Lesser Known tales from Mahabharata...

The Mahabharata never ceases to astonish me. A huge epic. Complete and replete with morals and thoughts as young as the day we read it. It has and will always be the true treasure of India.
Coming to trivia about the epic, it is all well known that Veda Vyasar dictated it to Vinayaga, who wrote it down with one of His tusks.

Did you know that the Mahabharata in all its completeness is 60 lakh Granthas. (Each Grantha a set/verse) Of these 60 lakhs, 55 are with the Devas, 4 with the asuras and only 1 lakh with humans, the lesser mortals that we are.

Even if it is only a lakh, it is complete in itself. Unlike TV serials of today that can even stretch to 30 weeks and still leaves loose ends and unanswered questions..Even the one lakh is pristine in its preservation.

Not even one character is unneccessary or left behind in the grand scheme of things. Everything done and every word said and deed done has a repurcussion.

It is this beauty which pulls any reader towards the Bharatha. I would like to share with you a story that I came to know of very recently from patti : only on my trip home this time.

"Animithra Maharishi and the Pandavas" would have been an ideal title.

The Pandavas were on exile. After having played the dice a foolish second time and losing everything..they were banished to the forests for 13 long years. During this time, it can never be denied that it was only due to the vigilance of Shri Krishna over His beloveds that helped them stay even alive.

Draupadi was the apple of eyes of the pandavas. During her hardship in the forests, they were ready to do anything that could make her feel like a queen. And she severly taxed the pandavas for their weakness.

This time it was Arjuna who was the scapegoat of Draupadi's desires. As they were walking down the eaves of the jungle, they came upon a splendid tree. The tree was full in bloom. But it had only one fruit. The fruit hung tantalisingly before their eyes. Draupadi looked at the fruit and Arjuna read in her eyes a desire to possess it. Ever ready with his arrows, he shot it down.

Now, Krishna without whom the pandavas could even have survived a day in the jungles was immediately aware of this. He rushed to the spot in all haste and "Draupadiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...."

She was stopped from ingesting the fruit just in time. Why was krishna so anxious to stop a fruit being consumed? What is this strange tree that bears just a fruit?

As Krishna began, the answers to these question began to unravel. The tree was in subjucation to a Rishi called Animithra Maharishi. The tree only bore one fruit and just for him and for nobody else. When the season came, it would bloom, bear fruit and wait. The rishi would come along, consume the fruit and not eat anything else till the next fruit came along.

If the fruit was not there, He would die. Now. The pandavas were in a fix. What would they do now? They had been driven out of their land and were now threatened by curses.

They looked at Krishna and sought Him to deliver them from this predicament. Krishna said there was a way to make the fruit a part of the tree again. But they had to speak out the thought that was uppermost in their minds at that moment. So saying He looked meaningfully at Draupadi who blushed and bent down. What they uttered must be the truth by Dharma. If a lie was uttered nothing could save them from the curse.

Yudishtra started. He said that all deeds in the world must be bound by Dharma.

Lo!! The fruit rose a few feet to the sky.

Bhima, Arjuna and Nakula-Sahadeva went forth. As each spoke the truth, the fruit rose a few more feet to the tree's branch.

It was Draupadi's turn. Krishna ruled that only if Draupadi completed the tale, the fruit would move to the branch else all was in ruin.

Draupadi looked at Krishna and smiled. For He who knew everything was asking for the words out of her mouth. She replied, "I was thinking that how nice it would be in Karna had also been one of my husbands with the Pandavas."

The fruit stuck to its branches. The Rishi came along and consumed the fruit. He blessed the sixsome and smiled at Krishna.

Why was this drama staged? Was it in reality a way to chastise Draupadi into not asking anything again?

No. It was the Paramporul's intention to find voice for the innermost thoughts of the Pandavas and make them understand themselves better. Just because of Draupadi's words, it does not make her any less a Pathivrata. It was way to tell the pandavas,which they unfortunately did not undertsand that Karna was kith and kin.

Whatever. The story was nice and made for a midsummer afternoon's siesta.

Merci Beaucoup pour toi attention!!!