View source for Gandhari was so faithful, one of the most exalted chaste wife mentioned in the sastras, Gandhari, that in all conditions she followed the husband

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[[Category:Gandhari]]
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="1" parent="Lectures" text="Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures"><h3>Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonSB1948MayapuraJune141973_0" class="quote" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" book="Lec" index="266" link="Lecture on SB 1.9.48 -- Mayapura, June 14, 1973" link_text="Lecture on SB 1.9.48 -- Mayapura, June 14, 1973">
<div class="heading">Gāndhārī was so faithful, one of the most exalted chaste wife mentioned in the śāstras, Gāndhārī, that in all conditions she followed the husband. At last, when everything was finished in the Battle of Kurukṣetra, no Kaurava, none of the sons or grandsons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra was living, neither of the Pāṇḍavas, still, Gāndhārī was faithfully serving her husband.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on SB 1.9.48 -- Mayapura, June 14, 1973|Lecture on SB 1.9.48 -- Mayapura, June 14, 1973]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Tapo divyaṁ yena śuddhyet sattvaṁ yasmād brahma-saukhyam anantam ([[Vanisource:SB 5.5.1|SB 5.5.1]]). If you undergo tapasya... Therefore we prescribe this tapasya: no illicit sex. Our tendency is to have illicit sex. That is the condition of this material nature. But we have to deny it. That is tapasya. Tendency's there. Tapasya means I have got some tendency, but voluntarily I have to check it. That is called control, tapasya. My tongue is dictating: "Oh, let us go to some place and eat such-and-such thing." But if you can control the tongue... "No," that is tapasya. "No, you cannot eat this. You cannot be allowed to eat anything and there's no and except Kṛṣṇa prasādam." That is tapasya. Not that "My tongue has dried up. I must drink a cup of tea," and I take it. "No. It is intoxication, prohibited. So I shall not take it." That is tapasya. And that tapasya, what for? Tapasya divyam, tapo divyam ([[Vanisource:SB 5.5.1|SB 5.5.1]]). Otherwise, there are many men, they're also undergoing austerities for some material purpose. There are many men who wants to accumulate some money, begins business from low standard, works very hard day and night. In your country, there are many examples. Just like Mr. Henry Ford. So that is also tapasya. They underwent severe conditions of life to accumulate some money. After death or at the end of life, they'll be called: "Oh, here is a millionaire. He started his business with a farthing. Now he's millionaire." He wants that credit. No. Not that kind of tapasya. Because that accumulation of wealth, millions of dollars, will be finished after this body is finished. After death, he cannot take away the millions of dollars with him next life.</p>
<p>But they do not know that there is next life. Next life he may become a dog, and what this millions of dollars will help him? That he does not know. Therefore tapo divyam ([[Vanisource:SB 5.5.1|SB 5.5.1]]). Take austerity, penances, for reviving your original consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. For that purpose, you undergo austerity. Otherwise, if you simply undergo austerities, penances, hardship, for some material gain, then it is waste of time, defeat, parābhava. Parābhavas tāvad abodha-jātaḥ. Because he's a fool, rascal, he does not know what for hardship should be taken. Just like Hiraṇyakaśipu. He also underwent tapasya. The whole universe became trembled. Brahmā came: "Why you are undergoing such severe tapasya?" On one finger he stood up, and undergoing tapasya. Brahmā came: "What is your purpose of this tapasya?" "Sir, I want to be immortal." "So that is not possible. You cannot become immortal." Then in so many ways he wanted to become immortal. What is the purpose of becoming immortal? There are many trees standing for ten thousands of years. That is very successful life, to stand in a place for ten thousands of years without any movement? Or prolonging life for many thousands of years? Brahmā lives also for many millions of years.</p>
<p>So people are misled in this way. They undergo hardship for some temporary gain, which is condemned. Śāstra says that if you take hardship, if go under, undergo tapasya, it must be for realization of God. Tapo divyam ([[Vanisource:SB 5.5.1|SB 5.5.1]]). That will give you permanent happiness. And if you accept hardship for anything material, it may give you temporary so-called happiness, but with the end of your body, everything will be finished. Therefore this tapasvinī, this Gāndhārī... Tapasvinī. She has been described as tapasvinī. She wanted to be a faithful, chaste wife. What is the result? If a woman becomes faithful, chaste wife, then the next life there is chance of her becoming a male. Because according to Vedic literature, to take a birth as woman is low-grade. Striyaḥ śūdrās tathā vaiśyā ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ. In the Bhagavad-gītā the... As there are higher grade and lower grade births, so according to Vedic understanding, the women, the body of woman is lower grade birth. Therefore if she's fortunate to have a good husband, devotee, and if she becomes faithful to that husband, then her life is successful. That is called tapasya.</p>
<p>So Gāndhārī did it. Gāndhārī... In India still, marriage does not take by canvassing all of a sudden. The father and mother, especially in aristocratic family, royal family, even in Western countries, the father, mother select the husband or wife. Even in England, the Kind Edward VIII, he was intimately in friendship with a common girl. So the state would not allow him that "You can marry a common girl." So at that time the prime minister, one Mr. Baldwin, he said to him that "Either you have to give up the company of that common girl or you have to give up this empire." So out of sentiment, he gave up the empire. Later on he was very sorry. And his second brother, George VI, he... George VI means the father of the present Queen, Elizabeth. So still this is current in aristocratic family, that the husband and wife should be selected by the parents.</p>
