Draupadi's Bad Choice
The latest news at Karma Watchers this week is the
story of
Draupadi and her five husbands, the Pandava brothers.
Draupadi is
the very beautiful daughter of King Drupada. In order for you to
understand how she was given five husbands I will have to take you back
to the
day of Draupadi's swayamwara.
King Drupada set up the swayamwara in order to marry off Draupadi to a
strong
prince. There were several ceremonies held before the men would
compete
to win Draupadi's love. In order for them to receive a garland of
marriage, they had the tricky task of stringing a bow and shooting five
arrows
into a target swinging above their head while looking into a plate
filled with
oil that showed the reflection of the target. The trick was the
bow was
enormous and so heavy that hardly any of the princes attempting to lift
it
could not do it. Most of them gave up after trying to lift it
once.
Then, it was Karna's turn. He was an ally of the Kauravas, who
were
cousins and rivals to the Pandavas. Karna was able to lift the
bow and
pull the string back. Just as he was letting go of the string,
Draupadi
yelled at the top of her lungs. "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! I won't
go
with him. He is not good enough." All her yelling caused
Karna
to miss the target, which meant he did not win a garland.
Draupadi knew
that if she hadn't done anything, he would have hit the target
perfectly and
she would be forced to go live with the evil Kauravas.
Next up was Arjuna, who was one of the Pandava brothers. With
very little
effort he picked up the bow, pulled back the string, and shot all five
arrows
into the center of the moving target at the same time. Draupadi
was
absolutely amazed by this and put a loving garland around his
neck. With
that she went off with her new husband Arjuna to their new house.
Draupadi did not realize that when she accepted Arjuna she would be
accepting
all of his brothers as well. Kunti was the mother of the five
brothers. When Arjuna won Draupadi's hand, Kunti commanded him to
share
with his brothers. Therefore, she had to marry all five of
them.
The first one she would marry was Yudhistira because he was the eldest
of the
five men. With that Draupadi married all five men and started her
first
year with Yudhistira.
Draupadi only wanted one husband, but instead she got five! In
order for
you to understand how karma relates to this story, you will need to
understand
the life of Nalayani. Draupadi is an incarnate of Nalayani.
During
her life Nalayani was married to a sage who had died. After his
death she
wished for a husband five times to replace him. When
Nalayani was reborn
as Draupadi her wish was granted. Therefore, explaining why
Draupadi
ended up with five husbands instead of just one.