My India   History   Festivals   Ramayan   Mahabharata   Health

Hindu Philosophy   Hindu Culture   Hidu Life Rituals   Gods and Heroes of Hinduism  Comparing Religions

My resume   Poems   Travel-logs   Music   Bhajans   Videos   Links   Mahabharata katha London 2012

Gandhari the Blind

Gandhari is quick to blame Krushna for Kuru carnage and curses Yadavas to vent her anger.  She blames Krushna for not averting the carnage.  She insists that as God incarnate, Krushna should have stopped her head-strong-egotistical-megalomaniac son from  carrying out the war.  Gandhari wants to have her cake and eat it.

She was happy to have Duryodhan bully Pandavas and cheat them out of their fair share of the paternal kingdom.  Though she kept telling him to mend his ways, what did she actually do to make him mend his ways ?  Did she seriously do anything to correct the behavior of Duryodhan or Dushashan when they were young ?  Did she ever reject his presents of land, gold and slaves as ‘stolen goods’ ?  Did she ever withhold her blessings as censor Duryodhan’s bad actions ? 

In fact, Gandhari and Dhritarashtra kept saying that “If fate wills it, it will happen.  Who are we to stop it ?”  Their half hearted attempts at reforming Duryodhan are laughable at best.  Yet, when they were suffering the consequence of their indulgent parenting, Gandhari has the gall to curse Krushna and the Yadavas !  How many cakes does she want to have and eat at the same time ?

Gandhari is not only blind, but also deaf.  When cursing the Yadavas, did Gandhari not hear the Yadava windows lamenting for their dead husbands in the great war ?  Did she not remember the fact that Yadava armies stood by her son and fought for his cause ?  Ungrateful and unfeeling, she wished ill for her own well wishers. 

Compare this to actions of Shri Krushna who does not curse her in kind and who does not tell her off either.  Instead he shows remarkable equanimity and empathy for the grieving mover of Kauravas.  If Shri Krushna is truly in the business of trickery and twisting situations to his advantage, he would have done something, anything, to avoid the curse falling on his people.  If Krushna was cunning, he would have diverted the curse to some other unsuspecting clan.  If Krushna truly believed in ‘tit for tat”, he would have cursed Gandhari and Dhritarashtra in return.  Instead, he smiles benignly and accepts it as it is.  Because as God, Shri Krushna knows that karma will always bring everything in balance.

© Bhagwat Shah
[email protected]