Bits of life

S-13 Words-2000

should he do to deal with Duryodhana who never listened to his words.
Then Vyasa asked him, “what would you do if a citizen of your country behaved like your son did? Don’t you punish him?”

Dhritarashtra replied with a tremor in his voice,
“But, honorable sir, Duryodhana is my son.”

“So what?” asked Vyasa with a temper. “He is still a citizen. You should first convince him of his bad behavior. If he doesn’t listen to your words of wisdom and guidance, then give him punishment. You and Bhishma are the present heads of the state. Not Duryodhana. You cannot forget your duty as the king of the country. Do you think the Pandavas will keep quiet after the completion of their thirteen years of exile? Do you think they will forget their insult and injury to pride and self respect? No, they will not. If there is going to be tragedy in your kingdom, you will have to bear the responsibility. Finally, you are answerable and accountable for everything bad and ugly that had taken place in Hastinapur.”

Vyasa added,
“It is the ego that annihilates everything. Remember my words.”

With these words, Vyasa walked away.
In the chambers of Duryodhana, there was a meeting among him and his friends. Shakuni joined them after sometime and told Duryodhana that his father was sad and deeply regretful. On being asked about the cause for his sorrow, Shakuni replied that he came to know through his spies that rishi Vyasa had visited him and talked to him. It only afterwards that Dhritarashtra was sorrowful and morose.

Duryodhana was offended with the visit of Vyasa and said that the entrances of such rishis must be prevented. Shakuni replied that it would be foolish to do so. Cleverness lay in listening and then follow your own will. There was no need to become angry about the visits of rishis like Vyasa.

Both Kauravas and Pandavas did not want to waste time. They wanted to prepare themselves for the war they were sure about in future. In exile, Arjuna was inspired by Vasudeva Krishna to go for hard penance for attaining divine weapons. For this purpose he went away to a remote place and started concentration on the chief of gods, namely, Indra. After some time, Indra appeared and asked Arjuna to request for a boon. Arjuna asked for divine weapons. Then he was told by Indra that it was possible only if he could propitiate Lord Shiva. Once Shiva granted him the permission and an astra called Pashupata, the doors of Heaven would open for him and he could get his divine astras.

Arjuna aimed at attaining Pashupata from Shiva and started penance for him. Duryodhana heard of this decision of Arjuna through spies. He wanted to stop Arjuna from attaining the divine astras. So he planned a trick. He called a jailed asura named Mahabali and asked him to in search of Arjuna and kill him before he succeeded in his mission of attaining the divine astras. Mahabali reached the place where Arjuna was deep in meditation and prayer to Lord Shiva.

Mahabali took the form of a wild pig and went straight at Arjuna. He noticed the wild animal and took his bow and arrow and shot it. There was another arrow that pierced it. Then Arjuna saw a tribesman standing before him and laying a claim to the wild pig. Arjuna said that he killed the animal. The clansman said that it was his arrow that killed it, so he had a right to claim it.

They both argued that the boar belonged to both. Finally, Arjuna said that the tribesman was engaging in a dangerous fight with none other than the disciple of Drona and the great grandson of Bhishma. Saying that Arjuna was about to draw his Gandiva the bow, when the tribesman made a prisoner of him with his arrows shot with great speed. Arjuna was speechless and he realized that it was Shiva himself who came to test him in the guise of a tribal.

Arjuna folded his hands in supplication to Mahadeva Shiva and stood in obeisance to Him. Shiva then looked at Arjuna and said,
“Dear Arjuna you can now ask for a boon that you would like.”

“I am already in receipt of the boon of having your mercy on me, Mahadeva.”

“However, I will be pleased to grant you a boon. It is always a pleasure to give my devotees some boon or the other.”

“Hey Shiva, I plead with you to grant me the divine weapon, Pashupata.”

“It seems you have had enough lessons from Indra to ask me the Pashupata.”

Arjuna replied,
“Sir, Lord Indra said unless I have your permission to attain the Pashupata, I cannot get the other divine astras which are in the custody of Indra.”

“Alright, dear Arjuna I am pleased to give the Pashupata, the most powerful of my weapons to punish evil.”

Thus Arjuna achieved the divine astra called the Pashupata from Lord Shiva. Then he once again prayed to Indra who appeared to him and asked him to come to swarga or Heaven. Arjuna went on traveling to Heaven and reached it as told by Indra, the chief of deities. On reaching there he was made to feel at home and different entertainments were staged for his pleasure.

One of them involved the dance performance by the heavenly beauties named Urvasi and Rambha. They were also competing with one another as to who would emerge the better dancer.

When the dance performance was over, no one could judge their competence, for both of them are equally skillful and artistic in their dance. As no one else could judge them, Indra offered Arjuna to decide who between Urvasi and Rambha was a better dancer. Arjuna agreed to do so. He asked them to put garlands on during their dance competition.

