Why did Shalya fight on Duryodhana’s side just because of getting good reception?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Why did Shalya fight on the side of the Kauravas? Just because Duryodhana served him when he was on the way to go to the Pandavas. So, Shalya was the uncle of Akula and Sahadev. And he was, relatively speaking, a virtuous king.
He wanted to fight on the side of the Pandavas. But at that time, while he was going along, Duryodhana arranged a very receptive, I mean, high quality service camp where he could stay and he would facilitate. So, he was so pleased.
He just assumed that Yudhisthira arranged this. And he said, the person who has arranged such excellent facilities for me, I will surely give up my life for his sake. And immediately Duryodhana appeared over there and said, I arranged all this.
Shalya was flummoxed. He didn’t know what to do at that time. So, actually, it was, you could say, a mistake of judgment.
See, the truth mistakes, one of the principles which is said in the Nitya Shastra is, when you are very happy, don’t make a promise to anyone. Because in the illusion of happiness, emotions often, they push our intelligence down. And that’s why we may speak things which are excessive.
So, that was one mistake on his part. And second thing is, yes, it was a further mistake was that in such a situation, even if he has given a word, a Kshatriya, for Kshatriyas, their word of honor is very important. Because Kshatriyas have a lot of power.
They are the kings. And if they simply start acting according to their whims or according to whatever is convenient for them, then they can become very exploitative and abusive. And that’s why it is ingrained in the Kshatriyas that your word of honor has to be extremely important.
If you promise something, you must do it. And by that consistent emphasis on their word of honor, the Kshatriyas are inspired to act honorably. And that’s how they don’t succumb to the impulse for power and impulse for exploitation or domination because of the word of honor and because of being brought up in a culture where one should honor one’s word.
But sometimes, any principle can be taken to its excess. So, word of honor is very important. But if in order to preserve one’s word of honor, one has to live a life of dishonor, then that is excess of a principle.
So, in the Bhakti Samhita, in Updesh Amrit, it talks about Niyamagraha, sticking to the letter of the law while forgetting the purpose of the law. So, Shalya committed that error in terms of sticking to his word and ending up fighting on the side of Adharma. But of course, we can also see it from the point of view of Duryodhana’s cunningness by which he trapped Shalya using his strength.
Shalya was a very honorable person. And quite often, maya can be so subtle that the very thing that we can use in the service of Krishna, maya can allure us to that very thing. I may be a very good singer and I can sing very nicely and I can absorb myself in Krishna.
I can absorb others in Krishna. But through that very singing, I become proud. I think I sing so nicely.
So, what may happen is by my singing, others are remembering Krishna, but I am not remembering Krishna. So, we have to be careful. So, the word of honor is important, but the word of honor also has to be used ultimately for the purpose of Dharma.