Did Vikarna get any good result for trying to defend Draupadi’s honor?

Transcription by– Keshavgopal Das & Ambuj Gupta

Question: Did Vikarna get any good results for trying to stop the dishonor of Draupadi?

Answer: One of the points that Mahabharata emphasizes is that virtue is its own fruit. That means by living virtuously one connects with God and gets inner satisfaction. So certainly when Vikarna spoke this everybody except Duryodhana and his associates applauded and strongly supported him but because of Dhritrashtra’s weakness towards Duryodhana Karna won the day at that time. But then when Bhima was killing the hundred Kaurvas and when he is fighting with Vikarna, there was a tinge of regret in his heart- that I have to kill him also. But Vikarna had chosen to still fight from the side of Kaurvas.

Now it is described that the virtue that exhibited at that time that certainly was the only winning grace for the kuru dynasty because he was one of the members of kuru and sure he did get the results. He won the applause of the virtuous people at that time and whatever punya we get we cannot correlate at a one to one level that this punya leads to this result. But the fact he stood and spoke the truth, he got the result. So it is described that those who died virtuously or those who died on the war _______ they attained Him. He attained heavenly destination thereafter. Off course that specific punya also give specific result. In general it is very difficult to correlate unless the scripture takes explicitly that this punya gave this result. The broad principle is that acting virtuously does give result and Vikarna because he died on the battlefield and he was a virtuous person and he was elevated to heavenly destination along with additionally getting the result of that virtue. Thank you.