Mahabharata Characters 39 – Arjuna 02 – Accepting exile to honour virtue

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 Arjuna Arjuna won the hand of Draupadi and By winning that hand he not only Got a beautiful bride For himself Who eventually became the bride of all the Five Pandavas by the Word of Kunti and the plan of Lord Shiva We have discussed this When we were discussing about Yudhishthir and Kunti earlier But Along with that Arjuna also Sealed a very Strong alliance Between the Pandavas And the Panchalas The dynasty of Drupada and Draupadi Now Krishna was present At Draupadi Swayambhar But the Yadus knowing that Draupadi was to be Wed by Krishna By Arjuna Actually When Drupada had been defeated By Arjuna As Arjuna had attacked along with the Pandavas To have him arrested as a Guru Dakshina At that time Drupada had Admired Arjuna’s Valour and desired him As his son And as son was not possible as a son-in-law So when he eventually performed a Yajna Dhristadyumna came from there and along with that Draupadi also came And that girl he had desired Was to be married to Arjuna So That had been sanctioned through the Yajna And Krishna and Balram knew it And they had communicated this to the Yadus So none of the Yadus participated Knowing that she was to be the bride of Arjuna And eventually when Arjuna won her Then Krishna went and Introduced himself So this was his first meeting with Krishna and the Pandavas And it was the beginning of a very deep Friendship And then Krishna The Pandavas and Drupada They all consulted What to do then So then they decided that they should go back to The Kingdom of the Kauravas, that is the kingdom of the Pandavas Also the Kuru kingdom basically That is Hastinapur So Remember now They had fled because the Pandavas Had been sent to Varanavarth and had been burnt So Now they decided to go back and they had the backing Of the powerful Drupada with them So therefore When Dhritarashtra received them he welcomed them And externally he put on a show That oh we are so delighted That you have Survived the fire You are all heartbroken That you had all passed away So He externally made a show of joy And actually the citizens Were delighted The citizens had been silently And sometimes openly Cursing The kingdom And the rulers of the kingdom Who they felt had conspired To do away with the evil Pandavas And when the Pandavas came back With their bride The citizens The citizens joined you no bounds And they said, they started praying to the gods Saying if we have given any charity If we have done any sacrifice If we have performed any austerity If we have done any yagya, dana, tapa Then please let the results of these Go to the Pandavas And the result be that they all live For a hundred years happily Without any calamity coming upon them So because of their virtue Because of their gentleness Because of their Competence in ruling They had already won the hearts of the citizens And seeing The Not just the power of the Pandavas First of all the power was seen in terms of They had won Draupadi in the Swayambhar Which itself was indicated of their extraordinary power And they had the alliance of Drupada And they had the popularity among citizens So Dhritarashtra realised That he also had a moral responsibility To the sons of his brother And he decided to give them half the kingdom But he gave them A barren half, Khandavprastha And Krishna And Yudhishthira glanced at each other And they smiled And Yudhishthira accepted it Because he was submissive to his elders And Vyasadeva himself came along with Krishna And they went In a procession to the forest area Which was actually Khandavprastha And there they selected a sanctified spot And decided to lay the foundations For a city By doing fire sacrifices and then by starting construction Of the city And as they were about to start Krishna sat in meditation and he summoned Indra And he told Indra That when Indra came there What can I do for you So although the Mahabharata Talks about many gods But it’s clear that the supreme God is Krishna Vishnu So here we see Krishna Summoning Indra And Indra comes And when Indra comes He treats Krishna as his revered superior And he Asks him what should I do And Krishna tells him that sprinkle celestial Nectar over here so that This land will become fertile For cultivation As well as suitable for residence And then ask Vishwakarma The celestial architect To come here and to construct A beautiful palace over here And That’s what exactly was done And the palace that eventually was built Was magnificent There was nothing Not just a great palace But actually there was a whole city Now this is not what Maya Constructed. Maya Sabha that Will be the assembly and that Comes later.
