Dangerous Encounters
41
least these five sons would survive, but now you have killed them.” Thus in lamentation he died.
Subsequently, Arjuna arrested Aśvatthāmā and was going to kill him. In fact, Kṛṣṇa ordered, “Kill him. He is not a  brāhmaṇa ; he is less than a  śūdra .” But then Draupadī said, “I am suffering because of the death of my sons, and this rascal is the son of our  guru-mahārāja , Droṇācārya, who has done so much for us. If Aśvatthāmā dies, then Droṇācārya’s wife, our mother  guru , will be very much unhappy. So release him and let him go away.” Thus Arjuna freed Aśvatthāmā. But then Aśvatthāmā, having been insulted, retaliated by unleashing a  brahmāstra . The  brahmāstra  is something like a nuclear weapon. It can go to the enemy, wherever he is, and kill him. Aśvatthāmā knew, “The last descendant of the Kuru family is Parīkṣit, the son of Abhimanyu. He is in the womb of Uttarā, so let me kill him also, and then the entire dynasty will be finished.”
When that weapon was unleashed, Parīkṣit Mahārāja’s mother, Uttarā, felt that she was going to have a miscarriage, and therefore she approached Kṛṣṇa, saying, “Please save me.” Kṛṣṇa, by His mystic power, therefore entered the womb of Uttarā and saved the child. After the Battle of Kurukṣetra, Parīkṣit Mahārāja, who was still in the womb of his mother, was the last remaining descendant of the Pāṇḍavas, and in mature time, when he was born, only his grandfathers were still alive. Parīkṣit Mahārāja was the son of Abhimanyu, who was the son of Arjuna and Subhadrā, Kṛṣṇa’s sister. When Abhimanyu was sixteen years old, he went to fight, and seven great commanders joined forces to kill him. Subhadrā had only one grandchild, Parīkṣit Mahārāja. As soon as he grew up, the entire estate of the Pāṇḍavas was entrusted to him, and all the Pāṇḍavas left home and went to the Himalayas. This history is described in the  Mahābhārata . Many great misfortunes befell the Pāṇḍavas, but in all circumstances they simply depended on Kṛṣṇa, who always saved them. Queen Kuntī’s response to these misfortunes is recorded in the next verse.