Sanjaya, tasked by Dhritarashtra to talk peace with the Pandavas, reaches Upaplavya, where the Pandavas are camped. He tells Yudhisthira that Dhritarashtra welcomes peace. And also that any victory that the Pandavas may obtain after beating their kin will be a hollow victory. At the same time, Sanjaya also tries to sensitise Yudhisthira to the might of the Kauravas.
Yudhisthira, who has proven himself to be a master diplomat in these parts of the epic, deftly asks Sanjaya: ‘What words have you heard from me, desirous of fighting, that you are frightened of war.’ He clarifies that he regards war as a foolish enterprise, but points out the glaring difference between the prosperity of the Pandavas and of those in Hastinapura. This disparity is now unacceptable for the Pandavas, and insofar as it is a product of Dhritarashtra refusing to listen to wise counsel out of affection for his son, the king can be said to have wilfully deviated from the path of dharma.
As it happens during numerous other occasions in the epic, the valor of Arjuna and Bhima is then spoken of in hyperbolic terms by Yudhisthira, who goes on to say that he will pardon the Kauravas if they can return the kingdom of Indraprastha to him.
Sanjaya can choose to take just this message back to Hastinapura, but for some strange reason, he chooses to philosophise (it is possible that he received instructions in Hastinapura to do precisely this). He says that in case the Kauravas refuse Yudhisthira’s demand, the Pandavas should still not go to war with their cousins, for ‘it is better to be a beggar in the kingdoms of Andhaka and Vrishni than to obtain a kingdom through war.’ Sanjaya equates Yudhisthira’s demand with what is called desire in conceptual terms and adds to that some bromides about how desire for riches is endless, and how, by dutifully observing the thirteen-year exile, the Pandavas have already demonstrated how they are above the common workings of desire. In fact, if the obtaining of the kingdom was the Pandavas’ sole goal, they could have spent those years in building an army and forging alliances, things that they rightfully did not do.
We are at a delicate point here, for the fact that the Pandavas spent a long period of deprivation and have come out of it as strong as ever is now being used to justify prolonging their deprivation.Yudhisthira brings Krishna into the discussion, asking him to clarify the Pandavas’ opinion to Sanjaya. Krishna asks Sanjay a difficult question: “Is it better for a king to wage war in accordance with dharma, or is it better for him not to wage war in accordance with dharma?” Krishna says that the Pandavas will fight if it comes to that, and if they fail, it shall still be praiseworthy, for at least the deed of fighting shall be attributed to them. Krishna then says that he will take his message to the Kaurava court himself.
Tanuj Solanki
@tanujsolanki
The writer is reading the unabridged Mahabharata