In the Mahabharata, the biggest ally of the Pandavas was Krishna, and he supported them at every step. But during the gambling match, why did the Pandavas have to suffer so much of humiliation, despite the fact that Krishna's blessings were always with them (God was always on their side)? Yes, you could argue that if it weren't for that infamous humiliation, the Kurukshetra War would have. By using evil power of shakuni,duryodhna cheets pandavas to all of his properties and jewels etc.afterduryodhna asks draupadi as a bet. If pandavas win,duryodhna promise gave all looted things with draupadi, if they lose gone to vanavasa.
Dhritarashtra
In the Mahabharata, Dhritarashtra (Sanskrit: धृतराष्ट्र, dhṛtarāshtra; lit. 'a good king' is the King of Hastinapur at the time of the Kurukshetra War, the epic's climactic event. He was born the son of Vichitravirya's first wife Ambika, and was fathered by Veda Vyasa. Dhritarashtra was blind from birth, and became father to a hundred sons (and one daughter) by his wife Gandhari (Gāndhārī), another son Yuyutsu by a concubine. These children, including the eldest son Duryodhana, came to be known as the Kauravas. Throughout his reign as King of Hastinapur, Dhritarashtra was torn between the principles of dharma and his love for his son Duryodhana, and often ended up endorsing his son's actions merely out of fatherly love. Dhritarashtra appears in Mahābhārata sections that have been circulated as separate scriptures, most notably the Bhagavad Gita, whose dialogue was narrated to him.
With Vichitravirya having died of sickness, Bhishma unable to take the throne because of his vow, and Bahlika's line unwilling to leave Bahlika Kingdom, there was as succession crisis in Hastinapur. Satyavati invites her son Vyasa to impregnate the queens Ambika and Ambalika under the Niyoga practice. When Vyasa approached Ambika, she got frightened due to his scary appearance and closed her eyes; hence, her son was born blind. Dhritarashtra, along with his younger half-brother Pandu is trained in the military arts by Bhishma and Kripacharya. Hindered by his handicap, Dhritarashtra is unable to wield weapons, but is said to be so strong that he can crush iron with his hand. When it came time to nominate an heir, Vidura suggested that Pandu would be a better fit because he wasn't blind. Though bitter at the result, Dhritarashtra willingly conceded the crown, though this act would flower into the protectiveness he would have over his crown later in life. Dhritarashtra marries Gandhari of Hastinapur's weakened and lowly vassal Ghandar; Gandhari covers her eyes with cloth in order to better understand her husband's blindness. He Gandhari had a hundred son, the Kauravas and one daughter Dushala. He had a son named Yuyutsu with Sauvali (concubine). Dhritarashtra becomes Pandu's heir and rules when Pandu is not in Hastinapur. After the incident with Rishi Kindama Pandu retired to the forest. Hence, Dhritarashtra became the de facto king. Through the blessings of Durvasa, he and Gandhari have one hundred sons and a daughter, with his oldest son, Duryodhana, becoming his heir. Upon Duryodhana's birth, ill omens appeared; many sages and consultants advised Dhritarashtra and Gandhari to abandon the baby. But they refused to do so; Duryodhana grows up with a princely education and looks like he will be a great heir. However, when Pandu dies, Dhritarashtra’ s brother's family comes to Hastinapur, living alongside Dhritarashtra’ s children. Yudhishthira, Pandu's eldest son, is older than Duryodhana. Given that Pandu was the king and that Yudhishthira is born of the god Dharma, he has a strong claim to the throne. A succession crisis begins; though recognizing Yudhishthira's merits, Dhritarashtra favours his own son, blind to his faults. Upon much pressure from the Brahmin council, Vidura, and Bhishma, Dhritarashtra reluctantly names Yudhishthira as his heir.
After the lakshagraha incident, in where the Pandavas are apparently killed, Dhritarashtra mourns but is able to finally name Duryodhana as his heir. When the Pandavas are revealed to have survived, Duryodhana refuses to cede his title as heir when the obviously sour relations between the Kauravas and the Pandavas come to focus. Dhritarashtra splits the country in two, giving Hastinapur to Duryodhana and Khandavprastha to Yudhishthira.
