For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Yudhishthira and Mahatma Gandhi

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

E-mail- dr.yadav.yogendra@gandhifoundation.net;

dr.yogendragandhi@gmail.com

Mailing Address- C- 29, Swaraj Nagar, Panki, Kanpur- 208020, Uttar Pradesh, India

Yudhishthira and Mahatma Gandhi

Yudhishthira was a famous character of Mahabharata. He knew as man of truth. Mahatma Gandhi was very impressed with him. He mentioned him in his articles and speeches. I read Indian Idylls (Edwin Arnold’s) to the boys It has excellent transactions of narrative poems from the Mahabharata. Amongst them I read “The Enchanted Lake” and found it to be superb. What is its Sanskrit title? Please let me know if you or anyone else there knows it. I have been thinking that we should have a free translation made into Gujarati verse by Ambaram and publish it. All the Pandavas go to a lake in the hope of finding water. But in their impatience they drink from the lake without answering questions put to them by the Yaksha, the guardian spirit of the lake, and fall down unconscious. Yudhishthira goes last and drinks water after giving the answers. All his answers relate to the nature of obligation, but they are very ingenious. Perhaps you know the dialogue. 1

There is nothing here which suggests death. All signs point to his having attained immortality. Patwardhan’s co-workers may, through selfishness, mourn over his death. His memory should teach them to be more devoted to their work. Patwardhan lives in his death. Though dead, he is serving the cause of freedom. There must be many such silent workers in India. Who will take note of them? And where is the need to do so either? True saints always serve unknown to others. It cannot be that there have been only five Pandavas. There are in the world other devotees like Arjuna, warriors like Bhima and votaries of truth like Yudhishthira. They do not know what fame is. They do not desire it. May Mother India produce many more workers like Patwardhan! 2 I may here recall my proposition, which is this: So long as the Hindus willfully regard untouchability as part of their religion, so long as the mass of Hindus consider it a sin to touch a section of their brethren, swaraj is impossible of attainment. Yudhishthira would not enter heaven without his dog. How can, then, the descendants of that Yudhishthira expect to obtain swaraj without the untouchables? What crimes for which we condemn the Government as Satanic have not we been guilty of towards our untouchable brethren? 3

During four days, thousands will be born and thousands will die. In but one night, the future of a man like Ramachandra changed; in but one day, Harishchandra gave up everything for the sake of truth and Yudhishthira lost his kingdom in gambling. One day can be of no little value in man’s or a nation’s life. What may not four days do then? If Gujarat wants swaraj the rule of dharma to be won through its efforts, it must score full marks in this first test. 4 Last week I referred to the floods in South Kanara. This week the public has the painful news that Malabar is practically under water. I have also a wire from Mr. Nambudripad giving details of the havoc played by the floods and asking me for help. The matter, however, seems to me to be beyond the capacity of private agency. The Congress neither possesses funds nor has neither influence nor an organization that can cope with a calamity of the magnitude such as Malabar to face. It is best in all humility to admit our limitations. I would even not hesitate to help the distressed people, if necessary, through any committee that the authorities may appoint, provided, of course, that they would accept our help. If we find that our service is unwelcome or the organization of official help is make-believe, I should refrain from joining the committee and should render such personal and individual help as I may be capable of rendering. God will not punish me for want of capacity. But He will for want of will. I would therefore, advice local workers to do whatever lies in their power and neglect no opportunity of alleviating distress. After all, money plays the least part in such times. It is the personal touch, the readiness to suffer for the sake of the sufferers, readiness to share the last morsel with the neighbour in distress that counts for much more than millions. The sacrifice of the Brahmin who shared his scanty meal with the man in distress was infinitely more meritorious than the rich sacrifice of king Yudhishthira who showered gold mothers as donations. 5

A gentleman has condemned Ramachandra, Yudhishthira and Nala and wants me to defend them. “Ramachandra made Sita go through the ordeal of fire and yet later abandoned her; Yudhishthira indulged in gambling and forfeited the right even to protect Draupadi; Nala cast aspersions on his wife and forsook her half naked in a dense forest. Should we call these three persons men or demons.” This charge can only be answered by the poets or the virtuous heroines themselves. I judged as a layman and to me all the three men appear worthy of reverence. Rama’s story is extraordinary; but let us, for a moment, put the legendary Rama in line with the other two. If the three women had not been the wives of such heroes, history would not have remembered them as virtuous heroines. Damayanti never left chanting the name of Nala, Sita could not think of anyone in the world except Rama, and Draupadi, although indignant with Yudhishthira, would never move away from him. If we could enter the innermost hearts of these three men when they wronged their virtuous wives, we would be consumed by the fire of anguish seething there. Bhavabhuti has given us a moving account of the misery experienced by Rama. The five brothers, who tended Draupadi like a fresh flower, used to listen patiently to her angry words. Nala was not himself when he did what he did. Even the gods watched from the heavens Nala’s devotion to his wife when he sped away with Rituparna. For me at any rate the testimony of these three noble wives is enough evidence. It is, however, true that the poets have depicted these three wives as more virtuous than their husbands. Rama, Nala, Dharmaraj would become insignificant without Sita, Damayanti, Draupadi. The men are impulsive, their conscience is wayward and their devotion too is not undeviating; whereas the devotion of these heroines was steady like the lustre of a gem. The patience of women far surpasses that of men. Since forbearance is a mark of strength, these virtuous women were not weak but strong.

What is man’s courage before women? This weakness, however, is endemic to man as such, not particularly to Nala and the rest. The poets have depicted these women as embodiments of endurance. I do regard them as the pinnacle of virtue; but I cannot look upon their noble husbands as demons. Would not the fame of these women be sullied if we look on their husbands as demons? A demonic spirit cannot stay by the side of a virtuous woman. The husbands may well be considered inferior to their noble wives but the men and women belong to the same category both are worthy of reverence. I think it is equally wrong to regard everything old as despicable or as venerable. We should not give up the ideal of woman’s duty while espousing the cause of her rights. I see no need for criticizing our ancient heroes in order to champion women’s rights. 6

That which I would not have missed was the Mahabharata and the Upanishads, the Ramayana and the Bhagavata. The Upanishads whetted my appetite for exploring the Vedic religion at its source. Its bold speculations afforded the keenest delight. And their spirituality satisfied the soul. At the same time I must confess that there was much in some of them that I was unable to understand or appreciate in spite of the help of the copious notes of Professor Bhanu who has incorporated in them the whole of Shankara’s commentaries and the substance of the others. The Mahabharata I had never read before except in scraps. I was even prejudiced against it, believing (falsely as it has now turned out) that it was nothing but a record of bloodshed and impossible long descriptions which would send me to sleep. I dreaded to approach the bulky volumes covering over closely printed six thousand pages. But having once commenced the reading, I was impatient to finish it, so entrancing it proved to be except in parts. I compared it, as I finished it in four months, not to a treasure chest in which you find nothing but polished gems limited as to quantity and quality but to an inexhaustible mine which the deeper one digs the more precious are the finds. The Mahabharata is not to me a historical record. it is hopeless as a history. But it deals with eternal verities in an allegorical fashion. It takes up historical personages and events and transforms them into angels or devils as it suits the purpose of the poet whose theme is the eternal duel between good and evil, spirit and matter, God and Satan. It is like a mighty river which in its progress absorbs many streams, some even muddy. It is the conception of one brain.

But it has undergone ravages and received accretions in process of time till it has become difficult always to say which the original is and which is apocryphal. The ending of it is magnificent. It demonstrates the utter nothingness of earthly power. The great sacrifice at the end is proved inefficacious in comparison with the sacrifice of the heart by a Brahmin who gave his little all, the last morsel, to a needy beggar. What is left to the virtuous Pandavas is poignant grief. The mighty Krishna dies helplessly. The numerous and powerful Yadavas because of their corruption die an inglorious death fighting amongst one another. Arjuna the unconquerable is conquered by a band of robbers, his Gandiva notwithstanding. The Pandavas retire leaving the throne to an infant. All but one dies on the journey to heaven. And even Yudhishthira, the very embodiment of dharma, has to taste the foetid smell of hell for the lie he permitted himself to utter under stress. The inexorable law of cause and effect is allowed without exception to run its even course. The claim put forth in its behalf that it omits nothing that is useful or interesting and that is to be found in any other book is well sustained by this marvellous poem. 7

You are going to Delhi not as Angada on behalf of Ramachandra, or as Krishna on behalf of Yudhishthira. You are going on behalf of Nishadaraja to do some service to Rama or to get his [Rama’s] permission for the former washing his feet. Or just as a servant of Sudama going out into the world would have done credit to him, in a similar way you also are going there to do credit to me. You are not going to seek justice but to render justice. Whatever befell Jadabharat, he suffered it calmly. You are going not as Rudra, but as Vishnu. The question is not what the Maulana should do, but what I, i.e., you should do. It is my firm resolve to put into practice and use here to the letter all the philosophy that I have been propounding in Navajivan. You will assist me in this whole-heartedly. Do it believing that such action alone would become us. I needs must do here what I am at present advising people to do. We must do Mahomed Ali’s work even if that meant further loss to Young India and Navajivan. What better thing can there is than that the very first issue of his paper should be published by your hand? Consider the Comrade, the Hamdard as you’re own or my own. You are going there, thinking that they come first and Navajivan and Young India after them. The key to Hindu-Muslim unity, that is to swaraj, lies, it seems to me, in the sincere humility and tact that you will show. Do not even think of returning from Delhi in a hurry. 8

This is tile land of Yudhishthira, of Ramachandra. Ascetics and sages have lived and practised austere penance here. They have called our country a field of duty and not a garden of pleasure. I tell the people of this land that Hindu religion is on test today, and it is being weighed against all the other religions of the world. If anything inconsistent with compassion, morality or reason is allowed to stay in the Hindu religion, then it will surely perish. I am fully aware of the virtue of compassion, and am therefore able to see what hypocrisy and ignorance is being practised under the cover of Hindu religion. This hypocrisy and ignorance I shall fight, alone if necessary. I shall do penance and may die in this struggle. But if perchance I lose my reason and in my insanity admit my present views on untouchability as wrong and say that I have sinned in describing untouchability as a blot on Hinduism, you may safely conclude then that irresistible fear has overtaken me and being afraid of the consequences I have denied my former belief. You must then regard me as one talking nonsense in a state of stupor. 9

Do not forget that king Yudhishthira refused to leave behind even the dog that had accompanied him and enter heaven by himself. He accepted the same dharma as you and I do. Who was king Nishad from whom Rama accepted fruit with love? Bharat felt sanctified as he embraced the other with love. Who is a Chandal in this Kaliyuga, or rather, who is not? Let us not distort the meaning of the Shastras. Let us not drown ourselves in a well just because it belongs to our forefathers. Let us swim in it instead. A custom or Shastra which is contrary to universally accepted moral principles is not fit to be followed. If anyone can show that the Vedas enjoin cow-slaughter or killing of animals, shall we be prepared to follow them? 10 I was able but who does Dhritarashtra represent, and likewise Duryodhana, Yudhishthira, or Arjuna? Whom does Krishna represent? Were they historical personages? Does the Gita relate their actual doings? Is it likely that Arjuna should suddenly, without warning, ask a question when the battle was about to commence, and that Krishna should recite the whole Gita in reply? And then, Arjuna, who had said that his ignorance had been dispelled, forgets what he was taught in the Gita, and Krishna is made to repeat his teaching in the Anugita. 11

To start with, let us leave aside the instance from the Mahabharata. When Yudhishthira approached Bhishma, the latter did not plead loyalty in his defence, but pointed at his stomach and said that he had done what he did for the sake of the sinful belly. Vidura did not help either side. If we turn our attention to the Ramayana, we find that Vibhishanas disregarded both loyalty and love for a brother when he considered what dharma required of him. He gave all help to Ramachandra, told him the secrets of Lanka and so came to be reckoned among such devotees as Prahlad. 12

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