Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 11. DRAUPADI: A RARE WOMAN
We find it hard to understand how Draupadi could love five persons together. Not only we, even the
five Pandava brothers had difficulty in understanding Draupadi. The trouble is understandable, even
the Pandavas thought that Draupadi was more loving to one of them. Four of them believed that she
favored Arjuna in particular, and they felt envious of him. So they had a kind of division of her time
and attention. When one of the Pandava brothers was with her, others were debarred from visiting
her.
Like us, they believed that it is impossible for someone to love more than one person at a time. We
cannot think of love as anything different from a relationship between two persons – a man and a
woman. We cannot conceive that love is a state of being, it is not directed to individuals. Love, like
air, sunshine and rain, is available to all without any distinctions.
We have our own ideas of what love is and should be, and that is why we misunderstand Draupadi.
Despite our best efforts to understand her rightly, there is a lurking suspicion in our minds that there
is an element of prostitution in Draupadi: our very definition of a sati, a faithful and loyal wife, turns
Draupadi into a prostitute.
It is amazing that the tradition of this country respects Draupadi as one of the five most virtuous
women of the past. The people who included her among the five great women of history must have
been extraordinarily intelligent. The fact that she was the common wife of five Pandavas was known
to them, and that is what makes their evaluation of Draupadi tremendously significant. For them it
did not matter whether love was confined to one or many; the real question was whether or not one
had love. They knew that if really there was love, it could flow endlessly in any number of channels;
it could not be controlled and manipulated. It was symbolic to say that Draupadi had five husbands;
it meant that one could love five, fifty, five hundred thousand people at the same time. There is no
end to love’s power and capacity.
The day really loving people will walk on this earth, the personal ownership of love rampant today in
the form of marriages, families and groups, will disappear. It will not mean that the love relationship
between two human beings will be prohibited and declared to be sinful – that would be going to the
other extreme of stupidity. No, everybody will be free to be himself, and to function within his limits
and no one will impose his will and ideas on others. Love and freedom will go together.
Draupadi’s love is riverlike, overflowing. She does not deny her love even for a moment. Her
marriage to the Pandava brothers is an extraordinary event – it came about almost playfully. The
Pandavas came home with Draupadi, who they had won in a contest. They told their mother they
had brought a very precious thing with them. Kunti, their mother, without asking what the precious
object was, said, ”If it is precious then share it together.”
The Pandava brothers had no idea that their mother would say this; they just wanted to tease her.
But now they had to do their mother’s bidding; they made Draupadi their common wife. And she
accepted it without complaint. It was possible because of her infinite love. She has so much that
she loved all her husbands profoundly, yet never felt any shortage of love in her heart. She had
no difficulty whatsoever in playing her role as their common beloved, and she never discriminated
between them.
Draupadi is certainly a unique woman. Women, in general, are very jealous; they really live in
jealousy. If one wants to characterize man and woman, he can say that while ego is the chief
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 201 Osho