Shakuni, Gandhari's brother, was a master of sorcery. He along with his nephew Duryodhana conspired the game of dice and invited Pandavas in this game of gambling. Pandavas eventually lost their kingdom, wealth, prestige and were exiled for thirteen years. Draupadi, wife of Pandavas was humiliated in the court after Dushasana tried to disrobe her. The helpless blind king only intervened after counseling with Gandhari when Draupadi was going to curse the Kuru dynasty. Though individuals like Vikarna and Vidura objected to the wrongdoing of Duryodhana, most of the spectators were helpless due to their obligations to Hastinapur; Dhritarashtra could have spoken out but did not.
Lord Krishna as a peace emissary of Pandavas traveled to Hastinapura persuading Kauravas to avoid bloodshed of their own kin. However, Duryodhana conspired to arrest him that resulted in failure of mission. After Krishna's peace mission failed and the war seemed inevitable, Vyasa approached Dhritarashtra and offered to grant him divine vision, so that Dhritarashtra could see the war. However, not willing to see his kin slaughtered, Dhritarashtra asked that the boon be given to Sanjaya his charioteer. Sanjaya dutifully narrates the war to his liege, reporting how Bhima killed all his children. Sanjaya would console the blind king while challenging the king with his own viewpoints and morals. When Lord Krishna displayed his Vishvarupa (Universal Form) to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, Dhritarashtra regretted not possessing the divine sight.
Dhritarashtra was confident that Bhishma, Drona, Karna and other invincible warriors would make the Kaurava camp victorious. He rejoiced whenever the tide of war turned against Pandavas. However, the results of the war devastated him. All of his trueborn sons were killed in the carnage. Dhritarashtra’ s only daughter Duhsala was widowed. Yuyutsu had defected to Pandava side at the onset of war and was the only son of Dhritrashtra who had managed to survive Kurukshetra War.
Pandavas Gambling Places
Dhritarashtra was furious with Bhima for mercilessly slaying all his sons, especially Duryodhana. After the war ended, the victorious Pandavas arrived at Hastinapur for the formal transfer of power. The Pandavas go to embrace their uncle and give their respects. Dhritarashtra hugged Yudhishthira heartily. When Dhritarashtra turned to Bhima, Lord Krishna sensed the danger and asked Bhima to move Duryodhana's iron statue of Bhima (used by the prince for training) in his place. Dhritarashtra crushed the statue with into pieces, and then broke down crying, his anger leaving him. Broken and defeated, Dhritarashtra apologized for his folly and wholeheartedly embraced Bhima and the other Pandavas.
15 years after the great war of Mahabharata, the grief-stricken blind king along with his wife, sister-in-law Kunti, and brother Vidura left Hastinapur for penance. It is believed that all of them perished in a forest fire and attained Moksha.
Slides – https://spiritualatma.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/m22-khandavprastha.pdf
Hi, this video is about Pandavas coming out of their hiding mode and their return to Hastinapur.
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to quickly recap in the last video we covered the story of Draupadi’s svayamvara, we saw how many kings failed to string the bow and hit the target, how karna was disqualified by Draupadi and finally Druapadi’s marriage with all 5 Pandavas. We saw two meanings behind Druapadi’s gets married to 5 Pandavas. 1 was because of Druapadi’s deep peneance in past life to Lord Shiva and the boon she got was to marry 5 husbands and 2 was comparison of Drupadi with the Kundalini shakti and her role to power all the 5 chakra’s in human body. There is one more mystical meaning of Draupadi’s marriage with 5 Pandavas, Draupadi represents the intellect, which is married to the soul together with the four purusharthas or pusposes of life. As we do more meditation and discipline ourself, we begin to develop the support of the intellect within us. Assisted by that intellect, we can pursue ethical values(dharma), material values (artha), vital values (kama) and strive for the spiritual value of life – moksha. As we will see in the future videos that just as Drupadi eventually becomes one of the main causes of the great Mahabharata war, so too, our intellect becomes the cause of the great battle known as Sadhana – which a program of spiritual discipline, in which one plans to destroy all the negative impressions of the mind with the help of the Divine self – like Shree Krishna in Mahabharata.
