Hari Om We have all heard of the expression Ahimsa Paramo Dharma

which means non injury or not harming others.This is the greatest

“dharma “. That sentence has a latter half which states that himsa is
also dharma. Mostly people do not talk of this latter half.

Why I am talking about that has a reason. In the Bhagavad Gita, there
is a word called aathathaayee. We will not be burdened with sin if we
kill this aathathaayee. (BG Chapter 1 verse 36). Here aathathaayee
means very cruel sinner. In modern terminology, maybe you can call
them terrorists. They are said to be committing six types of sins.

Agnidaha – To set fire

Garadaha – To poison others
Dhanahari – To steal others wealth
Supthaha – To kill when one is sleeping
Kshetrahaa – To encroach and take away another’s land
Thaarhaa – To take away others wives

These are six great sins.

The same version of this verse occurs in Vasishtasmrithi. Manu Smrithi

says such a person can be killed at sight without any explanation.
Duryodhana and his clan committed all these six types of sins. Karna,
Shakuni, etc. Their poisoning skills, setting fire to others have been
discussed briefly before.

Manu smrithi in 8.350 :“ Even if he is one”s guru, old, child, Brahmin

orvidwan, - if he is aathathaayee, he can be killed at sight.” Of course,
the same Manu Smrtihi says killing Brahmins and children is a sin, but if
they are” aathathaayee,” they can be killed without incurring sin. This
must be remembered throughout Mahabharatha to understand
Pandavas and Krishna’s action in context.

We saw some incidents from Bheema’s view.

Next shloka in Manu smrithi says, there is no sin in killing an

aathathaayee whether in light or in darkness. Even in Thirukkural this is
mentioned in politics chapter with reference to kings. (Adminstraiton
chapter)

The Mahabharat version I am giving you is slightly censored with due

consideration for the children attending our lectures.
We saw how, three attempts to kill Bheema by poisoning were made .
INKanyakumari / ---------- during any ritual, the lord is offered three
betel leaves, three fruits, three areca nuts etc. Also ,people go around
the temple three times.
But in western Tamilnadu, all this is done in twos.The number 3
denotes many times. This came to Bheeshma’s knowledge and in an
effort to transform them and to make them quit their bad intentions, he
sent the Kaurav brothers to “gurukulavasam” under Dronacharya.
Bheeshma and Kripa also taught them a lot.

Once while the young Kauravas and Pandavas were playing, their ball
fell into a deep well. While they were wondering how to get it out, there
came an old man who enquired about it. Then the old man made a rope
made out of blades of grass and brought out the ball by his yogic
powers. Arjuna was stunned by this feat. Whereas Bheema was well
versed in hand to hand combat, Arjuna was more attracted to” asthra”
and “Shastra”. You must remember that even though we call Bheema
and Duryodhana obese, they were not fat like Sumo wrestlers. Bagavad
Gita says,Bheema had an abdomen as flat as a wolf (Vrkodhara).
Arjuna with a flair for archery informed Bheeshma. Bheeshma came
and found out he was Dronacharya who was brother-in-law of Kripar.
He requested Drona to be guru for the prince of Hastinapura.

Now a little about who Drona is. Drona himself was once a student
along with the prince of Panchala named Drupada. These two were very
good friends and once during a conversation Drupada promised Drona
to give him whatever he wants at any time and to approach him anytime
in future. As Brahmins are supposed to lead an austere life, Drona in
spite of his expertise on Dhanurveda was finding it difficult to make both
ends meet for a living.

Here an aside point about the fourupavedas. They are

Ayurveda. The science of lengthening one’s life and being healthy

Gandharvaveda – the veda of all arts
Danurveda – the vedaof all wars
ArthaShastra – the veda of administration of a kingdom.

As Drona kept a low profile, he could not cash on his skills. He was so
poor that he could only feed his child rice- flour mix, in place of milk.
The child, once it discovered milk was different, wanted the real milk.
At that time, Drona remembered king Drupada’s offer to him.

There is a Tamil saying that “words are responsible for climbing a

palanquin and also for getting your teeth broken”. This is a saying
which clearly has an effect of wrong words at the wrong time. Drona
came to Drupada’s court reminding him about their childhood friendship
and the king’s offer. Partly because of Drona’s tone and partly because
of his proclaiming proximity to him, the king was irritated and told him
that Drona had no business taking advantage of an earlier friendship
and offered him a few cows. Drona felt insulted and came away
deciding to teach a lesson to Drupada.
On his way back he came across Hastinapura princess and recovered
their ball from the well. He found that Arjuna was well versed in using
his bow and arrow. Dharma was good in the use of javelin,Bheema was
good in the use of the mace (gadha), sword fighting by Nakula and
Sahadeva. Even though they were all good in other fields, these were
their specialities. In the meantime, the Kauravas became jealous of
Arjuna’s skill as he stood tall among them all. Drona wanting to
emphasize Arjuna’s skill, put his foot one day into a crocodile’s mouth
and asked the princes to save him. All were at a loss as to what to do.
Arjuna alone shot and killed the crocodile and rescued him.

So also there is a story of the parrot and how Arjuna alone saw the
parrot’s eye in the tree and fired an arrow into it. He only saw his goal.
That is the lesson for the children- their education is their goal and all
else is secondary. Drona’s son Ashwathama was also jealous of Arjuna
and the Pandavas.

