What good are scriptures to shoe-throwers?

The lawyer who recently attempted to hurl a shoe at the Chief Justice of India is reported to be unapologetic – even seemingly abdicating personal responsibility by claiming that God instructed him to do as he did. The lawyer in question might be interested to hear a similar sentiment that was expressed in the Mahabharata.

“There’s a god dwelling in my heart – I only do as he impels me to.” Which character says this? Duryodhana, of course. Now, there is nothing wrong with the sentiment simply because it is the villain who voices it, you might argue. Does Krishna not tell Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita,

“There is a controller who dwells in the heart of all beings. He causes them all to spin on the machine of maya”? Of course. There is nothing wrong with recognising that we are all predisposed to behave in certain problematic ways by our nature, socialisation, and, if we believe in it, destiny or God. But it is usually the villains of the story who think that excuses inexcusable behaviour.

One of the skills the characters in the epics and the puranas seem to have honed carefully is that of expressing violence verbally when they could not or did not want to engage in a violent, physical encounter. Think of the various oaths the characters take that seem intense or self-defeating to the point of ridicule. Arjuna, for instance, vows multiple times to jump into fire if some condition is not met. And then, there is Bhima, who vows to crush Duryodhana’s thigh and to drink Dushasana’s blood in the battle – both are horrifying vows that he fulfils in gory detail on the battlefield of the Kurukshetra. But we all know this ferocious Bhima. The Bhima story I want to tell you about happens right before the Kauravas attempt to disrobe Draupadi.

The scene is set in the royal assembly, and Yudhishtira has just gambled away his kingdom, his wealth, all his brothers, himself, and Draupadi too. Bhima watches on as his elder brother gambles and loses all of these. But the loss of Draupadi is intolerable to him. He says aloud to Yudhishtira, “The kingdom, we four, and you yourself – all were lost to the Kauravas by deceit. And that did not make me angry. After all, you are the lord of all of these. But staking Draupadi is too much. She does not deserve the torments she is undergoing after marrying us. I am furious at you for what you did to her! Sahadeva, fetch some fire. I shall burn the hands that staked Draupadi.”

Arjuna is horrified, telling Bhima that he has never heard him speak like that to their elder brother before, and reminding him they must present a united front before their enemies. At this point, Bhima retorts – “I am aware of all this. If I were not, I would have forcefully burnt his hands myself instead of asking Sahadeva to fetch fire.” Even the mighty Bhima, who performs unthinkable acts of violence in the Kurukshetra battle and delights in pummelling demons quite often in the epic, knows how to channel his anger into words to preserve the decorum of a royal assembly. So, what’s the lawyer’s excuse?

That’s your reading of the story, you might object. What is to stop someone else from picking up a different story from the puranas, and reading it as justifying hurling shoes at judges when one feels affronted? Nothing at all, I concede. After all, the Hitopadesha tells us: “What good are scriptures to a person with no sense? What good is a mirror if one has no eyes?”

The writer is the author of How to Love in Sanskrit and likes writing new things about very old things.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.