The virtue of half a sari - Draupadi's honour and God's grace

One day Draupadi went to the banks of the river Yamuna to take a bath. Then her eyes fell on a sadhu bathing nearby. The sadhu had only one loincloth. The other loincloth was kept on the bank, but a strong gust of wind came and that loincloth blew away in the water. Incidentally, the loincloth he was wearing also got wet and torn. The sadhu became helpless and troubled.

The crowd had started increasing, people could see the sadhu coming and going. He shivered with shame and hid behind a bush nearby, thinking that he would somehow return home as soon as the night became dark.

Draupadi saw this scene and understood the sadhu's pain. She did not have another sari. She tore her sari - covered herself with half of it and took the other half and reached that bush. He said to the sadhu –

“Father! I have seen your difficulty. Take this half sari and go home covering your body. Half will do for me too.”

Tears flowed from the sadhu’s eyes. He took the cloth and silently blessed Draupadi –

“Daughter, may God always protect your modesty.”

Time passed. That terrible moment of Mahabharata came when the Pandavas lost Draupadi in gambling. Dushasan was bent on disrobing her in the assembly to humiliate her. Draupadi helplessly started calling the Lord.

God said to Narad –

“Everyone suffers the consequences of his deeds. See, if Draupadi has any virtue left, she will definitely be protected.”

Narad saw the divine ledger and told that Draupadi had once donated half of her sari to the sadhu. The fruit of that virtue will have to be returned on time.

Just then God arrived riding on Garuda carrying a bundle of clothes. When Dushasan kept pulling the clothes in the court, God kept providing clothes from above. The clothes kept increasing, Dushasan got tired, but the clothes never ended. In this way Draupadi's modesty was saved.

🌺 The message is this - whatever we do selflessly, we definitely get its fruits. If a man does not do anything himself, then even God does not help him. But if even a single seed of virtue is sown, then the Creator turns it into infinite fruits.