Gandhari
Gandhari the great !
Daughter of king Suvala, sister of dice-yielding Shakuni, princess of Gandhar (
Many marvel at Gandhri’s strict vow to “share the blindness” of her husband by tying on a blindfold to deprive her till the day she died.
Many – than as now – see this as an act of great merit.
Many – than as now – see this as an act of supreme stupidity !
Gandhari had grand and lofty ideal of being an ideal wife – a sati – by putting on the blindfold. She reasoned that as a wife, she should not be “better” than her husband and should certainly share his misery. But, is voluntary sharing of blind an act of merit, something a true sati should do ?
Lets first look at what a “sati” is.
Sati is an ideal wife.
An ideal wife should
* help her husband
* complement her husband’s ability / skills and characteristics,
* share his burdens in life and
* help him achieve their combined goal of life.
How did Gandhari do help her husband by sharing his blindness ?
How did she complement his lack of eyes by loosing her own vision ?
How did she share the burden of his ruling Hastinapur with her husband ?
How did she help him achieve his goals of making Kuru clan the greatest in
Though sighted, she willingly chose to become as good as blind.
This deprived her husband of a true guide and adviser.
This deprived her sons of their mother’s true love and guidance.
Because of her voluntary blindness, she did not see the enormous damage her brother was doing by guiding her
Because she chose to close her eyes to facts, she never saw how badly her sons were behaving with their cousin. As a mother and queen, she should have taught them good manners, morals and ethics. But, by remaining in her own world of voluntary blindness she never got to do this.
Gandhari’s lament at the end of the great war is piteous, more so because she could, should have done more to avert it earlier.
If someone is fumbling in the dark, what would you do to help them ?
Open a window, light a lamp, lead them towards light or increase the darkness,
close the window and blow out the lamp ?
Instead of helping her husband, Gandhari increased his isolation by voluntarily taking blinding herself.
If someone is lost and unable to find their way, what would you to help them ?
Read the map, point them in the right direction, send a trusted friend to lead
them out of the maze or would you close your eyes, spin around and point in any
direction, hoping it leads them to their goal ?
Instead of helping her sons, Gandhari handed them over to her gambler brother who had taken up permanent residence in her home !
At no point did Gandhari try to wean her sons away from the evil influence of
her brother.
At no point did Gandhari try to dissuade her sons from their murderous attempts
to oust the Pandavas.
After the dice game, Gandhari lamented for her family, not because of what had
happened, but because of the ill omens that it predicted.
During Pandavas long exile, Kunti remained at Vidur’s house, not with Gandhari.
During the peace process, at Shri Krushna’s request, she tried to reason with Duryodhan, but washed her hands off him in public and declared – he is a beyond reasoning !
Gandhari gives due respect to her elders, says all the right things to the right people at the right time, even tells Duryodhan that only the righteous may win, yet, when the righteous do win, what does she do ? She scorches Yudhisthir’s toe-nails by looking at them in anger and curses Yadavas with a genocide !
Gandhari only ever paid lip service to piety and for that reason, her immense taap is “tamsi” in nature. Going by Shri Krushna’s definition of “gunas” in SMB Gita, Gandhari’s taap is tamasi. It was conceived without due understanding or reference to scriptures, it was pain to her and the people around her. Her taap produced no positive benefit to her, her husband or her progeny. Instead, it brought ruination on the Yadav clan, the same Yadavas who supported her son in the terrible war. An akshohini of Yadavas (21,870 chariots; 21,870 elephants; 65,610 cavalry and 109,350 infantry) died on behalf of her sons. Two Yadavas fought against her son. Yet, Gandhari chose to ignore the hundreds of thousands that died for her and curse the ENTIRE Yadav race for the opposition of 2 (Shri Krushna and Satyaki).
Gandhari, the mother of 100 valiant princes, must have suffered terribly, listening to the muffled sobs of her countless widowed daughter-in-laws. To hear Bhima boast of how he defeated and killed each one of sons must have pained her terribly. Every-time Yudhisthir-the-Just came to pay homage to her, she must have blanched he thought of her son and his countless failed plots to oust the Pandavas.
Eventually, with Vidur’s help, Dhritarastra and Gandhari did leave the palace, splurging Pandava wealth one last time to bring peace to her dead sons souls. They died in a forest fire. Enigmatic death befitting an enigmatic lady.
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