The Sauti having explained the two types of trees—the tree of Dharma whose trunk is Yudhishtira and the tree of anger whose strong trunk is Duryodhana—begins to narrate the story of Mahabharata. Pandu was a king who conquered many kingdoms and retreated to a forest and lived among sages.
Once while he was hunting, he killed a stag which was engaged in mating with its pair. He incurred great wrath and misfortune in the form of a curse and his conduct became a warning to all other kings in his lineage on what not to do while hunting. The seeds of great sorrow are often sown in actions done without awareness and thought. The curse on him was that the moment he embraced his mate, he would die.
The story of the Mahabharata is told in brief in the first chapter of the Adi Parva through the voice of the visually challenged king Dhritarashtra who laments to Sanjaya. He justifies his emotions to Sanjaya and says that if he gave him a complete hearing, he would not look at him with so much contempt.
From his point of view, the words that Dhritarashtra says recounts a sort of a history of a loser. He says that his son felt awkward entering into the hall of the Pandavas. He grew in jealousy, which Dhritarastra could not stop, feeling powerless against him. As Duryodhana felt that he could not beat the Pandavas in battle, he invited them to a game of dice.
I lost all hopes of success, is the refrain for a long speech of lamentation by Dhritarashtra as he mentions incident after incident—Arjuna hitting the target to win the hand of Draupadi, Subhadra being carried away by Arjuna, how Arjuna had pleased Agni by restoring the Khandava forest as his food, shielding the burning forest by his thick blanket of arrows and stopping the heavy downpour by Indra.
Worrying over the death of his sons in battle, Dhritarashtra is filled with sorrow. He fainted and was brought back to consciousness. He expresses his wish to Sanjaya to commit suicide. To the crying monarch, Sanjaya narrates how he has heard from the great sage Narada and Vyasa about how even great kings who had exemplary qualities, have done great actions and ruled wisely, won in righteous wars and have done many great fire sacrifices have all eventually died. Among the great names he mentions are Rantideva, Ambarisha, Bharata, Parashurama, Sri Rama, Janamejaya and Yayati.
While even great and virtuous kings have died, what to speak of someone like Duryodhana who was in all ways evil of thought, word and action. Those people who have applied their minds to study the books of knowledge will never grieve in this manner for those who are dead and gone, Sanjaya said. He also reminded the king about the cruelty of fate whose hand never failed to pound with its merciless grip.
The author is Acharya, Chinmaya Mission, Tiruchi; brni.sharanyachaitanya@gmail.com
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