the ashvathama story..

कुर्याद्वियोगदुःखेषु धैर्यमुत्सृज्य दीनताम्।

अश्वत्थामवधं श्रुत्वा द्रोणो गतधृतिर्हतः॥ ३७

क्षेमेन्द्रप्रणीते चारुचर्यायाम्॥

kuryādviyogaduḥkheṣu dhairyamutsṛjya dīnatām|

aśvatthāmavadhaṁ śrutvā droṇo gatadhṛtirhataḥ|| 37

kṣemendraprṇīte cārucaryāyām||

A very sane reminder from Kshemendra in his great and crisp compendium.. Charucharya

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A sensible person should never get completely pulled down by grief and separation from loved persons or things and he should never abandon his composure and indulge in lamenting and grieving forgetting the realities of the circumstances..

Dronacharya, when informed of the death of his son Ashvathama, was overcome with grief and laid down his bow and arrow even in the midst of Mahabharatha war.. And Dhristadyuman seized this opportuniy and beheaded the elder warrior. 

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When misfortune strikes we may be shocked for some moments.. 

That is natural.. 

But we should not carry such grief too long..

And realities of life should never be forgotten..

People around may show sympathy.. and would try to share the grief to some extent.. Agreed.. 

But the world is so curious.. 

Surely there would be people biding for time to exploit any situation.. 

Such people can have access to our valuables, and our secrets when we are just spending our time grieving excessively..

If a loss has happened and the situation is beyond repair, no amount of crying is going to help.

Of course, human nature as it is would make us wail..

But we have to recover as quickly as possible.. 

Or else the process of grieving would claim more victims..

Dronacharya was a rock solid warrior in the Kaurava side in Mahabharatha war.. 

It was just impossible to defeat him in a face to face battle.

It was unthinkable that Pandavas could win if Drona was alive and fighting

Drona's one weakness was his blind affection for his only son Ashvathama , another great warrior.

So the Krishna- Pandava Combo hatched a plan to demoralize the great Archer

An elephant was named Ashvathama..

This elephant was slain by Bheemasena.. 

And Yudhistira, the truthful, was asked to announce aloud the death of Ashvathama the elephant.

While the announcement of death of the elephant was made, the part of the announcement implying that the dead Ashvathama was an elephant was obliterated through loud drumbeats..

Drona heard only the announcement that Asvathama is killed.. and the announcement came from the epitome of honesty Dharmaputra.. 

Drona took the announcement at face value.. and believed that his only son and his only dream, Ashvathama was gone

This news reached Drona while he was engaged in a fierce battle.. 

Overcome with intense grief, Dronacharya threw down his bow and arrows and sat down mute and broken in his chariot.

His lifetime enemy Dhristadyumna, saw this..

He jumped into the chariot, caught the unarmed and grieving Drona by surprise and chopped off his head with a sword.. 

The rules of fair and just war were forgotten for a moment.. 

But that moment was fatal for Drona and the Kuravas too

Too much of grieving thus cost his life for Dronacharya..

Indulging either in pomp or in grief.. should be moderate and sensible..