Mahabharata Characters 25 – Yudhisthira 03 – The virtuous victimized in the vicious gambling match

This talk is a part of the “Fascinating Mahabharata Characters” series. To know more about this course, please visit: bhakticourses.com

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna Welcome back to the Mahabharata character series So We are discussing About Yudhishthira Maharaj and we are at the Point of Yudhishthira Maharaj Having completed the glorious Rajasuya sacrifice And established the Supremacy and the glory of lord Krishna For the whole world To know unambiguously So after the sacrifice Concluded, the various kings Who had come there, left Duryodhana however decided To stay on for some more time He had been In charge of receiving the gifts And The gifts that had come were so Many That his heart Burnt with envy. Yudhishthira had So many gifts that many of the tributes had ultimately To be turned away Because there was no space and he had given such Charity Thousands and thousands of Brahmins had been given Charity and everybody who had come there Had been abundantly Satisfied.
In the Vedic culture The king would Take pride In giving charity. The glory Of a king was known through the charitable Disposition. The greater The charity, the greater the glory of the king Duryodhana’s heart burnt with Envy on seeing this And He, as he was living in The palace He had been allocated Rooms inside the palace.
He would go around And seeing the dazzling Opulence of the palace, he was Infuriated He tried not to be impressed His eyes were wide open And he was looking at Everything, not with admiration But with envy. Admiration Means we are happy by seeing something Wonderful. Envy means we see something We understand it is glorious but we resent It And He would mutter and Curse the servants under his breath He tried to show people that He was not impressed And on top of that not only was wealth Materialistic people want wealth And women, the opposite sex And he saw that Yudhishthira Maharaj Had such wealth and then There was the beautiful Draupadi Duryodhana had also gone To contest in that But he had failed And now Not only was Draupadi there but Krishna’s Beautiful queens were also there And he Found his heart burning On top of that The assembly hall The Palace was itself Having many illusory designs.
It was made by Mayadana Who was a master of illusion So one time when Duryodhana Was walking along There was a lake but the water of the lake Was completely still And it appeared as if it was just A continuation of the floor And Duryodhana walked Right into the water and slipped and fell And with his Crown fell off And all his hands Went akimbo And his clothes became wet He was sputtering in agony More than the physical pain it was the mortification And Although the Pandavas And their queens And Krishna and his queens they meant no harm But It was a sight To see a fully grown up man Falling like that and especially when somebody Is very proud, very arrogant And slips and falls It’s a natural human reaction They laughed So Duryodhana could have taken it In a light spirit It is a joke, everybody laughed and ended up But he Felt all the more enraged Yudhishthira Maharaj saw this And he immediately went up to Duryodhana And offered him some Towel and other things To dry himself And tried to assuage His pride And when he saw the Pandavas And the queens Laughing He signalled them to stop Krishna remained silent And as Duryodhana went Forward, another time There were many doors there But the doors were also not ordinary At one time There seemed to be a door at a particular place But actually It was a wall and he walked right into it And BAM! He hit his head against And his head started spinning As he appeared to fall The twins came, Nakula and Sahadeva And they Supported him And they were trying to restrain their laughter And Duryodhana could not restrain His anger Another time, he wanted to go in a particular Direction and there was a door But he thought that the door is Closed and he came right up to there And he heard walking away and the door was open And even the Palace attendants, the servants They could not restrain their smiles And Duryodhana could Tolerate it no more Yudhishthira tried to Pacify him Trying to tell him not to take this so seriously But Duryodhana could not control His envy and he went Away and he Went out The ugly Emotions of his heart, the anger The suppressed rage The furiously Forming envy and He along with Shakuni Schemed He said All the wealth Duryodhana has got That Yudhishthira has got, that can be yours If You can gamble You can arrange a gambling Match. They are more powerful than you You cannot fight and win But if there is a gambling match, then you can call them for the gambling Match and I am an expert gambler I Will make sure that I Win and I will get all Their wealth for you Oh Duryodhana I can cheat and Whatever is required I will do to ensure That you win Just arrange for this gambling match And Duryodhana Went back And Shakuni Acting like a elder Concerned elder he said Oh Dhritharashtra Do you not know That your son has turned pale His colour has gone off And he