DRAUPADI: some musings, a story and a GENDER debate in the Divine Presence- Part One

DRAUPADI, who is she ?

Is she the daughter of King Drupad, the princess of Panchal (hence Panchali)? Is she Yagnaseni, since born out of the sacrificial fire, and born to avenge her father's humiliation at the hands of the Kurus, (whose queen she later became by marrying the Pandava brothers)? Or is she Krsna, the dark-complexioned beauty, intensely devoted to that stealer of hearts, the Divine Cowherd, Krishna?  Draupadi is one of the most powerful and poignant characters of the Mahabharata epic, and remains an enigma.  

Exceedingly beautiful, extremely intelligent, fiercely courageous, honourable, valorous and compassionate, fiery Draupadi along with Seeta, the other great Indian epic character (of the Ramayana) have fascinated and exasperated Indian women all along ! We admire them for their courage, beauty, selflessness, heroism and and yet fume at their helplessness and seeming capitulation in a male-dominated society. Perhaps to understand these complex characters, we should remember that . . .

Draupadi as portrayed in a gripping tele-serial on Star Plus

just as fiery flames have a life of their own, and refuse to be contained in demarcated grooves, so too this beautiful princess of Panchal, though overwhelmed by unassailable odds that life placed in front of her, scripted her destiny and that of her contemporaries out of these very challenges that often threatened to engulf her. 

She held her own till the very end, and till her last breath, she remained Draupadi - selfless, yet invincible and immortal through sacrifice.

Draupadi became Lord Krishna's instrument in His mission to uphold Dharma and preserve its structure before the onset of the iron age of Kali, when all norms would deteriorate and become obscure. 

In her devotion to the Supreme Being whom she visualised in her 'sakha', Krishna, she sacrificed and transcended every notion of identity that characterised the woman she was - of princess, queen, wife and mother. Hence, though derided and ridiculed by her enemies for becoming the wife of five men, she remains in the Indian spiritual tradition, a PATIVRATA (the chaste and faithful one). Apart from her unusual birth from fire and her Divine origins like the Pandavas themselves, she was always faithful to the Supreme Being, the Indweller, her true Soulmate, and her entire life was a reflection of this pure devotion ! All her actions were in accordance with the Divine Will that had incarnated as Lord Krishna, to re-establish Dharma  and that found in Draupadi, the perfect instrument for this purpose. 
There have been countless debates and endless discussions about Draupadi, her role in the epic, the traumas she faced, her character, her chastity, her relevance to the modern Indian woman. Women in India traditionally revere her as a symbol of purity and extraordinary courage and sacrifice -- she was willing to forgive the murderer of her five young sons from the wrath of her husbands, towards the end of the great war because she did not want his mother to feel the anguish that was tearing her apart and she wanted this cycle of violence to end. 

The modern young women in India, more aware and conscious of their rights as individuals than the earlier generations, feel Draupadi should have rebelled against all those impositions. She should not have yielded to impossible conditions. As for the men, the patriarchal mind-set in our society makes Draupadi a convenient example to suppress women. They even make statements like how she caused the great war by her laughter and that women by their beauty, cause strife. The molesting of the Queen somehow makes it alright for other women to undergo the same fate. 

Yet, these are half-baked assumptions and interpretations . . . . All literature, including the epics, hold  a 'mirror to life' ; the validity and relevance of a character like Draupadi in an epic like Mahabharata is two-fold: 
1. It is a depiction of society that finds echoes till today; it is not a justification of what happened or of prevailing gender roles. In fact it is a warning of what could happen when evil is allowed to grow unchecked and good men keep silent, due to misplaced loyalties and wrong priorities.
2. It is a revelation of the inherent strength of a woman; of her personal integrity and faith in the Supreme Spirit, which can create and destroy worlds. When such a woman is wronged, she may appear helpless at the mercy of evil, but her adherence to Dharma (righteousness) becomes the armour that Divinity uses to protect her, when she calls out for help, and her vulnerability the pretext to wage the final Divine onslaught against evil . 

 Source: as narrated by Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, in discourses at Puttaparthi, and certain Trayee sessions. 

to be continued . . . .