Mahabharata characters 64 Duryodhana 3 Foolishly adding fuel to fire

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.
Thank you.
Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. Welcome back to the Mahabharata Character Series.
We are discussing about Duryodhana and we are in the middle of the Krishna’s Shantidoot pastime when Krishna has come to Hastinapur to seek peace and after speaking about Sama, Dama and then to Kumbheda, Duryodhana has brazenly spoken that there is no fault in me and now Krishna has been very calm and reasonable and persuasive till now and Krishna speaks, getting angry, his eyes flashing with rage and he says, oh fool, right from your childhood you were envious of the Mandavas and that’s why you made so many evil schemes against them and although they being virtuous tolerated all your misdeeds, still you never give up your evil ways. Now who but a vile person like you would have dishonoured your own sister-in-law in a public assembly? A Draupadi is chaste of high birth and the wife of the virtuous and glorious Pandavas and yet you insulted her so horrendously. Just for that you deserve to die.
It is the magnanimity of the Pandavas that out of their virtue they have not taken revenge till now. Now for you to claim innocence is simply arrogance. To claim innocence is simply arrogance when the whole world knows how grievously you misbehave with the Pandavas.
If you do not mend your ways then you will meet death. You desire the everlasting sleep of an and that is what you will get soon and Krishna’s anger did not decrease his skill of persuasion, it increased it and some of Duryodhana’s brothers also started getting influenced and Dushasan said, oh Duryodhana, if you do not hand over the Pandavas kingdom to them then we will tie you up and we will hand you over to them. Duryodhana looked at Dushasan, he was shocked.
He had been angered by Krishna’s words but even he could not deny the truth in what Krishna was speaking, although he did not want to accept it, leave alone admit it in public. Actually he had delighted in causing pain to the Pandavas. So he seeing that the situation was going out of control, he took the coward’s way out but he made a pretence of being very brave or insolent and just walked out of the assembly.
This is a very insulting thing to do. Sometimes in political, political gatherings in parliament or in house, in the official legislative houses, the opposition is there and nobody and the opposition finds that the government is not listening to them and the opposition stages a walkout. So the walkout is a very, very dramatic way of expressing one’s opposition to what is happening.
But it is one thing to walk out when somebody is not listening to what one is speaking to. That is what happens in the opposition, the main party is not ready to listen. But when somebody is speaking to that person, if say you are speaking to me and even if I just do not pay attention, I just neglect you speak, that is itself a sign of disrespect.
But while you are speaking to me, at that time I just walk out from there. Now that is horribly disrespectful and that is what Duryodhana did yesterday. Now the whole assembly, Dhritarashtra had already told Krishna that please persuade Duryodhana.
That meant that everybody was centred on Duryodhana now and for Duryodhana to just walk out of there was, was disgraceful. But when he walked away, his brothers also went away with him and Dushasan was left alone, Dushasan also went away. Of course Karna also went away with him.
And then after that, as they went out, Krishna again turned towards Dhritarashtra and he said, he looked at the whole, all Kuruvayur and he said that sometimes the path of virtue requires one to do painful sacrifices. And those painful sacrifices were what will bring joy eventually and will bring everyone back to virtue, he says. All of you know that in the Bhoja dynasty, that evil one Kamsa was born as a scourge of the dynasty and it was only when that dynasty rejected that evil one then were they redeemed and eventually I killed him.
Similarly, Duryodhana is the ruin of your dynasty. You have yourself seen how that wicked one has walked out while he was being spoken to by his elders for his own good. He is not going to be reformed.
He says arrest him and arrest his associates. Arrest Shakuni, arrest Dushasan, arrest Karna and after sidelining them then hand over the kingdom back to the Pandavas. That is the only way that you can walk the path of virtue and then you can have peace.
This was intolerable for Dhritarashtra. Right from his, from the birth of Duryodhana, his advisors had been telling him to abandon him but he had never agreed. If abandoning Duryodhana had been impossible then arresting him was even more impossible and yet that was exactly what Krishna was suggesting.
Dhritarashtra with his twisted brain thought some way out. I cannot arrest Duryodhana. So, he decided to call Gandhari and he told her to speak with Duryodhana after he explained the situation to her and he hoped that at least Duryodhana would listen to her words.