is Sunk in the depths of dejection Are you not Concerned about your son Dhritharashtra was Extremely concerned, what has happened Please tell me And Duryodhana said What person can tolerate The prosperity Of his opponents And Dhritharashtra tried to pacify him But he was not ready to listen And then The gambling match was Arranged And Vidura was sent Vidura tried to oppose But Dhritharashtra was not ready to listen When Vidura came to Indraprastha Pandavas were in their assembly and it was announced that Vidura had come They were delighted Yudhishthira got up and went down to Offer his respects to Vidura, Vidura picked him up To embrace him As he looked at Vidura He saw that Vidura’s face Was dried up He was in great anxiety He understood, oh uncle please tell me Is everything alright Vidura became very grave and said Nothing is going to be alright now And he told about the gambling match The vari from Vidura’s face transferred to Yudhishthira’s face And he said if we gamble We will surely fight Gambling is the root of all dissension How can we gamble We should not gamble And he ate If King Dhritharashtra is called, how can I refuse He is like my father And my father to me Is like God, how can I refuse His command And moreover, Yudhishthira knew that he had just Taken a vow, as it is in Vedic Culture, a person is expected to Obey one’s elders and on top of that Yudhishthira had taken a vow that he would not disobey his elders So he was Left with no option And feeling great apprehension Yudhishthira along with the Pandavas and Draupadi Went to Hastinapur They rested for the night And the next morning they were invited To the assembly hall, which had been specially created Just for this gambling match And various kings And other Royal people and courtiers Were assembled over there And Shakuni came forward And with a malicious And avaricious look Malicious means Desiring harm to them, avaricious means Very greedy, malicious and avaricious look A wage he was Trying to conceal He said, oh welcome Let us now have a gambling match The whole assembly is waiting for you Yudhishthira was still Hoping to talk his way out of it And he said I have no desire for wealth anymore I have been blessed with abandoned Wealth In fact Yudhishthira had got so much wealth His treasury was so Overflowing in fact That even after hundred years of rule The treasury would not get exhausted Which was extraordinary He says, I do not wish to Gamble because I do not need wealth And Moreover The sage Devala, I have heard from him that One should not gamble with a Professional gamester And moreover No one should Take another person’s Wealth by cheating Even No one should gamble with such desperate Stakes and take from others by cheating Therefore why should I gamble So Shakuni Was very crafty Wily, cunning And he said, we do not have any intention To cheat And obviously one gambles Because One desires to win something If you are afraid to Play the match, there is no need to play it Now for a Kshatriya To be Accused of being afraid That is A way to Provoke that person Kshatriyas are heroic and they are not afraid So according to Kshatriya Code, if one is challenged for something One cannot refuse it also And he said that Yudhishthira was still apprehensive and Yudhishthira said that The wealth that I have Is meant for serving the Brahmins It is meant for serving Humanity Through the Brahmins who will Arrange for the spiritual welfare And the material well-being I want to arrange of all my citizens So Why do you want to take this wealth away from me So the assembly remained silent Yudhishthira knew That if Dhritarashtra And Bhishma remained silent Then there was nothing that he could do He would have to do what they were Asking him And he remained silent Then he tried another track and he said Who has wealth equal to mine To Put equal stakes With me He knew that Shakuni Was also a king Of Kandhar But his wealth was nowhere near Yudhishthira’s So Dhritarashtra came forward And Dhritarashtra said that I will stake The wealth and Shakuni will cast The dice on my behalf So Yudhishthira raised his eyebrows And he spoke in a firm voice He said this is entirely Against the rules of gambling Now whoever is Staking the wealth That person should cast the dice It has never been heard that one person stakes the wealth And another casts the dice This is highly improper He objected strongly And he looked up at Dhritarashtra And Bhishma and yet they remained silent And Duryodhana Again said okay if you are afraid Then there is no need to play And Yudhishthira knew that he had to He could not refuse the challenge Actually according to Some Teachers or some scholars In the Mahabharata It is said that when the Rajasuya Yagya is completed There is one particular ritual also Which is there often at the end of sacrifice That is a friendly gambling match is to be played It is just like Whenever there is a great celebration There are some sports also So gambling is like a sport And a friendly gambling match is to be played And that was supposed to be like the The culmination Of the Rajasuya sacrifice And Yudhishthira had come there On that Plea that had been