Anger-Elevates or Degrades!

After Pāndavās departure, Duryodhana thro’ some sympathizers asked to inform Krpā, Asvattāma & Krtvarmā, about how he is lying after been mortally wounded by unfair means. He also said to convey the message that Pandavas should never be trusted, because of their having taken to the path of righteousness

The messengers soon met the trio & after hearing vivid description of how Bhima had defeated Duryodhana, the 3 warriors rushed to where the Kaurava king was. When they saw Duryodhana writhing in pain, lying in his own blood & dazed due to shock, Krpā, Asvattāma, Krtvarmā quickly ran to his side

Asvattāma lamented at great length seeing Karava king Duryodhana reduced to such a pitiful condition by unfair means. He gradually became obsessed with uncontrollable anger. He also remembered how his father had been killed in a similar devious manner. Suddenly, he vowed: O King! I hereby promise to kill the Pāndavās & Pāncālas this very night. Pls permit me to do so

These words were pleasing to Duryodhana’s heart & he then installed Asvattāma as the new commander in chief

Son of Drona departed while letting out a loud roar as Krpā & Krtvarmā followed him. As they went, the 3 warriors discussed how to accomplish their mission of killing Pāndavās. They entered a dense forest near the Pāndava camp & in the distance could hear victorious Pāndava soldiers. The stopped awhile to rest & came to a great banyan tree where they decided to spend the night

The three sat down together & the forest became filled with sounds of nocturnal creatures. Krpā & Krtvarmā fell asleep, but Asvattāma was burning with grief & so he could not sleep. While passing the time, he continually tried to think of how he could take revenge against the Pāndavas

It so happened that while he gazed at the forest, Asvattāma noticed how thousands of crows were sleeping on the branches of nearby banyan tree. He then saw a fierce owl quietly come there. After alighting upon one of the branches, the owl proceeded to slaughter many sleeping crows by tearing them apart with its sharp talons. Thus, the ground soon became strewn with severed limbs & dead bodies. After accomplishing this massacre, the owl appeared to be highly pleased

Asvattāma considered this incident to be highly significant. After giving a thought, he concluded that he should follow example of owl. He considered the matter like this: The Pāndavās are incapable of being killed by me, despite I had vowed to Duryodhana that I would do so. Therefore, only by employing deceitful means I’ll be able to achieve my goal. After all what is the harm? Pāndavās have resorted to many devious tricks to attain victory. Besides the military science prescribes that for the purpose of defeating superior enemy, one may kill him even when he is wounded, eating or fast asleep at night. Therefore, I’ll kill all Pāndavās tonight as they sleep

We all need to learn how to use anger without being used by anger, to our benefit. Feeling angry is a natural human emotion when we see things around us going wrong or being done wrong. But we need to have a holistic vision of things, not only seeing the wrongs in our lives but also what is right. When things happen beyond our control, we need to reflect upon who is the Supreme controller & who we are, the eternal servitors of the Supreme controller Krsna

Krsna is also the supreme benefactor, and He has a place for us in his plans to benefit everyone. And we never lose that place even if those we care for or we ourselves sometimes mess things up. With this self-understanding, we gain an inner security & higher purpose that centers on the driving question: In this situation, how can I best serve Krsna & serve this person in relationship with Krsna. Such a question shifts our focus from how they have defied us to how we can aid them in making better choices

By the combination of inner self-security & outer service orientation, we can gain the maturity to use anger for elevation not degradation

Thoughts? #gameoflife