Dharmas Intricacies by Dharma Raja

గురు బ్రహ్మ గురు ర్విష్ణుః గురు ర్దేవో మహేశ్వరః

గురు స్సాక్షాత్ప రబ్రహ్మ తస్మై శ్రీ గురవే నమః

శుక్లాంబరధరం విష్ణుం శశివర్ణం చతుర్భుజం

ప్రసన్న వదనం ధ్యాయేత్సర్వ విఘ్నోప శాంతయే

శ్రుతిస్మృతి పురాణానాం ఆలయం కరుణాలయం

నమామి భగవత్పాదం శంకరం లోక శంకరం

ఓం నమః శివాయ

After Yudhishtira loses everything in the gambling with Sakuni, Dussasana drags Draupadi by her hair to the sabha and in front of everyone, he tries to undress her. The episode of draupadi vastraapaharanam and Krishna ensuring that Draupadi did not get undressed is a known one. Anyway, Dussaasana gave up after sometime.

Incident 1:

Seeing this Bhima’s blood boils and he takes an oath in front of everyone that he will not only kill dussaasana, but will also rip his heart apart and drink his blood. Every one, including Dharma Raja remains silent.

Karna stoops to a level, where he said that its ok for Draupadi to choose another husband after having 5 husbands like a vesya (prostitute). Taking this as a cue, Duryodhana shows his thigh to Draupadi and asks her to come and sit on it.

Incident 2:

Bhima once again could not tolerate this. He takes another oath that he will blast the thighs of Duryodhana in the war and will split them open. He looks at Yudhishtira and then at the arms for his permission. Yudhishtira did not even bother to look at Bhima. Bheeshma, Drona etc pacify Bhima citing some great principles. They recovered from their brain dead state, which they entered into when Duryodhana ordered Dussaasana to bring draupadi into the court.

After all the damage was done, Dhritaraashtra woke up. He informs Duryodhana to scrap everything. He requests Yudhistira that he should not take all these incidents seriously as that’s against the nature of Yudhistira and his righteousness. He then calls Draupadi and grants her 3 boons.

Draupadi seeks the release of her husbands and herself from the slavery. Dhrutarashtra promptly grants it.

Then she wanted her husbands to be given the kingdom and Dhrutarashtra agrees to that and tells her to seek one more boon. She stops there citing that a kshatriya woman can only seek 2 boons and not more.

Incident 3:

Bhima says that the kingdom acquired through a woman is disgraceful and rises once again saying that he would fight the kauravas right away and win everything from them. Dharma raja raises his arm and instructs Bhima to calm down.

Alright, so when you look at the above 3 incidents, Dharma Raja remained silent for the first two incidents, but orders Bhima to calm down in the 3^rd incident. Why did he do that? Why did he not bother when the first two incidents happened and took a decision during the third?

Kavi Saamrat Viswanaadha Satyanarayana has answers for those questions.

During the first two incidents Yudhistira was still a slave of the Kauravas. So, he is no one to take decisions. He is not the signing authority as a slave is supposed to act as per the master’s directive. So he did not even bother to look at Bhima or respond to him. Isn’t it amazing how some one could still think of Dharma in that state?

So, at the time of 3^rd incident, he was not a slave anymore, then instead of stopping Bhima, why did he not go ahead with Bhima’s idea of waging a war? Bhima said that the kingdom obtained because of Draupadi is disgraceful. So, how could Dharma Raja utilize the power obtained because of Draupadi and issue an order to wage war? Wouldn’t that be disgraceful as well? Hence Dharma Raja said No. While Bhima could figure out that enjoying the kingdom obtained through Draupadi is disgraceful, he could not extend it to waging a war using the freedom obtained by Draupadi. Even that is equally disgraceful.

Dharma is extremely complicated. Knowing it is not easy and importantly abiding by it, especially when in trouble is not easy at all. You need people like Kavi Samrat to explain these kinds of inticacies.

సర్వే జనాః సుఖినో భవంతు

PS: There could be typos and other mistakes in telugu and english, kindly pardon me with big hearts.

Body Language

గురు బ్రహ్మ గురు ర్విష్ణుః గురు ర్దేవో మహేశ్వరః

గురు స్సాక్షాత్ప రబ్రహ్మ తస్మై శ్రీ గురవే నమః

శుక్లాంబరధరం విష్ణుం శశివర్ణం చతుర్భుజం

ప్రసన్న వదనం ధ్యాయేత్సర్వ విఘ్నోప శాంతయే

శ్రుతిస్మృతి పురాణానాం ఆలయం కరుణాలయం

నమామి భగవత్పాదం శంకరం లోక శంకరం

ఓం నమః శివాయ

The great Yudhishtira loses everything in gambling. Despite having so much wisdom and importantly knowing whats dharma and adharma, he pledges everything in the gambling with Sakuni. By virtue of the boons granted to Draupadi by Dhrutaraashtra they regain their kingdom and their slavery to Kauravas gets repealed.

But with a different plan in mind Sakuni provokes Duryodhana to force Dhrutaraashtra to invite Dharmaraja for yet another game of dice.

Dharma raja, being dharma raja, accompanied by all his brothers and Draupadi visits Hasthinapuram for the game once more, citing the reason – Law abiding Kshatriya cannot reject an invitation/offer by another Kshatriya to play a game of dice.

As before he loses the game and by virtue of it, the Pandavas, with Draupadi, were supposed to spend 12 years in Aranyam (Forest as hermits) and 1 year in Agnyaatham (if recognized or identified during that period, then there will be a repeat of 13 years). Yudhishtira has to be unbelievably (I would love to use the word foolishly here instead) optimistic to agree to such conditions after all that happened in the earlier game.