given to him So this was supposed to be his crowning Glory but it turned out to be His nightmare Nightmarish disaster for him So He started gambling And one, two, three He gambled jewels And he gambled his wealth One by one, ten throws of the dice All of which Shakuni won Shakuni was a Professional gamester and he used to Play with professional gamblers He had made gambling his life and soul And there was just no way anyone could defeat him And Yudhishthira was as if in a gambler’s frenzy He started losing things after things After things after things As huge Stakes were lost Arjuna tapped Yudhishthira on his shoulder And shook his head Yudhishthira looked at Arjuna Contemplated for a few moments And continued gambling And caught in a frenzy And eventually he lost everything And then he staked the kingdom And then he lost his kingdom also The only thing that was heard in that Assembly was the throw of the dice And Shakuni is calling out I have won And then when everything was lost Shakuni spoke in a taunting voice Oh king what will you put on stake now And Yudhishthira was desperate he said What had happened They had lost everything How would they live now Somehow I have to get everything back What has happened So he He was although he was in a frenzy He was also praying Oh lord Please help Not knowing what to do He said I will gamble Nakula And In each stake when he was gambling When he was gambling jewels He would tell how glorious and precious These jewels are So when he was gambling Nakula He talked about the virtues of Nakula And Shakuni cast the dice And Nakula was lost Then despairing he looked around And he cast Sahadev And he stake Sahadev Sahadev was also lost And Shakuni narrowed his eyes Yudhishthira was despairing Not knowing what to do And there was a lull And all this time Everybody in the Assembly was Mortified To see the course of action First of all to lose all the wealth was disastrous But then to lose One’s own brothers To have them become slaves Was horrible But there was Unconcealed glee on the face Of Dhritarashtra He was a hypocrite He pretended To be a good person In fact he not only pretended before the world But he pretended to himself also that he was a good person So that the world would have a better opinion of him And He would have a better opinion of himself So it was not He also had the malice And with every Throw of the dice and with everything That was won His hypocritical mask was falling And the unconcealed Celebration The light that was there on his face That was sickening The king who was Supposed to be like a father meant to protect his children And his nephews Who were like his children He was watching in glee As they were losing everything And Shakuni To gold Yudhishthira said It seems okay That The sons of Madari Are not dear to you That’s why they have been staked But none of the sons of Kunti have been staked Yudhishthira became enraged Oh fool You Maliciously dared to create Dissension among us Who are all United at heart Shakuni saying that Yudhishthira had become angry And not wanting the game to end for any reason Said oh king please forgive me Under the spell of gambling One may speak things which one Does not intend at all You are my superior in every way Please let us continue the gambling match Yudhishthira knowing that he had lost everything Somehow he had to gain it back So he decided to stake Arjuna Arjuna and he said That person who is the most glorious Archer in the world who has never known defeat I stake him Now He is thinking that Krishna Is so dear to Krishna Surely Krishna will not let him be lost And yet Shakuni won him also And then The glee on his face Was enormous And Throughout this Bhima was Enraged Sparks were coming from his face And Finally Yudhishthira not knowing What to do he said That great mace fighter And formidably strong Bhima Who has no match in fighting Now I stake him And Bhima Was also lost All the four Pandava brothers Were crestfallen But Bhima was Furious all of them were furious also Infuriated and finally Yudhishthira gambled himself And he was also lost Not knowing what to do Just Complete dejection Yudhishthira was looking as if demented What had come over him? How had he lost everything? Here he was The emperor of the world and now All of them were slaves What had possessed him? What was he going to do now? Shakuni Smell eyes knew no limits He said okay You still have one position Stake Draupadi And by staking her Win back everything that has been lost The whole assembly was shocked They started thinking What to do Without her husband Draupadi was already Protectionless Her fate would be terrible If her husbands were enslaved and she was unprotected If somehow He could stake her and gain everything back Then at least they would have something And they would be together Thinking thus he spoke He says now That illustrious lady Who is neither too tall nor too short Nor too lean nor too fat Who has Fragrance like a lily Who has eyes like lotus petals Who is the first to wake And the last to sleep Who is as beautiful as the goddess of fortune Although she doesn’t deserve To be staked but I stake her Gasps of dismay