<p>So Gāndhārī, she was the daughter of Afghanistan, Ghandahar. Still, the name is there Gandahar. Gandhar. Formerly the name was Gandhar. So Gāndhārī means the daughter of Gandhar country. So when she was informed that her would-be husband is a blind man—Dhṛtarāṣṭra was blind from birth—so immediately she practiced austerity. Voluntarily she closed her eyes with cloth that she would also live as blind. "My husband would be blind. So, although I'm not blind, I must live also as blind." This is the beginning of austerity, Gāndhārī. So Gāndhārī was so faithful, one of the most exalted chaste wife mentioned in the śāstras, Gāndhārī, that in all conditions she followed the husband. At last, when everything was finished in the Battle of Kurukṣetra, no Kaurava, none of the sons or grandsons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra was living, neither of the Pāṇḍavas, still, Gāndhārī was faithfully serving her husband. And Dhṛtarāṣṭra was living with the nephews, Yudhiṣṭhira and his brothers. They were keeping the uncle very comfortably as elder uncle, all respect. But Vidura came there, and he criticized him, that "You have no shame. You all along remained enemy to your nephews. Now your nephews have killed all your descendants, and you are living here just like a dog. They are giving you some morsel of bread and you are eating and living here. You have no shame. You have become old." So he became very sorry: "My dear brother, what shall I do?" "Please come immediately along with me, and come to the forest." So Dhṛtarāṣṭra went according to the instruction of Vidura. Gāndhārī followed. Gāndhārī never said that "I am now old. I have lost my children. These nephews, they're taking care of me. Why shall I go with my husband?" No. She also went.</p>
<p>So there are many good qualities in Mahābhārata about Gāndhārī. Therefore she is described here as tapasvinī. Tapasvinī. Very chaste faithful wife. Ideal wife. Gāndhārī. Tapasvinī. So what is the purport? Read it.</p>
<p>Pradyumna: "Dhṛtarāṣṭra and Gāndhārī, the father and mother of Duryodhana and his brothers, were the elder uncle and aunt of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira. After the Battle of Kurukṣetra, the celebrated couple, having lost all their sons and grandsons, were under the care of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira. They were passing their days in great agony over such heavy loss of life and were practically living the life of ascetics. The death..."</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. The... Because he was elder uncle, Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja was coming in the morning to offer obeisances, and one morning, when he came, he saw there is no Dhṛtarāṣṭra and aunt. So became very much disappointed, because he was conscious that they were living in very aggrieved condition. "So might be I have offended them. So therefore they have left my home." That is also, you'll find. Then Nārada came, that "Don't bother. They have gone to the forest to live as ascetic. Don't try to bring them back." Go on.</p>
<p>Pradyumna: "The death news of Bhīṣmadeva, uncle of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, was another great shock for the king and the queen, and therefore they required solace from Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira. Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira was conscious of his duty, and he at once hurried to the spot with Lord Kṛṣṇa and satisfied the begrieved Dhṛtarāṣṭra with kinds words both from himself and the Lord also. Gāndhārī was a powerful ascetic, although she was living the life of a faithful wife and kind mother. It is said that Gāndhārī also voluntarily closed her eyes because of the blindness of her husband. A wife's duty is to follow the husband cent percent, and Gāndhārī was so true to her husband that she followed him even in his perpetual blindness. Therefore in her actions she was a great ascetic. Besides that, the shock which she suffered because of the wholesale killing of her one hundred sons and her grandsons also was certainly too much for a woman. But she suffered all this just like an ascetic. Gāndhārī, although a woman..."</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Ascetic means who voluntarily suffers all kinds of suffering. Titikṣavaḥ, the exact word.</p>
:titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikāḥ
:suhṛdaḥ sarva-dehinām
:ajāta-śatravaḥ śāntāḥ
:sādhavaḥ sādhu-bhūṣaṇāḥ
:([[Vanisource:SB 3.25.21|SB 3.25.21]])
<p>Sādhu means that he must be tolerant. Just like Haridāsa Ṭhākura. You know how much tolerant he was. So titikṣavaḥ. So titikṣavaḥ, titikṣavaḥ is the qualification of a brāhmaṇa. Śamo damas titikṣā. Tolerant. You cannot expect any peaceful life in this material world. That is not possible. Therefore in all conditions, in order to execute Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you must be tolerant. Tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata. Kṛṣṇa advised Arjuna that there will be some material pleasures and... Not pleasure, displeasures. So pleasure is also here, displeasure. They do not know. So Kṛṣṇa advised: tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata. Āgamāpāyino 'nityās tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata. "These, such things come and go. Don't bother much. Try to become tolerant and execute your own business." Similarly we live together. There may be some inconvenience. You are brought up in a different standard in Europe and America, and in India it may be difficult because you haven't got all the facilities. But you learn tolerance. Execute Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That should be our business. Tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata.</p>
:mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya
:śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ
:āgamāpāyino 'nityās
:tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata
:([[Vanisource:BG 2.14|BG 2.14]])
<p>So for life of austerity... Kṛṣṇa consciousness life means the life of austerity, tapasya. It is not extravagancy. So we have to learn titikṣā. That is one of the qualifications of the brāhmaṇa. Then?</p>
<p>Pradyumna: "Gāndhārī, although a woman, is no less than Bhīṣmadeva in character. They are both remarkable personalities in the Mahābhārata."</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: That's all. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (end)</p>
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