Mahabharata Characters 27 – Yudhisthira 05 – Words of wisdom vs words of anger in the forest

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.
Welcome back to the Mahabharata Character Series We discussed the traumatic Event while talking about Life of Yudhishthira, how The Pandavas in a gambling match lost everything And were exiled The citizens Led by the Brahmins Assembled around the Pandavas And said that The king is so vicious that he allowed This unfair gambling match and he stripped The virtuous Pandavas Of all your righteous wealth If we stay in the association Of such a king Then we will be Contaminated by sin Instead if we associate with you Then we will also become virtuous O Pandavas, we will also come with you To the forest Yudhishthira Folded his hands And he said humbly It is our fortune that all of you people Led by the Brahmanas ascribe to us The qualities that we don’t have The king Bhishma Vidura Our mother Kunti They are all present in Hastinapur And They are the object of your service By serving them You will please me the most Please go back to the kingdom Citizens wailed And they returned back As they were returning Yudhishthira was in anxiety And he asked His messengers How Was the Pandavas departing from the village From the city And he described Curiously Very curiously he said that Yudhishthira almost covered his eyes with a cloth Bhima Was beating his arms Arjuna was scattering Grass around With his Hands and legs Sahadev Had Covered his body with cloth And Nakula had covered his Body with ashes Bhrigu was Chanting fearful sounding Mantras related with Yamaraj From Samveda and Draupadi Was walking with her hair Dishevelled on the streets With tears streaming Down her eyes Intrigued by this description Dhritarashtra asked The reason Yudhishthira Although had been cheated Provoked and insulted He had not spoken One word of anger The anger that was burning Within his heart he did not want it To consume innocent people Upon whom his furious Glance may fall That is why he had covered his eyes Bhima Was thinking about how circumstances had not Allowed him to use his glorious Arms Formidable enough to destroy Even the greatest of enemies And he was longing for a time When he could do deeds worthy of those Acts Arjuna was thinking of how he would Scatter arrows in all directions The way he was Scattering grass now against all Their enemies and destroy them Sahadev was thinking that In this moment of mortification No one should see them Nakula was being Incomparably beautiful And now because he was not wearing Any upper cloth having shorn The upper cloth as they had been Told to by Karuna in the assembly Because now they were no longer kings He had covered his body so that Women would not become attracted to him Dhaumya Rishi Was chanting the mantras related with Death, meditating on how The Brahmins of the Kauravas Would chant these mantras When the Kauravas would be killed In battle And Draupadi was contemplating How on the same road that she Was walking away from the city Years later when those who had Insulted her, their wives Would also walk along the same road back Towards the city after their Husbands and lords had been Killed in battle by Her virtuous husbands, especially Bhima Dhritarashtra Was panic Struck by hearing this At that time Narada Muni suddenly Appeared and said that After 13 years there will be a terrible War in which all the Kauravas will be destroyed Dhritarashtra’s heart Sang, he knew That Narada’s words would surely come true And he Felt regret at what Had happened, what he had allowed to happen And what would now happen to his children He felt not much remorse For the suffering the Pandavas were going Through but more for what he was He would suffer when his Sons had to bear the consequences And the Pandavas Went to the forest They came to Kamyaka Kamyavan and they Were there in the forest At that time Krishna and Balaram came over there And when they saw the Pandavas In ascetic garb Both of them were angry Balaram said And he had heard About the gambling match and he had immediately come there And he said those wretched Kauravas, they deserve Death for the way they have dishonoured Draupadi Krishna said that The world cannot Withstand my anger and I will destroy The Kauravas for the way they have Dishonoured all of you virtuous Pandavas And the chaste Draupadi And as Krishna Spoke with great fury It seemed as if he would destroy The whole world The lord cannot tolerate sufferings that come upon his Devotees Arjuna At that time started pacifying the lord He said O Krishna O Keshava, O Madhava, O Vasudeva The great sages have told me That you are the supreme lord That you