And horror Filled the assembly when Yudhishthir spoke this Dhritarashtra Asking Has Panchali been won? Has Panchali been won? And Shakuni threw the dice And it seemed to obey him magically And said yes Panchali is won Draupadi is now ours Yudhishthir was horrified Not knowing what to do At that time Karna, Shakuni Dushasan and Duryodhana Were all Delighted And then decided Now Draupadi is our maid servant Get her from the She no longer deserves to stay in the royal palace She will stay Along with the maids Tell her to come here to the assembly And there was the servant in the court Named Pratikamin Pratikamin is the post of the servant And Pratikamin Duryodhana told the Pratikamin Go and get Draupadi Pratikamin Pratikamin Had been horrified to see what was happening And he was apprehensive He timidly went to Draupadi And Draupadi was actually At that time in seclusion Because she was in her period She was wearing a single garment And her garment was stained with her menstrual blood And She was sitting there And she saw the Pratikamin coming And she saw the fear in his face and he asked him kindly What is the matter And he said Great disaster is going to Befall the Kuru assembly The assembly has Asked you to come there Because Yudhishthir has gambled you And lost you And the assembly is summoning you to come in front Draupadi said How could Yudhishthir have gambled me Was there nothing else That he had to gamble Pratikamin With his voice trembling With all tears in his eyes Said Yudhishthir had gambled everything He had gambled all his brothers Even himself he had lost everything And then He Gambled you Draupadi Realised it was a great crisis And she decided Rather than panicking This was the situation when most people You know All our wealth is lost You could have collapsed Draupadi remained grave And she said Go and ask the assembly That if Yudhishthir had gambled himself first Then how could he have gambled me If he was himself a slave Then how was he my master to gamble me Whose master was he When he gambled me The Pratikamin went back And seeing him coming alone Duryodhana asked Where is Draupadi She has asked a question to the assembly If Yudhishthir Had gambled himself And he was not even his own master Then how could he have gambled her So Duryodhana Pandavas had been Agony and anger On seeing this Brazen attempt To insult them And to insult their wife Barely controlling himself To heap further Humiliation and increase their misery Duryodhana smiled Sardonically and he said Go and tell Draupadi That she should come here And ask this question to her husband Yudhishthir The Pratikamin went slowly Draupadi was waiting The assembly is summoning you so that you can ask this question To Yudhishthir She asked Who said this Duryodhana He saw the Pratikamin He says That supreme lord who ordains all things Has surely ordained this In this world Good and bad things happen to both The wise and the unwise But the wise know That morality is to be followed For morality is the greatest wealth And it brings the greatest fruits So the Kuru assembly Should not abandon morality At this time Pratikamin go and tell this My message To the assembly And He went back And he said this message again And he looked around Actually before that Yudhishthir He had been completely silent Not knowing what to do When Pratikamin had come Finally when Duryodhana remained silent Not saying anything Yudhishthir told Pratikamin that Go and tell Draupadi Although she is in seclusion and she is wearing single cloth She should come to the assembly That is Duryodhana’s order Draupadi had understood that this was So first Duryodhana had given the order And then Yudhishthir had no option Seconded it reluctantly And Draupadi had understood what was happening So she was appealing to the whole assembly And at that time Dushyasan Duryodhana saw Pratikamin came back Second time and gave this message Duryodhana was furious And He said Oh Pratikamin you fool You are afraid of Bhima And that is why you are not going Oh Dushyasan you go and get Draupadi Now he was using the word Bhima Because he had special animosity Towards Bhima And he wanted to hurt Bhima as much as possible And Dushyasan Enjoying the discomfort The misery The fury Of the Pandavas marched towards Draupadi’s palace And as he went into the chambers Like a dog Entered into a lioness’s den He marched And when Draupadi was sitting She saw Dushyasan coming She screamed And ran away Her intention was to flee to Gandhari’s palace And beg to Gandhari for protection Dushyasan laughed and charged After her And grabbed her by her hair And she screamed Oh wretch leave me I cannot go into the assembly in this condition Wearing a single cloth Dushyasan grabbed her And pulled at her hair And grabbed her ruthlessly Shaking her Now you are our slave Whether you are wearing a single cloth Or no cloth If the king summons you Then you must come to the assembly And he dragged her heartlessly Draupadi was screaming and crying Like a female offspring Begging Oh wretch leave me I cannot go to the assembly in this condition Without hearing a word of what she was begging He dragged her by the hair From the