36 TEACHINGS OF QUEEN KUNTI
once they were put into the house made of shellac and set afire, and once
Draupadi was dragged out, and attempts were made to insult her by strip-
ping her naked in the vicious assembly of the Kurus. The Lord saved
Draupadi by supplying an immeasurable length of cloth, and
Duryodhana’s party failed to see her naked. Similarly, when they were
exiled in the forest, Bhima had to fight with the man-eater demon
Hidimba Raksasa, but the Lord saved him. So it was not finished there.
After all these tribulations, there was the great Battle of Kuruksetra, and
Arjuna had to meet such great generals as Drona, Bhisma, and Karna, all
powerful fighters. And at last, even when everything was done away
with, there was the brahmastra released by the son of Dronacarya to kill
the child within the womb of Uttara, and so the Lord saved the only sur-
viving descendant of the Kurus, Maharaja Pariksit.

Here Kunti remembers all the dangers through which she passed
before the Pandavas regained their kingdom. In Bhagavad-gita Lord
Krsna says, kaunteya pratijanihi na me bhaktah pranasyati: ‘‘My dear Ar-
juna, you may declare to the world that My devotee is never van-
quished.”’ The Pandavas, the sons of Pandu, were great devotees of Lord
Krsna, but because people in the material world are interested in material
things, the Pandavas were put into many dangers. Their materialistic
uncle Dhrtardstra was always planning to kill them and usurp the
kingdom for his own sons. That was his policy from the very beginning.

Once Dhrtarastra constructed a house of lac, which was so inflam-
mable that when touched with a match it would immediately burst into
fire. Then he told his nephews and his sister-in-law, Kunti, ‘‘I’ve con-
structed a very nice house, and you should go live there for some time.”
But Dhrtardstra’s brother Vidura informed them of Dhrtardstra’s policy:
‘*He wants you to go to that house so that you may burn to ashes.’ When
Dhrtarastra’s son Duryodhana understood that Vidura had thus in-
formed the Pandavas, he was very angry. Such is the nature of politics.
Then, although the Pandavas knew, ‘‘Our uncle’s plan is to send us into
that house and set it afire,”’ they agreed to go there. After all, Dhrtarastra
was their guardian, and they did not want to be disobedient to the order
of a superior. But they dug a tunnel under that house, and when the
house was set on fire they escaped.

Another time, when the Pandavas were at home, Dhrtarastra gave
them poison cakes, but they escaped from being poisoned. Then
purusdda-darsanat: they met a man-eating demon named Hidimba Rak-
sasa, but Bhima fought with him and killed him.

On another occasion, the Pandavas were cheated in a game of chess in
