Was Ashwatthama gambled – how authentic is the TV Mahabharata?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So in the recent Mahabharata that is there on TV, there are many incidents that are shown such as So, how accurate is this Mahabharata? Yeah, so the point here is that there are There are popular depictions of the epics wherein often the primary purpose is entertainment and Because of that Because their motive is primarily commercial sometimes they may give some valid valid Points through them, but quite often for the sake of entertainment. They also bring in a lot of things which are not valid So for example, there is no question of Was Ashwatthama ever gambled? No, there’s no question of Ashwatthama being gambled because Ashwatthama was never the position of Duryodhana to gamble. In the Vedic social hierarchy The Brahmanas are the higher Kshatriyas.
The Brahmanas are not the positions of Kshatriyas for them to gamble. So there is no question of Ashwatthama ever being gambled and Why did Bhima and Vishma remain silent? during Draupadi’s robbing that’s because at that time The whole past, there are various reasons for this but suffice it to say in that context the primary reason was that There’s external reason, there’s internal reason. The external reason was that there Draupadi raises the question that if Yudhishthira gambled himself first then how can you gamble me because if he’s not his own master, then how can he be my master and Then at that time Draupadi raises this question, so Bhishma says that actually there are two rules over here one is that a Person who is a slave, Yudhishthira gambled himself, he became a slave He doesn’t have anything of his own to gamble.
At the same time the wife belongs to the husband So he says these two rules are there which rule is superior. I don’t know. I can’t decide right now So Bhishma does give an answer but he says that he is unable to dissolve the issue.
Now of course From the bhakti point of view here it is Bhishma commits, Bhishma and the whole Kaurava assembly over there They commit the mistake of Niyamagraha. Niyamagraha means sticking to the letter of the law while forgetting the actual purpose of law. So whether whether Draupadi belonged to Yudhishthira or not that is not the question at all How can a virtuous lady like Draupadi be dishonored in such an assembly publicly and no one protest over there That is the external reason why Bhishma did that but the internal reason is that all actually Bhishma is also a great devotee and this whole pastime of the Draupadi Vastrahara and the gambling that is arranged to demonstrate a fundamental truth that ultimately with this world we have no protector except Krishna Draupadi had five husbands and not just five ordinary husbands but five great warriors and in spite of having so many protectors still she was put in a defenseless situation.
That’s the way circumstances came about and even in that time when she was utterly protectionless situation it was Krishna who protected her. That Krishna is our ultimate protector. That is the primary lesson that is derived from this pastime and all the characters that are arranged by Krishna’s will that they act in particular ways to demonstrate this lesson.
This means that at the external level for learning our moral principles we can say this was not what we should do. This is what we should do. This is what we should not do.
But at the internal level understand that these are transcendental characters. It’s not that especially great devotees like Bhishma are transcendental and they are arranged by the Lord to act in particular way so that he can teach a particular lesson. Now as far as in general popular depictions on TV are concerned or on such things are concerned we have to be careful.
As I said they are primarily for commercial purposes. So quite often they sensationalize things and they use their own ideas. So for example there was a very famous Ramayana which began in India in 1980s.
It was a Ramayana series which was the first time Ramayana was depicted on TV. It became immensely popular. But the character who played Sita in that that’s Ramayana series.
She was revered by millions in India as Mother Sita. But she afterwards said that I regret that I played the character of Sita. Why? Because she said that when I played the character of Sita the whole of India started seeing me as a mother and therefore no director would cast me in a romantic role.
And she said the role of Sita ruined my career. So this is a they basically think from an entirely commercial perspective. That’s why it is best that if we have to hear we should read from authorized books which are given in the parampara.
There are many scorned devotees who have translated the Mahabharata. The Mahabharata is a very big book so we don’t have a commentary on the Mahabharata. But the translations themselves are fairly good.
This Krishnadharma Prabhu is written in the Mahabharata which is very nice. Purnapragya Prabhu is also translated in the Mahabharata. So usually popular depictions of the Mahabharata like on TV, they are often filled with with their own additions which they feel will sensationalize and gain more commercial value and they are not necessarily right according to Shastra.
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