The Samādhi of Vyāsa and Aśvatthāmā’s Punishment

This chapter contains fifty-eight verses. Out of these, verses 1 and 9 are questions posed by Śaunaka, the former about Vyāsa and the latter about Śuka; the remaining verses are spoken by Sūta. In the course of Sūta’s narration, however, he intermittently cites the words of Arjuna (verses 16 and 22–26), Śrī Kṛṣṇa (verses 27–28, 35–39, and 53–54), Draupadī (verses 43–48), and Bhīma (verse 51). There are two principal topics in this chapter. The first concerns the samādhi of Vyāsa as the seed revelation to be disclosed in and as Śrīmad Bhāgavata (verses 1–11); the second concerns the punishment of Aśvatthāmā for killing the five sleeping sons of Draupadī (verses 12–58).

The chapter opens with Śaunaka inquiring as to what Vyāsa did after Nārada’s departure. Sūta describes that at this point, Vyāsa sat in devotional samādhi in his āśrama on the western bank of the Sarasvatī River. In the state of transcognitive awareness, Vyāsa saw the Complete Original Person (Pūrṇa Puruṣa), meaning that he saw Svayaṁ Bhagavān, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, replete with His own intrinsic conscious potency, His integrated portions, the portions of His portions, His avatāras, and unqualified Brahman, which is Itself a signifier of completion. He also saw Bhagavān’s extrinsic potency, māyā, which was apart from and yet sheltered by Him, the jīva, who is bewildered by the three guṇas of māyā, and direct (sākṣāt) bhakti-yoga as the means of deliverance from the defilement of conditional existence (verses 1–6).

On the basis of this complete samādhi vision, Vyāsa composed the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, also called Sātvata-saṁhitā, which discloses the ontological truth regarding the Pūrṇa Puruṣa, who is implicitly endowed with all of the above facets of being. Thereafter, Vyāsa taught the Bhāgavata to his son Śukadeva, who, although enraptured in the Self alone (ātmārāma), was captivated by the transcendental qualities of Śrī Hari (verses 6–11).

After this, Sūta describes how Aśvatthāmā killed the five sleeping sons of Draupadī at night and presented their severed heads to Duryodhana, who was lying with his thigh bone broken on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra (verses 12–15). After speaking consoling words to Draupadī, Arjuna chased after Aśvatthāmā. Fearing for his life and seeing no other recourse, Aśvatthāmā launched the dreadful brahmāstra weapon to kill Arjuna (verses 16–21). At this point, Arjuna uttered eloquent prayers to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, which reaffirm many of the key points from Vyāsa’s samādhi and disclose the primary reason for Kṛṣṇa’s avatāric descent (verses 22–26). Kṛṣṇa then advised Arjuna to counteract Aśvatthāmā’s brahmāstra with one of his own, since he was expert in the use of weapons (verses 27–28).

After retracting both brahmāstras, Arjuna captured and bound Aśvatthāmā, intending to take him to their military encampment (verses 29–34). At this point, Kṛṣṇa provoked Arjuna to kill Aśvatthāmā at once, just to test his fixity in dharma (verses 35–39). Arjuna, however, was hesitant to kill his guru’s son and instead brought him to the Pāṇḍavas’ camp in Kurukṣetra, where he presented him to Draupadī (verses 40–42). Draupadī treated Aśvatthāmā with respect and pleaded with Arjuna not to kill him but to release him. The six verses spoken by her exhibit six qualities that show her preeminent virtue in the matter of dharma (verses 43–48).

Yudhiṣṭhira and all others present approved of Draupadī’s words (verses 49–50). Bhīma, however, was incensed at this and insisted that Aśvatthāmā should be killed (verse 51). Then, to test the subtlety of Arjuna’s discernment, Kṛṣṇa ordered Arjuna to satisfy both Bhīma as well as Draupadī by killing Aśvatthāmā and not killing him at one and the same time (verses 53–54). Understanding Kṛṣṇa’s intent, Arjuna then cut the gem from Aśvatthāmā’s head, which was equivalent to cutting off his head. In this manner, Arjuna both killed him and did not kill him because according to dharma, dishonoring a brāhmaṇa amounts to killing him. He then released and expelled Aśvatthāmā from the camp. The chapter ends with the Pāṇḍavas and Draupadī performing the cremation rites for their dead sons.