are Narayana That you have incarnated many times And have delivered the world From many dangers You are supreme, you are omnipotent You are all merciful O lord, do not let your Anger become the cause of the destruction Of the world And Arjuna in this way offered prayers To Krishna Arjuna and Krishna normally had They had Friendly relationships They treated themselves as equals But there are times when Krishna manifests Emotions Or actions Different from That friendliness and then Arjuna reciprocates So Normally Arjuna and Krishna both of them They are devotees They are friends But god is the supreme lord How can he be the friend of anyone But actually the concept of Leela Is a unique revelation Of the Vedic tradition to world theology And the concept of Leela is that god covers His divinity So as to intensify the reciprocation Of love between him and his devotees Just as a Billionaire may sometimes Act in a drama as a pauper So that there can be reciprocation Between Him and his relatives when they are assembled For a family get together And Billionaire may say that Oh from three days I have not eaten anything Please give me something to eat So similarly Now actually he may have eaten three times on the same day But he says this because He wants to demonstrate Have reciprocation of love By demonstrating that emotion It is not that he is just acting like that He actually feels that way at that time So God is omnipotent Just as this person is a billionaire And will never have shortage of food God is omnipotent it is never that he lacks power But when he comes in this world He acts in a way Appropriate for the relationship And he doesn’t always Exhibit his omnipotence So Here when Krishna had just become angry Like this so Arjuna also realised So normally just as The stars in the sky But the light of the stars Is covered by the sun Its brightness Similarly for the intimate devotees of the lord They are The knowledge of the lord’s divinity Is there But that knowledge is like stars And it gets covered at times Because of the brightness of the sun But sometimes that knowledge also becomes apparent So Arjuna Is sometimes aware And sometimes not aware And He almost knows But in the forefront of his consciousness And in the dealings with Krishna Most of the times it is fraternal relationship And occasionally It is the devotee lord relationship So here In the Mahabharata The first time that Krishna starts Arjuna starts offering prayers to Krishna And he starts pacifying him And Krishna Slowly becomes pacified And Krishna turns to Yudhishthir And he says Oh king if I had been there I would never have let the Gambling match to take place I would have spoken strongly And ensured that the disaster never happened But unfortunately I was engaged elsewhere And so I could not be there As soon as I heard about what had happened I have come immediately Yudhishthir was intrigued and he asked Krishna He wanted something to take his mind off The anxiety also And He asked Oh Krishna where were you So Krishna told about how A terrible demon named Shalya Shalya Had attacked The city of Dwaraka Thinking that Krishna was there And actually Krishna had been in Hastinapur For the Rajshahi sacrifice And then he had left immediately On getting the news That there was an attack And he had gone there And that demon had got great mystic powers in it Caused a lot of trouble And devastation in Dwaraka But Krishna went and killed that demon And he was restoring the city At that time And then as soon as he got the news Of the Pandavas misfortune He immediately rushed back Now significantly In this conversation Krishna doesn’t Act like an omnipotent god Saying that I can be present everywhere And he could have been here also As well as there also Krishna performs Leela The whole purpose of Leela Is that he covers his divinity And by covering his divinity He relishes The Relationships With others as if he is just one of them So when Krishna comes to this world He acts as a Almost like a human being Sometimes he may manifest his divinity So Here the Pandavas don’t mention That Krishna it is you who arranged For Draupadi’s robes to become endless That was definitely a miracle And that happened by Krishna’s grace As the great commentators In the Mahabharata and the great Devotee scholars have explained to us But in the Mahabharata’s Narrative itself The focus is On the Leela In this the Pandavas When they suffer like this What is it demonstrating? Yudhishthira commits a mistake A terrible mistake How can a king like him gamble? We discussed the circumstances That the gambling happened Because he was compelled to do so He had no That there are compulsions And there