Prafulla Kumar Mohanty's
DRAUPADI - 64
Miles inside Kamyak
forest
the new Pandava hut was big
Draupadi found the Saraswati banks
more enchanting, the water
more caressing to the body
tasting sweet, her guava smell
made her happy, her birds and beasts
of the Dwaita got
the scent
and joined the Kamyak
flock,
raised the pitch at dawn.
The trees were lovely
dark and tall they stood
pillars of protective strength
sober and staid less talkative
than Draupadi approved
yet she was nostalgic:
Memory is the tormentor
it makes the past present
makes you smile or cry,
never leaves you alone,
often ruins your appetite
for adjustment with your new reality,
yet often also it lifts you up
bringing back stored
treasures
in torrential measures.
But the nagging memories of Dussasana's
rough hands on her often
imbalanced her moods.
Life moved on breath inviting
breath in pauseless succession
prolonged the days in hope's corridors.
Arjuna went out to appease Shiva
Bhima went to Dwarika to polish
his club art with Balram's tips.
The Madri sons helped Draupadi
in housekeeping and providing
household needs moving in the forest
for nature's sustaining bounties.
Yudhistira spent his time with saints
attended yajnas and conversed
with sages on dharma, philosophy
in desperate compensation for his
self invited disaster unredeemed.
One morning Draupadi saw him
asleep on the ground half clad in bark
his hair on the dawn wet grass
Draupadi felt her feet heavy as the
load in her mind suddenly grew.
O what a fall, the eldest Pandava
wise erudite principled upright
is a helpless sod left to the mercy
of elements unaccommodated orphan.
The King of Indraprastha, the Emperor
of the sacred Arayabarta
at whose feet
the kings, scholars and wisemen
bowed like paid courtiers at dawn
on whose crown the sun sat polishing
Dharma to purge the world of sins,
at whose command the might of Bhima
and Arjuna clammed up in reverence:
That Yudhistira is lying abandoned
as virtue denied pearl in a hole!
Draupadi went running caressed
his head, dusted off his body
when Yudhistira waking up met her
sparkling eyes bursting out of her
mornglow face he got up with a start -
What happened, Is anything wrong Princess?
Draupadi gulped all concerns
holding his hand she said, No no
nothing has happened to me, nor will
ever happen when Dharmaraja is there.
I saw you on the floor asleep
the sun is up, the birds have gone
for their daily destiny - So I came
to wake you up; Yudhistira stood up
smiling like a child and went for
morning ablutions without a word.
What is important, thought Panchali
crown, sceptre, throne or self respect?
When fakery throttles your truth
the straight is trampled by the crooked
why should the straight hide his shame
in fatalistic forests in total silence?
After Yudhistira had his body needs
duly served by Panchali and drank
Saraswati waters, Draupadi asked:
Why should one be good? Why should
one obey hate imposed rules, trapping
the good in the illusion of its own goodness.
Yudhistira frowned, good is not illusion
good is truth in action, Karma reflects
the goodness of your being. But does
it protect you against the evil of others?
You agreed to play dice in good faith
but Shakuni wielded the crooked dice
for Duryodhana's vile purpose; you
could not prevent that, you could not
know you were a toy manipulated
by the dynamic hands of evil.
Your good was mute, dharma silent.
You descended at every turn
to the depths of ignominy, their
boisterous laugh did not arouse
the wrath of Dharma, Justice
blindfolded left her balance:
Who repelled the penetration of evil?
Yudhistira in grim silence glared.
Draupadi continued - If Dharma,
justice good left you when your
soul was torn apart by evil,
you bowed your
crownless head, lowered
your eyes and walked into the trap.
And now you are rolling on
dry forest leaves in dry throated groan:
O Dharmaraja awaken your Dharma
your own native inborn, justice
and punish the abusers of vile powers
by your innate good, snatch out
what is rightfully yours by your
own strength of
justice,
defy the exile, a monocratic rule
without scriptural sanctions - stop,
Panchali stop hurling
your logic
it irritates more than it hurts;
Why should I stop? Time has come
to abandon pardon and show your
heroic power, time has come to
destroy them and claim what
you have lost to deceit and bluster.
People hate the weak and the helpless
but before the mighty they shrink,
he who knows both the things
is the right person to be the king .
Yudhistira stood up and mustering
a calm voice said Panchali! You
speak in anger and frustration
the logic of the common folk
who do not understand good or evil
they are passion-stung mortals
unaware of life's time and space.
In the history of civilization, they
count their triumphs in hours, years
in measurable limit constants:
I am not that king I know I should
not have played dice, but I did
I trusted them and failed but
I never work to enjoy the fruits
of Dharma, I do whatever I feel
is attuned to my
conscience.
If you observe Dharma and truth
you never think of fruits of desires
and accordingly I have lived and worked.
If I have paid the price for my convictions
if my Dharma has landed me here
I have no regrets, I never pretend
goodness to acquire or achieve things
I diced, I lost and I am here yet
my only misery is I have given misery
to you and my brothers, you people
became victims of my will and action.
Draupadi fell silent, Yudhistira looked away
both went severally to nurse their
agony in silent introspection
