“ A decision made in anger is never sound ”
The following part of this saga is something which changed the Krishna forever. Let’s dig into it and find out. Before proceeding let’s introduce this new character; Ashwathama quite a famous character of Mahabharata saga. Ashwathama is a son of guru Drona the grandson of the sage Bharadwaja. Why ‘is’, well it is believed that he is still wondering and he is mortal but not in some happy way.
The story of Aswatthama
When Ashwatthama found out that the Pandavas had lied to his father about his death and thus killed the unarmed Dronacharya, he sought revenge. Along with Kritavarma and Kripacharya, he sneaked into the Pandava camp at night. Thinking he found the five Pandavas lying there asleep, Ashwatthama cut their throats, only to find out later that actually, he killed the Pandavas’ children.
It was surely the move he made in anger and now he cannot undo that. He knew when Pandavas found out this, they would come to him and take revenge. So he ran away to Ved Vyasa’s ashram and sought protection from the great sage.
Shortly Pandavas arrived there with Krishna and the part where Arjun and Ashwatthama released the Brahmastra ( A power so strong equivalent to the Nuclear weapon it is believed ). Krishna knew this will destroy everything so they asked them to not go this extreme and take the Brahmastra back.
Krishna said, “Whatever may be your anger, your hatred, or your cause, you cannot use a Brahmastra, because everyone will be destroyed; the planet will be destroyed. Withdraw it!” But he didn’t know how to take it back. So the only option was to redirect it. And Ashwatthama redirected it to the future generation of Pandavas. At that time, the only Pandava offspring who were still in the mother’s womb, was the child of Uttara, Abhimanyu’s wife.
The Curse
Because of the way Ashwatthama redirected his Brahmastra. it would have affected not only that child but no other children would be born in the Pandava clan after this. It was like they diffused the bomb, but they could not stop the radiation.
And that what happened, Uttara’s son was stillborn. It was sad for the entire clan. But Krishna took the child into his arms and gave him life. But after that Krishna was so pale and weak and when asked by others why you like this as you are not just some ordinary creature, he quoted,
“Bringing someone to life is far more difficult than fighting a war. It is far more difficult than killing a million people. For this, I had to pour out my life.”
He saved the child but the decision Ashwatthama made in anger was so low. That’s why Krishna cursed the Ashwatthama and said, “ May you wander with a deranged mind for the full length of the Kali Yuga; may you not die. The relief of death will come to all of us – it will not come to you. With a deranged mind, you will roam this planet”
And from that day, Ashwatthama is still roaming with a subconscious mind.
This entire story is proof that decisions made in anger can’t be undone and later on we only regret that. I know the pain which Ashwatthama felt was so deep but the move he made after that led him to destruction only. And that’s with our life too. Sometimes we get so angry that we end up doing what we won’t do if we weren’t angry. And the impulsive decisions we made, we know that we only regret that later on.
That’s why a calm mind is necessary during the course of anger so that no decision could affect the future.
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