How does this work? - Page 2

Vrish,

really ! it's too confusing..what we get and do not get is decided by the karmas of previous birth...if a person was really bad in his prev. birth and in the current janam , his destiny is written that way, then he will fall in the vicious circle of bad , will he ever find a way to come out? it's written in bhagwat Geeta that only way to get out is "prabhu bhakti"..fine, but how will he get the akal to do that? what is it that stops him? the prev. birth karma? 😆 one more thing, how does God decide which karma is good and which is bad? there is 7 billion population and each one will do diff. karma ...

Originally posted by: .Vrish.

The other major score I can think of is Drupada's, who begat Dhristadyumna in order to kill Drona. Was a pretty lame yagna, I must say, in that in the past, whenever someone was born for the sake of killing somebody, that someone was way superior in battle to the target - whether it was Rama against Ravana, Kartikeya against Surapadman & Taraka, Ayappan against Mahishi, Parashurama against Kartavirya Sahasrabahu, and so on. But in this case, Dhristadyumna was vastly inferior to Drona in battle, and had to be rescued by Bhima or Satyaki in every battle w/ Drona that he fought. Whoever granted Drupada his boon, what was the point of granting such a son who was no match for the top Kuru warriors - meaning Bheeshma, Drona, Ashwatthama, Kripa & Karna? Yeah, Dhristadyumna was superior to Duryodhan, but so was Drupada.

Anyway, this is all that I could think of @ the moment.

Tan

Actually, when Drona cast aside his weapons and took his yogic position, his soul passed away, and that was observed by just 5 people - Yudhisthir, Krishna, Arjun, Kripa and Sanjaya. In other words, Drona was already dead when Dhrishtadyumna struck his lifeless body - in other words, even if he had never been born, at least in this department, the Pandavas' work would have been done. Ashwatthama too held the Pandavas, not just Dhrishtadyumna, responsible for Drona's death.

Which is why I think Drupada really got cheated in this yagna. Unlike other cases I mentioned above, he was totally worthless against the entire top tier of Kaurava warriors - Bheeshma, Drona, Kripa, Ashwatthama, Kritavarma. I've never understood why he, instead of Satyaki, was the senapari of the Pandava army.

After Drona, Drupada's next big grievance should have been against the Pandavas, who defeated him, not the Kauravas, who got defeated by him, and they should have been his #2 target for revenge, given his vindictive nature. However, his top objective for Draupadi was getting her married to the very Arjun who defeated him. But that only made him a vassal of the Pandavas, instead of the other way around.

Although given Drupada's lack of integrity - given how he betrayed Drona's friendship, maybe he deserved to get a half baked boon like the one he did. Indeed, the way Drupada treated Drona and the way Krishna treated Sudama was a major study in contrasts.

In Friday (Oct 28) episode, one of the things that Krishna told Satyabhama in response to the plot by Shakuni was that everybody's duration on earth is pre-determined by fate, and that Shakuni & Duryodhan were attempting to write the horoscope of others w/o realizing that their own end was being charted in that manner.

What Krishna said, applies to everyone. What he meant was Sh & Dy are trying to write Pandava's death but what will happen the very next moment in their own life is not known to them.

I think Markandeya's story is one of the greatest stories that illustrates that one can alter one's fate w/ one's karma. As one may know, Markandeya's parents were given a choice from Mahadev to have either a wise son who'd only live 16 years, or a foolish son who'd live long. They chose the former and Markandaya was born. When he was a few days from turning 16 and about to die, his mother told him about that destiny, so he went and started meditating on Mahadev. When Yamaraj came to him, he begged to be allowed to complete his puja, which Yama refused, but Mahadev intervened and Yamaraj backed off. After that, Markandeya, who wasn't supposed to live beyond then, was granted immortality by Mahadeva.

Markandeya, when he knew about his fate, started putting efforts to change it, by praying to Lord Shiva, his efforts in the right direction gave him perfect result.

In today's episode, Krishna told Satyabhama that one of the reasons Paundrak hasn't been punished as yet is that his wife is pretty devoted to him, and when a woman is, her husband's longevity is extended.