Dhrta'rashtra' and Dhrta'Hari' - Part 5

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev.

This is in continuation of the previous offering titled "Dhrta-rashtra and Dhrta-Hari" wherein we were meditating on verses 1.1 and 1.2 of Bhagavad-Gita

In Bhagavad Gita verse 1.3 Duryodhana says,

paśyaitāṁ pāṇḍu-putrānām ācārya mahatīṁ camūm
vyūḍhāṁ drupada-putreṇa tava śiṣyeṇa dhīmatā

O my teacher, behold the great army of the sons of Pandu, so expertly arranged by your intelligent disciple the son of Drupada.

Duryodhana wanted to trigger Dronacharya's anger and so he refers to Dhrstadyumna as Drupada's son. Drona and Drupada were friends in gurukul and at that time Drupada had told Drona that in future he could always approach him for help and that he would willingly give half of his kingdom. But years later when Drona was in trouble, not even having milk to feed his son Ashwattama, he approached his friend to get a cow. But Drupada's nature changed and he insulted Drona by saying that, "Friendship can be had only with equals" and refused to help. This enraged Drona and he left the place. Later when he became the guru of Kurus, he sent them to fight against Drupada. Duryodhana went in haste to fight against Drupada, only to get defeated. Later Arjuna went and he defeated Drupada and Drona then took away half of Drupada's empire. This incident enraged Drupada so much that he performed a sacrifice to beget a son to kill Drona and that son was Dhrstadyumna.

Interestingly Drupada sent Dhrstyadyumna to Drona's gurukul to get trained in warfare. But as a liberal brahmana Drona taught all military arts to him. But being a crooked person Duryodhana is unable to appreciate Drona's act. Instead he is considering it as a defect and is telling Drona sarcastically that, "Your intelligent disciple, son of Drupada after learning all the arts is now fighting against you."

Dronacarya - being their Guru is worthy of worship. Fault finding is not a good quality and that too one should not speak with elders/guru in a sarcastic, fault finding mood.But unfortunately, blinded by false-ego, pride and envy Duryodhana ill-treated his elders. 

Also from the interactions between Drona and Drupada we can learn few lessons

1. True friendship is not based on social, economical status of others.
2. Once we give a promise, we should try to keep it. If we are unable to keep it, we should genuinely humbly apologies.
3. We should not react sarcastically to people who approach us for help - "Friend in need is a friend indeed".
4. If someone speaks harshly, we should not do "tit for tat". By doing so we are provoking the other person to do more harmful acts - both for us and for himself. Our beloved spiritual master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj says - "By tolerating the sins, you are doing good to others as well as yourself."

Krishna willing we shall continue to meditate further on this topic in the subsequent offering.

Thank you very much
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva
Kalacakra Krsna das