women’s A of the palace right in the assembly And he dragged her by the hair And flung her And she fell right in front of Everyone in the assembly And she got up And her eyes went towards Her five husbands She was Besides herself With horror, anger She looked With helplessness And fury at her husbands And five Pandavas Now all That had happened in the assembly That did not hurt them That did not cause them as much pain and anger As the glance of Draupadi That wife whom They were all duty bound To protect though their wife would serve them So faithfully throughout Now she was Undoing such misery and Humiliation and begging For their protection and they were helpless He turned towards Yudhishthira The Pandavas could not bear to look in her eyes And they looked away And Draupadi gathered herself Got up, she folded her hands And Back to the assembly He says oh virtuous ones Please forgive me That I am not properly attired I am not in the condition to come to the Assembly but I will be forced to come All of you are knowers of Dharma You are the dispensers of justice Therefore I put this appeal Before you Please tell me Please answer my question Yudhishthira Had gambled himself Away so how could he have Gambled me In this assembly Virtue is meant to be protected People, citizens from everywhere Come for the protection of virtue And I come before this assembly For its protection As she turned And looked at all the elders Nobody responded Finally Bhishma realised the onus was on him Weaving the elders And he said oh Draupadi It is indeed glorious That even when you are Facing such a great Calamity You are Remembering virtue and are asking Us to remember virtue Such a dedication to virtue Is glorious But Dharma is Extremely subtle And One who has Gambled himself away Does not Have anything else to gamble That is true. At the same time One who Has a husband Is always considered to be the master of his wife So knowing both These things I am confused And I am unable to answer your question So Duryodhana replied saying that Let Yudhishthira say That he had not gambled You away fairly So Draupadi spoke and she said He was forced to Gamble against his will By conniving people Who had Schemed to defraud him of everything How can such a gambling Match be considered to be fair I do not consider Yudhishthira my husband The king to be Having the least iota Of blame I ask this assembly To adjudge fairly And as Her plea went around Nobody was ready To hear And as everyone remained silent At that time Dushyasan Decided Karna He Was delighting in his own way Karna had been cut When Draupadi had said I will not marry a Suta’s son And he was delighted So as everybody spoke Vidura just before Draupadi had been called Vidura had spoken the same point Yudhishthira had gambled himself So he cannot have gambled He cannot gamble Draupadi as Draupadi is not lost But now His words had not been heard Vikarna One of the brothers of Duryodhana He Did not share so much The evil discussions of Duryodhana And he got up and said oh assembly Draupadi has asked a question Before you, you must answer this question It is the duty of the assembly to answer And when nobody answered Finally Vikarna looked around everyone and he says I will answer them And he said there are four evils Gambling Hunting Womanising And Drinking Kings are vulnerable to these four evils And when they succumb to these evils Then they lose their sense And they do grievous things What they do under such things Is not to be taken seriously Is not to be taken seriously Moreover Yudhishthira had gambled against his will Because he had been instructed to do so And the gambling match was also Unfair And moreover He had gambled himself away Therefore I say that Draupadi has not been gambled and lost And on hearing this All the kings cheered And they all cheered Vikarna and they censured Shakuni For the way the match had taken place Seeing this, Karna got up He raised his huge arms And signalled all the kings to become silent And he said I have seen many improper things in this assembly But the words of Vikarna are the most improper And nobody forced Yudhishthira to gamble He gambled voluntarily Willingly And he lost everything The match was fair Actually Shakuni was too cunning For anyone to be able to detect That he would do any cheating But right before the match He had told Yudhishthira that I will cheat And I will ensure that you win everything And so he said It was a fair match And moreover as far as Draupadi’s Chastity is concerned What kind of chaste woman Will marry five husbands She is already unchaste She is a harlot She is a prostitute And a prostitute deserves To be treated as such Now that she is your servant Duryodhana Why not disrobe her And the Pandavas They are also your slaves They do not deserve to wear the royal robes They should take out those royal robes These words were piercing Into the hearts of the Pandavas And they slowly took out Their royal robes Their crown and all the Signs that they were kings And they cast them aside And Dushyasan moved forward To disrobe Draupadi And what happened next We will discuss in our next session Thank you Hare Krishna