Storytelling Week 6: The Regret of a Future King

Yudhistira wept over his fallen family members.  He and his brothers had committed fratricide on a grand scale because of the wickedness of a few individuals.  “What will I do now that the war is over, that our family has been nearly destroyed?  I wish that I had known that Karna was my brother.  I would have gone to him and had him become our king.  How shall I repent for this?” thought Yudhistira.

His brothers were with him and Yudhistira said to him “Our family, who had become our enemies, which we killed, has been granted the right to go to heaven.  However, it does not grant me peace.  Arjuna I will go out into the wilderness and seek renunciation.”

At these words Yudhistira’s brothers were frustrated and rightfully so they thought.  They had endured years of misfortune and they had steeled their resolve to kill their family members.  Now, Yudhistira wanted to shirk his duty and go into solitude.  Arjuna said to him, “We have sacrificed so much for this; we cannot turn back from the path before us.  To turn back now would make those that had died die a worthless death.” 

Then Bhima said to him, “If you speak so about what we have done, it would have been better not to have waged war against Duryodhana.  We should have let Dhritarashtra have his way with us instead.  If not for Dhritarahtra, Duryodhana and all our family would be at peace.  You have a duty to your family and all of your followers; your cast that you were born with cannot be changed.  You have to take up the crown and rule this nation. 

Then the younger brothers, Nakula and Sahadeva, spoke to Yudhistira saying, “We have stood by your side all these years and we went into battle for you knowing that we would be fighting our family.  Do not dishonor those that have died by running away.  Dhritarashtra is probably happy thinking that he was able to defeat you in the end.”

After all this Yudhistira was still did not think that he should be king and that he should go into the forest and seek renunciation.  Therefore, Krishna spoke to Yudhistira, “Disregard your own feelings on this matter.  You have wallowed around for long enough.  You cannot think about only yourself you have to act for all that have fought and died and you have to think about all the people that need to be led.”

So Yudhistira decided to become king and led the kingdom for years.

The five Pandava brothers and Draupadi (Source: wikipedia)

Author's Note:  I read The Mahabharata by R. K. Narayan.  For this week I decided to do a variation on the scene were Yudhistira does not want to become king anymore and is saddened by the loss of his family.  For my version I followed the original version for the most part and added in my own version of the conversation which I think got to the root of the problem.  I also added a little spin to the tail by making Duryodhana a good person.

Bibliography:

The Mahabharata: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic by R. K. Narayn (1978)

Reading Diary B: The Mahabharata by R. K. Narayan

I am reading The Mahabharata by R. K. Narayan.  One of my favorite stories from this section of the reading was the story of the battle.  I found that the battle was interesting in that leaders of the two armies knew each other well.  Most of the issues could have been solved if the leaders had turned over Duryodhana and his cohorts.  Instead they remained loyal to him even though they knew what he was doing was wrong.  During the battle, it was interesting in how well some of the people fought against the Pandavas even though they were sons of gods.  One of the saddest moments was when Arjuna’s son, Abhimanyu went into battle knowing that he would probably die because he had not learned how to escape a formation on how to enter the formation.  Then he did die after being trapped and Arjuna is heart-broken and vows to kill the person responsible.  Another sad moment in the battle is when Bhishma is defeated.  Then he was left on a bed of arrows for days until he died.  If Bhishma had permitted it, he could have probably been saved.  Instead, he decided to die.  At the end of the battle, I found it interesting that Duryodhana remained obstinate until the end.  After the battle, it was odd that they did not remove Dhritarashtra from power.  It was due to his hypocrisy and his inability to keep control that the situation arose in the first place.  In addition, he tried to kill the Pandavas on more than one occasion.

Bhima and Duryodhana's battle (Source: .wikimedia)

Reading Diary A: The Mahabharata by R. K. Narayan

I am reading The Mahabharata by R. K. Narayan.  My one of my favorite stories in this section of the reading was the part of the story where The Pandavas are hiding in the kingdom of King Virata.  When Duryodhana hears that Kichaka was killed, he only hesitated for a moment then he decided to attack King Virata’s Kingdom.  I found that it was interesting that the kings allied with King Duryodhana were fine with King Duryodhana attacking another king.  It was amusing that Bhima was able to save King Virata and capture King Susharman, who had been the one who advised King Duryodhana to attack King Virata.  Another interesting part of this story is when Prince Uttara had Arjuna become his charioteer and Arjuna acted like he had no idea how to put on his armor.  Then after they leave, Prince Uttara became frightened and wanted to return so Arjuna had him become the charioteer and had Prince Uttara retrieve his weapons from the tree in the graveyard.  Then Arjuna reveals his identity to Prince Uttara.  After that, Arjuna and Prince Uttara go into battle.  When Arjuna meets the enemy, he fires arrows past Drona’s ears and at his feet.  I found that very interesting that Arjuna saluted his former mentor in such a manner.  Then Arjuna defeats Karna and put the rest of them to sleep.  I found it interesting that Arjuna did not kill them and be done with the whole affair because King Duryodhana was with them.  If he had done that, the war could have been avoided.

King  Virata at his court (Source: wikipedia)