Now, Gandhari is herself a very powerful lady in her own way. She did not hesitate to speak her mind over here and she said, O king, although it is public assembly, she knew that this was the time, only time when it might be possible to avoid a war that would otherwise cause destruction and she spoke to her husband, O king, it is you knew about the sinful nature of Duryodhana right from his childhood and yet you condoned it. It is only because you sanctioned that he has become so evil and so wretched now.
To stop him now will be extremely difficult. Now when he does evil deeds, you will also get the reactions for having allowed that to happen. Dhritarashtra not wanting to hear such words, he called his attendants and told them to call Duryodhana back into the assembly.
Now Duryodhana came in and initially when the peace talks had started, Krishna had come into the court with Vidura and Satyaki into her sides and then he had seen that Duryodhana had been sitting on the same throne as was Karna. This was Duryodhana’s way of showing Karna that I fully accept you. People may think that you are low born, but I fully accept you as my friend.
You can sit on the same throne as I am sitting and this is also Duryodhana’s way of sending a message that my friendship with Karna is there and he was basically flaunting Karna in front of everyone. If you think that you have Partha, then I have Karna and with Karna, I will counter Partha. So now Duryodhana came in and he made a show of offering respects to his parents and then he sat on his throne and then Gandhari spoke urgently, kindly, fervently to him.
He says, O son, listen as I speak only for your benefit. You desire to rule the world, but you have not yet learned to rule your own senses. One who does not conquer the senses can never be happy, no matter how much of the external worlds a person conquers.
It is only by disciplining one’s own mind and senses that one can become happy. Gandhari was speaking from her own realisation. Since the day she had heard about how Draupadi had been humiliated, her heart burned in lamentation and repentance for the misdeeds of her son and she had performed fasts and austerities to somehow repent for her son’s misdeeds and hoping and praying that Duryodhana would come back to his senses.
Now it seemed that all that she had done was to go in vain. You see, Duryodhana was not a person who was unloved. His mother loved him, his father loved him.
Of course, his father’s love came out more as wilfulness than a discipline, but he had everything in the world. The only thing that he did not have was a controlled mind. And because he did not have a controlled mind, his mind had become controlled by envy.
No matter how much he had, he always wanted more and more and more and that more he could never have. So the Pandavas, if you see from that way, they did not have a father. They did not even have a stable kingdom.
And if they wanted to get into a mental complex, and they had many more reasons to get into a mental complex than Duryodhana did. But Duryodhana never counted his blessings, never appreciated what he had. He only counted what he didn’t have.
And he only counted what he could grab from others so that he could make them suffer and make himself happy. So even when Duryodhana was speaking, he was scornfully disregarding her, only making a show of hearing her words. And Gandhari said, Krishna has come now for your good.
By accepting his words, you will be accepting an opportunity to control your senses. And that alone will be the path of happiness. After all, the world was won by the Pandavas.
And you have already, you can still have half the kingdom, be satisfied with the half of the kingdom and give the remaining half to the Pandavas, which belongs to them. As Gandhari was speaking fervently, she saw that her words were having no effect on Duryodhana. Knowing the cause was lost, she felt silent.
And Duryodhana seeing that Gandhari had become silent, again walked out. And others also walked out with him. And then he went out and he spoke to him and he says, Krishna is very persuasive.
He seems to be persuading everyone. So now, as this had been going on, I mentioned earlier how all the great sages had also been there in the assembly. So it was first Krishna spoke and then at that time, Parashurama, Kanva and Narada, they also spoke.
Parashurama at that time had told the story of this great sage, of Narayana and Rishis and how a king, very arrogant of his power, Dambhodbhava, had defeated various kings in the world and was looking for an opponent who could be a match to him. And therefore, he went up to the Badrika ashram in the Himalayas. And there, he said, he had heard that Narayana and Rishi were there.
So this was the story which Parashurama was telling. And he said that Dambhodbhava, he challenged Narayana and Rishi. Narayana and Rishi said, this is a peaceful place.
This is a place for austerities, for higher spiritual pursuit. Why do you want to fight over here? Come here, you also perform austerities and experience the higher happiness of spirituality. So Dambhodbhava was nearing with disdain.
He says, I have not come here to perform austerities. I have come here to challenge you for a fight. Fight with me.
So when he repeatedly goaded Narayana and Rishi to fight, Narayana said, okay, I will fight. And then get your armies, get your weapons. And as he got all of those, Narayana just took up a kusha grass and invested with mystic divine powers and just hurled that.
