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13.THE WAX PALACE
THE jealousy of Duryodhana began to
grow at the sight of the physical strength
of Bhima and the dexterity of Arjuna.
Karna and Sakuni became Duryodhana's
evil counsellors in planning wily
stratagems.
As for poor Dhritarashtra, he was a wise
man no doubt and he also loved his
brother's sons, but he was weak of will
and dotingly attached to his own children.
For his children's sake the worse became
the better reason, and he would sometimes
even knowingly follow the wrong path.
Duryodhana sought in various ways to kill
the Pandavas. It was by means of the
secret help rendered by Vidura who
wanted to save the family from a great sin,
that the Pandavas escaped with their lives.
One unforgivable offence of the Pandavas
in the eyes of Duryodhana was that the
people of the city used to praise them
openly and declare in season and out of
season that Yudhishthira alone was fit to
be the king.
They would flock together and argue:
"Dhritarashtra could never be king for he
was born blind. It is not proper that he
should now hold the kingdom in his
hands. Bhishma cannot be king either,
because he is devoted to truth and to his
vow that he would not be a king. Hence
Yudhishthira alone should be crowned as
king. He alone can rule the Kuru race and
the kingdom with justice." Thus people
talked everywhere. These words were
poison to Duryodhana's ears, and made
him writhe and burn with jealousy.
He went to Dhritarashtra and complained
bitterly of the public talk: "Father, the
citizens babble irrelevant nonsense. They
have no respect even for such venerable
persons as Bhishma and yourself. They
say that Yudhishthira should be
immediately crowned king. This would
bring disaster on us. You were set aside
because of your blindness, and your
brother became the king. If Yudhishthira
is to succeed his father, where do we
come? What chance has our progeny?
After Yudhishthira his son, and his son's
son, and then his son will be the kings.
We will sink into poor relations dependent
on them even for our food. To live in hell
would be better than that!" .
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