Draupadi's question

"Go and ask that gambler, whom did he lose first, himself or me? Bring me the answer."

"My husband was summoned to this assembly and though he possessed little skill at dice, he was made to play with skillful, wicked and deceitful gamblers. How can it be said that he made the stakes voluntarily? Having lost himself first, how could he stake me?"

"O Kurus, I, the wedded wife of king Yudhishtra the just, ask you one last time! Tell me now if I am a serving-maid or otherwise. I will accept your verdict whatever it be."

"I have already said, O blessed one, that the course of morality is subtle.", said Bhishma.

These were the questions of Draupadi to the elders. Even the eldest and most respected Bhishma could not come to a conclusion. This question is key to understanding the principles of dharma in regards to the respect and dignity of a woman. The answer was decided not by any of the elders who the question was posed to, but by Duryodhana and Dushasana based on 'might is right'. However the principles of Dharma and not based on might. They favour the innocents and the weak. The lord Krishna himself is the guardian of dharma and he says in the Bhagavad Gita:

"Whenever virtue declines and unrighteousness rises, I manifest Myself as
an embodied being. To protect the good, to destroy the
evil and to establish righteousness, I am born from age to age."

Krishna manifested himself when adharma was at it's peak. By coming to the rescue of Draupadi, the lord indirectly answered Draupadi's question. The actions of the Kauravas were the peak of adharma, and they had no right over Draupadi. She was not a slave, and Yudhishtira had no right to stake her, whether he was a slave or not. A husband's duty is to protect and care for his wife. By staking her in a game of dice, he was not performing his duty as a husband, and in fact he was doing the exact opposite by treating her as an object. A husband and wife are bound to each other by love and mutual respect, and the holy rites of marriage. They are not each other's property. Neither is possessed by the other. The moment a husband ceases to perform his duty as a husband, he violates the sacred institution of marriage and no longer deserves the respect of his wife. Despite Yudhishthira's violation of his duty as a husband, Draupadi did not withdraw her respect or love for her husband. When asked for a boon from Dhritarashtra, she asks for her husbands to be set free and does not ask for her own freedom. This speaks volumes for her loyalty to her husbands and her noble character.

Deceived or led into wrongdoing?

We should be careful in choosing who we believe or who we are led by, and what their values and intentions are. Drona is deceived into making attempts to capture Yudhishtira alive believing that Duryodhana is going to set him free and give him half the kingdom. Whereas actually Duryodhana wanted to make Yudhishtira his slave and end the war in his favour. The Samsaptakas were also deceived into accepting Duryodhana's plea to take Arjuna away from the battle area so that Drona could launch the Chakravyuha and capture Yudhishtira alive. They were promised by Duryodhana that he would set Yudhishtira free. However Duryodhana had no intention of doing so. We may be performing actions with noble intentions but if our assumptions are false or if we are deceived by trusting others with evil intentions, our actions will amount to evil, even if we perform them with seemingly noble intentions. We must choose who we are led by and who we trust judiciously and not based on a pretense of friendliness or hospitality.

To be harsh or not?

We may find ourselves in a position such that we are required to mete punishment to someone for his wrongdoing. This may be a child, a relative, friend etc. Due to the person being young, or related, or close, we may go down soft on them. However, in certain cases, the manner in which we deal with them may have disastrous consequences for the wrongdoer as well as the wronged. In the Mahabharata, Jayadratha the king of Sindhu and brother-in-law of Duryodhana wrongs Draupadi and the Pandavas by abducting Draupadi in the Pandavas absence. Yudhisthira and Draupadi go lenient on him by insulting him (shaving off his dead) but not injuring or killing him. Yudhisthira was under the impression that the insult would make him realize his mistake and he would refrain from repeating such acts. He also did not want to harm him since he was a relative.

On one hand, the pandavas swore to kill Duryodhana, Dusshasana and Karna for their insults to Draupadi and on the other, they let go of Jayadratha who abducted her with the intention to dishonour her and steal her from the Pandavas by force. However the result of the Pandavas decision to let Jayadratha go after insulting him was that Jayadratha felt greviously humiliated and vowed revenge on the Pandavas. He sought a boon from Lord Shiva to hold the Pandavas at bay in battle for one day. He used this boon on the thirteenth day of battle when Arjuna was away and Abhimanyu entered the Chakravyuha. He prevented the Pandavas from following Abhimanyu and left him alone and defenceless inside to be killed by the Kaurava warriors. Thus, Yudhishthira's lenient manner of dispensing justice led to the death of his nephew. Eventually Jayadratha is anyway killed by Arjuna in battle with great difficulty. If Krishna would have not intervened to help his dear friend, Arjuna would have had to self-immolate due to his inability to kill Jayadratha.

Bhishma attains Moksha?

One question that is one is left with in the Mahabharata is whether Bhishma attained Moksha on choosing his death. His attaining Moksha would depend on

1) Krishna's will and Bhishma's devotion to Krishna
2) His suffering and working out of seeds of his karmas
3) His last thoughts


Bhishma was a devotee of Krishna. He recognized Krishna's supreme status in the Rajasuya yagna. He was very pleased when Krishna charged at him as death at the hands of the lord would liberate him. However that did not happen because Arjuna prevented Krishna from doing so. Bhishma knew that Krishna is the beginning, the middle and the end. However, despite knowing this, he was forced to fight against Krishna and his beloved disciple Arjuna in favour of the Kauravas. This was due to the seeds of his previous karmas.

The main karmas of Bhishma's life were

1) His vow of celibacy taken due to attachment to his father - This had disastrous consequences for the Bharata race. If his loyalty for Hastinapur and its subjects had been more that his attachment to his father, he would not have taken this vow that led to the ascendance of incompetent rulers to the throne. He also went overboard by saying that he would see the image of his father in any person who ruled Hastinapur. This he almost made himself a slave to the kings and bound himself to do their bidding for life.

2) The insulting of Amba - This led to her vow to kill Bhishma no matter how many lives it would take. She had done no wrong, but due to Bhishma's self-imposed vow, she was rejected, humiliated, and abandoned. This drove her to suicide.

3) The silent witnessing of draupadi's humiliation - Despite knowing that Draupadi looked up to him for protection, he sat quietly due to his own self-imposed loyalty for the King. If he had only recognized that dharma was more important than his interpretation of his vow, he could have prevented this. However this itself was a payback for his earlier karma of taking the vow.

4) His wounding in all parts of his body by Arjuna's arrows - This event is similar to the crucifixion of Christ. He had to suffer innumerable arrows and lie on a bed of arrows. This suffering led to the working out of his karmas, loss of identification with the body (and identification with the eternal soul).

This was done with the assistance of Shikhandi (Amba reincarnated) and he thus got the payback for this karma in the very life itself. The payback for the silent witnessing of draupadi's humiliation was that he had to fight for Duryodhana against his beloved Pandavas and bear the humiliations of Duryodhana and Shakuni while fighting for them when they taunted ceaselessly him for his inability to kill the Pandavas or win the war for them.

Thus Bhishma was able to face the consequences of his actions in the same life itself. Also he recognized Krishna as the Supreme being and surrendered to his will. He also surrendered to the will of Krishna by telling the Pandavas the secret to vanquishing him in battle. Finally, since he was able to choose the moment of his death, he chose to die while seeing and thinking of Krishna alone. Due to this devotion, surrender, willingness to suffer the consequences of his actions in this very life (even if they were terrible) and thoughts of Krishna, he attained Moksha.

Moksha is the ulimate goal of human existance, and one must be willing to pay the price of taking responsibility and owning up to the consequences of one's actions in order to attain Moksha.