Mahabharata 13: Subtle Are The Ways Of Dharma Poem by Aniruddha Pathak

O Auspicious One,
As spoken I've awhile ere,
Subtle and moving in no straight line,
The path of Dharma hard is to divine,
Nor can the lay it comprehend,
Nor yet can noble of the land.
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Here is the transliteration of the original verse:

uktavān asmi kalyāņidharmasya paramā gatih |
loke na shakyate jňātum api vijňaih mahā-ātmabhih || sabhā 69-14 ||

Following the defeat of the Pandu princes at the game of dice, they were sold as slaves along with Draupadi, their common wife who was molested in the assembly in front of all the elders, only Bheeshma could have helped her. Yet, obsessed with his oath to serve the interests of the crown and with his self-imposed righteousness, he felt he had nothing new to add, except ‘man is too small to divine the ways of destiny', and ‘dharma takes a subtle path as to right and wrong'. Perhaps he knew that the destiny had already taken its initial move in a long game of dice. The cause of what was going to happen in the end had sown its seed. If dharma has to destroy a-dharma, it needs first to build up a strong case against it. Ironically, its case was being built up at the cost of poor Draupadi.

Earlier she had posed a very relevant question: When Yudhishthir lost his own self as a slave, he had no right to stake his wife. (In modern times, even otherwise husband has no such right.)