Drona, after the end of their education organized a farewell ceremony

for all the princess. Karna also wanted to participate in the archery
competition but was refused by the referee. The ceremony and
competition were only meant for the princess and not for lowly
charioteer’s son. Then, Duryodhana wanting to keep Karna on his side
made Karna the king of Anga to enable him to participate as king.
Karna of course did not show his skills as it was sunset and no
competition could go on beyond that.

Drona’s partiality to Arjuna is evident in another episode in his life.

Once Arjuna saw a dog hit from very far by an arrow. They found it was
shot by Ekalavya. This Ekalavya had earlier asked Drona to make him
his disciple but he refused on the grounds that only kings and his
equals can be taught by him. Asthras are powered by mantras and
should not be taught to lay people in the interest of internal security.
But Ekalavya had so much devotion to Drona as guru that he made an
idol of Drona which he kept in front of him and taught himself all the
asthras and Shastras. This can happen in extreme guru bhakthi. Drona
learnt from Ekalavya about this and he asked him for his right thumb as
guru dakshina so that he could never be equal to Arjuna. Ekalavya gave
his right thumb and it is said that he later joined the Kauravas side in
the battle.

The princes then asked what has to be their guru dakshina and Drona
told them about Drupada and told them to fight with him and bring him
dead or alive before him.ThePandavas said, let the Kauravas get the first
chance. The Kauravas promptly lost the war. Pandavas got the next
chance and only Arjuna and Bheema went over and captured Drupada.
Drona told Drupada“ Even though I own you now, because of my
magnanimity, I will give half your kingdom back”. The morally and
physically wounded Drupada went home and performed a yaga to beget
a son who would defeat Drona. He got a son called Dristudhyumna and
a daughter called Draupadi. Draupadi was also called Yagnaseeli -born
out of yaga. We know he already had an offspring called Shikandi.
Drupada sent his son to learn from Drona who agreed, showing his
dharmic nature. Drupada also thought that a person like Arjuna, a great
warrior who could beat him in war should be married to Draupadi. And
having him on his side could be used to beat Drona in war if the need
arises.

In the meantime, the ascension to the throne of Hastinapura was

discussed and it was decided that Pandavas as seniors will be given the
reins of the kingdom. So, as it was tradition, Pandavas were sent to
Varanavatham,a nearby temple town. Kauravas built a house for them
made of lacquer which could catch fire and burn easily and kill the
Pandavas in sleep. Vidhura the brother of Dritharashtra got wind of this
and he informs Pandavas and sent a miner to dig a trench under the
house as an escape route. Pandavas escape by this route after setting
fire to the palace themselves.
While escaping, they encounter Chitrangada, a river God and Bhagasura
who were killed in the dual with Arjuna and Bheema respectively.They
learn about Draupadi’sswayamvara and went there in disguise. In the
meantime, king Drupada who thought that either Arjuna(if alive) or
someone equal to him may win Draupadi set up a spinning wheel with
an image of a circulating fish above and its reflection in water below. A
competition was organized and could be won by the person who
strings the extraordinary bow meant for it and hit the fish looking at its
reflection in the water. This competition was won by Arjuna after every
king including Karna, assembled for the swayamvara could not do it. A
small episode at this juncture regarding Arjuna’s prowess will be
appropriate here. Once when the Pandavas were eating, the lights went
off. While Bheema continued to eat, the rest stopped eating. When
asked how he could see the food in front of him, Bheemasaid it is
lifelong habit of taking food from the plate to the mouth and there is no
mystery in it. Arjuna then learnt that he could also practice archery in
dark and also from remote sound signals. (Dasaratha had this skill of
sending an arrow towards sound). Then Karna came into the field of
competition only after Drupad’s son declared it as common contest
where anyone apart from kings can also participate. Karna was being
denigrated by others as low caste inspite of being Anga king. Only after
Karna lost, Arjuna stood up in his Brahmin disguise and won the
competition. Seeing this, Duryodhana became angry at being insulted by
the brahmins. Dharma sent Bheema and Arjuna and made them all
runaway. When Duryodhana wanted to fight, a wise man suggests that
with their army back in their kingdom, they cannot win. But on Karna’s
motivation they wanted to fight. In the meantime Pandavas with
Draupadi in tow came to their home. Lord Krishna also came behind
them. Pandavas entered the house and told Kunti that they had
brought the day’s bhiksha. As usual Kunti told them to share it amongst
themselves But as Kunti could not take back her words all five of them
agreed to marry Draupadi. Draupadi in her previous janma, did tapas to
Lord Shiva and asked for the following:

1. I want a dharmavan husband

2. I want a balavan husband
3. I want a husband skilled in archery
4. I want a beautiful husband
5. I want a husband skilled in shastras.

Shiva thought such qualities do not exist in the same person after the
Ramayan days, granted a boon to Draupadi that she would get such
husbands in her next birth. So now Draupadi has five husbands with
those attributes. Meanwhile Drupada sent his son to find out who the
brahmins were. Dhristadhyumna told his father about them and the
Pandavas were received with full royal honors into the Panchala
kingdom. As Duryodhana and company were by the time ready to fight
the brahmins they came over and again were defeated byArjuna and
Bheema.

After the wedding festivities, messages were sent to Hastinapura. King

Dhritharashtra and his advisors then decided to invite them back to the
kingdom and to the throne.