In Mahabharata, there comes a story of capability, purpose and revenge mixed up into one.
The story in brief goes like this: King Drupad was mad at Guru Drona because Guru Drona insulted him through Arjun and other disciples. King Drupad organised a Yajna as he wanted a son capable of killing Guru Drona and who can take revenge on his behalf from Guru Drona.
When I heard about his birth story for the first time, I thought the son-who was named Dhrishtadyumna – would be such a great warrior that can even defeat the greatest of his time i.e. Guru Drona. But it didn’t turn out that way. Guru Drona was killed by the coordination of various minds and actions including the mind of Shree Krishna where Dhrishtadyumna just gave the finishing touch.
The only purpose of existence of the life of Dhrishtadyumna which he was explicitly told since he appeared on earth, was to kill Guru Drona and yet he didn’t or could not do it alone. Or destiny did not make that happen or can I say destiny somehow made it possible for him to kill Drona.
How do you see it? I see it in the following two ways.
One is that he could not fulfill the only purpose of his life on his own. He could not train/push himself so much which was necessary to complete his purpose of life i.e. kill Guru Drona.
Second is universe aligned itself in such a way that Drishtadymna could kill Guru Drona. He was so dedicated to the purpose and tried for the same very hard and the universe made it happen for him comparatively easily.
I am putting aside the third way that it was pre-written or it is Bhagwan ki Leela etc.
But how would it look if Drishtadyumna practiced harder and became such a great warrior that could kill Drona single-handedly! Would not that be kind of a great inspiration (if revenge excluded) story? Yudhishthira would not have to say the only lie he had to say about the death of Aswathama to bring Drona to his knees.
But then maybe author Vedavyasa wants to say something maybe more important here.
Something like – if the purpose is revenge-driven then the purpose is not good enough to give you greatness or to make you something great.
Or something like – if your purpose helps set righteousness above wrongs, God himself will help you in fulfilling the purpose in one way or another. Even those things will happen to serve your purpose that usually doesn’t happen (e.g- Yudhishthira lying).
Or that knowing the purpose and being capable of executing the purpose is not necessary to happen together. You might just be a small medium or instrument in a bigger scheme of arrangements.
Or something like – working hard for the purpose dedicatedly so much that God & universe align themselves to make it happen for you. Hidden example of The Alchemist dialogue for literature fans and Om-Shanti-Om movie dialogue for Bollywood fans.
Or maybe many things more you can tell in the comments or to me. Happy to hear.
Whatever the reason be, it will be a lesson to understand.
One thing is well said that whatever didn’t happen in Mahabharata, doesn’t exist. Or whatever happens, has already happened in Mahabharata. We just need to look carefully.
Banyan-Bandstand 