గురు బ్రహ్మ గురుర్ విష్ణుః గురుర్ దేవో మహేశ్వరః
గురు స్సాక్షాత్ పరబ్రహ్మ తస్మై శ్రీ గురవే నమః
శుక్లాం బరధరం విష్ణుం శశివర్ణం చతుర్భుజం
ప్రసన్న వదనం ధ్యాయేత్ సర్వ విఘ్నోప శాంతయే
శ్రుతి స్మృతి పురాణానాం ఆలయం కరుణాలయం
నమామి భగవత్ పాదం శంకరం లోక శంకరం
ఓం నమః శివాయ
In Mahabharata, after Draupadi
Vastraapaharanam (Disrobing of Draupadi) episode, she comes back to
Indraprastha and locks herself in her room. The Pandavas return to Indraprastha
as well and they knock on the door of Draupadi. Then Bheema tries to break open
the door and it still doesn’t open. Looking at his shock, Nakula says, “Brother
Bheema! Don’t be surprised. I know that you are capable of breaking large
boulders and mountains with your strength, but you will not able to break this
wooden door. This has been closed by Draupadi mentally and not physically.
Considering the trauma that she is undergoing it will not be possible to open
this door by physical means by anyone.”
Then Arjuna suggests that Sri
Krishna is the only person who can open the door. When Sri Krishna comes in, he
refuses to accept the greetings of the Pandavas and says “Unless Draupadi
pardons you all, I can’t accept your greetings.”
He goes near the room of
Draupadi and the door opens automatically. He enters inside and a wonderful
conversation continues.
Sri Krishna, “I have come to
share the woes of a dear friend of mine.”
Draupadi, “Please leave Sri
Krishna. If you come near me, you will also become impure.”
Sri Krishna, “When people take
bath in a river, they get purified, but the river doesn’t become impure. It
just dumps all those impurities in the Sea/Ocean. Similarly, dump all your
impurities in God. He is always ready to accept.”
Draupadi, “What bad Karma have
I done that this has happened to me.”
Sri Krishna, “What you are
undergoing is not because of any Karma that you have done. This is the result
of the bad karma done by Duryodhana. One who does one small bad karma, that bad
karma makes him do a bigger dushkarma (Bad karma). The one who does a small
good karma, that karma makes him do bigger good karmas. Duryodhana has done a
bigger bad karma today.”
Draupadi, “If he has done a
bad thing, why am I undergoing this trauma and hell?”
Sri Krishna, “You don’t go
through this hell. Just ditch it. Duryodhana is the one who should undergo
through this, not you. So just forget that something bad has happened to you. The
human being who embraces the sorrows of himself/herself is selfish. The one who
embraces the sorrows of others and the world is a selfless person. So be a
selfless person. Become free from your sorrows. Worry about the bad things that
people of Hastinapur will have to undergo because of Duryodhana.”
Draupadi, “So are you saying
that I should pardon Duryodhana and all those kauravas who have committed and
witnessed this act?”
Sri Krishna, “Absolutely.
Pardon every one. Don’t have revenge in your heart. Make sure that you fight
for justice. Revenge can result in the adoption of adharma, whereas justice
will always enable one to follow the dharma. When you fight against adharma and
even if that means that lot of people lose their lives, it is still a dharma
yuddham (war).”
Draupadi becomes much better
and comes out of the room to the place where the Padavas are and pardons all of
them. She goes through this route of instigating pandavas to do the needful to
bring justice. Pandavas take an oath that if at all a fight ensues between
Pandavas and Kauravas then they would kill different people in different ways
etc. As they say, the rest is history.
In our lives we
encounter many situations where we feel extremely hurt because of someone and
feel like doing something to that person. The above conversation should help us
in deciding on how our behavior and attitude should be towards the perpetrators
of dushkarma, ensuring that we do not adopt/follow adharma.
సర్వే జనాః సుఖినో భవంతు
PS: There could be typos and other mistakes in telugu and
english, kindly pardon me with big hearts.