are motivations Motivations means sometimes We have a desire to do something And gain something by that Compulsions means that external circumstances Push us to do certain things So Yudhishthira had no desire To gamble He had no motivation but there was compulsion And that compulsion Was that A Kshatriya when challenged cannot refuse And that he Was normally expected to Obey his elders and that he Also had to He had Specifically taken a vow also to obey his elders So in this way Yudhishthira Did such a Ended up doing such a terrible thing And after that Krishna Intervened but then That had no effect on the participants And their brazenness Continued And Krishna did not mention this I came to protect you So Draupadi told Krishna Krishna How is it that when I had five powerful Husbands that I was Insulted in this way Krishna pacified her and told her That Draupadi do not worry In this world Virtue will eventually be rewarded You will become The Queen of great kings And you will be celebrated In the whole world Have patience And Draupadi begged Krishna Krishna I deserve your protection Because of our relationship Our friendship Because of our Regard that you have for me And because of the regard I have for you As my lord So What was the relationship Actually all the kings of those times Would have multiple relationships Somewhere someone would be married with somebody else But here Draupadi had a direct relationship Through In many ways Actually Draupadi and Yadu dynasty were also related earlier And now after Arjuna and Krishna were related Through Kunti Kunti was Krishna’s aunt So they were cousins And Draupadi was Krishna’s In one sense relative that way They were friends also Krishna would visit Drupada’s kingdom To meet the king And that time he would meet Draupadi also And That’s why the Pandavas had attended The Swayamvar of Draupadi also The Yadavas had also attended But they knew that Draupadi Was meant for Arjuna And that’s why they did not participate in Swayamvar And then Draupadi also Called out to Krishna She knew he was her lord So Krishna said you will surely be protected And then Krishna and Balram Talked and they said Now that Yudhishthir you have given the word to stay For thirteen years you will have to stay And at the end the Pandavas must be given Their kingdom back If they are not given the kingdom Then surely war will result And then Krishna and Balram told them That Stay in the association of sages And increase your virtue during this time As Yudhishthir Was preparing to depart deeper into the forest The sages Headed by Sonaka came to him And they consoled him and they said That O king do not lament Over the loss of wealth In this world Wealth causes great bondage And suffering Do not have desires for wealth Because Attachment destroys A person just as a Single spark within the hollow of a Wood can destroy The whole tree The sages told That a thousand causes of grief And a hundred causes of fear Overwhelm the ignorant At every moment But the wise are never overcome by such things Remember the wisdom of the Vedas And stay calm Yudhishthir was thoughtful And he said I do not desire wealth for my own Purposes I want to serve the Brahmanas What is the use of a householder’s life Cannot take care of his dependents How will I Be able to do my dharma As a householder without wealth Sonaka said That Actually there are multiple duties And A householder can Maintain others and the householder Can focus entirely on dharmic Activities It is better to never have touched mud Than to have touched it And then to cleanse oneself Even when one wants to engage the things of this world For the service of God For the service For the purpose of dharma Still there is a possibility of getting Entangled and attached You have already attained success In your dharma as a householder And as a king By performing the Rajasuya yajna Now focus On perfecting the dharma Of renunciation As you have been circumstantially put in that situation Yudhishthir Nodded and thanked The sages So dharma is guhya This is a theme which will come again and again Bhishma mentioned it twice While responding to Draupadi’s question in the assembly And Yudhishthir Yudhishthir had a similar conversation about Artha In the Assembly hall Of Mayadana Which Mayadana had built And Narada Muni had come there So when Narada Muni came to meet the Pandavas He asked them He said that In the householder life there are three duties Dharma, Artha and Kama Dharma is the performance of religious activity These activities Are meant to Create a heart of Virtue and help us Live righteously in this life and ultimately Be promoted to an auspicious destination In the next life.
