Mahabharata Characters 34 – Bhima 04 – Meting punishment while giving forgiveness

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 We are discussing about Bhima now So Bhima we discussed about The point of His overpowering Jayadratha and his Sparing his life but then Cutting his hair in such a way As to give him punishment Which would be equivalent to death Then As the final year of the Pandavas Approached Then they all decided That they would go to Virat So the particular entry of the Pandavas Into Virat And how they arrived at that plan We discussed while we were talking about Yudhishthira Now while They were living in Virat Bhima became A cook named Vallabha And Along with that The Draupadi became Sherindri And all the others became different people As we discussed earlier So Yudhishthira became Kanka And Arjuna became Brihanalla A dance teacher who acted like a eunuch And then Tantripala And Nakula and Sahadeva Became cowherd and Horseman basically So Granthika and Tantrapala So now As they were Living like this, now Vallabha Bhima, he was a great eater But he was not just a great eater He was also a very good cook And Normally it is thought of that Cooking is something which only Females do, well that is true That is the specialisation of females But the Pandavas were resourceful And especially where there would be Where A king’s palace is there and where A huge amount of cooking is required So there male cooks are also involved So Bhima He was a great eater and he was a great cook Also and he became Although he just came in over there But he was so gifted And he was of course a commanding presence Even if he was acting like a Kshatriya Even if he was not acting like a Kshatriya, still he had a commanding presence So he endeared himself to the king So much that he almost became like a head cook In the kitchens of The palace And He used to cook And not only would he cook abundantly Because he was cooking abundantly, he would also get to eat abundantly himself And not only would he get to eat Abundantly himself, he would ensure that His brothers and his wife were also Adequately supplied food Of course he would do this discreetly Because all the Pandavas had entered Separately and they had not Revealed their mutual Relationship to anyone Because the idea of five brothers and one wife Or just the fact of five brothers Coming together, that itself would have been enough To blow up their cover And then they would not have been able to Stay incognito So the Pandavas did not tell that To anyone But they would meet discreetly They had their own five names With a J Jai, Vijay, Vijay, Jai Sena Like that And they would use those to call each other When there was an emergency So Draupadi was serving as The maid servant of Sudeshna Sudeshna was the queen of The king of Virat Who was also known as Virat So Matsya Raj He was known as Virat And at one time there was a Wrestling competition And There was a wrestling competition There were wrestlers From their local kingdom As well as wrestlers from other kingdoms And there was one wrestler Who was extremely powerful And he was from Some other kingdom And he defeated all the wrestlers Of the Matsya Raj And the king of Matsya The citizens of Matsya were feeling Very morose It’s like, suppose Some other cricket team comes to India British team comes to India England team comes to India And England team defeats India in India So India will want some Some batsmen to come And just bat so well that As the English bowlers are just Taken to the cleaners And then bring the stores India to its, at least at home So like that The Matsya citizens and the Matsya king were feeling Mortified, humiliated That here is this wrestler who has come In our kingdom And he is defeating us So they looked around and then Now Virat He was also a shrewd person The king of Matsya And he noticed this cook Vallabha, he has a powerful body And He can very well Be a good wrestler So he asked him, come and fight Now Bhima, when he had seen The wrestling arena, he was just eager Almost dying to fight But he checked himself back Because he knew that If he started fighting and showing his prowess Then their cover might Get blown up And they did not want that But still at the same time now When the king had given instruction He could not very well refuse the king’s instruction either So he fought He fought but he did not exhibit his full prowess Because his full prowess Exhibition of his full prowess would have been A dead giveaway But he still exhibited some of his Exhibition of some of his prowess He was able to overcome The wrestlers and then They fought and fought and in a short while Bhima just pounded this wrestler Which made him senseless And then he was declared as the winner And the king gave him profuse gifts And then he asked Is there any other wrestler who would like to challenge Bhima And seeing the skill And the power of Bhima Nobody came to confront him And as Bhima Reigned supreme In that wrestling arena And of course for Bhima who was Among the world’s most formidable Warriors this was a small victory But for them who were living incognito This Was quite a sensation And Vallabha Became much loved and much feared Among In the kingdom of Virata As a champion As a champion wrestler As they were living like this Now after having lived in the forest Living in the city Was relatively easier Although they of course did not They were not exactly living in royal comforts In a palace nor were they Having servants to attend to them Rather they were acting as servants But still they did not have To live in the forest Literally and so in that sense This was not so difficult The time was passing by But As the first year was Coming towards Its end So at that time in around the Last few months were remaining So Sherindri Draupadi She was strikingly beautiful And She knew that her beauty Would act as a Giveaway Somebody might suspect that this is Draupadi Or even if that