All Verses

  1. Verse 1Śrī Śaunaka inquired: O Sūta, thereafter, upon the departure of Śrī Nārada, what did the honorable and omnipotent Bādarāyaṇa [Vyāsa] do, after hearing Nārada’s intention?
  2. Verse 2Śrī Sūta said: On the western bank of the Sarasvatī, the river that is intimately related to the Vedas, the brāhmaṇas, austerity, and the Supreme Absolute Truth, there is an āśrama known as Śamyāprāsa, a place conducive to the sacrifices of the ṛṣis.
  3. Verse 3In that āśrama of his, surrounded by a cluster of jujube trees, Vyāsa sat down, sipped water, and concentrated his mind by the determined application of his will.
  4. Verse 4In his pure heart, which was established in perfect fixity through the yoga of unalloyed devotion, Vyāsa saw the Complete Original Person along with His extrinsic potency, māyā, which was apart from and yet supported by Him.
  5. Verse 5Bewildered by this extrinsic potency, the individual living being, although transcendental to the three guṇas, thinks of itself as constituted of the three guṇas and thus undergoes the defilement resulting from this identification.
  6. Verse 6Vyāsa also saw that direct bhakti-yoga to Adhokṣaja, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, is the means to uproot this defilement. [Having personally witnessed all these fundamental truths in the state of samādhi,] the all-seeing Vyāsa composed this Sātvata-saṁhitā (Śrīmad Bhāgavata) for the benefit of people in general, who are unaware of this fact.
  7. Verse 7Indeed, in the very act of receptively and attentively hearing this Śrīmad Bhāgavata, bhakti [prema] for Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Puruṣa, self-manifests in a person’s heart, dispelling lamentation, delusion, and fear.
  8. Verse 8After composing and revising this Bhāgavata-saṁhitā, Vyāsa taught it to his son, the sage Śrī Śuka, who delighted in the state of utter nonattachment.
  9. Verse 9Śrī Śaunaka inquired: He indeed [Śrī Śuka] delighted in the state of utter nonattachment and was thus indifferent toward everything. He was a sage who was enraptured in the Self alone (ātmārāma); so why did he undertake the study of this voluminous composition?
  10. Verse 10Śrī Sūta said: The sages, though liberated from the knot of egoic identity, and though delighting in the Self alone, engage in causeless devotion to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Majestic player, for Śrī Hari is of such essential nature that He captivates even them.
  11. Verse 11His consciousness captivated by the qualities of Śrī Hari, the highly enlightened yogī, Śuka, the son of Bādarāyaṇa [Vyāsa] and ever beloved of the devotees of Viṣṇu, underwent the study of this vast narrative.
  12. Verse 12Now I shall speak to you about the birth, actions, and final dissolution of the royal sage Parīkṣit and about the passing of Pāṇḍu’s sons— topics that give rise to the narrations of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.
  13. Verse 13-14When, in the course of battle, the warriors of the armies of the Kauravas and Pāṇḍavas had attained to the final destination of fallen heroes [namely, heaven], and thereafter when King Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s son [Duryodhana] had his thigh bone broken by the strike of Bhīma’s mace, then the son of Droṇa [Aśvatthāmā], thinking that it would please his master [Duryodhana], cut off the heads of Draupadī’s sleeping sons and presented them to him. In reality, however, this was indeed displeasing to Duryodhana, because everyone would condemn such a despicable act.
  14. Verse 15On hearing of the slaughter of her young sons, their mother Draupadī was overwhelmed with the most unbearable grief and wept bitterly, as her eyes filled with streams of tears. In that moment, Arjuna spoke as follows to console her.
  15. Verse 16O gentle lady, at that time alone will I have wiped away your tears of grief when the head of that murderous and degraded brāhmaṇa has been cut off by the arrows released from my Gāṇḍīva bow and presented to you, so that you may tread upon it and then take your ceremonial bath after completing the cremation rite for your dead sons.
  16. Verse 17Having thus consoled his beloved Draupadī with endearing and wondrous words, Arjuna, whose friend and charioteer is Acyuta [Śrī Kṛṣṇa], whose chariot bears the insignia of Hanumān on its banner, and who is equipped with a fierce bow, put on armor and pursued Aśvatthāmā, the son of his guru, by chariot.
