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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00104 Mar 2005

 
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Dear members,

We are continuing from Part-3 posted earlier. 

                  ***********

Two significant incidents in the Mahabharatha reveal
to us thus two different and contrasting facets of
Draupadi's character. They throw up interesting
questions too.

In the first instance she swore vengeance against the
Kauravas for a wrong done unto her by them. In the
second, surprisingly, she forsook vengeance against
Aswatthama, who again did great wrong unto her on
behalf of the Kauravas. It was the same person,
Draupadi, however, who acted one way at one point of
time and in a diametrically opposite way at another.
We should ask 'Why?' 

The Mahabharatha further tells us that the cause for
vengeance in one case was morally no less compelling
than in the other. So if Draupadi was acting out of a
certain vicious self-interest in the first situation,
what was her real motive for action in the second? Was
it not entirely self-less? If it was, in fact,
selfless, how to explain the wide difference in the
nature of her responses? It seems almost magical, is
it not, that Draupadi could act so differently?

These are helpful questions to ponder about, long and
hard. It is in the pondering indeed that one really
profits from and enjoys studying the Mahabharatha, not
by being impatient for pat, off-the-shelf answers and
slick, ready-to-eat explanations.  

What do the two incidents really convey to us?

Firstly, Draupadi's character is by no means a static
one in the Mahabharatha. Like all human beings, and
like all great epic characters, Draupadi too was
evolving as a personality through all the the
ups-and-downs, highs-&-lows, agony and ecstasy, griefs
and joys of her pretty turbulent life throughout the
Mahabharatha. From swearing Vengeance to completely
forsaking it, Draupadi travelled a great distance
indeed in the journey of life. How was that long
arduous journey enabled? Surely, it was her act of
"saraNagati".

Secondly, the act of "sharaNagati" in Hastinapur did
leave a lasting if not immediate impact upon
Draupadi's character. It took its time indeed to work
its magic, but magic it certainly did work upon her
soul. From a rather baleful personality she might once
have been when she undertook the first terrible vow,
we see how she went on eventually to transform herself
into a benign, saintly soul by the time the
Kurukshetra War ended and when she chose, in that
moment of climactic glory, to grant absolute pardon to
the killer of her sons, the dreaded Aswathamma.

Thirdly, "saraNagathi" is really not so much God's
magic-wand as it is His garden-tool. Through it, God
brings about gradual but everlasting change -- call it
the flowering of personality and the ripening of
wisdom -- God brings about such a change within a
devotee's heart. Such personality-change can begin
manifesting in outward behaviour in a relatively short
period of time, as say, in the case of the 'rAkshasa',
Vibheeshana in the Ramayana, or else it can be that
the pace of change is plodding but sure, as in the
case of Draupadi. 

(This was the point of "prArabdha karma", a rather
heavy technical term, that Sri Anbil Ramaswamy was
making in his own comments). 

                   ************

"The quality of Mercy", wrote an old poet, "is twice
blest. It blesseth him that gives and him that takes".

Draupadi's "saraNagati" in the Mahabharatha is a
unique illustration of the above adage.

All of us, without exception, yearn hard and long
indeed to 'receive' the divine compassion of God. But
how many of us, if the earthly situation or
circumstance were to so arise, how many of us would be
ready to gladly 'give' unconditional compassion to
those around us , especially to those whom we might
have good reason to regard inimically? 

We go to a temple, stand before the deity and ask, "O
Lord, I have long completely surrendered to You! But
you have not yet showered the blessing of Compassion
upon me! When shall that day come?" To that question
the Almighty, we might well imagine, may respond
smilingly with a telling counter-question, "You shall
'receive' my own Compassion one day, of course, but
only when I see that you are ready and capable of 
whole-heartedly 'giving' such compassion yourself!
Until then must you wait".

In the moment when Draupadi was faced with a choice
--either to 'take' rightful Vengeance in seeking
Aswatthma's death or to 'give' him the compassion of
her whole heart and grant the killer of her children
eternal pardon -- in that precise moment indeed did
Draupadi's earlier act of 'saraNagati', we should say,
get consummated and finally bear fruit. It was in that
latter moment indeed, and not so much in the earlier
and more popular scene of her 'disrobement' at the
royal court of Hastinapur, that the Grace of the
Almighty fall in full and ultimate measure upon
Draupadi. 

It is such moments indeed as Draupadi's, such glorious
scenes in our ítihAsas and 'purAnAs', which reveal to
us the hallmark of genuine 'saraNagati'...

                    *************

Trust, the above postings of mine will go some way in
dispelling the doubts Smt.Subha Narayan had regarding
the true character of Draupadi and provide some
insight into Draupadi's act of 'saraNagati'.

Thanks and regards,

dAsan,

Sudarshan

   

  


 


Regards,

dAsan,
Sudarshan










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