​Why did the Pandavas tolerate poisoning and arson, but not Draupadi’s dishonoring?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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Hare Krishna Why did the Pandavas not counter the Kauravas atrocities such as the poisoning of Bhima or the burning or the attempt to burn them alive in Valnavarth Why did they only counter after Draupadi was dishonored Answer This indicates many things Firstly Yudhishthir although he was a Kshatriya he was more of a Brahminically oriented Kshatriya and that’s why he did not want to provoke confrontation so initially when Bhima was poisoned at that time Yudhishthir thought and he said that although Kunti was their mother Yudhishthir was the eldest among the brothers and he was already known to be virtuous and mature so he told his brothers and his mother that let us not report this incident because who knows whether we will be believed or not who will actually believe that just a boy can hatch a scheme to kill his cousin like this by poisoning him and even if some people don’t believe then there will be a whole rift, schism in the in the whole Kuru dynasty and especially because so many people so Duryodhana and Dhritarashtra are in power more or less so how much support they were just new at that time in the kingdom how much support they would get they did not know and basically they don’t want to create a schism in the Kuru dynasty so Duryodhana, Yudhishthir asked them to lie low and Bhima and the other Pandavas agreed, although Bhima was angry but he agreed then after they were burnt they attempted to be burnt in the Varanavarth forest, that time also Yudhishthir actually figured it out before only you know if Varanavarth was supposed to be such a good festival then why did Dhritarashtra want them to go and not his own sons to go so the reason was clear that he wanted them to actually be there must be some scheme to send them away and then do them away so therefore what he did was he attempt was made to burn them then they decided to escape beforehand and burn the house themselves so that it would appear as if they had perished over there so at that time also because they at that time were just basically orphans, they did not have a father and although the Kuru elders were affectionate towards them but whether they would stand up against the Dhritarashtra-Durodhana duo that was unclear so they laid low even at that time then eventually when they got the hand of Draupadi now it was not just their own their own safety and livelihood that was concerned they had to take care of their wife Draupadi also and then because they were allied with Drupada they even then they did not directly lay claim they did not demand anything so at that time Drupada just sent a messenger that now the Pandu’s sons are here with me and then at that time Bhishma went to Dhritarashtra and told him that the disgrace that we encountered when the Pandavas were suspected to have been burned the citizens are blaming us and I felt afraid to show my face to the citizens at least now that by God’s grace that they have survived that please get them back and give them a fair share of the kingdom by which you can get back some lost respect so then Dhritarashtra realized the truth of his words and although he did not want to give the kingdom any part of the kingdom he gave them half of the kingdom which was the barren half the Khandavaprastha the Pandavas made it into Indraprastha by Krishna’s mercy very prosperous but thereafter in the gambling match when the Pandavas all their positions were taken away when Draupadi was so grievously dishonored by being called a prostitute by being attempted to be disrobed then the Pandavas through Duryodhana’s actions he clearly showed that he had no intention of ever curbing his malevolence his atrocities would become worse and worse and worse so the Pandavas adopted a strategy of non-confrontation in order to avoid a conflagration from happening but when Duryodhana dishonored their wife and he made it clear by that action not only was that a grievous outrageous dishonor no honorable man will endure such a dishonor against his wife but more important than that what Duryodhana’s actions showed was that there was no limit to which he would not stoop in his evil intent to try to put the Pandavas down to even bury them alive if he could so then at that time the Pandavas realized that they had to stand up and then even after that even after serving the forest exile sentence they did not immediately provoke confrontation but when Duryodhana rebuffed even Krishna’s peace proposal of just five villages and not only that he dishonored Krishna also by trying to have him arrested then the Pandavas decided enough is enough and then they decided to fight the war so the point here is that there is there should always be attempt to resolve issue by non-confrontational means but to allow an atrocious person to get away with atrocities often means that that person becomes more and more atrocious and allowing such an atrocious ruler to stay in power may often may well end up being a subjecting not only oneself to atrocity but subjecting many others to the atrocity of the person who has got away with so many atrocities in the past and that’s why the Pandavas countered and then fought the war and they destroyed Duryodhana in that war and his evil agents.
Thank you.