111. Yudhishtira's Strategy

All arrangements had been completed for performing the Rajasuya Yajna*. Various kinds of people were heading towards the site of the ritual, some to participate in the ritual and others to witness it.

Yudhishtira received sages like Vyasa who would be conducting the rituals for the yajna and seated them at the appropriate places in the site of the yajna.

He then called his brothers and told them, "Bhishma, Drona, Vidhura, Duryodhana and his brothers and kings of various countries will be arriving soon. Arjuna should receive the kings, have them take food and get them seated in the site of the yajna."

Arjuna nodded his head in acceptance of his elder brother's command.

"Bhima! Your job is to receive Duryodhana and his brothers."

"Me?" exclaimed Bhima, in protest.

"Yes. After getting them take food, you should hand over the treasury to Duryodhana and request him to look after the task of doing charity by distributing gifts and giving donations to people attending the yagna" said Yudhishtira.

"Duryodhana always thinks about harming us. Why should we give this responsibility to him?" asked Arjuna.

"There is a reason for my doing this" said Yudhishtira, tersely. "I will take the responsibility of receiving Bhishma, Drona, Vidhura and our other relatives" he continued.

"What are the tasks assigned to Sahadevan and me?" asked Nakulan.

"You two should be in the dining hall and take care of the diners, ensuring that every one gets sumptuous food. In the matter of serving food, there should be no discrimination. Every one sitting in the dining hall should be considered an honourable guest and treated equally."

The yajna had got over and all the guests had left.

That night, the Pandava brothers were conversing among themselves.

"The yajna was performed well" said Yudhishtira, with satisfaction.

"The arrangements you had made ensured that the yajna was performed well" said Sahadevan, the youngest of the Pandava brothers.

"Being in the dining hall, supervising the serving of the food and ensuring that all the guests had a sumptuous meal gave us a lot of satisfaction" said Nakula.

"The kings were very happy about my taking good care of them" said Arjuna.

"Bhishma, Drona, Vidhura, Kripa and others were much satisfied with our hospitality" said Yudhishtira

There was silence for a while.

"You don't have anything to say, Bhima?" Yudhishtira asked Bhima.

"What is there for me to say? Duryodhana was very happy. Won't he be, at our giving him an opportunity to empty our treasury? He liberally gave away gold coins and other gifts to all those who attended the yajna and emptied our treasury" said Bhima, feeling annoyed.

"Doing charity has more value than performing a yajna. If one of us had been in charge of the treasury, we, in our apprehension that our treasury shouldn't be emptied, would have distributed the treasure to the visitors somewhat stingily. But Duryodhana, with the intention of emptying our treasury, distributed the treasure liberally. Though he did this with a bad intention, we will get the benefit of the charity done by him for us. It is with this objective that I asked you to entrust the responsibility of giving charity to Duryodhana" said Yudhishtira.

"Dear elder brother, our teacher Drona had taught us the art of building strategies to fight a war. But you had built up a strategy for performing this yajna and executed it efficiently. Can you explain your strategy in detail?" asked Sahadeva.

"Sahadeva! We all know that you, though the youngest, are the wisest among the five of us. Therefore, you are aware of the components of my strategy. But out of humility, you are asking me to explain the strategy! I will. We can divide the guests that attended today's yajna into three categories - well-wishers, enemies and neutral people. Our relatives and teachers belong to the first category. It would have been appropriate, only if I, the eldest of us, received them. The neutral people comprise the kings of various countries. Though we had won many of them in a war, since they know that winning other kings in a battle is a prerequisite for performing the Rajasuya Yajna, they wouldn't have hostility towards us for defeating them in a war. They won't be friendly with us either. So, we should make an attempt to make them our friends. I thought if Arjuna, who played the major part in the war from our side, received the kings and extended our hospitality to them, they would be pleased. Duryodhana and his brothers belong to the third category - the enemies. Though we don't consider them enemies, they are hostile towards us. However, when they come here at our invitation, as our guests, they should be treated with the respect due to them. They should also feel honoured. That is why I gave Duryodhana the responsibility of doing the charity on our behalf, by entrusting our treasury to him. Since he was carrying out the responsibility given to him, his mind was diverted from planning to harm us. His liberality in giving charity has also turned out to be a blessing to us."

"Dear brother! You are not just elder to me in age. You are superior to me in wisdom too. Who else knows better than you about being righteous?" said Duryodhana.

* Rajasuya Yagna was a religious ritual performed by Hindu kings of ancient India, after declaring themselves as emperors.

Thirukkural

Section 1
The Path of Virtue

Chapter 12
Neutrality

Verse 111 (In Tamil)

thagudhi enavonRu nanRE pagudhiyAl
pARpattu ozhugap peRin.

Meaning:

Treating different categories people like friends, foes and strangers

appropriate to their status is considered neutrality.

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'yudhishtiranin viyUgam' by the same author)

Verse 112 (Soon)
Verse 110