Why did Krishna’s protecting Draupadi’s honor not change the Kauravas’s evil intention?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
has not been shown to anyone else. Thank you. Hare Krishna.
When Krishna protected Draupadi during the Vastra Haran, why did the Kauravas still go ahead with their diabolical plan? Why did they stop on seeing this extraordinary miracle? Why did Draupadi later when she met Krishna say that, Krishna, you were not there when all this happened? So, what exactly happened when Draupadi was saved from being disrobed? Did people see Krishna or what? Answer, no. Krishna, although sometimes in TV serials or in some movies it may be shown as if Krishna appeared in front of Draupadi, appeared in a smiling form with hands upraised and from his hands saree is coming out from above and Draupadi is being disrobed from below whereas saree is being provided from above. That is shown just for the sake of a visual depiction but what happened at that time was far more mysterious and mystifying.
Draupadi just kept, Dushasan just kept pulling the saree, pulling the saree, pulling the saree and the saree never ended. The saree never ended. Actually, it was a single cloth and it never ended.
It never ended. So, what exactly happened, how the single cloth did not end that nobody could figure out. What the assembled elders in the assembly said is that because Draupadi is so chaste that her chastity has manifested here and this extraordinary miracle where she is being, so where because of her chastity the miracle has manifested that her cloth is not ending and of course she prayed to Krishna for help.
That is very clearly mentioned in the Mahabharata. She called out to Govinda. She called out to Krishna.
She said I am sinking in the Kuru Ocean. Oh Krishna, Govinda, maintainer of the world, save me from sinking in this Kuru Ocean. So, she did clearly pray to Krishna but there was no visible form of Krishna which responded to her.
So, that is why although the miracle happened by which that particular disaster of Draupadi being disrobed was avoided. That is why it is often to be more precise. It is not said, it was not actually the disrobing of Draupadi.
It was the attempted disrobing of Draupadi which did not work out. So, they did not succeed in the attempt. But the point is after that although the Kauravas abandoned that particular attempt, they continued their other attempts to humiliate the Pandavas and eventually they decided that the Pandavas should be exiled and the Pandavas along with Draupadi went to the forest.
So, even before Draupadi’s being attempted to be disrobed and even after that the Kauravas animosity especially Duryodhana’s burning envy which made him want to humiliate the Pandavas that was always there and that remained unchanged. His arrogance, obstinacy, envy was such that he was unfazed no matter what happened. So, he saw the miracle but he did not see it.
He thought that this is just something mysterious that has happened but I am still going to go on with my evil plan. But eventually when some inauspicious signs such as say the sacrificial fire in Dhritarashtra’s chamber, it suddenly went off. That was a very inauspicious sign for Dhritarashtra.
At that time things had gone too far and that’s why he stopped. He said go no further and that’s how the whole gambling, the disaster, the frackles that was happening over there that was checked. It was not specifically because of Krishna’s intervening.
Krishna’s intervening basically stopped the disrobing of Draupadi but it did not stop the nightmarish disposition of the Pandavas. Actually at that time Dhritarashtra being fearful and trying to allay the Pandavas, he gave everything that they had lost back to them. But Shakuni and Duryodhana persuaded him to fight, to call the Pandavas back again for another gambling match and in this gambling match they lost everything and that’s how they were exiled.
And while they were going towards the exile, after they had gone to the forest, Krishna came to meet them and at that time Draupadi said to Krishna that Krishna I deserve your protection. I was your friend. I’m your relative.
I’m your devotee. You are my master. Why don’t you protect me? And Krishna said actually I was busy siding with Shalya and that’s why I couldn’t come.
Otherwise I would have come and I would have ensured that the gambling match itself didn’t take place. So Krishna, there’s this intriguing blend of the human and the divine. Krishna sometimes exhibits his divinity as omnipotent but other times he exhibits his… after all he is Naralila.
So he sometimes exhibits his humanness and his limitedness and he says oh I was not there that’s why I couldn’t do it. So here the miracle primarily contributed to preventing the dishonoring of Draupadi but it did not change the evil mentality of the Kauravas and that’s why because the Pandavas were dispossessed, Draupadi felt… she asked this question why did Krishna not come to protect me. So the point is atheists or non-believers even if they see miracles they are not going to accept it.
They’ll still find some reason to continue on with their with their skepticism, atheism, nihilism, whatever they want to believe that’s what they’ll keep believing. That’s what is demonstrated to Duryodhana’s no transformation of heart on seeing the miraculous rescue of Draupadi by an invisible Krishna. Thank you.