We often ask ourselves why the wicked remain unpunished and why the righteous suffer. But the Lord acts in ways that we cannot understand. He lets the arrogant think they are invincible. And then just when they are happy thinking none can touch them, a problem suddenly comes up and they do not know how to handle it. The Lord has allowed them to become complacent, because arrogance and complacency will keep a person from seeing where danger might come from. And so it happened in Duryodhana’s case too, said V.S. Karunkarachariar in a discourse.
Drona, who taught the Kauravas and Pandavas archery, was not so good with the mace. Duryodhana did not pick up archery so well and felt he would be better off learning how to fight with the mace. Unfortunately for him, Balarama was the expert in this area and he was Bhima’s teacher and was unlikely to teach Duryodhana. So Lord Krishna manipulated circumstances to make the unlikely happen. He and Balarama had a small misunderstanding and Balarama did not return to Dwaraka with Krishna. Sakuni seized the opportunity and sent Duryodhana to Balarama. Without Krishna beside him to advise him, Balarama accepted Duryodhana as his pupil. Duryodhana excelled and became a favourite of his teacher. Duryodhana began to believe he could easily defeat Bhima. Now this belief was what led him to fight Bhima. If Duryodhana had not learnt mace fighting he would not have dared oppose Bhima, and if he had not, he would not have been killed by Bhima. So Krishna allowed him to gain confidence, which turned into overconfidence and this finally resulted in his death. So the Lord deliberately allows wrong doers to have a good run before He finally finishes them off.
