Yudhishthira expresses doubt about attacking Jarasandha
Confronted with the plan to attack the mighty Jarasandha as a prerequisite for the Rajasuya sacrifice, Yudhishthira voices his deep fear. He argues that the mission risks everything he depends on, and that his very heart is against the course.
The goal was the rajasuya, the imperial consecration that would make Yudhishthira an emperor. The prerequisite, as laid out by Krishna, was clear: they must first defeat the powerful king Jarasandha of Magadha, who imprisoned rival kings and stood as an unconquered obstacle.
Yudhishthira looked at the plan and saw only risk. He turned to Krishna and gave voice to his doubt.
"Intent on my selfish interest of becoming an emperor," he began, "how can I force you to go out, depending on strength and courage alone?" The words framed his ambition as a personal flaw, a "selfish interest" that would send his most vital people into mortal danger.
Then he named them, and in naming them, revealed his terror of loss. "Bhima and Arjuna are my eyes," he said, "and you, Janardana, are my mind." The metaphor was absolute. Bhima and Arjuna were his means of perceiving and acting upon the world. Krishna was his faculty of thought and wisdom. "What kind of life will be left for me," Yudhishthira asked, "without my eyes and my mind?"
He pictured the confrontation. Jarasandha's forces were invincible and valorous. Even if Krishna, Bhima, and Arjuna survived the meeting, they would be defeated by sheer exhaustion. "What will your efforts serve?" The outcome, he feared, would be the opposite of what they intended. In a mission of conquest, disaster waited.
"O Janardana! Listen to my thoughts," Yudhishthira said, moving from fear to conclusion. "I think it best to always refrain from this course of action." He did not merely think it unwise. His entire being rejected it. "My heart is against it."
He delivered the final verdict not just on the battle, but on the grand ambition that had started the discussion. "The rajasuya is too difficult to accomplish." The imperial sacrifice, the pinnacle of a king's achievement, was, in that moment of fear, declared impossible. Yudhishthira urged a halt.