TRUST YOUR THOUGHTS OR PERISH

Hello,

Perils of not relying on your thoughts

Going back to the Mahabharata I wish to bring into focus the powers of trusting your thoughts and the perils of allowing any other idea to dominate it.

The story of Dronacharya best exemplifies this peril:

When the war of Mahabharata started Bhishma Pitamaha led the warriors fighting for the Kauravas. After ten days of intense fighting, Shikhandi and Arjun plotted to make him incapable of any further participation in the war.

The next leader was Dronacharya, who was the Guru of the Kauravas and the Pandavas. As Dronacharya had a weakness for Arjuna and the Pandavas, he did not fight to his full potential in the beginning. Then on being accused by Duryodhana of the same, he started attacking the Pandavas with ferocity that had the Pandava camp worried.

On the fifteenth day of the war, Dronacharya was using the Brahmadanda, a weapon nobody else had any knowledge about and was single handedly winning the war for the Kauravas. His plan was to capture the Yudhisthira, the leader of the Pandavas and he was almost at the verge of doing so when he made a fatal mistake.

He made the mistake of not having faith on his thoughts and relying on something else.

If Dronachrya had a weakness it was his son, Ashwathama. Ashwathama was immortal and a very brave warrior. There was never any question of his dying.

Krishna, who knew about Dronacharya's love for Ashwathama, conspired with the Pandavas to play a trick and get rid of Dronacharya.

Bhima, the Pandava mace warrior, killed an elephant by the named Ashwathama. He then loudly proclaimed in the presence of Dronacharya that Ashwathama was dead.

Drona did not believe Bhima's words.

However instead of relying on his knowledge and trusting his thoughts about the invincibility and immortality of Ashwathama, he decided to rely on the words of Yudhisthira, who had taken a vow of firm adherence to the truth.

This was a fatal mistake

When Drona approached Yudhisthira and asked him the question, Yudhisthira said "Ashwathama hathaha kunjaraha" (In Sanskrit "Ashwathama hathaha" means 'ashwathama is dead' and "kunjaraha" means 'elephant').

But on krishna's instructions, Yudhisthira deliberately spoke the word 'kunjaraha' in a low voice which is drowned by the sound of trumpets and conchshells that started at that moment.

Believing that his son is dead, Drona gets disheartened and laid down his weapons. He was then killed by Dhristadyumna.

Ashwathama was only the third person on the Kauravas who survived the Mahabharata in which approximately 2 million warriors and other people were killed.

His father, who was aware of his invincibility, did not have faith in his own thoughts and paid for it with his life.

TRUST YOUR THOUGHTS.

Best regards,

Manoj