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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00045 Mar 2005

 
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Dear members,

Many of you posted your views on the subject. Many
posted it on other lists like SriRangasri &
Oppiliappan too. Many thanks for insights and inputs.
I am sure Smt.Subha Narayan, the original
correspondent in this thread of discussion, would be
happy with the variety of scholarly and interesting
responses received.

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

My own comment on the subject matter is as follows.
Smt.Subha Narayan can choose to ponder over it too:

To my mind, Smt.Subha's question cannot be adequately
answered with reference to the doctrine of
"saraNagati" alone, as many members have seen it fit
to do. Her question was with specific reference to the
portrayal of Draupadi's CHARACTER -- most notably her
seemingly vengeful behaviour which to anyone reading
the Mahabharatha does appear to be terribly at odds
with the personality of one who has undergone
"saraNagati", witnessed first-hand the miracle of God
and, as one would rightly expect, emerged from the
experience as a profoundly transformed being.
Draupadi's experience, after all, was no ordinary
experience... it was surely a sort of "punar-janma"
(re-birth, resurrection), and hence it is in that
light that we must examine the nature of her severe
vow of vengeance.

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

It would be, in my opinion, rather too facile if not
uncharitable an explanation to say that the purpose of
Draupadi's "saraNagati" was far more to save her skin
(pardon the pun) than to seek "mOksha". Was Draupadi's
self-surrender merely for the sake of endless yards of
silk? 

The dramatic setting of the Mahabharatha may seem to
superficially suggest that Draupadi's "saraNAgati" was
solely for the sake of "mAna-sammrakshaNam" (the
protection of womanly dignity) but I don't think we
have really any firm grounds on that score on which to
assert conclusively that Draupadi was not a true
"mumUkshu". (For that matter, who in this world can
indeed sit in judgment over another and say with any
certainty that he/she is, or is not, a genuine
"mumUkshu"?) 

Again, who can say what exactly went on inside poor
Draupadi's mind in that terrible moment of her crisis?
Can one really disprove it if it were stated that
having lost everything in life -- womanly honour,
royal dignity, husband(s), palace, queenhood -- having
lost everything, Draupadi had no other earthly purpose
or meaning left in life, and hence, under the
circumsances, she cried out to the Almighty not so
much for divine intervention to protect her from
bodily outrage as, perhaps, actually for spiritual
deliverance from earthly bondage? 

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

Even from a doctrinal point of view, it is not easy to
believe that life after "saraNAgati" might well remain
in the 'back to business-as-usual' mode. It is
difficult to believe that, "saraNAgati" or no
"saraNAgati",  we all may actually be compelled to
continue behaving quite as ever before thanks to the
operation of our "prArabdha" or some such residual
"karma". It makes us suspect that perhaps, in the
ultimate analysis, the outcome of "saraNagati" is
after all only a moral neuter.  

If an experience such as Draupadi's "saraNAgathi" did
not bring about profound personality transformation in
her -- making her, for example, a kinder, more
compassionate, more patient, more forgiving, more
forbearing person and hence a much stronger person
than ever before -- if an experience such as hers did
not really succeed in  leaving a deep and lasting
impact on Draupadi's innermost self, and failed, in
fact, to cleanse out the evil of human vengeance
harboured inside her heart, we may be actually
pardoned for thinking then that the "tattva" of
absolute "saraNAgati" at the feet of the Almighty has
little significance for mankind. 

If "saraNagati" merely provided Draupadi a wardrobe
just in the nick of time, and did nothing by way of
transforming her inner being, we should ask, was it
true "saraNAgati"? And again, if an act of
"saraNAgati" cannot really overwhelm or overcome the
deepest of evil passions residing within us -- i.e. if
"prArabdha" does indeed in the end always prevail and
triumph over individual destiny, no matter what --
then of what use or value is such "saraNAgati" to
Man's spiritual aspiration or progress in this life?

A contemplation of questions as above lands us in a
heap of many such theological issues and moral doubts.
       
   
                   **************

In my opinion, we should not seek an overly
doctrinaire explanation for Draupadi's conduct.
Instead we should seek our answers elsewhere.

We should seek answers, I would say, in the storyline
of the Mahabharatha itself where a far better
explanation and account of Draupadi's character is
readily available. 

The great epic of Sage Vyasa is a vast and complex
masterpiece on human psychology. Vyasa would have done
a great injustice to Draupadi's character if he had
truly meant to have the evil passion of Vengeance
still ruling Draupadi's heart even after the momentous
experience of her "saraNAgati" occured. But evidently
Vyasa actually meant no such thing. He in fact meant
to celebrate Draupadi's character that actually
attained a towering, saintly dimension after
"saraNAgati". 

It would be folly to think Draupadi's "saraNAgati" was
about fabric alone. It was about faith, about
spiritual growth and progress too. The events of the
Mahabharatha, as I understand them, certainly seem to
suggest so. They clearly reveal there was no place at
all in Draupadi's heart for Vengeance -- Vengeance as
we normally understand it.     

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

Let us recollect the story of the Mahabharatha in the
next posting. Hopefully, we will be able to draw some
explanations from it. And the explanations may perhaps
then shed some light on the really interesting and
intriguing question Smt.Subha Narayan has placed
before us all.

Thanks and regards,

dAsan,
Sudarshan









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