  17. Verse 18Seeing Arjuna rushing toward him from afar, Aśvatthāmā, the child murderer, became terrified at heart and, being anxious to save his own life, he fled by chariot as fast as possible across the land, just as the sun god fled out of fear of Rudra.
  18. Verse 19When he saw that his horses were exhausted and that he was without any other refuge, Aśvatthāmā, the son of a brāhmaṇa, considered the missile weapon of Brahmā as the only means to protect himself.
  19. Verse 20Then, the threat to his life being imminent, he sipped water [ācamana], concentrated his mind, and fixed the brahmāstra weapon to his bow, even though he did not know how to retract it.
  20. Verse 21A ferocious fire blazed forth from that missile, spreading in all directions. Realizing that his life was in danger, the victorious Arjuna spoke as follows to Viṣṇu [Śrī Kṛṣṇa].
  21. Verse 22Arjuna said: O Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa! O Mighty-armed One! O Bestower of fearlessness upon Your devotees! You alone are the embodiment of liberation (apavarga) for those who are scorched by the fire of cyclic existence (saṁsāra).
  22. Verse 23You are the Original Cause (ādya), directly the Supreme Personal Transcendent (Sākṣāt Puruṣa) and the Supreme Immanent Self (Īśvara), who, in both of these manifestations, are beyond prakṛti. By dint of Your ever-present intrinsic conscious potency (cit-śakti), You have cast far aside the shadow potency (māyā) and are permanently situated in Your own Self (ātmani), which is of the nature of the bliss of unalloyed experience, known as kaivalya.
  23. Verse 24You alone, by Your own transrational power, bestow well-being in the form of dharma and life’s other primary aims upon the living being, whose awareness is deluded by māyā.
  24. Verse 25This avatāric descent of Yours [as Sākṣāt Bhagavān, Śrī Kṛṣṇa], like that of other avatāras, is meant to relieve the burden of the earth, [yet although this is the case,] it is moreover meant to serve as an object of constant meditation for Your own kinsmen and for those who are exclusively devoted to You.
  25. Verse 26O God of gods, I do not know what this most terrible fire— that is spreading in all directions— could be or from whence it ensues.
  26. Verse 27Śrī Bhagavān said: Know this to be a brahmāstra, the missile of Brahmā. It was released by the son of Droṇa when the threat to his life was imminent, but he does not know how to retract it.
  27. Verse 28There is certainly not any other weapon at all [except for another brahmāstra] that can counteract this missile. You, however, are expert in the use of missiles. Therefore, subdue this dreadful missile fire specifically by the prowess of another missile of Brahmā.
  28. Verse 29Śrī Sūta said: After hearing what was said by Bhagavān, Arjuna, the slayer of rival heroes, sipped water, circumambulated Him, and launched another brahmāstra to counteract the first one.
  29. Verse 30The fires of the two brahmāstras, enveloped by a net of arrows, merged into one another and, covering heaven and earth as well as the space in between, expanded like the sun and fire.
  30. Verse 31Seeing, however, the ominous missile fire of the two brahmāstras burning the three worlds, all the people who were being scorched by that fire concluded that it must be the fire of cosmic dissolution.
  31. Verse 32Perceiving the calamity that had befallen humanity as well as the [impending] destruction of the worlds, and intuiting the intent of Vāsudeva [Kṛṣṇa], Arjuna retracted both missiles.
  32. Verse 33Then, Arjuna, his eyes red with anger, swiftly bore down upon Aśvatthāmā, the cruel son of Gautamī, and bound him with a rope like an animal.
  33. Verse 34Having forcibly bound the enemy with a rope, Arjuna planned to take him to the royal military encampment. Seeing this, the lotus-eyed Bhagavān, full of rage, spoke to Arjuna as follows.
  34. Verse 35O Arjuna, you should not spare this degraded brāhmaṇa, who murdered innocent children while they slept at night. You must kill him.
  35. Verse 36A person acquainted with dharma will not kill an enemy who is intoxicated, inattentive, insane, asleep, a mere child, a woman, indolent, surrendered, dispossessed of chariot, or terrified.