And that kusha grass expanded into many, many weapons and right in front of Dambhodbhava’s eyes, his whole army was annihilated and he was attacked and wounded and all his pride was destroyed. And this Dambhodbhava, he finally fell at the feet of Narayana. He said, please forgive me.
Please forgive me. Please spare my life. And then Narayana told him that, do not become arrogant like this.
Never challenge an enemy to fight without assessing the power of that enemy. And as Dambhodbhava departed, his pride shattered. Parashuram told this story and he says that same Nara has actually come as Arjuna.
And Narayana is even more powerful and that Narayana is Krishna. Oh Duryodhana, when you are fighting against Nara and Narayana, there is no hope of your victory. Do not court disaster by fighting against them.
Accept Keshava’s proposal and be peaceful. After the sage Kanva spoke and he also spoke about how arrogance leads to destruction and how pride commits before a fall. How the path of virtue is the path of auspiciousness.
Narada also told the story of a great king who had become proud and pride had caused his downfall. So here pride or obstinacy or arrogance, all of them spoke on the same theme, but even the words of the sages had not changed Duryodhana’s heart. So now, of course, at this stage, Duryodhana was outside and he was contemplating all that had happened and he was telling Dushyasana that Krishna is very sly.
His words are influencing everyone. They influence you too. So Dushyasana was embarrassed and did not speak anything.
And then he said, now it is time for us to bring plan B into action. And that plan B is, we will arrest Krishna. Duryodhana already asked his soldiers to be ready and they were stationed just outside the gates.
And at one signal of Duryodhana, they will all spring in with their, charge in with their weapons and target Krishna and have him arrested. So he had got that evil plan fully mapped out and he was just waiting for it to be actually executed. And he said, now that is what we will have to do.
Otherwise, we have to do it right away. Otherwise, the king may again hand over the kingdom. Now, although Dhritarashtra was very attached to Duryodhana, Duryodhana had experience that once when in the gambling match, he had won everything or Shakuni had won everything for him.
Duryodhana thought that I only have won. Shakuni had won everything for him. And then when the Pandavas got angry because of Draupadi being dishonoured, and so they took the, so they took Vavas to kill the Kauravas.
So at that time, and many auspicious signs came up, inauspicious signs came up. So at that time, Dhritarashtra becoming very influenced had given the whole kingdom back. So of course, then Duryodhana had persuaded him to have another gambling match.
And in that gambling match, they had got everything back. But Duryodhana did not want history to repeat itself. So he said, we will get into action right away.
And at that time, in the assembly, Dhritarashtra was talking, Dhritarashtra was hearing from Krishna and Krishna was telling again. And so were Bhishma, Drona and Kripa and Duryodhana, they were telling Dhritarashtra, control your son, otherwise the whole dynasty will be destroyed. Dhritarashtra again, he called out, bring that wicked son of mine back inside.
And when he came in, now, actually at this point, not only did they tell him that Dhritarashtra, Duryodhana had to be abandoned, but Satyaki had been observing. And when Duryodhana had gone out a second time, several of his generals had also gone out with him. It was clear that he was up to something.
Now they had already heard the rumours. Duryodhana had already spoken in public in an assembly that he was thinking of arresting Krishna. So they had heard about the rumours already.
And so Satyaki spoke to, Satyaki and Krishna were sitting on the same throne. Satyaki spoke to Krishna, it seems that Duryodhana is likely to try his plan to arrest you. So Krishna was just peaceful.
Duryodhana was observing Krishna sitting peacefully throughout and thinking, when I arrest him, let us see how peaceful he will stay. So Satyaki told Krishna and Krishna just said to him, let us see, no one can arrest me, but just tell this Dhritarashtra and see what happens. And Satyaki got up and he said to Dhritarashtra, okay, you know of Keshava’s power and you also know about Duryodhana’s evil intention in wanting to arrest Keshava.
Stop him, otherwise the whole Kuru dynasty will be disgraced and destroyed. So at that time, Dhritarashtra realised that Duryodhana might actually go ahead and try to do that wretched plan of arresting Duryodhana, arresting Krishna. So Dhritarashtra had Duryodhana summoned back again and Duryodhana came inside.
Dhritarashtra roared out to him, oh you of wicked intelligence and evil disposition, how dare you think of arresting Keshava? He has never done any harm to you. He is always our well-wisher and he does not deserve to be mistreated in any way. What to speak of arrest? And not only is it sinful to contemplate, but it is impossible to do.
