Gandhari of Kandahar
Table of Contents
Gandhari
Gandhari was an Afghan lady.
She lived in Kandahara, Gandhara in Sanskrit, in Afghanistan.
Indian people called Kandahara “Pratyanta Desha” – the extreme border area, not exactly Indian.
Gandhari was not well acquainted with the greatness of Lord Krśńa.
Neither were the people of Kandahara very familiar with the social structure of India, of Central India, though Kandahara, i.e., Afghanistan, was then within, India.
Before marriage, when Gandhari learned that her would-be husband was blind, she covered her eyes with a cloth.
“If my husband is unable to see the world, then why should I?”
Thinking thus she kept her eyes covered throughout her life. What a tremendous moral force she had!
She removed the cloth only twice in the whole of her life:
- Once at the command of her husband, Dhritarastra
- To see Lord Krśńa.
Dhritarastra told:
- Duryodhana and his brothers to go before their mother and ask for blessings for victory in the war.
- Gandhari to see them, so that their bodies might become as hard as iron, as she possessed such great power.
Dhritarastra had instructed his sons to go naked before their mother. Whatever she would see, that portion of the body would become hard and nobody would be able to kill them.
Since the sons were adult, they went before their mother wearing loincloths, and not nude.
The portion of the body which was under the loincloth remained soft, while the rest got hardened.
This fact was known to the Pandavas.
So at the time of a fight with maces, Bhima had to hit below the navel, as it was not possible to kill the kaoravas by hitting above, as was the prevailing rule.
The war of that period was taken as a sport, as competition, it was not for killing.
One had to obey the rules. In a fight with maces, hitting below the navel was prohibited.
Bhima had to go against this rule to kill the Kaoravas.
The second time Gandhari removed the cloth from her eyes was after the war of Kurukśetra when it had become a vast cremation ground.
All the daughters-in-law of Gandhari had become widows and were weeping bitterly near their dead husbands. Gandhari, also, was there.
The Pandavas were accompanied by:
- Kunti, their mother
- Lord Krśńa
Many people from their side had been killed and they had to console their relatives.
Krśńa consoled Gandhari and said:
Why do you weep? This is the way of the world – you will also depart some day. Why do you weep then?
Why do you console me? It does not befit you. If you had not planned it, all my sons would not have been killed.
The war was inevitable for the preservation of righteousness and the destruction of pápá [sin].
What could I have done, I am only an instrument.
You are Táraka Brahma. If you had wanted, you would have changed their minds without a fight.
It was a fact.
But Krśńa had to put an example before the world.
Pápá is defeated. Let there be a fight. Let the world see and take a lesson.
If it had been done without a fight, the world would not have received the lesson.
Krśńa did not speak, though logic was on his side.
There are numerous instances in one’s life where one’s ideas are correct, but one has to keep quiet.
Lord Krśńa was put in that state.
Lord Krśńa showed respect to a moralist like Bhisma and greeted him, so did He uphold the importance of Gandhari.
Then Gandhari [[pronounced]] the curse.
The members of my family died before my eyes. So be it with yours before your eyes.
Be it so.
Because of the acceptance of the curse by Lord Krśńa, it happened. Had Krśńa not accepted the curse, it would not have happened.
But Krśńa accepted it because He wanted to show that moral force has value in life and that it should be accepted.
Had He not done so, the Yaduvamsha (members of the Yadava clan, relatives of Lord Krśńa) would not have been destroyed.
Only did Krśńa do so to make Gandhari great.
Lord Krśńa planned the fight for the victory of righteousness. He did all possible works to this end.
But wherever he saw a moralist, he accepted his own defeat of his own accord, though in a number of instances the acceptance of His defeat was not just.
You, too, should learn this lesson from Krśńa’s life.
Whenever someone commits injustice, you should not succumb.
Fight against immoralists, as was done by Lord Krśńa.
But if someone is a moralist, a noble man, you must bow to him. This will enrich and enhance your own prestige.