Where Strength Fails, Grace Prevails

Once the Kauravas invited their cousins, the Pandavas to their palace for a game of chess. In the game that followed, Kauravas cheated and Pandavas lost everything in the wager - their kingdom and their wife Draupadi.

The Kaurava prince Dushasan held a long-standing grudge against Draupadi from a prior incident and wanted to disgrace her. After the Pandavas lost Draupadi in the game of chess, Dushasan dragged Draupadi by her hair from her palace to the courtroom in Hastinapur and attempted to disrobe her. Standing in the center of the courtroom, full of the family elders, scholars and her husbands, the Pandavas, Draupadi thought that her husbands will come forward to save her, but having lost their kingdom to Kauravas, they had become the slaves to the Kauravas and could not help her. They stood there with their heads hung in shame. Draupadi then thought that the family elders; Bhishma and Dronacharya would save her, but they too hung their heads in shame. Draupadi then decided to protect herself against the onslaught. After all, she is one of the divine panch-kanya (five girls - Draupadi, Kunti, Tara, Mandodari and Ahilya), who remained forever youthful (16-years-old). They had so much power that they didn't age. She thought she could defend herself against Dushasan and so she held her sari in between her teeth and called out for Shri Krishna, saying, “O Lord! The one who lives in Dwarka”.

Panch-kanya are five women - Draupadi, Kunti, Tara, Mandodari and Ahilya. They remain forever youthful at 16-years-old.

At that moment Sri Krishna was having his meal in Dwarka and Rukmani Ji was fanning him. Suddenly she felt like Shri Krishna froze. He didn't swallow the morsel in his mouth, the hand which was about to put the other morsel in his mouth didn't move. And his eyes became motionless. Rukmani Ji asked what was going on. Shri Krishna replied,"Shhhh. Don't talk. One of my devotees is in grave trouble". Rukmani Ji urged him to go and help the devotee. Shri Krishna replied, "I can't. I have told my devotees countless times to rely on Me and Me alone, but she is still relying on the strength of her teeth". At that moment Dushasan who possessed the strength of 10,000 elephants tugged on Draupadi’s sari and her sari slipped from between her teeth. At that moment, she lost all hope in her own ability to defend her honor and threw her hands up in the air, surrendering fully to Shri Krishna. Shri Krishna immediately appeared in the form of an endless sari. Dushasan kept pulling Draupadi’s sari but the sari kept increasing in length. Dushasan tried for hours to disrobe her and finally he gave up, completely exhausted.

Later Draupadi asked Shri Krishna why He took so long to come and rescue her. Shri Krishna had already revealed the real reason to Rukmini but this time the omnipresent Lord jokingly replied by saying, "I was already here but then you said, ‘one who lives in Dwarka', and so I had to go back to Dwarka and then come back. That is what caused the delay".

Moral
Surrender only to God means
• Don't rely on your wealth
• Don't rely on other people
• Don't rely on your own abilities
• Don't rely on devi-devatas

​It is then that God gives you all that you need and preserves what you have.