Artha Is financial prosperity We need resources in this world to Be able to live respectably And Kama is the fulfilment of desire There are various desires and they are Meant to be fulfilled in a gradual way So Narada Muni Told that Okay, happy is that person Who Does not in the pursuit of Dharma Neglect Artha and Kama Or in the pursuit of Artha Neglect Dharma and Kama Or in the pursuit Of Kama, neglect Dharma and Artha Which happens frequently Happy is that person who balances All these three things So In the pursuit of Kama, neglecting Dharma and Artha means That a person just thinks that I’ll enjoy this, I’ll enjoy that, I’ll enjoy that And such a person Doesn’t think about the future Even in material In terms of material well-being People when they earn and they spend And then they use credit card They use loans and they get a mountain of debt And then people who are Reasonably well-off then become Paupers, debtors And miserable in a short time So even from the material point of view If one just fulfils Kama and neglects Artha, then one will be miserable And such people hardly ever think Of Dharma So to pursue only Kama Without considering Artha and Dharma That is what Often happens To impulsive passionate people The urge to splurge Spend, spend, spend, do not think There are people who are called Shopaholics Shop, shop, shop And waste a lot of money And then there are People who focus only on Artha Just earn, earn, earn They are misers They have huge amount of wealth And they just pursue wealth so Unidimensionally Often they become workaholics Just thinking how much money I have in my bank account And they don’t have time for their family They don’t have time for their family members They have no time for God And their Life becomes very unidimensional And they are also miserable And those who are in householder life They cannot just in the name of religiosity Dharma, neglect their family members Neglect their family financial responsibilities And just do only Religious activities That’s what they want to do The householder order is not the right order for them Somebody is in the householder order Then the balance of all three is required But still what will be a balance Balance of all three How much should one pursue Artha How much should one Seek after Kama And how much should one focus on Dharma That will vary depending on person to person This balance between Dharma, Artha and Kama Will have a far greater Percentage of Dharma for the Brahmanas And it will be relatively The Artha and Kama concerns Will be much more for the Kshatriyas than they are for the Brahmanas So that will vary according to Person to person So Yudhishthira was told over here that Dharma is Goiya. Earlier for the Purpose of getting Rajasuya Doing the Rajasuya sacrifice You accumulated Artha in Unparalleled terms You are the wealthiest of the kings And now that Artha has Gone away from you. But still You can continue on And you can focus now on Dharma Circumstantially you have been put in this situation Accept it and Pursue your duty accordingly And then Yudhishthira Contemplating thus Turned towards his Priest Dhaumya and he said The Brahmins have been following me Despite my request to them to go back to the Kingdom.
I must do something to Maintain the Brahmins. I cannot Abandon them. So Yudhishthira was So responsible that He was thinking that even When I don’t have the facilities still I will do the responsibility Now often whenever we want to do something We first think what will I get I need this, I need this, I need this Then I will do this.
So we demand facilities Then we will execute responsibilities. But Yudhishthira You know I will find out how to get the facilities But I want to do my responsibility Instead of thinking that how will I maintain Myself, what will I eat in the forest. He was thinking How will I maintain the Brahmins So at that time Dhaumya thought deeply and he said That Long ago when there was shortage At that time Surya He raised the water up And he brought down rains and through that Rains came and that is how It happens all times So Surya is the Source of food and therefore Pray to him and he will Provide you food.
So Nodding gravely Yudhishthira entered into The water and Dhaumya gave To him the 108 names of Surya And several other Prayers to please and invoke Suryadev and Yudhishthira started praying Fervently to Suryadev and He stood with his hands up raised In A yogic posture doing Maranayam and he abstained from Food and water for several days And Suryadev Was pleased by the intense austerity of Yudhishthira and he Descended and he gave him A shining plate And he said this plate will be Such that Food in it will never Get exhausted As for all day as long as Draupadi has not eaten the food will Remain and whatever is put on it Even if it is served out immediately it will Reappear and in this way This will enable you to feed Any number of brahmanas This is called as Akshaya Patra Patra is a vessel Akshaya is that which gets Deteriorated or destroyed Or consumed and Akshaya That which doesn’t end. So in this way Yudhishthira even when he had Nothing through the power of his austerity He acquired An extraordinary facility the like Of which even Duryodhana did not have And he continued his service To the brahmanas And as he went deep into the forest Markandeya Rishi Met him and Many great sages had come to meet him and And give him Their good wishes and They knew that he was a virtuous king And he was also a great devotee of the Supreme Lord. So Yudhishthira would spend time Talking with them and he Would feel great joy in their Association And actually he was More brahmanically inclined and he felt satisfied Talking with the Sages and he saw Markandeya Rishi was smiling And seeing Yudhishthira And Yudhishthira was Intrigued and he said so many sages have Come and they have all expressed Sorrow at my Misfortune.
