Satyavati’s father was able to dominate the great Devavrata who was willing to forgo all his stake for the kingdom and the pleasure of being a prince which was due to him by his position and birth.
Devavrata thought only of his father Shantanu' s pleasure ..he wanted his father Shantanu to be happy so that he could happily serve the citizens.
So Devavrata agreed to Satyavati’s father's condition of forgoing the pleasure of being a king.
On this condition Satyavati and Shantanu were married.
However Satyavati and her father ‘s pleasure was short lived.
She had to live a life of continuous anxiety and pain. She lost both her sons at an early age, and her daughter in laws became widows for most of their lives. Her grand children were blind and diseased, and their kids had rivalry from birth, which eventually culminated into the bloody Mahabharata war, which took the lives of millions of soldiers' .
What was the gain to Satyavati’s father, other than some pleasure in his daughter becoming a great queen?
She was any way meant to be the queen but the bargain that he asked for --that was a big disaster.
If he had not bargained for any thing for giving his daughter away to Shantanu, then there would have been a different story, is it not?
Of course it is not about changing the story but learning from the story in our life. How when we are assured of something, we try to get maximum out of that assurance, and it makes us fall flat on the face, to suffer for a long time.
Bargain has to be within the limit of Dharma, so that it is profitable to a large number of people, and gives good governance.
Ultimately every value, is not a value in itself to feel good. Rather the practice of the value needs to result in the following
1. A good structure,
2. Creation of good legacy of stability
3.Needs to be profitable from the material social cultural and spiritual point of view.
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