On this day of love, my quest to understand this
emotion only gets stronger (the assumption being, I haven’t quite understood it
completely!). Just what is this love that makes mountains move? Well, if this
seems a trifle clichéd and juvenile (isn’t the god of love a child?), then so
be it; let me indulge in
It is said, that
what is in the epic Mahabharata, is everywhere and what isn’t in it, just
doesn’t exist. If that be so, my quest to understand love ought to take me just
there, where both love and hatred were of epic proportions. But today is a day
of love, so we won’t refer to hatred. Let love paint it all in red (literally
as we shall soon see)!
While love is
capable of many things, I am quite impressed by its ability to transform as well as avenge.
Let me give you
a beautiful example of love transforming
from the epic Mahabharata. According to this, the King of Mandukya’s daughter,
Sushobhana, was not willing to get married, as she felt that marriage was like
putting a free bird in a cage. She wanted to be free and spend her life
philandering away to glory. Sushobhana would mask her identity, and get close
to the man of her choice and live with him till she got tired of him, and left
under some pretext, which she would have worked to her advantage before getting
into the relationship. The men would be under a vow never to speak about it and
thus the matter was never known to anybody, except her maid, Subinita and the
King himself. Subinita on her part had tried her best to stop the princess from
such philandering, but Sushobhana never yielded to her requests and used her
beauty and charm as a means to live a life of her choice.
Once, Sushobhana
met the handsome King Parikshit of the Ikshvaku dynasty. Sushobhana was
impressed by his looks and lured him into a relationship. Soon Parikshit took
the unknown lady to his palace and the two enjoyed themselves. A time came when
Parikshit wanted to marry her, but Sushobhana true to her nature saw that as an
entrapment. At the beginning of the relationship, she had made Parikshit take a
vow that he would never take her near a water-body. Over a period of time,
Parikshit had forgotten about it. When Sushobhana came to know about the
wedding, in a moment of Parikshit’s weakness, made him take her close to a lake
and on reaching the lake, she reminded him of his vow and her imminent
departure.
When a shocked
Parikshit wanted to know about the cause of the departure, she feigned a curse.
At that moment Parikshit decided to hold her in a tight embrace, daring the
curse to take effect. It was at that moment, that Sushobhana felt that this man
was different, and something inside her changed, but she could not accept that
this was love. She managed to escape from there. While she was leaving, Parikshit
noticed a spy and from his dressing, realised that he was from the Mandukya
kingdom. He took his army to the doors of Mandukya and asked them to hand over
Sushobhana who according to him had been ‘kidnapped’ by them. The King met
Parikshit and told him the whole story of his wayward daughter.
When Sushobhana
came to know about it, she was depressed that her truth was out in the open and
the shame would be too much for her or her father. At that moment she decided
to commit suicide. Just when she was about to gulp down the cup of poison, her
maid Subinita comes to her to inform her that Parikshit was waiting for her in
his tent. Sushobhana was surprised to know that the prince wanted to accept him
even after he knew everything? Why would any man want a woman whose ways were
wanton and who wilfully led a life of the unspeakable? Subinita replied “For
love”.
It was for the
first time, Sushobhana realised the power of love and inside her grew the
desire to belong. For the first time she wanted to fly and be caged in the arms
of Parikshit. To the joy of everybody, love had transformed a wayward
philandering woman.
The same epic
also tells us about how love makes one avenge
for the love of one’s life. The Mahabharata has always referred to the love of
Draupadi for Arjun. What has been overlooked is the love of Bhima for Draupadi.
Though Bhima was married to Hidimba, the demoness before Draupadi, it was
Draupadi that he deeply loved and never missed an opportunity to express the
same. An obvious example of it is his fetching of the Saugandhika flower after a great fight with a demon. However, a
more pertinent example of coming to her aid was that of saving her from Keechak
during the year of exile.
The thirteenth
year of exile was in a disguise and the Pandavs were at the court of Virata.
When Keechak, the brother of the Queen of Virata tried to molest Draupadi who
was serving the queen at that moment, Draupadi turned only to Bhima to save
him. At the risk of their disguise being recognised, Bhima killed Keechak as he
could never bear to see anybody insult her, even though Yudhishtir kept quiet
as the Kings assistant.
Another example
was during the disrobing of Draupadi in the court of Dhritarashtra. It was only
Bhima who reacted while the others simply expressed their inability to do
anything. It was Bhima who had vowed that he would break the thigh of Duryodhan
for asking Draupadi to sit on his lap and would drink the blood of Dushashan
for touching Draupadi. True to his words, he killed Duryadhan by fatally striking
him on his thigh. Prior to that he ripped open the bowels of Dushashan and with
the blood he washed Draupadi’s hair before binding it which was left loose
since the day of the disrobing.
 |
| A scene depicting the above at Hampi |
While this might
seem gory, nonetheless it is an expression of Bhima’s love and affection for
Draupadi, who too knew that Bhima was the only one she could turn to in times
of distress. Many would term this to be one sided love, but then who cares
about sides, when love has been expressed to avenge the insult for the person
one loves?
Many of my
readers during the last few years had written to me as how why was it that I
always wrote Greek Love stories on Valentine’s Day (http://utkarshspeak.blogspot.in/2012/02/valentine-day-love-story.html
http://utkarshspeak.blogspot.in/2013/02/valentine-day-love-story.html ). Well I had no reason for that, but to
break away from tradition, I have written about love stories from India. Hope
you like them and use love for all the good things it brings in our life.
Wish you a very
happy day of Love!!
Pic Courtesy - Hampi picture is courtesy Hampi.in
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