Holy Mother By Swami Nikhilananda: 020 Saturday 23-01-2016
23-01-2016 Saturday
Holy Mother By Swami Nikhilananda: 019
Introduction: Women of India - 16
Born as a princess, Gandhari was married to the blind kind Dhritarashtra. From the day of her marriage she put a heavy bandage over her eyes so that she would not enjoy the sight of the outer world denied to her husband. She was the mother of one hundred sons, headed by Duryodhana, all of whom were greedy and wicked. She always asked them to follow the path of righteousness and warned them that the price of sin was death. Their rivals were their five cousins, known as Pandavas, who were noble and righteous. Gandhari’s sons unjustly deprived the Pandavas of their legitimate kingdom and were soon engaged in terrible war – the war which forms the background of the Bhagavad Gita. During the war, when Duryodhana asked Gandhari every morning for her blessing, she grimly reminded him of the ultimate victory of righteousness. When, inevitably, Gandhari’s sons perished in the war, she and her husband decided to retire into the Himalayas to spend their last days in meditation on God. The leave-taking was a touching one. Kunti, the mother of the victorious Pandavas, led te procession. Gandhari, who had imposed upon herself voluntary blindness, placed her hands on Kunti’s shoulders, and her blind husband placed his hands on the shoulders of the queen. The pilgrims settled in the sacred Himalayas and at last died in a forest fire, meditating on God. Though Gandhari’s body burned slowly, she kept her eyes bandaged to the end. She was indeed a woman of great dignity and uprightness.
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Holy Mother - Being the Life of Sri Sarada Devi Wife of Sri Ramakrishna And Helpmate in his Mission By Swami Nikhilananda p: 10 – 11
