I always obey Yudhishthir as
Dharmaraaj or a righteous king.
After reading the whole 18 parvas
of Mahabharat, I did not find any reason to dislike him. Even I have always
found him as an admirable & lovable person, in each & every parva.
Here are the reasons for which I
like him:
1) His Forgiveness & kindness: in Indian
culture, forgiveness is always marked as a great Dharma. This has made
difference between Greek epics & Indian epics. You will see only revenge
& enmity within Iliad & Odyssey, but in Ramayan & Mahabharat that
is neutralized by forgiving nature of warriors which makes them the greatest
epics of world forever! So forgiveness is Dharma, it's a common virtue of Satta
Guna. In Srimad Bhagabat Geeta, God Himself says, Adweshta sarvabhutanang maitrang karun eba cha/ Nirmamo nirahankara
samadukkhasukha kshami'. In Ramayan too, Shri Ram says a similar thing to
Lakshman when the later gets angry. In MB, Narad says Kshama cha paramam balam', kshama is the power. I know that we
Kaliyug people use to ignore this kshama shakti of Yudhishthir & do not
like this extreme goodness', extreme kindness' etc. But let's think once, if
The Almighty Himself was not full of this kindness, then what our condition
was!!! If God could not forgive us in regular manner then this universe would
not exist!! All incarnations of God, all Prophets & all Messengers of God
(in all Religions) have described the glory of this forgiving power. Also, this
is a rare virtue which was fortunately in Yudhishthir as a blessing of Lord.
Whenever I read MB, I become overwhelmed with his forgiving nature! He is there
like a very beautiful living idol of this great virtue! I personally think
that, we have many important lessons to learn from MB, within which
Yudhishthir's forgiveness is one! I think if any human of this Kaliyug can
accept even 1% of this infinite forgiving nature within own heart, he will be
nearer to God.
Also, I would like
to share some parts of MB to show the beauty of his kindness. He was well known
by almost all Dwapar people for this virtue only. In Aadi parva where gandharva
Angarparna (whose another name was Chitrarath) was defeated by Arjun, his wife
rushed to Yudhishthir for saving her husband's life. By Yudhishthir's order,
Arjun left Angarparna. Again in Van parva, where pandavas lived in Dwaitavan, the
deers of that place prayed to Yudhishthir only so that they leave Dwaitavan in
order to save their lives, that prayer was fulfilled too. He not only ordered
to save Jayadrath's life after Draupadi haran but also made him free from
daasatwa, because he knew then by his own experience the extreme pain of a king
to become a slave! I want to state another well known fact here, in spite of
knowing that many readers don't like it. Recall the Chitrasen incident of Van
parva. Duryodhan & co. went to see pandav's miserable condition, but by
God's wish they themselves were caught by gandharvas. All the ministers of
Duryodhan prayed to Yudhishthir & he could not refuse it due to his
infinite kindness & forgiveness. Do we think that he should have refuse then?
Then, dear friends, what is the difference between Yudhishthir & Duryodhan?
I personally think that, for this nature, he was able to get Lord's mercy &
blessings too, & Lord Himself joined his side in war.
2) Control of anger or suppressing anger: at some points it really seems that Yudhishthir had no
anger at all! His power of controlling/suppressing anger was surprising &
sometimes unbelievable! Definitely, this is related with his forgiving &
calm nature. Also, it made him a good leader & good king. Just think once,
if Bhim or Arjun were at his place as eldest brother, then they could not be
able to be a good ruler due to their excess anger & haste nature. A good
ruler always needs control of senses. Yudhishthir won in this point too. And this
power is undoubtedly another great Dharma. Also, he knew it well that if he
gets angry, then one single angry glance of him could burn the people who made
him angry (in Sabha parva, Vidur said that, for saving Duryodhan & Co's
lives he covered own face) as anger of Dharma is always very harmful for world.
Also from this point of view we can understand why he always suppressed his
anger.
3) Tolerance,
patience & calmness: Yudhishthir is a
peaceful & peace-lover person. I like this attitude very much. In order to
save peaceful atmosphere within the whole family, he tolerated many intolerable
incidents silently. This never means that he was not hurt by them, but he could
bear with any situation calmly & patiently. We can recall the situation
when within a jungle he suddenly found his dearest 4 brothers dead. He cried
& mourned very much then but had control on his mind. If he lost his
patience then, we could neither get the precious conversation between him &
the yaksha, nor were the 4 pandavas alive. Also, a knowledgeable person (Gyani)
can never be overwhelmed in grief (like The Lord says in Geeta). Yudhishthir
proves this too both here & in Mahaprashthanik parva.
