Yudhishtira son of Yama. Letter Y of the # a to z challenge.

There is something amiss

I cannot quite understand
Do tell me dear reader if you

Perchance figure it out.

Kunti's son from Yama*

Righteous and chaste was he

However being a mortal man

Prone to blunder and gaffe

Let us not judge, let us not call names

Simply run a glance over one

Incident that wrenches the heart

Yudhishtira it seems had one flaw

A vice that many a person has.

Stumbled on and lost all he/she had.

And so he gambled away his kingdom

And wealth which is not all-

He also lost his brothers and their

Common wife* to a blind and arrogant lot.

Draupadi was dis-robed in front of a

Full court, only the mercy of Sri Krishna

Rushing to her rescue in the form of an

Endless length of cloth. 

What may he have felt, this son of Yama

Seeing a sight such as that....

The rules of the game sacro-sanct so

Much so that none of the five husbands

Could help the damsel out. What a pity and

What a plight, with all the elders present

Not one could give her a hand. Oh! if only

She had married Karna the brave, she would

Never have had the mishap, thought she afterwards

In secret to herself, never knowing alas

That it was Karna who was the eldest one

That Mother Kunti had begat.

Alas, for everyone and for the son of Yama himself,

Had he been with them right from the start,

Never the war would be fought, for I suspect

Karna would have stopped short at many a point

Or gone ahead in every respect.

But what can be done now dear reader

All we can do is think back, conjecture and 

Hope to learn from Yudhishtira and all the 

Pandava and Kaurava band, what misery one can 

Go through, for the sake of one's land.

 

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yama

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draupadi

I am writing poetry based on Indian mythology/history for the April 2016 A to Z challenge. Please read, comment and share freely and do come back :)