Dhrutarastra

Some might be wondering why my attention suddenly turned from an ideal King Janaka to King Dhrutarastra. I can assure you up front I am no fan of Kauravas like some movie director who names his movies after them. Few reasons why I am choosing this topic is

a) Dhrutarastra as a parent is someone who can teach us how not to be
b) As mentioned in one discourse by Malladi Chandra Sekhara Sastry garu we see so many parents who resemble Dhrutarastra by nature.
c) As Galileo famously quoted “I have never met a person in my life who is so ignorant that I cannot a learn anything from him” Similarly to inspect one positive trait of Dhrutarastra


Dhrutarastra is a striking example for a person who lost all his sons because he failed to admonish/abandon one bad son. He is an example of how excessive love for kids and not curtailing their cruel deeds can lead to complete destruction.

1. Dhrutarastra is an example for inferior complex and jealousy for his younger brother. His jealousy started from the time when his younger brother was given the throne ahead of him for the natural disability he has got. Instead of understanding the practical realities, he developed jealousy towards his dharmic and obedient brother. The same jealousy he passed on to his off springs as well.

2. Dhrutarastra knows very well of the bad deeds his sons are committing under direction of Duryadhana towards Dharmic Pandavas. He failed to punish his son and curtail his bad agenda against Pandavas out of excessive love he had for Duryodhana. He failed to realize the long term perspective that for sake of one son, he is losing entire bunch of hundred sons.

3. Dhrutarastra showed wickedness towards Pandavas and deliberately on his own assent went on to create troubles for pandavas. Despite the fact that Pandavas especially Dharmaraj have treated him with fatherly affection, he wanted their downfall. He is an example of a snake who is nurtured by delicious milk will still went out poison. We see so many people like this in today’s world, who try to damage persons who have done a favor to them.

4. Dhrutarastra paid no deserving attention to good sayings from elders like Bhisma, Drona, Krupa, Vidura and Sanjaya. Had he not turned deaf ears to these people he would have stopped the calamity of total destruction that came in the form of Kurukshetra war. As Maricha told Ravana in Ramayana, “It is difficult to find person who says good things and the prson who listens to these good things” It hold good even today where for sake ego satisfaction, we turn deaf ears to good things wise and/or elderly people say and eventually bring up our own problems in the long run.

5. Only good thing I can tell about Dhrutarastra is that all through his deeds he knew very well that he is doing bad deeds. Also he does get neither defensive nor aggressive (like most of us) when questioned about these deeds. He also voluntarily seeks verbal battering from his friends like Vidura and Sanjaya to get some mental relief from papa karmas he is committing. This is unlike some of us who try to do justify our actions and resort to vitarka or kutarka (irrational justification)

Frustration

Am I living? Or Is life just passing by? I tried to ask myself. I had no evident answer with me. Every person has his or her own dreams in life that one would live to realize them. But what would a person do if the dream is cut short in the beginning itself with no mistake of his? What if a plain question like above finds no easy to digest answer to one?

Dreams surely are going to be multi and not every person would be able to realize all of them. Not difficult to comprehend. But there would be a most important dream, with out which one’s own purpose of existence becomes pointless. How to react when one has that dream shattered in front of his eyes by sins committed by others? To make the matter worst the rest of the dreams take a cascading effect and begin to fall apart in front of one’s eyes, how should one react?

Never before I had known that certain types of sins exist. Never before I had known that sinners, instead of feeling ashamed of their sinful acts try to pretend that sin it self does not exist or even worse it is no sin at all. Never had I any need to confront a situation where every right deed is being questioned for selfish motives. Never before I had felt so helpless in life that my life is nothing but over because I have no more say in my life and is being controlled by someone who has no right to claim any authority on my life.

Selfishness is all pervading in the world. But never I had any hint that people do not hesitate to spoil another innocent person’s life for making their life good. They do not even question themselves even once, do they deserve the life they want to create at the cost of other innocent man? Or does the innocent man really deserves the punishment they are forcefully enforcing? I is hard to comprehend that people show no remorse what so ever for the sin committed.

Is God really present? If He is, then what is the rationale for an innocent man to suffer for sins committed by people who have no basic ethics in life while unethical people go on to enjoy sensual pleasures in life? What logic does He present for the torture innocent person is put through for no direct mistake of his?