Story 17 Mahabharata
PRABHUPĀDA: …there is a nice story in this connection.
There was one Gopal Ban.
So he was very cunning fellow. So I…
In the Muhammadan period in Bengal.
So the Mohammedan Nawab asked him,
“Gopal Ban, can you prepare a Mahābhārata in my name?”
“Oh, yes!”
So, “I’ll engage so many paṇḍitas,
and they will make a Mahābhārata, your activities, your glories, everything.
So, give me one hundred thousand rupees; just begin.”
He was taking money, taking money, “Yes, it is going on, going on.”
“Then when it will be published?”
“Yes, just last few days more.
Now, sir, everything is prepared.
So, the one thing is,
you have to give me information how
…many husbands you have got your wife.” Huh?
“How many husbands your wife has got?”
“Ah, that is very insulting.
What, you nonsense, you take.”
“No; that is the main feature of Mahābhārata.
Draupadī had five husbands, so how many husbands your wife has got?
Tell me that; then…”
“No, no, I don’t want that.
I am the only husband.”
“Then how can you write Mahābhārata?”
“I don’t want.”
“All right.”
“If you want Mahābhārata you must tell how many your wife has got husbands.”
That he cannot say; so Mahābhārata finished.
TAMĀLA KṚṢṆA: And he kept the money. Yes.
No; that was planned already;
he took that “I have to steal to pay so much money; Give me.”
That’s all right.
Subtitles by Pratyatoṣa Dāsa, Causelessmercy.com