Justice in the Hands of Torture - Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

own chosen purpose right from the start when conspiring Shakuniand Duryodhana began to prevail upon the innocent Yudhishthirato pledge his belongings one after another and started picking hisbrothers in the series. From brothers Shakuni switched on toYudhishthira himself.Even after Yudhishthira's pledge and loss was ensured, Shakuniand his group were not content. Their crooked intelligence toldthem that it was not an adequate humiliation of Yudhishthira andhis brothers. Perhaps they also had in their minds the thought ofDraupadi, who had earlier laughed aloud sarcastically whenDuryodhana on a visit to their palace walked around lifting hisdress thinking that there was water on the polished floor. In factthere was no water. Such was the glazing polish of the floor that itcreated an illusion of water. At other places he was tricked to walkthrough pools of water though the floor showed no sign of water atall and thereby he got wet. This incident really went deep into hismind, humiliation in the hands of a woman for a folly of this kindand from that time onwards he wanted to take revenge.However, the effort of Duryodhana and the others to ensure theirown mastery and the slavery of Yudhishthira and the rest, was theone which landed them in exactly the opposite shore. This is howProvidence works its mystic ways and fulfils its chosen ends. Butfor this greedy step of theirs, the outcome of the whole episodewould have been different.If you ask me why should the devoted and pious, Yudhishthira,Draupadi and the rest be subjected to this kind of abject suffering,does it fit in with the reward of goodness, there is an answer. Inspite of his extreme goodness and nobility Yudhishthira did have aweakness for playing dice. When challenged and provoked, his40