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Moving on with the Mahabharata story, now the Pandavas have built a very powerful aliance with Kingdom of Panchal by marrying with Draupadi and have full support of Shri Krishna and the entire Yadavas, they were now ready to reveal to everyeone that they were alive. Dhritarashtra and Duryodhana were shocked to hear this news instead of Pandavas being alive. Bheesma, Drona and Vidura called upon Dhritarasthra and counselled him to counteract the wrong doings by his son. They gist of their advise was “Fortunately Pandavas and their mother Kunti have not perished in the fire of the wax mansion, if they had been burnt to death the blame would have fallen on you and not on the wicked Purochana. Cordinally call back the Pandavas and treat them as your own. The Pandavas are more entitled to inherit the ancient Kuru kingdom than the Kauravas are. In the worst case divide the Kingdom into two halfs and persuade the cousins to live in peace, harmony and happiness. Dritarashtra was influenced by this idea of dividing the kingdom and they jointly send an envoy headed by Vidur to Panchal to invite the Pandavas back.
People of hastinapur were glad that their beloved Princes were alive and were coming back. After entering the Kingsom, the Pandavas prostrated before Bheeshma and Dhrtarasthtra and were received cordially. The coronation ceremony of Yudhisthira was celebrated on an auspicious day. Dhritarasthra then advised his nephew to go to Khandavprastha the ruined capital of their ancestors and renovate it as his new capital. The price agreed to it, in order to avoid future clash between the Pandavas and Kaurvaas. The partition was at a disadvantage to the Pandavas but Krishna approved of it. To build anything the wild foreset and its wild creatures had to be cleared. The lord of fire (agnidev) was invoked to burn down the forest and clear it of all its inhabitant. Agnidev needed help againts lord Indra who would pour rain to protect Takshak snake who lived in this forest. Agnidev gives Arjuna the gandiva by invoking Varundev (lord of ocean) and also gives them a charriot with divine hourses which carried an emblem of a monkey on it. Arjuna was able to ward off the rain my making an umbrella with arrows. Mayasur who was also inwelling in that forest asks be pardoned and in return he offers to build a magnificent hall in the new capital. Everything was destroyed by fire except Takasha and his son, Mayasur and 4 birds.
At this point a new Parva or chapter starts, its the 2nd chapter of Mahabharata story, its called Sabha Parva.
Once Khandavaprastha forest was cleared by the fire, Krishna invited Indra to build a city in Khandavprastha. Indra sends Visvakarma to build this city. In no time Visvakarma made a magnificent city and it was named Indrapastha. After that Mayasur makes a magical Sabha (or a hall) in the Palace of Indraprastha.
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The Palace was now ready for Pandavas to occupy. All the five Pandavas loved Draupadi equally. This was a recipe for a disaster for it was a question of time befoe they experieneced jealousy and possessiveness. Sage Narada visits them on their day 1 in the Palace and shares with them the story of Tilotamma, an Apsara who was sent by the Devas to create discord and eventually destroy the two Asura brothers, Sunda and Upasunda. No sooner did the two brothers see her that both desired her hand in marriage. “I wll marry the one who is the stronger of you two”, said Tilotamma smilingly. The brothers decided to fight for her. And since both were equally matched, they ended up killing each other in the fight. If you dont want to end up killing each other as Sunda and Upasunda did, you must agree to allow Draupadi to be exclusive to one brother for a year at a time. Once the year is over, you must let her go to your other brothers and return to her only four years later. The brother who enters Draupadi’s chamber out of turn will go into exile for a year. The Pandavas agreed. One day, the cows of the Pandavas were being herded away by the thieves. The cowheads sought the help of Arjuna who rushed to the palace to collect his bow. He looked everywhere and could not find it so he goes in search of it in Draupadi’s chamber, when he entered, Draupadi was with Yudhisthira. Since Arjuna had entered out of turn, Arjuna had to go into exile in the forest for a year as a punishment. He decided to go on a pilgrimage.
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Pandavas Gambling Rules
While in exile Arjuna visited various holy places all over Bharata and took a dip in River Ganga, Sarasvati, Godavari, Kaveri and in the end goes to Dwarka where he meets Subhadra. Subhadra was in love with Arjuna from all the stores that she had heard about Arjuna from shri Krishna and thus when she meets Arjuna, she runs away with Arjuna. They get married and have a son named Abhimanyu. Shri Krishna very well knew that his sister loved Arjuna dearly and thus does not stop them while they were running away. Shri Krishna has a strong liking towards Abhimanyu. He also trains Abhimanyu with use of various weapons.