So after losing, the five brothers along with Draupadi leave Hasthinapuram with their main purohit Dhoumya leading them.

After they leave Dhrutaraashtra calls Vidura and asks him how the Pandavas left the kingdom. He knew that his putra kaama(love for his son) has overcome his righteousness. He now wants security for his sons and the kingdom.

Vidura responds as below.

Dharmaraja left covering his face with a cloth. He wanted to ensure that his angered sights are not cast on any normal citizens, lest they should destroy them.

Bheemasena walked with stretched palms. Very eager to use them to make multiple kauravas bite the dust.

The great archer Arjuna was throwing sand while he walked, implying that he would be shooting more arrows than the number of sand particles that were being thrown. That would ensure that no body can escape his arrows in the war.

Nakula, covered his entire body with dust, when he left. He, being such a handsome fellow, did not want the people drowned in sorrow seeing him like that.

Sahadeva walked without looking up, with his face completely facing the ground below. Any one who sees his sorrowful face would suffer from troubles was the reason why he walked like that.

Draupadi walked in a swaggering manner with her hair let loose and with a sorrowful face indicating the way how the wives of Kauravas would end up after the war.

While the Pandavas must have exhibited what they felt or what they wanted to do, it was Vidura’s wisdom that allowed him to interpret that body language.

సర్వే జనాః సుఖినో భవంతు

PS: There could be typos and other mistakes in telugu and english, kindly pardon me with big hearts.

Paapam Punyam setoff

గురు బ్రహ్మ గురు ర్విష్ణుః గురు ర్దేవో మహేశ్వరః

గురు స్సాక్షాత్ప రబ్రహ్మ తస్మై శ్రీ గురవే నమః

శుక్లాంబరధరం విష్ణుం శశివర్ణం చతుర్భుజం

ప్రసన్న వదనం ధ్యాయేత్సర్వ విఘ్నోప శాంతయే

శ్రుతిస్మృతి పురాణానాం ఆలయం కరుణాలయం

నమామి భగవత్పాదం శంకరం లోక శంకరం

ఓం నమః శివాయ

It’s been a long while since I have posted something. The standard cliché “Been busy” doesn’t hold any water J

One day Sage Narada visits the Pandavas after their marriage to Draupadi. Vyaasa mahaamuni informs Pandavas to abide by what Narada maharshi says. So, after the Pandavas perform the arghya paadya and aachamanam, they make him sit on the highest possible throne.

Narada asks Draupadi to leave and ensures that only the Pandava brothers are around and told them, “There have been multiple instances in the past where close friends, brothers fought for the sake of women. This has led to the destruction of many great men. While I know that you brothers have the highest and best possible virtues, its important to ensure that you don’t fight amongst yourselves because of Draupadi.” He gives a full description of the story of two rakshasas by names Sunda, upasunda. They were close brothers who did great tapassu. The devatas and indra got scared and rushed to Lord Brahma. Brahma said that he will take care of it and shows up in front of the brothers.

Brahma asks them to seek boons. Of all their boons, Brahma rejects their boon of “no death” and grants them the rest of the boons. These rakshasas start carrying on heinous activities in the universe. The devatas once again reach out to Lord Brahma who asks viswakarma to create an extremely beautiful woman – Tilothama. She is instructed to get the asuras destroyed. She comes down to earth and starts going around in the forests where Sunda Upasunda live.

As soon as they see her, each of them grabs a hand of her.

Both of them said, “Be my wife.”

Tilothama said, “I can marry only one of you.”

“Who would you want to marry?”

Tilothama responded, “I want you to fight with each other and I would marry the winner.”

Both of them fought fiercely and killed each other.

Narrating the story, Narada wanted Pandavas to reach nd agreement with respect to Draupadi. That’s when they took an oath on the following lines.

Draupadi would spend a year with each of the Pandavas. During that one year, none of the other four brothers would visit the house where Draupadi stayed. If that’s violated, then the brother(s) violating that would have to go on a pilgrimage for one full year all alone. They have to spend that time like a sanyasi.

Narada leaves and the Pandavas spend time happily. At one time a Brahmin came running to the Pandavas saying that his cow had been stolen and that the Calf has been crying continuously. Hearing this, Arjuna becomes very angry and goes to the house where the arms are stationed. That’s where Dharmaraja was staying with Draupadi. While Arjuna was aware of that and importantly that would mean the violation of the oath, he still goes ahead and grabs his bow and arrows and runs after the thieves. He finds them and the thieves fight with Arjuna in which Arjuna kills the thieves and hands over the cow to the Brahmana.

After that Arjuna goes to his elder brother and seeks his permission to leave for Pilgrimage for having violated the oath they had taken collectively. Dharmaraja said, “Killing a thief, who has stolen a cow, is equivalent to performing Aswamedha yaaga. Removing the tears of a Brahmin is equivalent to performing multiple other yagnas. So you have gained lot of Punya and so you don’t need to go on this pilgrimage.”

Arjuna said, “Gaining punya doesn’t offset the sin that I have committed. Both have their own separate channels. I still have to do praayaschitam for the sin that I have committed. So, give me permission to go on my pilgrimage.”

Listening to this sound justification Dharmaraja could not contradict and gives him permission to go on the pilgrimage.

Some times humans end up doing poojas or visiting temples or offering donations in temples to offset the bad deeds that they do. But if we cause harm to some one the good deeds would not erase those.

సర్వే జనాః సుఖినో భవంతు

PS: There could be typos and other mistakes in telugu and english, kindly pardon me with big hearts.