Justice in the Hands of Torture - Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

tice and moral propriety. He strongly held that the very discussionin an open assembly like theirs, about a woman, making her an objectof molestation all the while, was itself fundamentally criminal,inhuman and sinful. It was a severe disgrace to the majesty of theassembly itself. The fact of Yudhishthira losing first and beingasked thereafter to pledge his wife has itself invalidated Draupadi'ssurrender. How can then the question of her enslavement arise?Let me complete the last part of the episode to give you a full pictureof it, particularly to know how the whole impasse was resolved.When the whole issue was thus suffering from indecision and lackof clarity and at the same time a noble and virtuous woman, for nofault of hers, was gripped under the sharp jaws of torture, suddenlyin Dhritarashtra's palace a number of evil portends, ill omensburst forth, jackals entered the inner shrines where the sacramentalfire was kept and began to howl; asses started braying patheticallyin chorus; vultures were up on the sky en masse and began tohover around the palace. All these sounds terribly shook Viduraand Gandhari (the wife of Dhritarashtra). Bheeshma, Drona andKripa said in chorus loudly the auspicious word' ‘swasti,swasti' (meaning let there be well-being and peace). Vidura andGandhari got afflicted bitterly and informed the blind king(Dhritarashtra) of the news, saying 'a number of ill omens and evilportends are taking place.' Hearing the news, the blind king becameterrified. He instantly called his son Duryodhana to his sideand rebuked him thus:'Duryodhana, you have been ruined by your evil designs. Youhaughty fool, is it in an open assembly where the noble Kuru eldersand the Wise preside that you debate upon the fate of a woman,26