on.
And Prabhupada tried so much. Prabhupada was not able to Prabhupada did not get any support from his godbrothers, no encouragement from them. When he went to America, there was a big donor in India who said, I would like to give money to build the first Adhapasha temple in America.
But at that time, India's foreign exchange rules were very strict. And India would not want Indian money to go to America. So then, Prabhupada had a godbrother who said that, you know, who had contacts with the Indian government.
He had met the Indian Prime Minister and the Indian President. Prabhupada also met them before he was in India, when he was in India. But he had also met them.
So Prabhupada wrote to him. And he said, you know, please help. And that godbrother just did not do anything.
And finally, Padampad Singh Ania, Prabhupada wrote to him and said that, you know, let's start with a simple temple right now. Later on, we can make a big temple. Many Hindus are pious.
But somehow, their piety comes out more in terms of building visible structures. If somebody wants funds for preaching, not many people are ready to give funds for preaching. But if you want funds to build a big temple, lot of people will give funds.
Now Prabhupada said, the purpose of a temple is actually to share Krishna Bhakti. So let's have a functional unit. We'll start preaching and then I'll generate funds locally and we'll build a temple.
And to build a temple, proper architecture should be there. Spire should be there. Everything should be traditional.
Indian temple should be there. And if you can't do that, nothing will. So there's a chapter in Prabhupada's Nilam where it says, it will not be possible to help you.
So, nobody helped Prabhupada. And Prabhupada was left all alone. He was serving Krishna, but still he was left all alone.
And what did Prabhupada do? Prabhupada took shelter of Krishna when he was sick. So at a transcendental level, now his godbrothers were not bad people. They were great souls.
Many of them were very, very learned, very devoted. But somehow the circumstance was arranged so that Prabhupada was left alone. And in a way, through this, Prabhupada is glorified.
That Prabhupada started the Krishna Consciousness movement without any help from anyone. So similarly, the Pandavas were not bad people. But somehow circumstantially it happened that they just couldn't speak anything.
So at one level, we can analyse that okay, what the Pandavas did was right, this was wrong, this was wrong. But we should focus more on learning lessons, not judging those characters. Because they are great characters and they have done that for the, whatever is done, it is planned by the lord, it is orchestrated by the lord.
So it's best that we don't judge them over there. But overall, what happened through this was, now when Duryodhana wanted to disrobe Draupadi, that was not just out of lust. That was also out of anger, out of pride.
It was a power game. He saw Draupadi as a pawn in his power game. He said, you have insulted me, I will insult you.
And he used Draupadi to try to insult her. This was the most heinous act that he did. And at this point, it's almost like the war became inevitable.
So as I said, this was a heinous act, it was a brazen act. He did many wrong things, but here it was in public, in front of, even if a person wants to do something sensual, something lusty, one doesn't do it in front of one's elders. But here, in front of everyone, in front of his elders, he wanted to disrobe Draupadi.
So that means, all sense of morality had practically died within him. His destruction became more and more inevitable. So when we analyse, so we will talk in the next session, of eventually, despite all this, how the Pandavas still tried in the peace mission, to have peace.
But at this point, we see that when somebody does something grievous, and it's not just a one-time incident, it's a well-planned thing, then that means there is a long history of vice that has been cultivated. So bad people don't just become bad overnight. If somebody does one bad thing, that's understandable, that may happen.
If somebody is doing repeatedly bad things, that means that they need serious corrective action. So, Dhritarashtra demonstrates what the demoniac nature is, what Bhagavad Gita talks about, Dhritarashtra demonstrates that. And then such a person has to be punished.
The Bhagavad Gita and the Mahabharata, they are not shy of violence. They are not averse to violence. We'll see how violence is never the first course of action, but here we also see that the violence had abandoned rationale for it.
So because Duryodhana's moral sense had become completely deadened, he did such atrocious things that he deserved punishment for that. So I'll summarise. I spoke today on the topic of why do people do bad things? That is a broad theme.
And is it that some people are intrinsically evil? I said evil is not a category, it's an extreme degree. There is one spectrum of vice and virtue and we all, from our birth, are at particular locations in this. Some people may have more vice than others.
Everybody has some vice within them. But when people think of their vice to be their strength, to be their wealth, then they are considered demoniac. So everybody has bad impulses within them, but to what extent will they go to satisfy the bad impulses? That determines their overall nature.
Lust is there in everyone, but the godly fulfil lust in a dharmic way. The demoniac go to any extent to fulfil lust. We all have ambition.
When does ambition become greed and when it becomes destructive? It's when kama crosses the limits of dharma. When ambition makes us act unethically. And then I talked about how, in terms of the inner screen metaphor, the impressions from the past, they give some recollection, and the perceptions from the outside, they create a movie.
And movies are also of different degrees. Extremely violent or extremely obscene movies. The more we entertain that, the more we are entertained by that, the more we'll start entertaining the idea of being it in real life.
So when these thoughts keep coming inside the head, eventually they get actualised. And then I talked about how Duryodhana, because he felt he was entitled, so he was endangered by that. His vice, his virtue, whatever little he had, that was endangered.
So he, what was humorous, he started thinking of it as malicious. And he started acting in outrageous ways because of that. So as a small child also, he made a whole conspiracy to try to poison Bhima.
And putting poison in the food indicates a huge amount of poison in the mind. That was already there. And by Krishna's arrangement, every single conspiracy of Duryodhana, temporarily it seems successful, eventually it turned out to be counterproductive.
The Pandavas emerged stronger. And finally, we discussed the gambling match and its background. So we all have our triggers.
And Duryodhana let himself be exposed to the triggers more and more. First, by taking up the service of accepting gifts, which fuelled his envy more and more. He felt all this, I should be happy.
On top of that, staying on in the palace. And then, when the illusion of the palace befooled him, he felt even more insulted. And then, so if we have triggers and we let ourselves get triggered, and if we have a demonic nature already, then we will go to any extreme.
So the assembly was the time when his evil came out in the most brazen way. And he planned it all in such a way that Yudhishthira would be defrauded of everything. And in the fever of gambling, Yudhishthira even gambled himself, his brothers and his wife.
And Draupadi actually emerges through this pastime as the whole gambling match incident, as the most chaste and dharmic lady. Everybody else forgot dharma, she did not forget dharma. She tried to remind others of dharma.
Others did not remember, but the lord of dharma remembered. And he protected her. So Bhishma got caught in Niyamagraha.
Yudhishthira at one level got caught in the fever of gambling. Other level, because he had taken a vow that I will obey my elders, so he could not refuse to gamble. And then finally, this pastime demonstrates at a transcendental level that in this world, even if we have many protectors, sometimes we will be left with nothing except Krishna.
And this is what happened to Draupadi and this is what happened to Srila Prabhupada. So even the devotees, sometimes we may get alienated from them, they may get alienated from us. At that time, still we have to remain faithful to Krishna.
And as Prabhupada's glory emerged, Draupadi's glory emerged eventually. So similarly, we will be redeemed. And we concluded by talking about how when there is vice, but when one acts on the vice and does heinous things, then that person deserves to be punished.
There are people who will learn by Shastra, but if somebody is giving into their impulses to a destructive degree, then they have to be taught only through Shastra. So we will continue in the next session. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna.