“He (Vidura) indirectly hinted, ‘A weapon not made of steel or any other material element can be more than sharp to kill an enemy, and he who knows this is never killed.’ That is to say, he hinted that the party of the Pandavas was being sent to Varanavata to be killed, and thus he warned Yudhishthira to be very careful in their new residential palace.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 1.13.8 Purport)

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1. The poison cake

“You are telling me that God exists? No chance. One of our brothers was fed a cake that had poison in it. After suffering the effects, he was dropped into a body of water. Somehow, by the greatest stroke of luck, he was saved. Snakes were biting him in the water, and their venom ended up counteracting the poison. Otherwise, he was doomed. How can such a thing happen to someone so blameless?”

2. The house of lac

“You are telling me that God exists? No chance. Our family was sent to live in this house made of shellac. You could call it a ‘tinderbox’, in the literal sense. We were tricked into going there. Only through a tip cleverly relayed to us by Vidura did we manage to escape in time. Everyone else thought we were doomed. What kind of almighty being would put us into such danger?”

3. The embarrassment of the assembly

“You are telling me that God exists? No chance. Did you see what happened to Draupadi? Okay, Yudhishthira should have known better, to not fall into the trap of continued gambling. But the other side was obviously cheating. We lost the beautiful Draupadi in the wager. She was set to be embarrassed in front of the entire assembly, stripped naked. By some stroke of luck she was saved. Her sari became infinitely long. We don’t really know what happened, but there is no way that a benevolent figure above the clouds could allow us to be in the line of fire of such evil.”

4. Risking the wrath of Durvasa Muni

“You are telling me that God exists? No chance. Did you see how we narrowly avoided the wrath of Durvasa Muni? He is known for cursing people, too. He was set to enjoy a meal at our hermitage, but we were out of food. There was no easy way to cook a feast for so many people. Somehow the sages decided to not return from their bath in a nearby river. We’re not entirely sure what happened, but we really dodged a bullet. God would surely never put someone into such danger.”

5. Having to go to war

“You are telling me that God exists? No chance. Our family suffered for so long. The other side should have returned what they stole. Instead, we had to go to war. We had to risk everything in order to deliver justice. If God is all-powerful, why didn’t He fight the battle for us? Why didn’t He take care of everything?”

…

तस्मात् त्वम् उत्तिष्ठ यशो लभस्व
जित्वा शत्रून् भुङ्क्ष्व राज्यं समृद्धम्
मयैवैते निहताः पूर्वम् एव
निमित्त-मात्रं भव सव्य-साचिन्

tasmāt tvam uttiṣṭha yaśo labhasva
jitvā śatrūn bhuṅkṣva rājyaṁ samṛddham
mayaivaite nihatāḥ pūrvam eva
nimitta-mātraṁ bhava savya-sācin

“Therefore get up and prepare to fight. After conquering your enemies you will enjoy a flourishing kingdom. They are already put to death by My arrangement, and you, O Savyasachin, can be but an instrument in the fight.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 11.33)

This has been one of the steady points of criticism from the other side. When one person narrowly escapes danger, when they feel blessed by the outcome to a certain situation, they will reference God, the Almighty, or the invisible hand of an all-benevolent figure, who was somehow watching over them. These sentiments are usually accepted without issue, as others have their own experiences against which to compare.

The exception is the side which criticizes. Their strongest argument is the selective application of Divine intervention, as defined by the person who was saved. If one person appreciates God for sparing them a calamity, through avoiding an accident of some sort or overcoming a debilitating illness, then why is the same correlation absent in the initial involvement? In other words, if I praise God for saving me, why do I not curse Him for putting me in the predicament to begin with?

The extension of the criticism is to take offense that God would only save someone else, while ignoring me in the process. I might be someone who is relatively careful. I avoid danger. I do not put my wellbeing at risk. Does that mean that God has nothing to do with me? Why is He only interested in rescuing you? Does that sound like a rational proposal? Moreover, if God saves someone, does that mean He condemns someone else? Why would He do that? Would that not make the victims of abuse want to avoid religion altogether? What would be the purpose of that?

From the above reviewed situations, we see that under this line of thinking the Pandava brothers would have sufficient justification for scoffing at the idea of a Supreme Controller. They were otherwise good people. They did not steal. The eldest brother, Yudhishthira Maharaja, was known for his truthfulness. He was the son of Dharmaraja, after all. Yudhishthira was a living embodiment of virtue, honor, truth, and attention to duty.

It almost appears as if the Pandava brothers became targets due to their very allegiance to goodness. There is the saying that nice guys finish last. The Pandava brothers were abused, and repeatedly, at that. The only reason the attacks were so steady was that they somehow managed to survive the attempts made against them. It was not enough to have their kingdom stolen by the Kauravas, who in the process turned into rivals, but there was one insult after another in the subsequent time, which spanned many years.

विपदः सन्तु ताः शश्वत्
तत्र तत्र जगद्-गुरो
भवतो दर्शनं यत् स्याद्
अपुनर् भव-दर्शनम्

vipadaḥ santu tāḥ śaśvat
tatra tatra jagad-guro
bhavato darśanaṁ yat syād
apunar bhava-darśanam

“I wish that all those calamities would happen again and again so that we could see You again and again, for seeing You means that we will no longer see repeated births and deaths.” (Queen Kunti speaking to Lord Krishna, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 1.8.25)

The mother of the Pandava brothers offered the opinion that Shri Krishna was saving them. He was the great well-wisher to her family. It was because of Krishna’s intervention that the brothers were saved. The attention was so steady that Kunti Devi almost wished for the calamities to return, in a sort of prayer for a rainy day. This was because during those times of difficulty they could better remember Krishna. It is like saying that auspiciousness is actually determined by how much we are conscious of the Almighty. In the good times we might become forgetful. The Kauravas went to the extreme of thinking that they could bypass the laws of karma, that no one would punish them for adharma. They thought wrong.

The presence of misfortune does not itself invalidate the proposal of the existence of an Almighty Being. On the other side, experiencing good times does not necessarily mean that we are being specifically favored from above. This fluctuation between enjoying and suffering, happiness and distress, up and down, and the like occurs almost on its own, like the changing of seasons.

मात्रा-स्पर्शास् तु कौन्तेय
शीतोष्ण-सुख-दुःख-दाः
आगमापायिनो ऽनित्यास्
तांस् तितिक्षस्व भारत

mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya
śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ
āgamāpāyino ‘nityās
tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata

“O son of Kunti, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.14)

The Supreme Lord generally sits above this system. It is like watching children play in a sandbox. In this case, they get to stay in that play area for as long as they wish. That desire can extend across countless lifetimes, until finally their eyes are opened to the truth, that consciousness of God is the only way towards eternal happiness. The Pandava brothers were fixed in that consciousness, and so they were liberated even prior to leaving this world.

In Closing:

Kunti Devi prays,
For return of those days.

Where calamities to befall,
But upon Krishna to call.

Where sari of Draupadi extending,
And hunger of Durvasa ending.

Even with that dreaded poison cake,
Their steady well-wisher to make.

Categories: the five

Tags: dailyprompt, life, mahabharata, pandavas, poem, poems, poetry