The great war of Mahabharat had come to an end. The Kauravas were defeated. Their commander- in – chief, Bhishma was deeply wounded. Bhishma was a great yogi .He had been blessed with the power to choose his own moment of death. He desired to discard his physical body during a holy configuration of the solar system. As a true warrior, Bhishma preferred to die on the battlefield itself. On his request, Arjun the great warrior amongst the Pandavas, had prepared a bed for him by shooting a carpet of arrows in the earth.
In those days, soldiers fought only between sunrise and sunset during the day. The beginning and end of the battle of the day was announced by blowing conch shells by the commander-in-chief of the opponent armies. Enmity was being kept confined only to the duration of war on the battlefield. After the end of the battle of the day, soldiers visited each other’s camps, nursed the wounded and offered condolences for the dead.
The daily routine of discussions on spirituality was maintained even during the war. People attended the discourses of scholars of spirituality in both camps, irrespective of the army they belonged to. Bhishma was a renowned scholar of Vedic Scriptures. Knowing that he was going to die soon, Krishna asked Yudhishthir, the eldest amongst the Pandva brothers, to learn the fundamentals of spirituality from Bhishma. The other brothers and their wife Draupadi also accompanied him.
While the Pandvas were listening to Bhishma`s preaching on morality, Draupadi smiled.
Bhishma inquired, “What has made you smile?” Draupadi said, “Sir! You are teaching us that an immoral action by anyone should be opposed. If you are so enlightened, why didn’t you stop Dushasan from insulting me by trying to disrobe me publicly in the court of Duryodhan?”
Bhishma replied, “When it happened, I was an employee of Duryodhan.
Throughout life Duryodhan had been dishonest in all his activities. Dishonesty had entered into everything associated with him. I stayed in his palace, ate the food and used all the facilities granted by him, everything there was polluted with dishonesty. So, the evil effects had entered into the depths of my mind and weakened me too. That is why I did not dare stop the shameful behaviour of Dushasan.
The war is over. All my dirty blood soaked with immoral effects has flown. The wounds I have voluntarily taken on my body are my penance. Now I am a free man. I am no longer an ’employee’ of Duryodhan. Now, I repent, why I did not stop Duryodhan and Dushasan from insulting you. The scriptures say that everything associated with an immoral person becomes polluted with sin. If one uses something belonging to such a person, the mind of the user also becomes sinful. Therefore one should not accept any favour from a sinful person.
My own experience has confirmed that one cannot behave morally if one depends upon a dishonest person or takes food offered by him.
Moral
Close association with immoral persons in any way makes man immoral.
Source: Pragya Tales Part 2
