Thursday, December 22, 2011

Who is Draupadi - Panchali

There are some legends as to who is Draupadi. Everyone knows that she is the goddess sister of Lord Srikrishna - an incarnation of Lord Mahavishnu and wife of the pancha Pandavas (5 Pandava brothers). One of the legend has it that Srikrishna explains to Bhima the 2nd of the Pandavas that Draupadi is none other than the Parasakthi the divine mother who is the protector of the universe, destroyer of the unethical doers and the Murderous force against the evil doers. The explanation happened on the 17th or the penultimate day of the Mahabharata war between the Kauravas and the Pandavas. After the war on 17th day the surviving fighters went to their respective tents. Lord Krishna who was the charioteer of Arjuna in the war was with the Pandavas for the dinner on that day.

Draupadi was serving the food to the Pandavas and Lord Krishna. When she was serving the Lord, Bhima noticed her making some signs with her eyes to Srikrishna and Lord Krishna was replying with eye sign language. He also saw that she dropped a drop of water in front of the leaf in which the lord was having his food. After taking food, Bhima took Srikrishna, who is the cousin of Pandavas (Srikrishna was the son of Vasudeva, brother of Kunthi who is mother of Pandavas) to an unobserved place and asked as to what was the exchange between Srikrishna and Draupadi and why she dropped a drop of water in front  of the lord's leaf.

The lord explained with a laugh that everyone is under the impression that she is just the wife of Pandavas.The Lord continued that while it is so the reality is that she is the Bhadrakali, a form of the Parasakti. She is the reason, witness and also responsible for the massive deaths in the war. The Lord  invited Bhima to accompany him (Lord) in the midnight to the battle field. At midnight Bhima saw Panchali getting up from the sleep and going to the battle field where she was seeing the destruction in her viswaroopam (omnipotent form). She was covering  the whole place like radiation from a gigantic fire. Though Bhima was a very valiant warrior and a person with extra ordinary strength, he started trembling at the sight of Draupadi's form. At that time Lord Krishna explained to Bhima as to what happened between him and Draupadi during the meals. He informed that she was telling him that by this 17 days, most of the warriors are killed and tomorrow Dhuryodhana the eldest of the Kauravas who is surviving from Kaurava side is to be killed. Now the 5 Pandavas are left out. Should she kill these 5 also to which Srikrishna replied to her that he has given the assurance  to their mother (who is his aunt - sister of his father) that he (Srikrishna) will protect the five from death. The dropping of the water is the acceptance of his assurance and sparing the 5 by the Bhadrakali. In the Hindu religious rituals it is a practice to make the natural elements the earth, fire, water, sky or wind as witness to important events or agreements. By dropping the water, Draupadi was making the water as a witness to the exchanges between her and Lord Krishna.

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