Right now The city was constructed with the palace in there And then as the city became Manifest Then people from The Pandavas themselves came and along with them Other warriors came who were faithful to them And seeing them Brahmins came And they set up Academies for teaching the various Vedic Sciences and for Doing various religious activities The Vaishyas came desiring To have good business over there And then artisans and craftsmen Also came and in this way The whole City started blossoming And as the city was blossoming more And more it became Clear that This was the city Which was Almost like Amravati Amravati is the capital of Indira And it’s a Magnificently opulent city So in Ayodhya’s King Ayodhya’s Capital became like that And the Pandavas’ palaces Were tall and magnificent like Meru mountain And the Pandavas lived in extraordinary Prosperity brought by Dharma And brought by The grace of the Lord And Krishna lived with them For some time and then Krishna Decided to depart So we will see that in the Mahabharata Krishna Keeps coming back again And again to meet the Pandavas He cannot live without them So As he keeps coming along and he plays Each time very significant roles In helping the Pandavas Prosper and helping them Avoid disaster So After Krishna departed Narada Muni came over there Now Vyasadeva had already come To help in the consecration of the city And in the Mahabharata Comparatively Vyasadeva’s role is much more Important than that of Narada Muni’s Narada Muni also keeps coming periodically But Vyasadeva comes with much more frequency And in one sense that’s natural Because Vyasadeva is Vyasadeva is The Is related to the Pandavas You know he is in one sense Through the Through the arrangement Of Begetting child through One’s relative Through that He was actually the parent of Both Dhritarashtra and Pandu As well as Vidura So the Pandavas were his grandsons So he always wanted Their welfare And he comes with much more frequency But now Narada Muni came and he warned the Pandavas All of you are wedded to Hidrapati And although all of you are very cooperative and friendly But still there can be Great danger because of this You have to make a proper plan By which There will be no unnecessary conflict And to drive home The gravity of The gravity of the situation The necessity of a solution He told them that The story of two demon brothers Sunda and Upasunda They were sons of the great demon Nikumbha who had been a scourge A terror for the gods And Sunda and Nikumbha They got a blessing by which They could not be killed by anyone Except each other And knowing that they were Themselves very friendly They were like Two souls in one Actually they were like One soul in two bodies And as they were living like this With great joy At that time They They Joy because they had such power That they could defeat everyone And whatever they would eat together They would enjoy together They would fight with enemies together They would sport together And they were inseparable And because they were inseparable Together And because they were indestructible Except by one of them So they became Undefeatable by Everyone else And the demigods started fearing them And they went to Brahma for help And Brahma created An extraordinary damsel Thilottama And Thilottama Every limb of her body was excellent And Thilottama she Attracted him When she appeared both of them became attracted And both of them said Oh she will be your sister and my wife No Sunda said no she will be your sister and my wife And as both of them started Debating and then Shouting and then Fighting And then eventually as they fought over This woman At one particular Both of them swung mighty blows And hit each other and killed each other At the same moment The world was Freed from the terror of both of them So So Brahma told the story and said that You have to be extremely careful So he told them make a plan by which When one of you are there Then the others will not come into the procession Or allow the Fourth person to stop What you are talking So that They told him that If one of them is there with others At that time One of them is there with Draupadi The others should not come And if the others came over there If anyone of the other brothers came And one brother was having his private time with Draupadi Then There will be a severe punishment The violator would have to go to exile For one year Now this may seem a little extreme After all aren’t they The brothers In a family people may just Enter into one another’s room Why go for exile But this was an extraordinary situation And extreme situations require extreme measures So the extraordinary Situation was that Five husbands For one wife And It could have become a potential source of conflict Normally one man Would have many wives sometimes In the Vedic culture But one woman having many husbands Was unusual And Naturally the wife would like to be with her husband And the husband would like to be with the wives So this could very easily Lead to conflict So even When there are good intentions Good intentions Should not Be A justification for Neglecting proper precautions Just like when a war is going on Somebody says I am going with a good intention I want to defeat these terrorists Kill these terrorists and I want to win the war But good intentions Are no substitute for Proper precautions If there is a danger Just because I am going with a good intention That does not mean if there is a mine under my leg I go foolishly and touch my leg to the mine and boom I get blown to smithereens So if that is not to happen Then I have to protect myself So Whatever is required I have to do Similarly When we are living With our Friends, with other devotees With other Spiritually minded people It is good to Identify in advance Potential sources of conflict And then make measures to deal with them So as to prevent those conflicts So Actually without doing this We may unnecessarily Create problems Or aggravate problems when they get Created of their own accord And lose relationships Relationships are valuable And whatever is required to preserve The relationships have has to be done So just as if we have A gadget If we have expensive, nowadays people have insurance So We know there is danger, it is not that we Expect or want the danger to come But there is a house may get burned A vehicle may get destroyed In some accident or something like that We need insurance So this