Question:
We see Dhritharasta heard the instructions of the Bhagavad-Gita and still he didn’t surrender. Later in his life, in Srimad-Bhagavatam, at the last phase of life Vidhura came and instructed him, he then retired and achieved some semblance of spiritual decorum. How is that? Why didn’t he take seriously what he first heard by Krishna from the Bhagavad-Gita?
Answer by HH Sivarama Swami:
Dhritharasta’s Example
We can see throughout the Mahabharat that throughout Dhritharasta’s life particularly when his sons were born and when the dichotomy grew between the Pandavas and Dhuryodana. Well, Dhuryodana was envious of Yudistira, Dhritharasta was given so much good advise. He got advise from bhishmadeva, Vyasdeva, his wife, the other elders of Kaurava court. He was advised to not support Dhuryodana. Nor was he qualified or rightfully inline for the thrown.
But Dhritharasta was too attached. He was unable to listen. That’s something we need to consider ourselves. Sometimes we get good advise, but are we able to take it ourselves?
Krishna says, mac-cittah larva durgani (18.58), “if you listen to me you will overcome the conditions of life. But if you act out of your false ego, then you will be destroyed.”
More less that is what happened to Dhritharasta. He didn’t “wake up”, he had no alternative – Vidhura pointed out “you are dying, you are almost at death’s door step. Those who you let your son almost kill, are now maintaining you. You have nothing. All of your sons have died, all of your hopes are wasted away. Your family is finished. You are responsible for the death of so many warrior. The consequence of that is their family are suffering as a result of you. At least die with some integrity.”
And that is what he did, he left for Haradwara and left his body and attained bramha sayujya (merging into brahman). Not such a good result.
So why was he not able to listen despite having such good advise?
His attachment was too strong. He had a weakness for a bad person. Dhuryodhana.
Whereas he had good association, his spiritual practices were not strong enough. He was dharmic (religious) in many ways but not spiritual. So he couldn’t accept the good advise. He was aware of what to do, but he could not do it.
The need for strong spiritual practice
This spiritual weakness, is something that one needs to protect oneself from. It comes from not having enough spiritual strength. From not being sufficiently empowered by Krishna’s holy name. Krishna’s internal potency, which comes through good spiritual practice.
Without spiritual practice, one will not be able to do the right thing, even if that right thing comes directly from Krishna. He won’t be able to do it.
What will be the end result? Krishna says, he will be destroyed.
Two Directions of Fate
We have two direction of fate. In one direction we have the script written of going back home back to Godhead. Whats that script based on? It’s based on following Krishna’s instructions, sadhus, and the spiritual master.
The other script is that the material energy destroys you, humbles you, by taking away everything that you have, because one doesn’t take shelter of the internal potency. Thus, one wastes away in the material world.
Both scripts are there. We determine which one of those two become our life.
Difficulty will always be there. Material life means obstacles. There will always be problems in life. If we take shelter of Krishna, those problems can be overcome. But our material attachments will destroy us. Both Duryodana and Dhritharasta were destroyed.
Doing the Right Thing isn’t Easy
Doing what Krishna says isn’t always easy. It didn’t make it any easier for Arjuna to kill his Bhishmadeva. It didn’t mean that he didn’t lament; having to be in direct conflict with family members. But he did it. Doing what Krishna says doesn’t mean that it will be easy. Because we got ourselves into a real fix. We got ourselves into the material world. It’s a difficult situation. So getting out of it is not easy. we shouldn’t expect that it isn’t going to be easy. And sometimes we have to make painful decisions.
Dhritharasta’s decision should have been and a very painful one for a father is that Duryodana was a hopeless case. Everyone had written him off; ‘abandon him, exile him, do not entrust responsibility to him, he will abuse it. He is a bad person.’ Everyone told him that. Not an easy thing to do. He said “I can’t do it”. Well the result was the same anyway, ‘your bad son was destroyed’. So he could have taken an easier approach, exiled him and given a token kingdom somewhere at the end of the world and banished him. That would have been the right thing to do. Difficult thing to do. But Maharaja Dasharath did it. To a faultless person, Lord Rama. It was a difficult decision but he took that decision. Same as a Arjuna. It wasn’t easy to fight but he did.
So either we are proactive. And act on the basis of dharma. It won’t do-away with our problems in life. Problems will be there. But we will get the best result out of every situation.
Ultimately, the result of our lives will be to go back home back to Godhead.
To hear the original podcast: https://sivaramaswami.media/caitanya-priya-coventry-asks
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