Miscellaneous - Religion   

Merit of contentment

CHENNAI : Greed for power and pelf leads to ruin eventually. It is an exceptional person who will remain content with whatever he gets in life with acceptance that God had given him his due while the majority aspire for more and more without deriving satisfaction at all though by all accounts they maybe comfortably placed in life. When a person is satisfied with his lot no power on the Earth will be able to make him swerve from the path of Dharma. On the contrary, the one who is avaricious will go to any extent to satiate his desires and become blind to the suffering of others.

In his discourse, Nagai Sri Mukundan said the root of the fratricidal war between the Kauravas and the Pandavas was Duryodana's jealousy of his cousins right from young age, which resulted in greed for usurping even the Pandavas' rightful share of kingdom. When they returned from exile in the forest after losing in the game of dice Yudhishthira, the pacifist among the Pandavas, had sought just five cities or even villages from Duryodana through Sanjaya. He had told Sanjaya to tell him, "For the sake of the general good I am prepared to forego my kingdom. But I want the assurance that you will give me these five cities. I want peace." It was Vidura who understood the rationale of Yudhishthira's message. He would have been happy even without them but he was only reminding them about the injustices meted to them and Draupadi's humiliation.

When Lord Krishna went as the envoy of the Pandavas to mediate He elicited the opinion of all the brothers. Yudhishthira wanted to avoid a war, and it was Krishna who had to remind him of their suffering and that their desire for peace should not be misunderstood for weakness. Bhima was disturbed that Krishna had to go to Hastinapura as their messenger for he was a man of action who would have liked to settle scores directly. Arjuna said he could not voice any opinion as they had remained like dead men when Draupadi was disgraced in the assembly and so they had to avenge for it. War was inevitable; that it was to be fought for the sake of Dharma had to be driven home.

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