DRAUPADI'S GRIEF

No self respecting kshatriya could decline an invitation to a game of dice. Duryo- dhana secured his doting father's reluctant and bodeful approval to a plan to entice Yudhishthira once again to a game of dice.

A messenger was accordingly dispatched after Yudhisthira who had taken his departure for Indraprastha. He came up with Yudhishthira before the latter had reached his destination and invited him on behalf of king Dhritarashtra to come back.

On hearingthis invitation, Yudhishthira said: "Good and evil come from destiny and cannot be avoided. If we must play again -we must, that is all. A challenge to dice cannot in honour be refused.

I must accept it." Truly, as Sri Vyasa says: "There never was and never can be an antelope of gold! Yet, Rama went in vain pursuit of what seemed one; surely, when calamities are imminent, the judgment is first destroyed."

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