is a practical measure Similarly there are measures Which we need to have for taking care of Relationships also And this incident shows how important it is To take adequate Precautions to ensure that Relationships stay healthy And we do not take things For granted and become complacent And negligent in Following and ensuring Equal Respectable treatment for everyone In the relationship So now We will see that this This arrangement Led to a heavy cost for The Pandavas and especially for Arjuna Once when Yudhishthir Was with Draupadi At that time a Brahmin came To the outside Of the Pandavas palace and started Yelling He said My sacrificial paraphernalia Has been stolen away By some Robbers, please bring it back Please save it And Arjuna came out, he heard this And at that time The other Pandavas were not available Of course Yudhishthir was with Draupadi in his private chambers And the other Pandavas Were elsewhere engaged Now Arjuna Heard the Brahmin’s Blight and immediately desired to Correct the situation But he did not have his weapons His weapons had been kept In the chamber Where Yudhishthir and Draupadi were meeting now Paused Now for every Kshatriya, the Kshatriya Uses particular weapons and those weapons Are the ones with which the Kshatriya is most confident They are the most natural for him And fighting them There is a greater The Kshatriya is at home with those weapons So Arjuna thought I have to have my weapons How can I Go without my weapons And he was thinking about it And as he was thinking He decided that If I intrude in the chamber Then I will have to go to the forest for one year But still, I will have done my duty And I will have protected Yudhishthir’s reputation My duty as a Brahmin As a Kshatriya is to protect those who are in distress Especially the Brahmins if they are in distress And if I Fail to do this, eventually the blame Will not just come to me, the blame will go to Yudhishthir He is the eldest among the brothers He is the king and his reputation Will become sullied So I cannot tolerate that So Arjuna knocked on the door And Yudhishthir and Draupadi were sitting together Yudhishthir looked up and smiled Arjuna went straight inside And he explained the situation And then he told that he would Like to have permission to take his weapons And Yudhishthir nodded And he took the weapons and rushed out And he Ran after them They fleeing the robbers Found them Delivered to his fifth justice And then came back and delivered The Pralaparnalia back To the Brahmin And after this The Brahmin was pleased and the Brahmin blessed him After that Arjuna went back To the Pandava kingdom and then he Told Yudhishthir Please give me your blessings I would like to go to the forest now For one year as per our condition Yudhishthir was aghast He said no you cannot go, you don’t have to go Why do you need to go Actually The rule is only for The elder brother should not intrude when the wife is The younger brother That would be a violation of privacy And for that matter A younger brother is to an elder brother Like a son And if a son enters In the room chambers of the mother and father What is the objectionable about that Seeing that Arjuna was unconvinced Yudhishthir tried again and he said If at all you consider me to be Any kind of authority Then you should accept my word And decide not to go And then again back on Firmer ground he said that Actually I know that you have meant no offence I did not feel any offence And therefore we can waive this condition There is no need for you to go to the forest And at that time Arjuna Showed his principle driven nature And he said that Oh brother I have heard From the scriptures that Truth has to be followed at all times Without any compromise And without any admission of impersonalism So and things like that Sorry impersonalism means Here The idea that One should follow the truth without Any impersonation Impersonation means pretending to be someone else Or finding some other way To avoid the truth So Arjuna Please give me permission he said And let me go So Draupadi herself Was tear struck because Arjuna had won her And she loved Arjuna And the thought of Being separated from him for five Full years Was so painful for the Pandavas And yet they knew there was no alternative So they agreed Seeing Arjuna’s determination they knew there was no alternative And soon Arjuna Left Now when he left Some Brahmins who accompanied him And some other people who accompanied him Being inspired by his Desire for Being inspired by his desire for Selflessly keeping the word of truth And realising that By associating with such a dharmic person Their own dharmic value would also increase Now Arjuna was also thinking about dharma itself And he said that Let me go to the various pilgrimage places In the various parts of the country And that way I will gain I will increase my piety So thinking thus Arjuna decided to go first northwards To the Himalayas And then he would slowly come down He would go first towards the east And then he would come down Go all the way down Indian coastline And then he would come up to The king’s circle He would come up to Prabhavya Where he would meet Krishna And then he would come back to Hastinapur By the end of the year And as he started going upwards At every holy place that he would go He would meet with the Sages, the saints, the hermits And he would give them charity He would love him from them And after taking their blessings He would depart So one day he was sitting on the banks of the Ganges And he was bathing At that time He suddenly felt a Mystical force Which was dragging him away And he tried his best to struggle But he just couldn’t The force was overwhelming Wondering what had happened He just silenced himself Knowing that eventually When that pull stopped He would be able to get a clearer idea Of what was happening And Arjuna sort of went into a different consciousness And then when he came back Out of consciousness To what seemed to be like normal consciousness He realised that he was in an extremely different circumstance He was out on the banks of the Ganges In the middle of an extraordinary palace Very opulent And very magnificent So He surprised, he looked around And at that time a woman came in the palace And she was beautiful With a striking figure And extraordinarily Mesmerising eyes And seeing her And Seeing the way she was looking at him Arjuna quickly understood what had happened By seeing