Vanabasha vindicated

I have always querried in the mindset of the earliest spiritual leaders and gurus.What was their conception of leading their heroes into a vanabasha away from rule and civilization and in isolation.It struck me that in both the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, each hero (Yudhishthira and Rama) begins his forest journey not alone, but with his wife (in the Mahabharata, with the wife he shares with his brothers) and at least one brother. The forest journey thus takes on an entirely different aspect for the Hindu hero. He is not trying to find his own unique path, but instead, together with his kin, to gain the skills-and assume the attitude-he will need to accomplish the task he was destined to perform.A community of equals, of brothers, of friends, helps humble a future leader. In the forest, he is no longer in the seat of secular power where he would rule over his fellow man, but in a place where he becomes dependent on his equals for survival.A man in the forest comes in close harmony with nature.
Why did the Yudhisthira and Rama go on exile?
Many might say it was enforced on them ;Yes it was.....But a single mover for going to exile was repentance.Rama was exiled and accepted because he repented for his fathers sorrow and went for it.Yudishtira repented because of hastinapura loss and his dignity.They were thus brought down to the level of ordinary people and not kings.In the forest no one is master; no one is servant. Just as the subjects of the secular world do not look up to him in the forest, the hero does not look up to those around him. Constantly on a relatively equal plane with his brothers, the hero develops an attitude toward the divine merely by treating his friends and his minimum sources as adequate. A forest or a harsh environment also involved struggle and improvization.The pandavas were a lot more prepared for battle as they had conditioned their mind and body in the harsh terrains and could fight even with hunger.Kauravas lagged behind as they had built there armoury but could not keep the fight in the physchological or temparamental level whereas pandavas alleviated in isolation