doesn’t happen Somebody might start thinking that She Might start having an evil eye Towards her and start Craving for her And that could also create trouble So Draupadi deliberately always maintained a low profile And she stayed in the Palace of Sudeshna serving her And She also Made a When she had joined At that time also she had requested Sudeshna that I’ll serve you I had served Draupadi earlier But please let me not have to serve Any man. I’ll serve only you So she would dress and decorate The hair of Sudeshna and offer other services And Sudeshna was quite pleased with her But one day Sudeshna’s brother Kichaka came to meet her And As he was sitting in her palace And Draupadi was just walking by And just seeing Draupadi Kichaka lost his sense Captivated by her Grace, her beauty Lost His sense over them And he asked Draupadi He asked his sister Who is this? He says I have never seen any woman as beautiful as this one Who is this tell me She says oh she is a Sairendri And she has been serving me He says what is she doing as a maid servant She is so beautiful He says I want her as my queen He says you send her to me He says no no no He says she is already married And she has got So now at that time Before Sudeshna could discourage Without paying any attention to her Kichaka himself went up to Draupadi To Sairendri and he said oh beautiful one What are you doing here serving as a maid servant Seeing your beauty I have lost my heart to you Come with me and I will dress you in the Most beautiful Most beautiful Dresses and ornaments And you will have nothing lacking So Draupadi was mortified To hear these words Still knowing that at this point She had to play the role of a maid servant She did not She contained the anger that Blazed in her And she said Oh prince I belong to the fallen Sairendri caste And the honour that you offer me I am not worthy of it And moreover I am already married And I have five Gandharva husbands And therefore Kindly Do not entertain such thoughts about me Now Kichaka had gone So Become so depraved by lust That he just couldn’t think about anything else He says Don’t bother about such things He says I want you And you should be with me Why do you want to waste your life as a maid servant As he was trying to Woo Draupadi like this Draupadi Or Sairendri over here She said No oh prince I am completely devoted to my husbands And no one can deviate me From them And saying this she left there Now Kichaka Was In a uniquely privileged position In the kingdom The king Virat Although he had been a formidable warrior in his youth He was now ageing And he was not really Such a big warrior And his sons had not yet become Formidable warriors So the main protector Of Virat was Kichaka And so in effect Although Virat was sat on the throne Kichaka had Most of the power And therefore he had always got his way He just Approached women and women fell at his feet And now to have Himself so firmly Rebuffed by a woman He was shocked And then He turned towards Sudeshna And he said you must arrange for Her to come to me He says no There are so many other women If you If she is saying why do you want to pursue He says no I cannot live without her This is the nature of illusion That one starts feeling that Something is Even without considering whether it is Right or wrong whether it is religious or He starts craving for that So that’s what happened To him and he said You must arrange for Her to be sent to me So Sudeshna Having carried pity on her Brother seeing his Extremely craving condition She agreed A few days later she said She called Shehrendri and he said oh Shehrendri I am extremely Thirsty my brother Kichaka Has got some special wines so please go To his palace and get the wines Quickly So Shehrendri was Dismayed horrified He said Oh Queen please Don’t send me To that wretched man’s palace You saw in front of your own Eyes how he was eyeing Me in an evil way If I have to go into his palace He will no doubt Try to outrage me And you had promised me that I wouldn’t Have to serve any man Please excuse me So Shehrendri brushed aside So Sudeshna Brushed aside Shehrendri’s objection and she said that Don’t worry Since you are going from the royal palace He will have to offer you All honour and I am very thirsty There is no one else to go right now Please go quickly and bring Bring The wines for me So With a fearful heart Praying to the Devatas and praying to Krishna Draupadi she went to the Palace of Kichaka And when she approached Kichaka Kichaka’s eyes lit up Ever since he had seen Draupadi he had been able to think of little else And when he finally saw This beautiful Dark complexioned lady coming Into his palace He thought that somehow Sudeshna Had persuaded her and now she was Coming to offer herself.
He says welcome Welcome I have been waiting for you For so long Now this whole palace Will be yours and you will be the mistress of this palace And Let us cavort together So Draupadi is seeing His Unconcealed Lustiness Flinched internally She became enraged But containing her fury She said O Prince The queen has sent me To ask for some wines She is thirsty and I have to Take the wines back. Kindly tell me where the wines are And give me leave So he just caught Hold of Draupadi and he said that Let somebody else take the wine You stay with me. So Draupadi Tried to pull away from her And Held her firmly And Draupadi realising that she was In danger she pushed even more firmly And she slipped away from his grip And she started running She ran out of the palace And Kichaka Ran after her and Draupadi Realising that she had no protector she ran Straight to the king’s palace And into the king’s assembly And she ran to the king’s assembly And begged for protection And this was second time Draupadi first time First time she had come To the assembly of the Kurus At that time she had begged for protection At that time she had been dragged in the assembly To be dishonoured And disrobed.
