DRAUPADI - 78

 

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty's 

DRAUPADI - 78

Krishna’s Mediation Fails: Krishna Draupadi Discuss Future

 

Krishna refused Duryodhana's hospitality

preferred the humble soft intimacy of Vidura.

An honest coarse meal and a safe mattress

are better than the luxury of deceitful plenty.

In the Kuru court Vasudeva advocated

the Pandava cause with moral logic.

His advocacy failed, Dhritarastra, Bhisma

silenced by Duryodhana's repugnant hubris

lowered their heads, Krishna's final appeal

for five villages for the Pandavas was pooh-poohed

much to the shock of the royal assembly.

Duryodhana's final declaration  -  Not even

a needle point space shall be yielded without war   -

closed the issue, Dhritarastra's meek silence

and wordless hesitation, the helpless protests

of the elders were all rendered irrelevant

by ranting Duryodhana who wanted Krishna held.

The shocked assembly then saw Krishna's

original oracular form wheeling his disk

in spectacular radiance.

The foolish Kauravas stepped back as he

walked out in victorious grace, leaving

the assembly in self stultifying chaos.

 

Auntie, said  Krishna to Kunti, I failed

to stop the clash of brothers; war is

now the dark truth, the sky will fall

in torrents of gore slushing the earth

bones will stick out like stumps

after the harvest of death, unreaped rots:

Kunti moist eyed had no voice as Krishna's

chariot flew towards the dusky sunset.

Draupadi heard what she had foretold

to herself before Krishna went to Hastina.

Pandavas knew what Krishna would bring back

as Drupad, Virat and other message hungry

nobles accepted the dark tidings

in formal fortitude to meet

their future with dutiful preparations.

To arms was the new buzz spreading

from halls to lawns to dining space:

War drums vibrated fear

in the hearts of drooping trees.

 

Krishna with his familiar smile

asked Draupadi, at a corridor bend

Sakhi, did you expect any happy results,

are you shocked or disappointed?

Draupadi in a calm demeanour, said

no shock Sakha, no disappointment,

the peremptory summons of war

came with the roll of dice years ago.

All my thirteen years of soul sickness

waited for the balm of peace but

peace is not to be, if my wounds

are slated to be washed with blood

I never willed it nor desired it ever.

Who in her right senses would have

a death wish and see thousands in

battle array for mutual extinction?

But you are the cause of the war

can you deny it my sweet Sakhi?

O Sakha your words bleed me deep

if I am the cause I will uncause it

I'll pardon Duryodhana and enter fire

I won't allow the future historian

to raise his accusing forefinger

at me as the cause of the Mahabharata war.

But I shall ask you  O Sakha the wielder

of the chakra, why did you kill Kamsa

why Shisupal and many others, for what?

To restore the balance between

good and evil for order and harmony.

What harmony Vasudeva? How can

one death harmonize another murder?

How will this war restore my dignity

time has no backward wings to self correct

wrong directions, it never looks back

it brings no balance save ego massage  -

Krishna laughed amiably: My Sakhi now

is wisdom in tears, if it be so, why

prepare for war, let us all withdraw to

where civilization has not reached and

meditate how to spend the rest of life  -

No Vasudeva withdrawal from life is death,

the ego the fiery soul has its own flame

when lit by enemies and ego hunters

it conflagrates and must consume passions

to calm itself  -  Which is harmony Panchali,

chopped in Krishna with an innocent grin.

If withdrawal is death and fight for rights

is death which death balms your patience

which death consoles your native justice

which death is meet without guilt ?

Choose that Draupadi and the choice is

now inevitably war for your civil rights.

Draupadi nodded her eyes in flood

Krishna placed his arm around her

reassuring her burning soul :

The peace of the living is not a graveyard

yet Sakhi the battlefield becomes one.