They had both of them worn floral garlands and danced to abandon to the thrill of all those present in Indra’s divine court. Once the dance was over, Arjuna asked for the garlands they had on during the performance. One of the garlands was crumpled and the other remained fresh. The crumpled one belonged to Urvasi and the other to Rambha. Arjuna concluded that Urvasi was a better dancer than Rambha. When Indra asked him how he came to that conclusion, he replied the Urvasi worked a lot harder than Rambha. Hence, her garland withered whereas Rambha did not do so. So her garland remained fresh. Everybody was pleased with this judgment of Arjuna. Urvasi was so impressed that she fell in love with him.

On a beautiful night she offered herself to Arjuna. But Arjuna declined her offer saying that she to him was equal to a mother. This was so because Urvasi was loved by one of his ancestors named, Pururava, a well known king of the Kuru dynasty. They eventually married and had children together.

Urvasi’s ego was hurt. She said scathingly,
“We, the divine dancers do not have any such preventive principles. We are immortal and free forever. We are allowed to do what we wish for.”

Arjuna however, had not budged from his mortal ethics. Urvasi was angry and cursed him thus:
“May you become a unach. Since you have refused my attentions, no other woman will have you.”

When Indra heard of this incident, he said to Arjuna,
“Dear Arjuna, do not be grieved by Urvasi’s curse. This will be of use to you in future when you and your brothers have to spend a year of incognito life.”

He also said that the curse would start anytime he wanted and it would last for one year only. Arjuna was also taught the art of dancing by Chitrasena during his stay in Swarga. Indra, the chief of the deities said that learning dance and music would also help him in future. So Arjuna learnt the arts of dancing and music from Chitrasena the guru of the divine singers and dancers.


Thus after spending a long time in Indra’s city called Amaravathi, Arjuna returned to his brothers and wife Draupadi.

Let us return to Hastinapur and see what Duryodhana and Shakuni were planning for the downfall of the Pandavas.

Sage Durvasa visited the court of Hastinapur once. He was received with respect by Dhritarashtra, the old blind king of Hastinapur. He asked his son Duryodhana to take care of the sage and his disciples.
Duryodhana and Shakuni served the sage and the group of his followers with tasteful meal. But Duryodhana in his heart of hearts was seething with anger and contempt against the sage and others in his group. He did not want them in his palace. But Shakuni tried to brainwash him to stay calm because the sage had the power to curse anyone at will.

When Durvasa sensed the resentment of Duryodhana he became angry. But Shakuni pacified him by telling him that Duryodhana wanted the sage to pay a visit to the Pandavas and let them also get the blessings of the sage.
Durvasa was pleased to hear this and said that he would definitely visit the Pandava princes in their forest abode and bless them as well.

Here in the forest, the Pandavas and Draupadi were having their food. But the fire of vengeance was so brightly lit in their hearts that none of them felt like having food and got up without eating.

As they were outside in the forest, they spotted sage Durvasa and his disciples making way to their dwelling. Yudhishtar and his two younger brothers, Nakula and Sahadeva received them with devotion and invited them to their humble quarters. Durvasa said that a few days ago he visited Duryodhana who served him with devotion. He also told him that Duryodhana asked him to his brothers Pandavas and bless them as he blessed him. Yudhishtar knew that it was the mischief of Duryodhana to tell Durvasa and send him after he and his brother have had their lunch and nothing would be left to serve the sage and his group. Yudhishtar guessed that Duryodhana did it because he wanted to see the Pandavas discomfited and not in a position to serve food to so many people.

Yet Durvasa said,
“O, Yudhishtar, we want to accept your hospitality. We just go and have bath in the river and then come to have lunch at your place. Make arrangements for the lunch.”

So saying, he and the others left for the river to have a dip.

Now the Pandavas went running to their dwelling and found that Draupadi was just extinguishing fire in the cooking place. When she saw them tense looking she asked them the reason for their worry. On being told that sage Durvasa and his followers were coming for lunch she looked into the rice vessel and found a single morsel of rise at the bottom. Then she thought of Krishna who alone could save her and her husbands. Krishna just walked in and saw them all in a tight situation. He looked into the rice vessel and ate the single morsel lying at the bottom.
Strangely, Durvasa and his fellow sages felt as though they had just eaten. They felt their stomachs full. There was no need to cook anything for them. they left the Pandava abode silently.

Bhima’s activities in the forest-

When Bhima went away from their house in the forest in a fit of anger, he had no idea where he was going. It was a thick forest he was passing through. On a clearing he saw big monkey lounging on the way. As it was lying right on his path, he asked the monkey to remove its long tail from across the path. It looked indifferent and did not do as asked by Bhima of wind god. . Then Bhima tried to remove it. It did move an inch. He tried with both hands