The Forbearance of Draupadi

Summmer Showers in the Blue Mountains, 1976

Preamble

The following is an extract from Summer Showers in the Blue Mountains, 1976 where Swami gave the Summer Course in Spirituality and Indian Culture to College Students in Ootacamund (Ooty). It is said that these talks revealed hitherto unknown human aspects of Lord Krishna, and worthy of reading if one wishes to understand some of the human acts of this avatara.

Chapter 8, entitled 'Man should promote inner vision', it is inner vision that enables man and woman to handle the vissicitudes of life with nobility. The following account is an extract of this chapter, when Ashwatthama (who had slain all Draupadi's children) was brought before Draupadi. Draupadi sets an admirable example of nobility for modern women to emulate.

When Ashwatthama, who killed the Upapandavas, (Pandava children) was brought before Droupadi, in spite of her great grief at the loss of her children, she moved forward and touched his feet and paid respects to him. It is such great qualities of truth and forbearance that we should observe in the Pandavas and respect them for such qualities.

If the mothers of today were in such a state of suffering as Droupadi was, they would have pounced on Ashwatthama and strangled him to death, even if they did not have the strength to do that. But Droupadi had such sterling character that in her great suffering she only asked, "These Upapandavas who were killed by you did not come to you in any emotion or excitement. They did not have any weapons in their hands. How did you bring yourself to cut their throats and kill them when they were sleeping?"

In spite of the fact that all her sons were killed by Ashwatthama, she was telling him with great forbearance and equanimity of mind, "My husbands were the disciples of your father, Dronacharya. They learnt all aspects of weaponry from him; and you, who are the son of Dronacharya, killed my sons who should be like your disciples." This was the way in which she was pleading with Ashwatthama.

Bheema was unable to bear such sorrow; and because of this, he was in great emotion which drove him to the point of exhibiting his physical prowess to the world. In fact, he was looking at this quality of forbearance of Droupadi as a laughing matter. Bheema was greatly surprised at the peaceful attitude of Droupadi. He thought that the suffering of having lost all her children had driven her to insanity, for, otherwise he was not able to understand how a true mother could show such forbearance when the person who had killed all her children was standing before her. He said, "If you do not kill Ashwatthama, I will kill him with my fists."

Trikarana Suddhi (Purity of thought, word and deed) gives strength

Droupadi was a great woman with exemplary character. If only the women of today take her as an example and follow her qualities of forbearance and calmness, our country will improve very much. When Bheema, the strong person, was preparing to kill Ashwatthama with his fists, would it be possible for a weakling like Droupadi to go and stop Bheema? It was only the purity of her thought that was her strength.

She had no physical strength. Then she told Bheema, "It is not right for you to kill a person who is afraid, who comes to you asking for shelter, a person who is asleep, or a person who is drunk and has forgotten himself. It is not right to kill such helpless people."

Droupadi was such a great woman that in order to protect right conduct, she would even oppose her husbands. She was not a woman who would bring disrepute, by any of her acts, either to her husbands, or to her father, or to her sons. She did not want anyone to get hurt by her acts.

When Pandavas were preparing to go to the forest, Dharmaraja sent for Droupadi and asked her to sit by his side. Dharmaraja told her, "Owing to certain personal differences between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, a situation has come about by which we will have to go to the forest." He told Droupadi that these troubles and tribulations were something which they could not avoid, and that it was a very hard thing to be living in a forest for twelve years and follow it up with one year in which they had to remain incognito.

Dharmaraja told her that the men will somehow bear the difficulties and that it was not an occasion for women to go into the forest, and he advised her to remain back and take care of the old Dhritharashtra and Gandhari.

The Pandavas had asked Droupadi to take care of Dhritharashtra and Gandhari, the two main people who were cruel and responsible for their having to go to the forest. This is a very great quality in the Pandavas, and we must learn a lesson from this conduct. If the Pandavas really hated the Kauravas, is there any meaning in this act; and can we justify the fact that the Pandavas asked Droupadi to stay back and serve the Kauravas? The moral of this is that whatever has to happen in one's life will happen, but to take such inevitable events and use them to promote hatred is not the correct thing to do, and it is not a good human character.

The pain which we have to experience, the misfortunes which come to us and the troubles which we have, are not things which arise externally, nor are they God given. They are simply things which are the result of our own actions. It is only as a result of one's own weakness, that man blames someone else for the troubles and misfortunes that he gets. This is not a right attitude. Mahabharatha teaches us that it is not right to blame others for our troubles.

Download Chapter 8, Summer Showers in Blue Mountains, 1976 (PDF)