How is it O great sage Markandeya That you are smiling at my misfortune So Markandeya Rishi Smiled further and he said O king I am not smiling at your misfortune I am smiling thinking of How similar your Condition is to that of Ram He was also virtuous And yet by a conspiracy he was Banished and he had to suffer greatly But eventually he also Regained the kingdom and Gained glory back. So Stay patient O king and you will Also regain glory So in the Mahabharata itself There is a narration of the Ramayana In an abbreviated form That is called as the Ram Upakhyana Ram Upakhyana The description of the story of Ram And in this way the Pandavas Showed by their own example how one could be Absorbed in spiritual Subject matters and Go beyond one’s material Circumstances So Yudhishthira was absorbed in this way But Draupadi however Was not satisfied Her heart burned thinking of the Humiliation that she had undergone And seeing her husbands Who were meant to be kings Now living so austerely She could tolerate it no more One day she approached Yudhishthira And she said How is it O king that you stay passively After the insults That all of us have suffered Is it not our duty To retaliate Against these insults By punishing those Who have caused this great Suffering to us You are a Kshatriya and it is the duty of a Kshatriya to take action How can you sit passively over here Skunti spoke Bhima also joined Bhima had been fuming He would sit alone and cast out Heavy breaths Longing for a time to display his prowess And he also supported Draupadi Yudhishthira at that time spoke He said O Draupadi Anger Leads to no good in this world Things that are done in anger They make Things worse Whatever is a problem An angry response makes the problems Much much worse Anger creates a problem bigger than the problem That it intended to solve One should never give in to anger Forgiveness is the supreme virtue For in forgiveness One attains Peace One attains satisfaction Draupadi was not satisfied I also know Dharma There is a time to forgive and there is a time to punish And a king who does not understand The difference between the two times Such a king is doomed Bhima also spoke O king How can we Sit passively when we have been insulted like this Let us march back To the kingdom And let us Regain the kingdom destroying all the Pandavas What was lost in gambling from you Let us get it back And let us regain glory Yudhishthira Did not feel angry He calmed down and he spoke O Bhima I understand your feelings But do you not remember That I have given my word I will stay twelve years in the forest And one year In exile How can I go back against my words He said I should have controlled myself more I got carried away in the spell of gambling And Let myself Lose everything Alas what a great misery I have caused in all of you I am alone responsible for this But still I cannot forsake virtue I must honour my word Saying Yudhishthira so humbly admitted that he had Got carried away under the influence Of gambling Bhima and Draupadi became silent And then They spoke in O king there is a higher virtue And there is a lower virtue When we have been insulted so grievously The virtue maintaining one’s own word Is a small virtue Cast aside this virtue and follow The higher virtue of punishing those Who are wicked That is also a Kshatriya’s duty To not delay Seeing that Yudhishthira was not ready to hear Bhima finally said that If you are worried about staying in the forest He said Think about how we will stay incognito It will be impossible And again we will have to go to the forest And there will be no end to this Better that we will go back Actually by this time twelve months had passed In the Papandava’s forest stay So he said In some circumstances one month Is like one year So let the twelve months be like twelve years And let us go back and fight And gain our kingdom back So Bhima Was very Yudhishthira stayed calm and he said O Bhima Do you think that if we go And fight Is victory guaranteed Yudhishthira was firm in his Understanding of the philosophy He had committed a mistake and he was going to Bear the consequences of that He said that whatever has happened upon us Is by our past karma But now we should not do Further bad karma If we have taken a word Given our word that we will stay in the forest Then we must stay in the forest What will happen in the future That will be something which Will be decided at that time But what is our duty now Yudhishthira was clear about that But when Bhima Was not ready to listen In the language of duty Then Yudhishthira talked in the language of practicality He said that now we are unarmed We