At Indraprashta, Narada advises Yudhisthira to perform Rajasuya yagna and by doing that yagna, Yudhishisthira would declare himself to be the undisputed emperor. Yudhisthira asks Shri Krisha for his advise on perfoming Rajasuya yagna. shri krishna approves of the idea but things that King Jarasandh would not approve of Yudhisthira to be the undisputed emperor and thus they need to first take care of Jarasandh. Bhima disguises as a Bhramin and goes to the kingdom of Magadh. Jarasand used to fight regularly in a friendly fight in this kingdom with who ever would challenge him, it was his way to stay fit. Bheema challenges Jarasandh for a fight and Bhima was able to kill Jarasandh in that fight.
the Rajasuya yagna now takes place at Indraprastha, various kings from all the neighbouring kingdom were invited. Duryodhan and Shakuni also visit along with Shisupal and others to witness the Rajasuya yagna. Duryodhan was in an awe to see how prosperous Indraprasth had become, he was also super jealous about the magical assembly that Mayasur had built. During the rajasuya yagna, Shri Krishna was made the chief guest by Yudhishtira. Shisupal made lots of insulting comments on Shri Krishna, after 100 insults, Shri Krishna kills Shisupal. Duryodhan in the meanwhile was walking into the assembly hall where he mistakes a pond water for a hard surface and falls into the pond of water, this was because of illusion created by Mayasur. Seeing Duryodhan fall into the pond, Draupadi could not control her laugher at the mishap. Duryodhan felt insulsted and got furuious and cultivated a deep desire for a revenge againts Draupadi’s insult. He leaves the Rajasuya yagna immediately and goes back to Hastinapur along with Shakuni. On their way back to Hastinapur Duryodhana expressed to Sakuni and Karna his unbearable jealously of the PAndavas prosperity. But shakuni exhoret him to reconcile himeself with their self-earned empire and enormous wealth. Duryodhana made it clear that he would rather die than tolerate the opulence of his much heated cousins. Shakuni said Conquest is out of question. Gambling is the only way. Yudhisthira has a liking for game of dice while he is thoroughly inexperience in the art. I am an expert dice player. Let us cheat him in gambling and win away his empire and everything.
Pandavas Gambling Movie
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One may wonder, Why were Pandavas given Khandavprastha(undeveloped part of the kingdom) where as Kavravas get to keep (developed part of the kingdom)? The fact that the Kauravas retained the prosperious portion of their homeland and the Pandavas received the barren half is not a pathetic situation at all. It is symbolic of the mystic fact that the Panavas were well-suited to evolve through the itnernalized realm of the mind which is hard, while the Kauravas were only suited to operate through the realm of the sense and the externalized mind which is easy. Like the Pandavas, when a spiritual aspiratnt beings to explore the realm of mind through concentration and meditation, he may feel as if he is treading upon a barren land. He realizes that a lot of work has to be done in order to make that internal realm into an Indraprastha. However, with the right self-effort and the grace of Krishna, that realm of mind becomes a radiant for all that is best in human personality.
Pandavas Gambling Meaning
Also one other insight is from thinking about –
What is the significance of burning down Khandavprastha forest ?
The fire god symbolizes the fire of aspiration in every individual. That fire becomes dull if you are involved in ssakam karma or actions performed with desire for fruits of actions. Doing more and more sakarm karma leads to build up of ashubh vasanas or impressions of anger, greed, hate, jealousy etc. Our unconscious becomes like a terrible forest like the Kamyaka forest. We can strengthen our aspiration for self realization by practicing sadhana (spiritual disciplines) and purify our hearth to allow the divine force of vairagya (dispassion) to enter our unconscious and with the help of Krishna and Arjuna we can clean up the whole jungle within us. Burning down the Kamayaka forest symbolizes the spirtual overhauling of the unconsious mind similar to Hanuman setting Lanka on fire in Ramayana. Indra showering rain is comparable to the cloud of desires that surge in us. Arjuna is the spirit, the soul and Krishna is the divine self. When our soul becomes friends with the Divine self, our real fires of true aspirations can thrive.
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In the next video we will continue with seeing what happens after Duryodhan approves of this evil trick of playing a dice game to win over everything that the PAndavas had.