Balaram on Dice Game

I was reading Mahabharata and I came across a passage after Abhimanyu's wedding, where Krishna gives a speech and blames Shakuni and Duryodhan of cheating on Yudishtir, Krishna asks them to find someone or decide who will go to Duryodhan with peace offering asking for his half of the Kingdom

where Balaram agrees that Yudishtir should get half kingdom and the person who goes to Hastinapur should speak nicely and not blame Shakuni for cheating, I quote this part -

When Yudhishthira had his throne, he forgot himself by being engaged in gambling and was dispossessed by them of his kingdom. This valiant Kuru, this descendant of Ajamida, Yudhishthira, though not skilled in dice and though dissuaded by all his friends, challenged the son of the king of Gandhara, an adept at dice, to the match. There were then at that place thousands of dice-players whom Yudhishthira could defeat in a match. Taking however, no notice of any of them, he challenged Suvala's son of all men to the game, and so he lost. And although the dice constantly went against him, he would still have Sakuni alone for his opponent. Competing with Sakuni in the play, he sustained a crushing defeat. For this, no blame can attach to Sakuni.

Satyaki supports Yudishtir in this

It seems Yudishtir could change partner and not continue the game, why did he play with a skilled player like Shakuni?

What were the rules?

I feel 90% of all things that went wrong there was at least one man's ego to be blamed!

Originally posted by: proteeti

I feel 90% of all things that went wrong there was at least one man's ego to be blamed!

You know Putra Moh is discussed in length but TBH it is Yudi moh which was responsible for everything, like Draupadi said they should have locked this man

Originally posted by: NoraSM

You know Putra Moh is discussed in length but TBH it is Yudi moh which was responsible for everything, like Draupadi said they should have locked this man

I'm not sure I'd blame Yudi entirely for this. There were a number of factors that led to the dice game itself.

You see he had to take on the role of a father and the head of their family pretty early on, and definitely was under a lot of pressure to be perfect. He probably felt like he had to excel everywhere and be a good role model and never fail...you know that shiz.

He was desperate not to make a fool of himself in front of his brothers and the elders. In doing this, he ended up spoiling whatever he managed to assimilate by then.

This is just my opinion. He obviously didn't intentionally mess up, he was just taking a poorly calculated chance which obviously did not pay off.

I'm not excusing his behviour, or addiction or whatever but this might be a possible reason why all of that happened. Yudi's elders let him down almost as much as they let down Dury.

And as per Balaram is concerned, he's always has very traditional and a borderline passive view of life. He loved his brothers but tried too hard to SHOW that he was fair to all. Also he did have some trust issues and probably didn't like Krishna being younger AND in control all the time. Again, just my opinion. 😊

Originally posted by: proteeti

I'm not sure I'd blame Yudi entirely for this. There were a number of factors that led to the dice game itself.

You see he had to take on the role of a father and the head of their family pretty early on, and definitely was under a lot of pressure to be perfect. He probably felt like he had to excel everywhere and be a good role model and never fail...you know that shiz.

He was desperate not to make a fool of himself in front of his brothers and the elders. In doing this, he ended up spoiling whatever he managed to assimilate by then.

This is just my opinion. He obviously didn't intentionally mess up, he was just taking a poorly calculated chance which obviously did not pay off.

I'm not excusing his behviour, or addiction or whatever but this might be a possible reason why all of that happened. Yudi's elders let him down almost as much as they let down Dury.

And as per Balaram is concerned, he's always has very traditional and a borderline passive view of life. He loved his brothers but tried too hard to SHOW that he was fair to all. Also he did have some trust issues and probably didn't like Krishna being younger AND in control all the time. Again, just my opinion. 😊

Yudishtir is the one who made decisions, we can't blame others for what he did, if it was his right as father to stake his brothers then he had greater responsibility to look after their welfare, circumstances can't make you bet your brothers and wife, it was his decision

Balaram, I always felt he was jealous of Krishna

Originally posted by: NoraSM

I was reading Mahabharata and I came across a passage after Abhimanyu's wedding, where Krishna gives a speech and blames Shakuni and Duryodhan of cheating on Yudishtir, Krishna asks them to find someone or decide who will go to Duryodhan with peace offering asking for his half of the Kingdom

where Balaram agrees that Yudishtir should get half kingdom and the person who goes to Hastinapur should speak nicely and not blame Shakuni for cheating, I quote this part -

When Yudhishthira had his throne, he forgot himself by being engaged in gambling and was dispossessed by them of his kingdom. This valiant Kuru, this descendant of Ajamida, Yudhishthira, though not skilled in dice and though dissuaded by all his friends, challenged the son of the king of Gandhara, an adept at dice, to the match. There were then at that place thousands of dice-players whom Yudhishthira could defeat in a match. Taking however, no notice of any of them, he challenged Suvala's son of all men to the game, and so he lost. And although the dice constantly went against him, he would still have Sakuni alone for his opponent. Competing with Sakuni in the play, he sustained a crushing defeat. For this, no blame can attach to Sakuni.

Satyaki supports Yudishtir in this

It seems Yudishtir could change partner and not continue the game, why did he play with a skilled player like Shakuni?

What were the rules?

One word Ego

https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02057.htm

Here is link where yudhishthir asking suggestion from vidhur that whom. he should play dice game

Then yudhishthir says to vidhur if shakuni challenge me I cannot refuse. This is my eternal vow

Shakuni keep challanging yudhishthir and yudhishthir could not refuse as he take vow

Saari samsya ki root yeh vow hi thi . Agar yeh vow nahi liya hota to yudhishthir sub khuch haare nahi hote

In fact whole mess in mahabharat created because they did not think properly before taking big vow

Originally posted by: surabhi01

https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02057.htm

Here is link where yudhishthir asking suggestion from vidhur that whom. he should play dice game

Then yudhishthir says to vidhur if shakuni challenge me I cannot refuse. This is my eternal vow

Shakuni keep challanging yudhishthir and yudhishthir could not refuse as he take vow

Saari samsya ki root yeh vow hi thi . Agar yeh vow nahi liya hota to yudhishthir sub khuch haare nahi hote

In fact whole mess in mahabharat created because they did not think properly before taking big vow

That's what I thought, the reason I posted this quote was because Balaram states that it was Yudishtir who challenged Shakuni, he doesn't mention any rule which stops Yudi from changing the partner or ending the game

Originally posted by: NoraSM

Yudishtir is the one who made decisions, we can't blame others for what he did, if it was his right as father to stake his brothers then he had greater responsibility to look after their welfare, circumstances can't make you bet your brothers and wife, it was his decision

Balaram, I always felt he was jealous of Krishna

I am not excusing him, he was obviously responsible for his actions. I just feel the Kuru elders did as much of a bad job raising him as they did for Duryodhan.

I prefer not to believe Balaram was jealous but his actions are too weird to say he was not. 😅

It is first shakuni said to yudhishthir to cast dice game

https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02058.htm