Satyavati's Last Departure

Vyasa found his mother at the palace gates, carrying nothing.

Vyasa: "Where are you going?"

Satyavati: "To the forest. To die. I've seen enough."

Vyasa: "The Pandavas may yet return. The exile—"

Satyavati: "Will lead to war. Will lead to slaughter. Everything I built will be destroyed. This is my fault."

Vyasa: "Mother—"

Satyavati: "Don't comfort me. I know what I did. I was a fisherman's daughter who caught the eye of a king. I should have stayed on the river. Instead, I demanded conditions—demanded that my sons be heirs, not Bhishma. I made Bhishma take a vow that twisted the entire future."

Vyasa: "You did what any mother would do."

Satyavati: "I did what an ambitious woman would do. And now look. A blind king on the throne because I made you father children on his mother. A kingdom divided between cousins who hate each other. And somewhere, walking into exile, are five boys who will return as warriors—and destroy everything."

Vyasa: "You couldn't have known."

Satyavati: "I knew enough. I knew when Pandu died that his sons would be rivals to Dhritarashtra's. I knew when Duryodhana was born that he would be trouble. I knew— I knew at every step, and I did nothing. Because stopping it would have meant admitting I was wrong."

Vyasa sat beside her.

Vyasa: "If you hadn't married Shantanu, I would never have been acknowledged. The Mahabharata would never have been written. The Vedas would never have been organized."

Satyavati: "Small comfort when my great-grandchildren are about to kill each other."

Vyasa: "Is it, though? Small? The stories that come from this—the lessons, the wisdom—will teach humanity for thousands of years. Your ambition set in motion a tragedy. That tragedy will teach millions what you could not know."

Satyavati: "So my mistake becomes a lesson?"

Vyasa: "All mistakes become lessons. That's what time does. The pain is real. The destruction is real. But so is the meaning we make from it."

Satyavati: "I'm still going to the forest."

Vyasa: "I know."

Satyavati: "Will you write about me? In your history?"

Vyasa: "I'll write everything. The good and the bad. The ambition and the love. The choices and their consequences."

Satyavati: "Make me the villain if you must."

Vyasa: "There are no villains, Mother. Only people making choices with incomplete information. You wanted security for your children. You got a dynasty that will tear itself apart. That's not villainy. That's life."

Satyavati stood.

Satyavati: "Goodbye, son. Thank you for seeing me as more than my worst decisions."

Vyasa: "Thank you for making me, even in the circumstances you made me."

She walked away from the palace she had ruled for decades. Behind her, her daughters-in-law—Ambika and Ambalika—followed in their own silence.

Three queens, going to the forest to die.

Leaving behind a kingdom that would soon follow them.