4) Truthfulness: also, Yudhishthir
always spoke the truth & acted truthfully. When Bhim asked him to take 13
months as 13 years in vanvaas, he strongly replied that, I cannot do this.
This will be a false activity'. We know that his chariot never touched the
ground for this power of truthfulness.
Here I must say that I never count his lie about Ashwathama's death in
Drona parva, as it was necessary to save himself as well as for
Dharmasangsthaapan (which was a very very greater cause than his own truth
speaking Dharma, personal Dharma<< Universal Dharma), & also, he was
ordered by God to do so.
5) Intelligence: Yudhishthir's
intelligence is clear in finding the secret of lakshagriha. Also, he knew
English in that era, which came in use during Vidur's advice. In his
conversation with yaksha, we can see both his intelligence & knowledge of
Dharma.
6) Devotion to Krishna:
Yudhishthir knew who Krishna actually was, & he always surrendered himself
to Krishna. He was always dependent on Krishna. This surrendership can be
beautifully realized from some parts of Udyoga parva, especially when he sent
The Lord as his messenger. He always obeyed Shri Krishna like a true devotee,
even sacrificed his akhanda vrata of truthfulness when Shri Krishna ordered him
to do so.
7) A sign of Dharma: apart from the points I listed above, he was
very much obedient to his elders & was a perfect family member.
Unfortunately his family hurt him again & again, but he never wanted to
hurt his family back. He never wanted the terrible Kurukshetra war, till the
last moment he tried whole heartedly to stop it, even accepting his own lose.
When he sent the message to Duryodhan to do sandhi just by giving only 5 small
parts of land, then he forgave them once again & wanted to forget all their
vices with a happy ending. Despite of being the least responsible for the war,
he took all the blames of it on his own shoulder after the war finished!! I
always become emotional when he cried to Gandhari after war, I am that
heartless one, the slayer of your sons, curse me, mother' or wanted to leave
kingdom & go to forest again by giving everything to brothers. How many of
us can take all blames on us in a similar situation? Kaliyug people must learn
this from Yudhishthir, as blame shifting is a common nature of them.
I would like to
state two more dialogues by others. When Karna knew his true identity from Shri
Krishna, he told, do not expose this truth, if Yudhishthir comes to know that
I am his elder brother then he will no more accept his kingdom & will
handover it to me.' So we can see that, in spite of hating pandavas like
enemies always, Karna knew what kind of person Yudhishthir was. Lord Krishna
also said that, Yudhishthir never want to rule even the heavenly kingdom won
by adharma, but want to rule happily a small piece of land won by Dharma.' How
many of us can oppose these words uttered by God?
My personal opinion is, even if MB is an
imaginary epic story (though I never believe this), the great author Vyasdev
had put Yudhishthir on the head of all other pandavas (as eldest brother whose
order can never be violated by youngers, also youngers treated him as their
Guru, in many places of epic Bhim helplessly says, I could finish all evil but
can do nothing as Dharmaraj is my Guru & he does not allow me to do so')
only to establish the truth that, Dharma is always to be placed above
everything. Dharma is always over physical strength, energy, and all kind of
external heroic activities. To show it he placed Dharmaraj Yudhishthir as the
leader of mighty Bhim & greatest archer Arjun. Thus the message became
clear to us, physical power & skill can be glorified if & only if they
are ruled & controlled by Dharma.' Without this guidance of Dharma, Bhim's
extreme anger might cross its limit & did any adharma. We can recall a
picture. After braking Duryodhan's knee at the last battle, Bhim was kicking
his head. Then Yudhishthir scolded him, you have done whatever you wanted
& your oath has been fulfilled. Now don't cross the limit of Dharma. Do not
touch this man's head with your feet.'
Last but not the
least, with my very small brain & understanding power, I never dare to
judge the ocean like epic MB as well as any of its ocean like great characters.
So I try to find Lord Krishna's opinion in every case. As a devotee I have
complete faith on His words. From this point of view, I can never dislike the
person chosen by my Lord for His Dharmasangsthaapan. The person who was always
addressed as Dharmaraaj' by my Lord can never be a performer of any adharma,
that's what I strongly believe.
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