Now this time She had run into the assembly For protection and again she would be disappointed Again her mortification Would continue So just before As Draupadi had been going towards the palace of Kichaka She had looked up at Surya And she had prayed Please, please protect me So at that time Surya Seeing her fervent prayers Now Suryadev was The father of Karna and in that sense He had some Affinity towards Karna But he was also He was not demoniac He was a devata And he thought he was one of the devatas through whom The knowledge of the Bhagavata also comes So Krishna tells in 4.1 In the Gita that I gave this knowledge to Sun God. Sun God is a very enlightened Person. He is also the Guru of Hanumanji So He He is also the person who gave the Akshaya Patra to To Yudhishthir Maharaj and Draupadi was using the Akshaya Patra So she knew that it will come from the blessings of Suryadev So she prayed to Suryadev and Suryadev Seeing her fervent prayer and her desperate situation He appointed Rakshasaur, invisibly guard Draupadi So As Draupadi Ran into the palace Kichaka ran after her And Kichaka caught her and as she Fell To humiliate her further, Kichaka kicked her Now Kichaka had Been rebuffed twice by Draupadi And he had to run publicly And he felt enraged And he just kicked her publicly Again right in the assembly And At that time Yudhishthir was Like the minister Kanka For Virat So he was there in the palace, in the assembly In the court of the king And some more at that time for some other work Vallabh had also come Now when Bhima as Vallabh saw Draupadi being manhandled Like this His rage knew no bounds Now this was again Like the same scene being reenacted The way Dushyasana Had dishonoured Draupadi Something similar was happening here And he started grinding his teeth And his face started Piercing Into his own Finger nails started piercing Into his own palms as he clenched His fist And flames started coming from his body And he looked as if he was just Pounds upon Kichaka And pound him to death So seeing Bhima getting angry Kanka Turned towards Vallabh And said, oh cook It is best that you go back to the Kitchen I am sure you must be having a lot of work over there And realising that Bhima would not be able to control his temper In this situation And he did not want to aggravate the situation Yudhisthira had to be very careful Very careful balancing act Knowing that Actually If their cover was exposed Then they would again have to Go to the forest So Yudhisthira felt that in a public assembly Much further things won’t happen So there was no need to aggravate the situation So he told Bhima to depart Now Bhima walked but as he was walking Out of the court His eyes were fixed on Kichaka And as Kichaka came again To catch Draupadi And humiliate her at that time Suddenly the Rakshasa Who had been appointed by Surya To protect Draupadi Hit her, the Rakshasa was invisible And as he hit Kichaka, Kichaka fell on the ground And he was stunned And he looked around, who has hit me There was no one either, who has the audacity to hit me In my own kingdom And Kichaka was amazed And as he got up And Draupadi started begging She said, Oh King You know, right in front Of your eyes I whom a chaste wife Of five glorious husbands Have been humiliated I whose husbands are so powerful That if they desired They could destroy the whole world I have been humiliated I whose husbands Are so glorious That they are respected even by the sages Now their own wife Is being disrespected like this Oh King, in your own assembly Such great injustice is happening And you are sitting here passively Watching it and not doing anything How unfortunate this is Now Virat knew that he could not alienate Kichaka So he said, Oh Sherindri, I do not know The full details of the quarrel between You and Kichaka So how do you expect me to pass judgement Without knowing all the details And Kichaka Grinned wickedly With a devilish look on his face He knew that Virat would never Go against him And Draupadi Looked at Yudhishthir And she looked at Bhima who was now going out All this is happening and Draupadi realised that Yudhishthir did not want Their cover to be abandoned Right now And then Yudhishthir turned towards Draupadi And he said that Oh Sherindri It is best that You go back to your palace now And your husbands Do not It is probable that your husbands do not think This is the right time to Exhibit their prowess But rest assured that when the time comes They will surely set things right And you will be protected You had better depart now Draupadi, she had Expected that Kichaka Would be punished for the kind of humiliation For kicking her For trying to force himself on her And even before that for suggesting That she be unchaste But when none of them had happened And she had been kicked in public She had actually Spoken firmly Strongly But although Some of the courtiers In the assembly Had praised Draupadi And said Draupadi is a pious Sherindri is a chaste and pious lady And by molesting her Kichaka has Committed a grave sin And he should be punished for this But when the king did not do anything They also became silent And then with her head lowed down Crestfallen, humiliated Draupadi left from there And Kichaka With a gloating look on his face He also left As