Keshava cannot be arrested even by the gods, what to speak of human beings. Cure this plan at once, if he wanted. Dhritarashtra actually knew about the power of Krishna and he said, so Duryodhana, everybody else are dissuading him, don’t try to arrest Krishna, he said.
Dhritarashtra spoke, if you try to arrest Krishna, then you will be destroyed, just like moths who fall into a fire, whoever goes against Keshava will be destroyed. And Duryodhana told Krishna, Krishna laughed and he said, maybe this is the way the whole thing can be settled. I can destroy all the Kavaravas and then the war can be avoided and the Pandavas can get the kingdom.
Krishna spoke this thing, shock in the whole assembly because Krishna could very well do that. Krishna laughed and he said, don’t worry, I will not do anything that will earn censure. Krishna smiled and said, oh Duryodhana, you think that you are powerful enough to defeat the Kavaravas and the Pandavas? See, now who is there on the side of the Pandavas? And suddenly, Krishna started manifesting his Vishwaroopa.
And before he manifested his Vishwaroopa, Krishna gave Arjuna a preview, a pre-description we could say. He said, see here are the gods and here are the Vrishnis and here are these Gandharvas and here are the Yakshas and here are all the powerful beings in the universe. Now when Krishna spoke this, Duryodhana could take it no more.
He thought that Krishna is simply bragging and he said, let us see how powerful you are. Anyway, powerful in the world, but let us see your actions. Arrest him! Duryodhana screamed and suddenly hundreds of soldiers from the dozens of doors, huge assembly hall, hundreds of soldiers started charging in and they charged into the assembly from all directions with their bows, their arrows, with their maces, with their swords, with their pikes, appraised to come towards Krishna.
Suddenly Krishna laughed and his form started growing to gigantic proportions and from his mouth appeared fire. His eyes appeared blazing like the sun’s. From his forehead appeared Brahma.
From his chest appeared Shiva. From all the pores of his body, sparks and flame and smoke appeared to be coming. Outside, stormy winds started blowing.
Giant waves came up in the ocean. The earth seemed to be quaking. Everywhere there are symbols of great mystery and fright and bewilderment.
What was this that Krishna was manifesting? And from Krishna’s two eyes, right eye Balram came and he stood on his shoulder. His left eye Arjuna appeared and he stood nearby. Then behind him Yudhishthira and the twins appeared.
Then the Lokpalas appeared on his shoulders. Then the Yakshas, Gandharvas appeared. And then Lord Vishnu’s personified Shankha, Chakra, Gadha, Padma, they also stood all around Krishna.
And as Krishna laughed, it appeared as if the whole world had stopped. Such a spectacular sight it was but it was at the same time a scary sight with all the fire and the anger in the Vishwaroopa. Everybody was temporarily blinded and the soldiers who had come to arrest, their weapons fell off from their hands and they shrank back in terror to see this huge form.
And when Sanjay asked, what is happening? Sanjay was asked by Dhritharashtra, what is happening? What is happening? And Sanjay told, Krishna is exhibiting the Vishwaroopa. And when he spoke this, Dhritharashtra’s voice rang out across the assembly and he said, okay Shiva, you are always doing good to the whole world. Please allow me to see your Vishwaroopa.
The Vishwaroopa said, so be it. And then Dhritharashtra for the first and only time in his life got eyes to see and he saw the majestic form of Krishna that was practically going high up to the sky with all the gods and all the celestial beings all around him, contained in him. And as this form manifested only, Bhishma, Drona, Kripa and Vidura could see that form.
Everyone else was blinded, immobilised, stunned. As the gods appeared all around Krishna and Krishna was laughing. As Duryodhana’s soldiers shrank back and fled, terrified by this huge form that they saw, Krishna laughed and then with the swasthi, the praise for auspiciousness which the sages and the brahmins were reciting for Vishwaroopa, Krishna withdrew that Vishwaroopa and he assumed his two-handed form and he departed, holding Satyaki’s hand in one hand and Vidura’s hand in another hand.
Just walked out of the assembly as if nothing had happened. Just now he had exhibited an awesome form but it was as if Krishna had done nothing and he just walked away. Now Duryodhana, he looked around, he looked around, he was stunned when his attempt to arrest Krishna had been foiled by this magnificent form and his eyes were filled thinking of that giant form.
