The son of Kunti and Dharma (whom she evoked in order to have a son) came out just like his father. Yudhisthira throughout the story showed to be the embodiment of virtue and truth. He shows a great deal of strength and courage in the face of misfortune and shows his freedom from malice and anger against even his worst enemies.
However, if he was such a righteous king, why did he stake his brothers and even his queen Draupadi after losing his kingdom and all his possessions?
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The book sets up this event much better than the movie does, but basically Yudhisthira knew it was coming and knew not to fight it, even though he knew Sakuni was a cheat. The war was unavoidable and meant to happen, the gods wanted the earth clean of Duryodhana and his brothers.
ReplyDeleteI think Yudhisthira saw what he was doing as virtuous. He decided to play because he was challenged and decided to play fair because thats the type of person he was. But, I also think the dice game was an example to show that somethings are unavoidable and that even the most virtuous will bend at times to do what is needed. Yudhisthira was ready to stop after losing himself but was convinced to bet Draupadi much in the same fashion he was convinced to lie during the war. Draupadi and the dice game was a major catalyst to bring about the unavoidable (and to some necessary) war and lieing during the war was unavoidable and necessary to stop Drona.
ReplyDeleteI agree with reilly. The book revolves around fate and destiny. In one of the descriptions of our teacher she said that in hinduism a person tries to follow their dharma(duty) as closely as possible. If you look at it this way Yudhisthira was following his duty by making events unfold as they would, to bring about the battle that was destined to be.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the other comments. The reason Yudhisthira couldn't just get up from there and stop playing the dice game was because of destiny. No matter how righteous and strong of a person he is, he cant avoid his fate. what's meant to happen will happen. The war was meant to take place and there was no way even the strongest of person would be able to avoid it. That is the reason why he kept on playing the dice game and giving up everything he had. But i do think that he had no right to give up Draupadi because by that time he had given up himself. And if one doesn't have himself, he also doesn't have any belongings.
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