SrI: SrImathE satakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama: SrI vAnAchala mahAmunayE nama:
After yudhishtira’s rAjasUya yAgam was completed, dhuryyOdhana roamed around the palace built by maya. He became mesmerised in the amazing architecture of that palace. He also became jealous that pANdavas are lucky to have such palace. In some places, he confused the floor for water and walked carefully; in other places he confused water for floor and slipped and fell. Seeing that, dhraupadhi and few others laughed in an insulting manner. dhuryOdhana became more angry and developed more grudge against pANdavas. He thought about somehow defeating pANdavas. Sakuni who was maternal uncle for dhuryOdhana et al gave an idea to defeat them in gambling since they cannot be easily defeated in a war.
As per that plan, dhuryOdhana invited yudhishtira for a gambling match. As per his royal duties, he could not refuse the invitation. Hence he started playing. dhuryOdhana made Sakuni play on his behalf instead of himself playing. Usually there will be some wager in gambling games. First yudhishtira lost his wealth and kingdom. Then he placed his brothers, himself and finally dhraupadhi, his wife as wager and lost them all. Due to his overwhelming joy, dhuryOdhana not realising the mistake he was committing, ordered his brother dhuSSAsana to drag her into the assembly. dhuSSAsana went to dhraupadhi’s private quarters where she was resting and was in her menstrual cycle, grabbed her by her hair and dragged her to the assembly. Realising what had happened, dhraupadhi prayed for justice from her husband yudhishtira and the elders in the assembly. Fearing dhuryOdhana, all of them remained quiet. Due to his arrogance, dhuryOdhana ordered dhuSSAsana to disrobe her. He obliged and started pulling her garment. Being stunned without knowing what to do, she tried to pull back her garment. At that time, she remembered the instruction she received from a rishi, while they were living in the forest, who said “When great danger occurs, you remember bhagavAn hari”. She raised both her hands and surrendered to krishNa at that time. dhraupadhi had great devotion towards krishNa. krishNa too made her garment continuously flow as dhuSSAsana kept pulling it and protected her. dhuSSAsana finally gave up, after his hand started tiring.
After all of these happened, dhraupadhi again complained and finally everyone in the assembly including dhuryOdhana accepted that yudhistira’s act of placing himself, his brothers and wife as wager was a mistake and announced that the whole game was illegal and void. But dhuryOdhana invited yudhishtira again for a gambling game where the kingdom was only set as the wager, and it was agreed that the one who lost will live in exile, for twelve years and live incognito, for one year. yudhishtira lost again and pANdavas went to the forest, having lost their kingdom. Even during those times, krishNa met them and consoled them. dhraupadhi, due to the insult she faced in the assembly, vowed that unless dhuryOdhana and dhuSSAsana were killed, she will not knot her hair. Seeing her pitiable state, krishNa being unable to tolerate it, vowed in his divine heart to destroy dhuryOdhana et al.
AzhwArs have shown in many places how bhagavAn was very merciful towards dhraupadhi and pANdavas and how he destroyed dhuryOdhana et al for their sake. periyAzhwAr in his periyAzhwAr thirumozhi “maiththunanmAr kAdhaliyai mayir mudippiththu avargaLaiyE mannarAkki” (krishNa made his cousins, pANdavas as kings after making their wife knot her hair). thirumangai AzhwAr in his periya thirumozhi says “pandhAr viralAL pAnjAli kUndhal mudikkap pAradhaththu kandhAr kaLiRRuk kazhal mannar kalangach changam vAy vaiththAn” (krishNa placed his Sankha (conch) on his mouth to shatter the kings who were on elephants to make dhraupadhi, who has a ball in her hand, knot her hair).
Essence in this incident:
- piLLai lOkAChAryar explains “The reason why bhagavAn did not come is that, had he come the he would have had to kill pANdavas who are more dear to him than his own self. This is because even after dhraupadhi surrendered to him, pANdavas being his devotees, should have protected dhraupadhi who belonged to him. But since they did not do that, they deserved to be punished. To avoid that, he did not come personally”.
- Irrespective of how good a person is, if he does not know how to control his desires, he will face great sorrow. This can be understood from yudhishtira’s acts.
- We can understand how bhagavAn helps his devotees from the lives of dhraupadhi and pANdavas. Even after doing so much for pANdavas, while ascending to paramapdham, he felt sad and said “I have not done enough for dhraupadhi”. Even for the little devotion shown by the devotees, he feels greatly indebted to them.
Source – https://granthams.koyil.org/2023/10/24/krishna-leela-47-tamil/
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