Asvatthama’s Punishment
Just then Sanjaya, who was telling Dhritarastra about the latest events, could no longer see anything. So he could not continue the narration.
“O king, with the death of your son the power that Vyasa had bestowed on me has been revoked, and I will no longer be able to tell you about things that happen at a distance of space. But what you were most concerned with, you know: the war is lost, Duryodhana, his brothers and all his friends are dead. What was foretold to you by the wisest people has happened.”
Dhritarastra, desperate, was crying and could not find peace.
“Ah, if I had listened to the sage Vidura then, all these tragedies could have been avoided! I thought he spoke only to benefit my grandchildren, and yet his advice was absolutely without ulterior motives. I had to listen to him when at the birth of Duryodhana he told me to kill him, not to let him live. But I thought: how can he be so cruel as to suggest that I kill my firstborn? If I had done what he said, all my sons and friends would still be here today and this abomination wouldn’t have happened.”
And while the blind king lamented painfully, the terrible night was over, and the sun began to rise over the vast plain of Kurukshetra, illuminating the results of one of the last nefarious acts of the Kshatriya lineage of Dvapara-yuga.
The most reprehensible had certainly been committed by Asvatthama, the son of the master.
However, someone had escaped the terrible nocturnal massacre: Dhristadyumna’s charioteer, who had managed to hide in time. When he was sure that the three had gone away and everything had returned to calm, he had cautiously emerged from his hiding place and ran to Yudhisthira, in the camps of Duryodhana.
The news shocked the Pandavas and demolished them: the idea that their closest friends and their own children were dead made them faint with grief.
When they had recovered from the blow, they ran to the scene of the massacre, bringing Draupadi as well. At the sight of the body of their dear friend Dhristadyumna killed in the cruellest way imaginable, of the five sons tortured by the sword of Asvatthama and of all the other friends and companions, their fury reached the levels of their suffering and flared up like the fire that emanates from the mouths of Sankarshana at the time of the dissolution of the material universe. All this had been so vile and ungodly that no one could even speak, they could only grind their teeth in helpless anger.
Amid sobs, pouring desperately on the bodies of the five children, it was Draupadi who broke that tragic silence.
“Know that as long as Asvatthama lives, I will no longer eat and I will let myself die. I don’t want to stay in the same world that such an evil being lives in.”
“Queen, Asvatthama cannot be killed,” Yudhisthira replied, “Because he was blessed to live long. Killing him is impossible for anyone, even for us.”
“But he can be defeated and humiliated. This can be done. On his head he has a diadem from which he draws his strength. To deprive him of that jewel would be to take his life, and perhaps it would be worse for him than death. If you do this, I will interrupt my fast.”
At that point, desperate, the queen turned to Bhima.
“O Pandava, o descendant of Bharata, you who have always fulfilled my wishes, please, this is the dearest gift you can give me: capture Asvatthama and bring me his diadem.”
The mighty son of Pavana, the wind Deva, had never seen his wife so desperate, so he did not hesitate for a moment. Flaring with rage like a giant explosion, he swore that he would please her again this time. Taking Nakula as a charioteer, he left instantly.
However, Krishna was worried.
“Asvatthama has lost control of himself,” he told Arjuna. “He is no longer the meek and loyal Brahmana we remember. The pain of his father’s death made him a killer with no scruples or moral principles. He became dangerous. We better go too, because we don’t know what he could do.”
The two rushed on the trail of Bhima, and on reaching him they could see that he had already managed to find Asvatthama who was hidden in the ashrama of Vyasa, on the banks of the Ganges.
The scene that presented itself to their eyes was gruesome: while the Pandava with the bow ready to shoot arrows, shouted to the son of Drona to fight as a man, he was terrified hiding behind Vyasa, trying to avoid the fury of Bhima.
But as soon as he became aware of the arrival of Krishna and Arjuna, visibly lost, he performed the worst deed imaginable.
With a sinister and now lightless expression in his eyes, he took a blade of grass in his hands and invoked the brahmastra.
“May this weapon deprive the world of Pandavas forever.”
Krishna understood what Asvatthama was doing, and he said to Arjuna:
“Asvatthama is beside himself, calling out a weapon he cannot control and which for no reason should be used on this planet. The ripple effects of brahmastra could destroy the whole world. Remember that time you saved your own guru from the jaws of a crocodile? That day he taught you the art of counterattacking it and also of withdrawing it. So extinguish that meteor that is shooting towards us, and save yourself and your brothers.”
As always, obedient to his friend’s instructions, Arjuna in turn invoked the same weapon. And as the two fireballs darted against each other with the speed of light, the earth began to shake and the sea swelled fearfully. And while the two meteors, getting closer, were expanding more and more, it became clear that Asvatthama with that last gesture had overcome the same nocturnal massacre in cruelty: in order to save himself he had endangered the existence of the entire planet.
Seeing the imminent destruction of the world, Vyasa and Narada stood between the two astra in order to prevent their contact and absorb their energies.
“These weapons must never be used in the world of the sons of Manu,” they said. “You must call them back and neutralize them immediately.”
Obeying the command of the Rishis, Arjuna revoked his brahmastra, but Asvatthama could not.
“Great sages,” he said then in a panic, “I don’t know how to draw my weapon, as my father never taught me. Forgive me, only now do I realize what I have done.”
For a moment the son of Drona feared that that energy could be discharged against him and he prostrated himself at the feet of the two wise men, humbly asking for help.
“What you have done is unheard of cruelty,” Vyasa replied. “Now you must withdraw your weapon and then hand over the diadem you wear on your head to the Pandavas.”
“O Rishi,” replied the Brahmana, “I would like to follow your advice, but as I told you I cannot. But I can reverse it. Instead of destroying the five Pandavas, it will enter the wombs of all their women and it will cause them to have an abortion. In that way my purpose will still have been achieved.”
So it happened.
The terrible brahmastra also crept into the womb of Uttara, who bore the son of Abhimanyu. Seeing that blinding glow proceed towards her, Virata’s daughter pleaded with the Lord to protect her son. Moved by the girl’s prayers and devotion, Krishna would later save the embryo, restoring it to life.
When Asvatthama decided to change the course of his weapon, the Lord seemed to lighten his face.
“You would like to kill the son of Abhimanyu, the last descendant of my devotees,” He told him, “But I will frustrate your purpose by giving him back his life. As far as you are concerned, you have behaved in the worst way, so I curse you to wandering alone on this earth, without the possibility of having neither companions nor friends, and your name will be covered with infamy. And you will be forced to see that child you wanted to suppress become a great emperor, comparable in glory and power to his grandparents and rule the world for sixty years.”
Also graced by Draupadi, Asvatthama deprived himself of the gem and left for the north.
This is a section of the book “Maha-bharata, Vol. 2”.
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