MAHABHARATA

HARE KRISHNA

After the fall of Bhishma, Drona assumed the command of the Kaurva army but he was killed. His son Ashwathama got very offended with the Pandavas. So, he directed the Narayanastra at them. It was a quality of this weapon that it never hit a soldier who was on foot or armless or who had turned his back towards it. Seeing the dangerous Narayanastra, all the warriors threw their arms and got down their chariots turning their backs towards it. But Bhima considered it an insult to do all these things. On the other hand, he kept roaring aloud brandishing his mace in the air. The result was that innumerable fire-arrows came out of the above-named Narayanastra and shot towards Bhima. When Krishna saw this, he rushed towards Bhima and stood in front of him turning his back towards the Narayanastra. Not only this, he bent Brim's head down with his hands and hid it in his arms. Also, he snatched his mace and threw it on the ground. As a result, the Narayanstra went back without doing any harm to any of the Pandavas.
Ashwathma was highly enraged with the Pandavas. He set the Pandava camp on fire and, as a result most of the Pandava soldiers and five sons of Draupadi were burnt alive. When the Pandavas returned the next day, Draupadi told them about the woeful happening. The Pandavas were struck with grief and enraged Arjuna chased and captured Ashwathama. He was going to kill him but Draupadi asked him to spare his life because he was the son of his guru. So, Arjuna got his head shaven clean and dug the jewel out of his forehead and then set him free. Ashwathma felt highly insulted and he shot his divine weapon (Brahmastra) at the Pandavas with a view to extinguishing their generation. But Krishna saved all of them and then ran to Uttra, wife at Arjuna's son Abhimanyu, who was in the family way. As soon as she delivered a son, Brahmastra attacked the infant but Krishna made it ineffective using his chakra. It was this infant, named Parikshat, who became the next Pandava king.