A Demon Built The Pandavas’ Imperial Palace

Srila Prabhupada writes in Krsna Book: “Once upon a time, King Yudhisthira was sitting on the golden throne in the palace constructed by the demon Maya…By the craftsmanship of the demon Maya, the palace was so decorated in different places that one who did not know the tricks would consider water to be land and land to be water. Duryodhana was also illusioned by this craftsmanship, and when crossing water, thinking it to be land, he fell down. When Duryodhana, out of his foolishness, had thus fallen, the queens enjoyed the incident by laughing. King Yudhisthira could understand the feelings of Duryodhana, and he tried to restrain the queens, but Lord Krsna indicated that King Yudhisthira should not restrain them from enjoying the incident. Krsna desired that Duryodhana be fooled in that way and that all of them enjoy his foolish behavior. When everyone laughed, Duryodhana felt very insulted, and his bodily hairs stood up in anger. Being thus insulted, he immediately left the palace, bowing his head. He was silent and did not protest. When Duryodhana left in such an angry mood, everyone regretted the incident, and King Yudhisthira also was very sorry. But despite all these occurrences, Krsna was silent. He did not say anything against or in favor of the incident. It appeared that Duryodhana had been put into illusion by the supreme will of Lord Krsna, and this was the beginning of the enmity between the two sects of the Kuru dynasty.”