After the departure of Krishna, Dristadyumna, and other well-wishers from the Kamyaka forest, the Pandavas get used to a slow life, with long periods of ample agonizing over their failures. The one who is perhaps in a lot less agony than the others, and who even seems to be enjoying the small consolations of a pastoral life (the Pandavas don’t really live in a feral place but in a settlement next to a lake named Dvaitavana), devoid as it is of the characteristic tangles of dharma is Yudhistira. His conduct is akin to that of someone enjoying a refuge, and this fact angers Draupadi, who gets into a conversation with him about his apparent disinclination for avenging his kingdom.
Draupadi’s draws Yudhistira’s attention to the dejection of his own brothers who, through their own strength, could have killed the evil sons of Dhritarashtra had they not been held back by the noose of dharma.
Her question is — does this not anger the Pandava king? Yudhistira’s reply is a mildly philosophical one, in which he propounds how anger is a terrible thing, and how between passionate revenge and gentle forgiveness, the latter is the path of dharma. He says that Duryodhana will either return the kingdom or not, in which case a war shall take place. However, he ascribes everything to destiny, and is shown to believe that the war that shall destroy the Bharata lineage is predestined.
Draupadi then argues that the path of dharma is definitely Yudhistira’s, but given their penurious existence, should dharma not be subjugated to swift action. She then proposes a paradox: if everything is predestined, if everything happens as it is supposed to, then she should perhaps have a complaint against the supreme god for the miseries that she and her husbands are facing.
And if everything is not so, if human actions can effect and affect the course of events, then strength is certainly a parameter that ought to be considered. Yudhistira can answer this paradox by either noting this as an atheistic impulse in his wife, or by accepting that he doesn’t have the strength to deal with Duryodhana.
He chooses the former, and takes it upon himself to ‘educate’ Draupadi, waxing eloquent about the fact that he follows dharma not because he wants some reward, but because it is prescribed in the ancient texts and by the wise people. He does reveal, though, that he is certain that, if not in this life, there is a fruit of dharma to be enjoyed after death.
This is, no doubt, irritating for Draupadi to hear, who is clear that ‘those who believe in destiny and those who believe in chance are both wrong’. For her, destiny, chance, and the actions of men are all causes of outcomes, and since men cannot rely on the first two, intelligent action ought to be an imperative. She’s very much like the Krishna of Gita here, and doesn’t want to wait for 13 long years to get her due.
Tanuj Solanki
Twitter@tanujsolanki
The writer is reading the unabridged Mahabharata