have no weapons Do you think that we will be able to win against Bhishma, Drona, Karna Ashwatthama, Kripa, Duryodhana Dushyasana And the whole Kaurava army We need to strengthen ourselves By performing austerities By gaining celestial weapons And when we do strengthen Ourselves thus Then if we do not get the kingdom Back by peaceful means Then we may consider war But at present we will have to bide our time Yudhishthira spoke gently And pacified Bhima So here Yudhishthira’s focus is extraordinary In this world many Wrongs may happen to one But one has to consider what is the right thing to do We see Yudhishthira’s righteousness In so many ways His refusal to get angry with Rajashtra and the Kuru elders His refusal to bite back To cause them suffering Indirectly By creating dissension among the Citizens He did not tell the citizens, yes you come with me He told them go back and respect the game And he Also Did not get inflamed Angered By the goading of Draupadi or Bhima He stayed calm and focused And as the Pandavas Were passing their time in the forest like this Vyasadev Came there He called Yudhishthira aside And he told him that Eventually there will be a great Battle and you must prepare For that Arjuna must perform austerities And gain his celestial Weapons He will even have to go to the heavens For that purpose So Yudhishthira I will teach you The Prathismati mantras By these mantras one can travel very Fast over long distances And using these mantras Arjuna can Go to the Himalayas and from there he can go To the heavens So he gave the Prathismati mantras to Yudhishthira And after some time Yudhishthira knew that as soon as Arjuna would get the Mantras he would leave them and he did not Want to be separated from his brother But knowing that that was the only Way they would be prepared for the eventual War he gave the Prathismati mantras To Arjuna and Blessed him, initiated him In those mantras and blessed him to go towards The heavens. Arjuna Embraced All the other Pandavas And Draupadi was Further grief struck.
Arjuna was the favourite Among the Pandavas Was her favourite and She could not tolerate the thought of Separation from him She said go okay Go okay and Go Arjuna and come back may you be successful May you come back soon The sufferings in the Forest are themselves difficult but All the more so will be your separation. We will think of You all the time and pray for your success And Arjuna departed That time Lomasa Rishi He came there and he told The Pandavas that Long ago when there was a Conflict between the Asuras. I have seen In the past that sometimes The Asuras become successful But when they become successful They neglect Dharma And when they fall to impiety They become weak.
The Devatas They stick to Dharma and they gain power And they eventually overpower the Asuras So now O Yudhishthir Even when you have lost wealth, focus on doing austerities And getting religious merit Visit the holy places And in this way You will be able to gain piety In preparation for the future And the Pandavas also decided to go to Various holy places, travelling far And wide And as they went towards Padrikashram Towards the Himalayas Very austere places So Yudhishthir told Most of the Brahmins. He said The journey from here is very austere Those of you who will not be able to Perform these austerities, you can go Back to The kingdoms of Drupada And other kingdoms. And there Those kings will maintain you Thank you for your association And Yudhishthir started going deep Into the forest Through hilly areas So Yudhishthir told Bhima You should take care of Draupadi constantly And Bhima would practically carry Draupadi Through most of the hills.
And Draupadi Being unable to tolerate the austerity One time fell unconscious Yudhishthir started lamenting What to do at that. He turned towards Bhima And Bhima suggested that call Ghatotkach He is a night ranger He can go through the mountains at great speed And he took them at great speed Over long distances And the Pandavas In this way reached the celestial Reached the sacred areas In the Himalayas. Lomashri pointed Them out to the Gandhamadan mountain And told them you can go and stay Over there.
Because that is where Arjuna when he completes His stay in heaven He will return from there In this way Yudhishthir stayed in the path of Virtue and inspired His brothers to also Acquire Dharmic merits By travelling to holy places By associating with saintly people And hearing spiritual wisdom from them In this way Dharmaraj Forever stayed on the path of Dharma Even when the Rajya Was taken away from him We will continue in our next session Thank you. Hare Krishna