Draupadi, an ikon of a true Indian woman

[Guest guest]

Hi all, new member of this family..would like to share this with you all

Draupadi, an ikon of a true Indian woman Draupadi, the daughter of King

Drupada, appears from the yagnyaagni as a full grown, in the bloom of her youth.

One can observe that it is always Paramaatma who takes birth and avataaras

(”Paritraanaaya sadhunam …”). However, always Yoga-Maaya (or Shakti) never takes

birth, she just appears. It is the same case with Sita devi, Rukmini devi,

Draupadi, Maatulungi etc. The following piece of story of draupadi shows the

boundaries of following Dharma. May be none can be better!

Ashwatthaama, the chiranjeevi, does a daaruna krutyam after the

Mahaabhaaratam. Unusual to his nature, He, without even little daya, beheads the

sleeping babies of draupadi — the upa-paandavas. Draupadi realizes what

happened. All her 10 sons, who were little baalakas, who were sleeping, who

never did any kind of harm to Ashwatthaama and who cannot even react to the harm

committed to them were lying in a pool of blood. Draupadi breaks down to tears

and weeps in great sorrow. Arjuna very sad himself, consoles Her and says it

does not look nice for a Veera maata to cry like this. He says that He will

immediately avenge the act and kill Ashwatthaama. On killing him, she can take

bath standing on his head. Immediately Lord Krishna and Arjuna set out on their

Hanumadhdhvaja ratham to catch the fleeing Ashwatthaama.

Seeing that Arjuna is closing by his ratham and that his horses are a little

exhausted, Aswaththaama sees Brahmaastra as the only way to save himself. Though

not knowing the way of retrieving the astra, he immediately uses Brahmaastra on

Arjuna, after stopping the ratham, doing aachamanam and purifying himself. Lord

Krishna orders Arjuna to use Brahmaastra to counter Ashwatthaama’s. Arjuna also

purifies himself, does achamanam, does a pradakshina to the Almighty and uses

Brahmaastra. The two astras, one like Agni and the other like sun, fight each

other and in no time the worlds start to burn under the influence of the astras.

Krishna, the protector of the worlds, immediately orders Arjuna to take back

both Astras, as only a Brahmachaari can take back a Brahmaastra!

Arjuna takes back both the Brahmaastras, showing clearly what a perfect

Brahmachaari he was. Arjuna, who was the friend of the Askalita Brahmachaari

Lord Krishna, obviously knows the shastras and the ways to maintain his

Brahmacharyam, though married. Arjuna ties Ahswaththaama and takes him to

Draupadi, like a Yagnya pashu is taken to the Yagnya shaala. The acts of

Draupadi in this following episode make even Krishna praise Krishnaa (Draupadi)

for her Dharma.

On seeing the killer of all her sons being brought by Arjuna, Draupadi, of the

beauty of her nature out of compassion, does a namaskar to him and says as per

the Vedas in the absence of the Guru, Guru-putra takes his place, so she is

doing a namaskaar to Drona! It was unbearable for her having him brought being

bound and she said: “Release him, for he is a brahmana, our Aacharya. Do not

make his mother, Drona’s wife, cry the way I do in my chastity shedding tears

constantly in distress over a lost child”. Yudhishtira, Arjuna, Nakula,

Sahadeva, Saatyaki, Krishna and other queens supported the statements of

Paanchaali as they were in accord with the principles of Sanaatana Dharma, of

justice, merciful, without duplicity and glorious in equity. Krishna, amazed by

the Dharmya vartana of Draupadi, praises her very much. However, Bhima also

raised a valid point that a person who by nature has daya is a brahmana, is

Ashwatthaama, who mercilessly killed the baalakas, worth being

called one? Saying “surely death is the only punishment for such a person”,

Bhima proceeds to kill Ashwatthaama, but the Lord, with His chaturbhuja’s stops

Bhima and says the following with a smile:

 

“The Guru-putra, a braahmana must not be killed - this both is by Me,

certainly prescribed to be carried out abiding by the rules.” However, Arjuna

has to keep to the truth as promised while pacifying his wife, and also act to

the satisfaction of Bhima and Himself (by punishing the bad). So they remove the

divya mani on the head of Ashwatthaama and remove his hair, as, for a veera,

tonsuring is equivalent to killing him.

Morals in the story:

 

The Dhramya vartana of Draupadi is well portrayed in the story. This shows us

that, even at the time of great stress, sorrow, difficulty, one never must

deviate from the path of truth, Dharma.

Even though Ashwatthaama was great, in his momentary anger he committed an

unpardonable crime. One must be very careful and need to think what is right and

what is wrong before acting. This is what the pandavas do in the later part of

the story, with the help of Krishna. They, though Kshattriyas, were not

overwhelmed by revenge. They acted according to the words of Krishna, who is

Dharma in human form.

The importance given to keeping up one’s word is protrayed well. Arjuna

promises Draupadi to kill Ashwatthaama, but according to Dharma is must not be

killed. So they do an equivalent act of killing.

The importance of cleanliness is also displayed. Both Ashwatthaama and Arjuna

purify themselves, do aachamanam before chanting the mantras for Brahmaastra.

They do this even when they were in such a great press for time.

The power of Brahmacharyam is well shown through this story. Arjuna, who knew

the Shatras, was a brahmachaari and hence could not only take back his, but

Ashwatthaama’s astra too.

The heart of a mother is well exposed when Draupadi comments “Do not make his

mother, Drona’s wife, cry the way I do in my chastity shedding tears constantly

in distress over a lost child“. She knows the pain of loosing children, so did

not want another mother to experience it!

Message to present society:

Being Kshatriyas, people with lot of Shauryam, Paandavas thought so much

(analyzing what is Dharmam, what is adharmam) before avenging their son’s death.

Now-a-days even films show people mercilessly killing each other in the name of

revenge.

 

Sirisha

 

 

 

 

 

Get your own web address.

Have a HUGE year through Small Business.