  36. Verse 37To kill a merciless and wicked person who sustains his own life by taking the lives of others is indeed for his own ultimate good, because the person would otherwise spiral downward as a consequence of his fault.
  37. Verse 38I also heard you promise to Draupadī, “O respected lady, I shall deliver you the head of the man who has slain your sons.”
  38. Verse 39Therefore, O hero, this sinful murderer, the assassin of your sons, should be killed. He is a stigma on his own family and has provoked the displeasure of his master, Duryodhana.
  39. Verse 40Although prompted in this manner by Kṛṣṇa, who was testing his moral sense, Arjuna, being of noble character, did not wish to kill his guru’s son, even though the latter had murdered his own sons.
  40. Verse 41Then, having reached his own encampment, Arjuna, whose dear friend and charioteer was Govinda, delivered Aśvatthāmā to his beloved wife, who was grieving for her murdered sons.
  41. Verse 42Draupadī, who was gracious by nature, looked compassionately upon, and bowed down to, the son of their teacher, who was brought in this manner, bound with ropes like an animal and with downward turned face due to the abominable nature of his act.
  42. Verse 43Unable to bear that he had been brought [to her] bound by ropes, the virtuous lady eagerly insisted, “Release him! Release him! For a brāhmaṇa is by all means worthy of respect.”
  43. Verse 44-45The honorable Droṇācārya, by whose grace you have learned the art of archery, with its secret mantras, and the use of an assortment of weapons, along with the knowledge of how to deploy and retract them, lives on in the form of his son [Aśvatthāmā]. His wife Kṛpī, who is his better half, is still alive, since she did not follow her husband [on the funeral pyre], because she has a son.
  44. Verse 46Therefore, O knower of dharma, O most fortunate one, the family of your guru does not deserve to be persecuted at your hands; rather, it is ever worthy of worship and veneration.
  45. Verse 47His mother, Gautamī, the devoted wife of Droṇa, should not wail like me, who, being aggrieved at the death of my children, repeatedly weep, my face covered with tears.
  46. Verse 48That family of kings of unsubdued minds by whom the brāhminical lineage is angered, will be overcome with lamentation and quickly destroyed along with their relatives.
  47. Verse 49Śrī Sūta said: O brāhmaṇas, King Yudhiṣṭhira, the son of Dharma, approved the words of the queen, as they were consistent with dharma, just, compassionate, unhypocritical, equanimous, and noble.
  48. Verse 50Nakula and Sahadeva, Sātyaki, Arjuna, Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa, the son of Devakī, and all other men and women present there also approved of her words.
  49. Verse 51Then, enraged by their verdict, Bhīma spoke as follows: “Death is enjoined [according to the law] as beneficial for a person who has slain sleeping boys in vain without any gain either for his master or for his own self.”
  50. Verse 52After hearing the words spoken by Bhīma and Draupadī, the four-handed Kṛṣṇa looked upon the face of His friend, Arjuna, and spoke the following words, as if smiling.
  51. Verse 53Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa said: A degraded brāhmaṇa should not be killed, whereas a murderer deserves to be killed. You must carry out “both” of these instructions, which have been enjoined by Me [as the author of the sacred texts].
  52. Verse 54You must honor the promise you made while consoling your beloved wife and do what is pleasing to Bhīmasena, to Draupadī, and to Me as well.
  53. Verse 55Śrī Sūta said: Thereupon, Arjuna immediately understood the heart of Kṛṣṇa, and, with his sword, cut off the gem from the head of the twice-born brāhmaṇa [Aśvatthāmā] along with his hair.
  54. Verse 56Having released Aśvatthāmā, who was bound by ropes, who had lost his bodily luster due to the murder of the boys, and who was deprived of his prowess and his gem, Arjuna expelled him from the camp.
  55. Verse 57Shaving the head, confiscation of property, and exile from the locality or community — this itself is death for a degraded brāhmaṇa. There is no other prescription of physical death.
  56. Verse 58All the Pāṇḍavas along with Draupadī, who were overwhelmed with grief at the death of their sons, then performed whatever was meant to be done for their dead sons and relatives, such as the cremation and other final rites.