A few thoughts on Smt. Subha Narayan's "Question on Draupadi" - Part 1

[Guest guest]

Dear members,

 

Many of you posted your views on the subject. Many

posted it on other lists like SriRangasri &

Oppiliappan too. Many thanks for insights and inputs.

I am sure Smt.Subha Narayan, the original

correspondent in this thread of discussion, would be

happy with the variety of scholarly and interesting

responses received.

 

*************

 

My own comment on the subject matter is as follows.

Smt.Subha Narayan can choose to ponder over it too:

 

To my mind, Smt.Subha's question cannot be adequately

answered with reference to the doctrine of

"saraNagati" alone, as many members have seen it fit

to do. Her question was with specific reference to the

portrayal of Draupadi's CHARACTER -- most notably her

seemingly vengeful behaviour which to anyone reading

the Mahabharatha does appear to be terribly at odds

with the personality of one who has undergone

"saraNagati", witnessed first-hand the miracle of God

and, as one would rightly expect, emerged from the

experience as a profoundly transformed being.

Draupadi's experience, after all, was no ordinary

experience... it was surely a sort of "punar-janma"

(re-birth, resurrection), and hence it is in that

light that we must examine the nature of her severe

vow of vengeance.

 

*************

 

It would be, in my opinion, rather too facile if not

uncharitable an explanation to say that the purpose of

Draupadi's "saraNagati" was far more to save her skin

(pardon the pun) than to seek "mOksha". Was Draupadi's

self-surrender merely for the sake of endless yards of

silk?

 

The dramatic setting of the Mahabharatha may seem to

superficially suggest that Draupadi's "saraNAgati" was

solely for the sake of "mAna-sammrakshaNam" (the

protection of womanly dignity) but I don't think we

have really any firm grounds on that score on which to

assert conclusively that Draupadi was not a true

"mumUkshu". (For that matter, who in this world can

indeed sit in judgment over another and say with any

certainty that he/she is, or is not, a genuine

"mumUkshu"?)

 

Again, who can say what exactly went on inside poor

Draupadi's mind in that terrible moment of her crisis?

Can one really disprove it if it were stated that

having lost everything in life -- womanly honour,

royal dignity, husband(s), palace, queenhood -- having

lost everything, Draupadi had no other earthly purpose

or meaning left in life, and hence, under the

circumsances, she cried out to the Almighty not so

much for divine intervention to protect her from

bodily outrage as, perhaps, actually for spiritual

deliverance from earthly bondage?

 

*******************

 

Even from a doctrinal point of view, it is not easy to

believe that life after "saraNAgati" might well remain

in the 'back to business-as-usual' mode. It is

difficult to believe that, "saraNAgati" or no

"saraNAgati", we all may actually be compelled to

continue behaving quite as ever before thanks to the

operation of our "prArabdha" or some such residual

"karma". It makes us suspect that perhaps, in the

ultimate analysis, the outcome of "saraNagati" is

after all only a moral neuter.

 

If an experience such as Draupadi's "saraNAgathi" did

not bring about profound personality transformation in

her -- making her, for example, a kinder, more

compassionate, more patient, more forgiving, more

forbearing person and hence a much stronger person

than ever before -- if an experience such as hers did

not really succeed in leaving a deep and lasting

impact on Draupadi's innermost self, and failed, in

fact, to cleanse out the evil of human vengeance

harboured inside her heart, we may be actually

pardoned for thinking then that the "tattva" of

absolute "saraNAgati" at the feet of the Almighty has

little significance for mankind.

 

If "saraNagati" merely provided Draupadi a wardrobe

just in the nick of time, and did nothing by way of

transforming her inner being, we should ask, was it

true "saraNAgati"? And again, if an act of

"saraNAgati" cannot really overwhelm or overcome the

deepest of evil passions residing within us -- i.e. if

"prArabdha" does indeed in the end always prevail and

triumph over individual destiny, no matter what --

then of what use or value is such "saraNAgati" to

Man's spiritual aspiration or progress in this life?

 

A contemplation of questions as above lands us in a

heap of many such theological issues and moral doubts.

 

 

**************

 

In my opinion, we should not seek an overly

doctrinaire explanation for Draupadi's conduct.

Instead we should seek our answers elsewhere.

 

We should seek answers, I would say, in the storyline

of the Mahabharatha itself where a far better

explanation and account of Draupadi's character is

readily available.

 

The great epic of Sage Vyasa is a vast and complex

masterpiece on human psychology. Vyasa would have done

a great injustice to Draupadi's character if he had

truly meant to have the evil passion of Vengeance

still ruling Draupadi's heart even after the momentous

experience of her "saraNAgati" occured. But evidently

Vyasa actually meant no such thing. He in fact meant

to celebrate Draupadi's character that actually

attained a towering, saintly dimension after

"saraNAgati".

 

It would be folly to think Draupadi's "saraNAgati" was

about fabric alone. It was about faith, about

spiritual growth and progress too. The events of the

Mahabharatha, as I understand them, certainly seem to

suggest so. They clearly reveal there was no place at

all in Draupadi's heart for Vengeance -- Vengeance as

we normally understand it.

 

*****************

 

Let us recollect the story of the Mahabharatha in the

next posting. Hopefully, we will be able to draw some

explanations from it. And the explanations may perhaps

then shed some light on the really interesting and

intriguing question Smt.Subha Narayan has placed

before us all.

 

Thanks and regards,

 

dAsan,

Sudarshan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

______________________

India Matrimony: Find your life partner online

Go to: http://.shaadi.com/india-matrimony