Draupadi went back to the palace of Sudeshna And Sudeshna saw The mark of the kick on her body The way her clothes were dishevelled Her hair had become Dishevelled And he said what happened You sent me to your brother And he Molested me So he said that wretched person He said you just order me And I will have him punished For this So Draupadi She said My husbands will take care of him And saying this She excused herself And she went and started bathing She wanted to purify herself of the Evil touch of Kichaka And as she was As she departed from there And started complaining She is contemplating now And she realised that there would be no one Who would Check Kichaka unless she took matters In her own hand and she provoked The most powerful of her protectors That is Bhima Arjuna was of course acting as Brihannala And he could not directly act for her protection At this stage So now Kichaka Had shown her publicly there was nobody In the kingdom who would oppose her So she decided to Approach Bhima So That night secretly She left from her chambers And went to the place where the cooks were staying And there Bhima had his own chamber And he was snoring loudly Sleeping at night And Draupadi opened the door she went inside And she fell on Bhima She embraced him and started crying Oh great warrior How can you sleep like one who is Dead when those who are living And who need your protection Are in a situation where They might suffer Humiliation worse than death Oh wake up and please protect me Bhima woke up and he saw Draupadi’s tear stained face in front of her And asked Oh Draupadi, oh Panchali what is the matter with you What is it that Anguishes you so much And tell me I will do all that is in my power to Remove your grief And Draupadi She did not speak anything And Bhima understood Oh it is the humiliation that Happened today in the palace He says I would have destroyed Kichaka right in the forest In the assembly itself but Yudhishthira stopped me So now Draupadi Although she was always faithful to Yudhishthira Still she felt so Anguished over here How can things be well With me as long as Yudhishthira Is in a situation where He has gambled away everything He has nothing and he does not offer Protection also So Bhima consoled Draupadi and he says Do not speak evil about Yudhishthira He says he is only acting according to Dharma Just wait for Just a few more weeks now Then our incognito period Will be over And then you will be reinstated In the position as a queen where you belong That which is rightfully your position Draupadi started sobbing in the arms of Bhima And she said I don’t think I will be able to survive for so long Kichaka now that he has seen that Nobody is going to stop him Will surely approach me And he will force himself on me And when my When my modesty is violated I will give up my life And then You and your brothers You will have committed a great sin For not having protected your wife Greater than Any other virtue for a husband Is the virtue of protecting her Protecting his wife He says I cannot live anymore Thinking about what Kichaka will do again So seeing Draupadi’s Misery and realising The extent of her sorrow Bhima Felt hot tears coming from his eyes And he says Fire upon my arms These arms which can Pound elephants and giant trees To pieces now They are rendered helpless Not being allowed to Bend their fury Against those who are offending my wife And Draupadi says She was also crying and she said Listen such is my misery It is not that for myself I suffer Although I have to work hard Like a maid servant Although my hands now have calluses As Bhima looked at her hands And saw her tender hand which had She had lived as a princess In comfort throughout her life And seeing her hearts His anger and his grief increased all the more And Draupadi said But this is not what causes me The greatest grief Since when I see Arjuna Who is the greatest of all Kshatriyas Acting like a dance teacher Acting as a eunuch My heart’s pain knows no limits And when I saw you When I saw Yudhishthir Having to act like a servant of the King My heart’s grief overflows And when I saw you Acting like a wrestler for the entertainment Of the king and his queens And the royal ladies And as you fought with the wrestlers And you defeated them and they laughed I felt My sorrow know no bounds And as the fight As you were fighting was going on The fighting became fierce In anxiety I fainted And then Sudeshna When I came back to consciousness Sprinkled water on me and she said Is it that you have a crush on Vallabha I noticed that Both of you are of similar age And both of you came over at the same time And in this way she teased me Oh I cannot tolerate This life anymore So then Bhima resolved hearing this that He would have to Take matters in his own hands Things had gone beyond The point of tolerance And he immediately Made a plan He said that I will arrange in such a way That Yudhishthir’s purpose Of ensuring That our Identity not be revealed That is taken care of and also your Purpose that you be protected and Kijagai vanished That also be taken care of Listen carefully my plan Now and Your desire will be Fulfilled So what that plan was and how Bhima Punished Kijagai That we will discuss in our next session Thank you Hare Krishna