Justice in the Hands of Torture - Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

his was improper on all grounds. Human considerations like sympathy,a sense of accommodation, regard for a woman and the like,all were thrown into the air by the wicked Duhshasana. His act,even according to the custom and codes of propriety prevailingthen, also in the view of the elders present at the time, was not atall just. While he went ahead with his assault and Draupadi's ownhusbands could not do anything, also the elders found it improperto interfere, Draupadi cried out in distress. When all externalsources of help and redress failed her, it was natural that someinternal source came to her rescue in a totally unimaginable manner.The unimaginability does not make it doubtful or unauthentic.The very origin of the world is an event unimaginable. Our imaginationand reason themselves begin to work only when events andphenomena come to pass off first.Then how can any intelligent man hold that the external and materialthings alone are real and carry authenticity with them? Thevery idea of ‘external' and 'material' first of all implies its oppositeand contrast, namely 'internal' and 'non-material' or 'spiritual '. Further,in the very beginning, was there any external-internal, divisionat all? If reason and observation and vice-versa are any guidingforce in our understanding, was not all ‘this’ (meaning the existenceas we perceive around us), before its very origin, a mere mass ofnothing which in truth can neither be described as anything nor nothing!Anything and something as contrary to nothing, existence as contraryto non-existence, internal as contrary to external, all these becamethinkable and began to occupy our imagination only after all this(that we perceive now) came into being. Before it came into being,there was no difference or contrast at all.So our very thought that externality or materiality alone can be factualand can be accepted by us with authority is baseless. Higher36