30. DRAUPADI DOUBTS GOD

SRIMAD MAHABHARATA > AARANYA PARVA > ARJUNABHIGAMANA PARVA > CHAPTER 30 - DRAUPADI DOUBTS GOD

“Draupadi said, ‘I bow down to Dhaataa and Vidhaataa who have thus clouded your sense (Moham in Sanskrit)! Regarding the burden (you are to bear) you think differently from the ways of your fathers and grand-fathers! Influenced by acts (Karma) men are placed in different situations of life. Karma, therefore, produce consequences that are inevitable; emancipation (Moksham) is desired from mere foolishness. It seems that man can never attain prosperity in this world by Dharma, gentleness, forgiveness, straight-forwardness and fear of criticism! If this were not so, O Bharata (Yudhishthira), this insufferable calamity would never have overtaken you who are so undeserving of it, and these your brothers of great energy! Neither in those days of prosperity nor in these days of your adversity, you, O Bharata, have ever known anything so dear to you as Dharma, which you have even regarded as dearer to you than life. That your kingdom is for Dharma alone, that your life also is for Dharma alone, is known to Brahmanas, your Gurus and even to Devas!

“I think you can abandon Bhimasena, Arjuna and these twin sons of Maadri along with myself but you cannot abandon Dharma! I have heard that the king protects Dharma; and Dharma, protected by him, protects him (in return)! I see, however, that Dharma does not protect you! Like the shadow pursuing a man, your heart, O tiger among men (Yudhishthira), with singleness of purpose, ever seeks Dharma. You have never disregarded your equals, inferiors and superiors. Obtaining the entire world, your pride never increased! O Paarthaa (Yudhisthira), you ever worship Dwijas, Devas, Pitrus, with Swadhaas, and other forms of worship!

“O Paarthaa (Yudhishthira), you have always satisfied the Brahmanas by fulfilling every wish of theirs! Yatees, Sannyasins and mendicants of domestic lives (Grihasthaa in Sanskrit) have always been fed in your house from off plates of gold where I have distributed (food) among them. To the Vanaprasthaas you always give gold and food. There is nothing in your house you may not give to the Brahmanas! In Vaishwadeva yagna, that is, for your peace, performed in your house, the things sanctified are first offered to guests and all creatures while you live yourself with what remains (after distribution)! Ishtis, Pashubandhaas, yagnas for obtaining fruition of desire, the rites of (ordinary) domesticity, Paaka yagna, and yagna of other kinds, are ever performed in your house. Even in this great forest, so isolated and haunted by robbers, living in exile, deprived of your kingdom, your Dharma has sustained no decline!

“The Ashwamedha, the Raajasooya, the Pundareeka, and Gosava, these grand yagnas requiring large gifts (Dakshina in Sanskrit) have all been performed by you! O monarch (Yudhishthira), driven by an irrational (Visham in Sanskrit) sense during that dire hour of a losing match at dice, you did made stake and lost your kingdom, your wealth (Vasoon in Sanskrit), your weapons, your brothers, and myself! Simple, gentle (Mridaa in Sanskrit), liberal (Vadaan in Sanskrit), modest, truthful, how, O king could your mind be attracted to the evil of gambling? I am almost deprived of my sense, O king, and my heart is overwhelmed with grief, seeing this your distress, and this your calamity!

“An old history is cited as an illustration for the truth that men are subjects to the will of God (Eeshwara in Sanskrit) and never to their own wishes! The Supreme Lord and Ordainer of all (Dhaataa) ordains everything in respect of the well-being and woe, the happiness and misery, of all creatures, prior to their births guided by the Karma of each, which are even like a seed (destined to sprout forth into the tree of life). O hero among men, as a wooden doll is made to move its bodyparts by the wire-puller, so are creatures made to work by the Lord of all. O Bharata (Yudhishthira), like space that covers every object, God (Eeshwara in Sanskrit), pervading every creature, ordains its well-being or woe. Like a bird tied with a string, every creature is dependent on God (Eeshwara in Sanskrit). Everyone is subject to God (Eeshwara in Sanskrit) and none else. No one can be his own ordainer. Like a pearl on its string, or a bull held fast by the rope passing through its nose, or a tree fallen from the bank into the middle of the stream, every creature follows the command of the Creator (Dhaataa in Sanskrit), because imbued with His Spirit and because established in Him. Man himself, dependent on the Universal Soul, cannot pass a moment independently. Enveloped in darkness, creatures are not masters of their own well-being or woe. They go to heaven (Swarga in Sanskrit) or hell (Naraka in Sanskrit) urged by God (Eeshwara in Sanskrit) Himself. Like light straws dependent on strong winds, all creatures, O Bharata (Yudhishthira), are dependent on God (Eeshwara in Sanskrit)! God (Eeshwara in Sanskrit) himself, pervading all creatures and engaged in Karma right and wrong, moves in the universe, though none can say This is God! This body with its physical attributes is only the means by which God – the Supreme Lord of all makes (every creature) to reap fruits that are good or bad. See the power of illusion that has been spread by God (Eeshwara in Sanskrit), who confounding with His illusion (Maayaa in Sanskrit), makes creatures slay their fellows! Truth-knowing Munis see those differently. They appear to them in a different light, like the rays of the Sun (which to ordinary eyes are only a pencil of light, while to eyes more penetrating seem filled with the germs of food and drink). Ordinary men see the things of the earth otherwise. It is God (Eeshwara in Sanskrit) who makes them all, adopting different processes in their creation and destruction. O Yudhishthira, the Self-create (Swayambhu in Sanskrit) Pitamaha, Almighty God (Bhagawaan in Sanskrit), spreading illusion, slays His creatures by the instrumentality of His creatures, as one may break a piece of inert and senseless wood with wood, or stone with stone, or iron with iron. The Supreme Lord, according to his pleasure, plays with His creatures, creating and destroying them, like a child with his toy (of soft earth). O king (Yudhishthira), it does not seem to me that God behaves towards his creatures like a father or mother to them. Like a hearless person, He seems to bear Himself towards them in anger! Seeing superior, well-behaved and modest persons harassed, while the sinful are happy, I am sorely troubled. Seeing this your distress and the prosperity of Suyodhana (Duryodhana), I do not speak highly of the Great Ordainer (Dhaataa in Sanskrit) who suffers such inequality! O sir, what fruits does the Great Ordainer reap by granting prosperity to Dhritarashtra’s son who violates the Shaastraas, who is crooked and greedy, and who injures Dharma! If the act done follows the doer and none else, then certainly it is God (Eeshwara in Sanskrit) Himself who is stained with the sin of every act. If however, the sin of an act done does not attach to the doer, then (individual) might (and not God) is the true cause of Karma, and I grieve for those that have no might!’”