But still was his heart transformed? No, not at all. Why? Because he was so attached to his own evil schemes, to his own envy, to his own greed that nothing could change his mind. It is just like some people say that I have made up my mind, now don’t confuse me with the facts.
So if you don’t know the facts and how have you made up your mind and if you don’t want to be confused by the facts that means you want to stay fused in illusion. That means they want to, they want to stay in illusion. So here even when Duryodhana saw this stunning Vishwaroopa, he was still not affected and later on he will tell to Krishna.
I send a message to Krishna, okay Shiva, what is the use of showing such magical forms? I can also show many magical forms, but on the battlefield show of magical forms is not of any help. Duryodhana’s plan was baffled and actually he was shocked to see that his plan had not succeeded. But still that did not change his heart because change of heart is ultimately a matter of individual choice.
If one does not decide to change one’s heart, then nobody can change one’s heart. So that’s what happened to Duryodhana. He had determined to not give even a part of the kingdom.
Now actually it’s difficult to understand within a psychology. What could make him so attached? It was the kingdom was just a just a representation of his ego for him and if it was just the kingdom that he wanted for his needs, half the kingdom was also enough because that half kingdom would have also brought enough prosperity. But he was very other-centred.
Other-centred not in a healthy sense where he was selflessly concerned about others. He was other-centred in the sense of wanting to show his superiority over the others. Others being the Pandavas and that is why giving anything to the Pandavas was to him a sign of giving in to them.
So for him, a loss of five villages would have been nothing. But what to speak of five villages, he had spoken insolently to Krishna that when Krishna had told him that advised him to live with peace, he said as long as I am the king, till that time I will not give even enough land to put the tip of a needle through. So now what was this? The land through the tip of a needle, nothing.
But what does he want to show over here? He says I am not going to settle for any compromise. So it is my way or the highway. So arrogance is such a thing that what to speak of thinking about spiritual gain, one doesn’t even think of one’s material gain.
The loss of five villages would have been nothing to Duryodhana. But for him, it would have been a loss of the rightness of his opinion. His idea is I am right and the Pandavas are wrong.
And I want the whole world to accept that I am right and they are wrong. And if I give in five king villages, then it will be understood that they also had a right to the kingdom. They have no right to the kingdom.
So this sort of arrogance because of which even when one is presented with logic, now what are the ways in which our mind can be changed? Some wise people can come and speak good advice to us. And if we hear it objectively, think about it dispassionately, then that can help us to see the right course of action. So Krishna did that, the great sages did that, but that was of no use.
And then if that doesn’t work, if advice doesn’t work, it is said that if we have to go in a car, we are travelling, then the car has to have front lights and rear lights. The front light shows the way. So if our intelligence is like the car, with the help of car, through which we are travelling, then scripture is like the front light and experience is like the rear light.
That means if there is some ditch along the way in which we may fall, if the front light is on, we can say, oh, there is a ditch and we can evade. So scripture warns us in advance that this is what is going to happen. If you do this, then this is what is going to happen, therefore don’t do this.
So scripture is like the front light which warns us what dangers are going to come. But for those who don’t listen to scripture, they don’t have any front light on. So what happens? The vehicle goes into a ditch and then there is a lot of trouble and somehow one has to drag oneself out of the ditch and one moves forward.
Then at least if one has real rear lights and one can look behind and say, oh, it’s a ditch over there, that’s what I fell into. And if something like that comes again, I have to be very careful. So the rear light is experience.
So if we can’t learn from the front light, that means if we can’t learn beforehand from scripture, before we undergo suffering, at least we can learn after we undergo suffering. After that we can learn, oh, this was wrong, I should not have done this. But unfortunately, there are some people whose intelligence don’t have a front light nor a rear light also.
So Duryodhana, he could not learn from reason, from analysis, from scripture. Now these ages, they told stories from scripture. Krishna was also quoting scripture.
But when Krishna was quoting scripture, he was quoting the Vedas in the past. But he was not ready to listen. And then finally, experience, he saw Krishna’s power and he saw how he had brought practically an army to assassinate Krishna.
But he could not arrest Krishna. And he had told Krishna just showed us some magic, and next time we’ll not be tricked by his magic. So this kind of arrogance becomes the cause of one’s destruction.
And how that destruction unfolded in the Kurukshetra war, we’ll discuss in our next session. Thank you.