her he understood She is the daughter of the Devatas And by seeing the way she was looking at him He understood that She had Actually arranged to have him Abducted by her mystical powers She had probably seen him Been attracted to him And she had decided to Have him And so the harsh calling So now He said oh maiden you have indeed Acted very boldly Kindly tell me who you are and why you have brought me here She smiled somewhat Cockatishly and she told that I actually am Ulupi And I am a Naga princess And she has higher Powers and being a Resident at a higher level Of reality and she said I was bathing in the Ganga And that time I saw you And seeing your splendorous form And prowess and hearing about you My heart has become Attracted to you And because my heart has become Attracted to you Therefore please accept me So Arjuna became grave And he said that actually You know that I am under a vow And I cannot I am under a vow of celibacy As atonement for my mistake As Arjuna was Speaking this he knew that being a Naga She already must have known this But still she had actually taken him And there was something else going on also So she Thought deeply and she said Yes what you are saying is true However your Sentence for exile Is only from From Kunti You know you are Sorry not Kunti your sentence for exile is from Draupadi You know you are meant to Abstain from her for one year But that does not mean that you cannot Consort with other women And indeed It is the duty of a Kshatriya that when a woman approaches him For shelter he cannot refuse Moreover He said that I am so Attracted to you that I cannot live without you Indeed if you do not accept me I will share my life Therefore Even if you feel that you have taken a vow of celibacy And you cannot give it up Then please At least the loss of Piety that might come because of That will be less Then the loss of Loss that will come to your standing To your reputation If you fail to protect Protect a Protect a weak lady And if you fail to do so then I will Starve to death Seeing her fervent call Arjuna decided to accept her Here we see that When Arjuna Decided to accept Draupadi Accept Ulupi He actually Created another strategic alliance Which would come to be of significant help Where the Pandavas would get Enormous help In especially the war When they fought against the Kauravas Now after this The Pandavas As Arjuna went further further down He came to the East and there the kingdom of Manipur was there And there ruled a king Named Kaurava King named Chitravahan And he had daughter Chitrangada And Seeing her Arjuna became attracted to her And Arjuna was also attracted to her Now actually Before this of course what happened was Arjuna and Ulupi They decided to get married She produced celestial garlands And both of them put garlands around each other And then after that they stayed together And Arjuna gave her a child And then he decided to depart And he told her that She said that He decided that when Arjuna would be back in the kingdom Then they would plan how to Be united again And he went on his way Because as it is he was supposed to be in a pilgrimage For a year Then here he met Chitravahan And he married Chitrangada Chitravahan said that both of them were attracted to each other And when Arjuna requested her hand Asked for her hand He agreed but he said for one condition He said long ago our ancestors did not have Any children at all and our dynasty was On the danger of dying out Therefore we decided that We decided to besiege Lord Shiva And Lord Shiva said that I will promise that your dynasty will never run out But you will have only One descendant And he said now the current descendant Is a daughter So he requested that After the union the son is produced And the son continue the dynasty Over here and become the ruler over here Because we need a ruler over here So Arjuna agreed readily And then they got married And then they stayed together And then after sometime Arjuna left from there And eventually From here also they will have a son Babruvahan who will also be an Extraordinarily powerful warrior Who actually bests Arjuna in war We will discuss that towards the end Of our description of Arjuna And then after that Arjuna decided to go downwards And actually When Arjuna separated from Ulupi Ulupi brought him back Because she had taken him To a celestial realm where they could Sport together and then after they had Married and united then he brought them back She brought him back And because she was a celestial Although she was a lady And she had normally the women Are less strong than men But here she was a celestial And she was actually Arjuna was such a powerful Kshatriya But she had overpowered Arjuna By her prowess and Taken him to the heavenly realms And even then she only Brought him back and brought him By the side of the sages From whom he had With whom he had been When he had departed, when he had disappeared Actually from their midst Significantly Although all these dalliances may seem like Just lusty affairs There is always the consideration of Dharma So Krishna says So Kama is not denied or rejected In the Vedic culture It is a part of Our embodied condition And all that it has to be regulated By Dharma So in the case of Ulupi Also there were Dharmic considerations Can we unite or not And similarly with respect to Chitravahana also there were Dharmic considerations There was analysis and after that it was decided So for So it was not Just, it is not lusty affairs Where For the sake of Kama Everything else is forgotten Especially Dharma is prominently forgotten It didn’t happen like that In fact when Arjuna was taken away By some mystical force He had just gone into the river to take a bath And then he found himself overflowed And when he came out He couldn’t make out where he was But he saw the sacrificial fire being lit And immediately Arjuna started doing his prayers And chanting the mantras In front of the fire sacrifice So although Arjuna’s circumstances were not in his control But still He had the self-control to continue doing his Dharma So At that time Arjuna had got a benediction Benediction that He would be undefeated In water And Arjuna put this benediction to very good use To further the cause of Dharma And how he did that And how during this assembly Another very deep bond Between the Pandavas and the Kauravas Pandavas and the Yadus was formed We will discuss in our next session Thank you