When Kripa participated in the murder of the Pandavas son why did they still accept him as their priest?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, you know, if Krupacharya was a part of the whole arrangement to kill Draupadi’s son, how could they appoint Krupacharya as their as their next kingdom? There are three points in this. First is that Krupacharya initially very strongly opposed. When Ashwathama proposed that idea, the three people Ashwathama was there, Krupacharya and Krittavarman were there.
Mahabharata describes initially Krupacharya felt that this, this cannot even be contemplated, it’s so heinous. He said that, let us go in the morning, we’ll fight and we’ll meet a hero’s death. We’ll meet a hero’s death.
So, at that time, he fervently tries to persuade Ashwathama but Ashwathama says, no. Ashwathama says that, no, they killed my father when he was also in meditation. So, when he was unarmed, when he was unprepared, they killed him.
So, they deserve to be killed like that only. Now, actually speaking, it was not Pandavas who had killed him. It was only Dhristadyumna who did that.
And while Dhristadyumna was running towards Dhristadyumna to kill him, the Pandavas shouted, stop. They were not, Arjuna was actually furious with him. So, he ascribed to the Pandavas something which had been done by, not by them, but someone against their will.
But then, when Ashwathama started going over there, so Krutavarman, so Krupacharya, he, one ethos which is there in the Mahabharata is, you could say, deference to authority. Whether that is always right or wrong, that is something which Mahabharata leaves open. Yudhishthira gambles because Dhritharashtra asked him to gamble.
And Dhritharashtra is like my father figure. So, here also, Ashwathama, although is much younger to Krutavarman, but before dying, Duryodhana had appointed Ashwathama as the commander. So, Krutavarman, sorry, Krupacharya felt that it is his duty to assist.
And it is his duty to obey. So, if that is Ashwathama’s decision, then we all have to obey it. And he actually did not directly participate in the killing of the Pandavas’ children or in the other wars.
But what he did was, if anybody tried to flee from there, guarded Ashwathama from, basically what happened, anybody was trying to flee, he attacked them and either he killed them or they went back inside and then they were killed by Ashwathama. So, definitely he was complicit in it. No doubt about it.
But there is also the description in Mahabharata that when Ashwathama was going alone, he went ahead. So, at that time he saw fierce looking personality come. He was looking extremely angry and furious.
And that person had a very powerful sword in his hand. And he saw, he thought, maybe this is some devata, some god has come angry with me for my plan of killing, for my heinous plan. And he tried to attack.
He tried to attack, attack, attack. And all those short arrows, arrows just went into the body and disappeared. And then eventually, all his weapons went off.
And then that personality said that I am Kaala. Different names I ascribed to him. I am time or he said that I am Shiva.
Shiva is a destroyer, whichever way you want to look at it. But he said that the time of these warriors has ended now. And they are meant to die.
And you Ashwathama are meant to kill. And I have come to give you this sword. So, he gave that sword.
And that sword which he used to cut off the heads of the Pandavas, Pandavas children. And then it was like a surge of power came to him at that time. And then after that, after he killed the Pandavas soldiers and warriors, then that power just went off.
And he just couldn’t do anything. And then eventually he was punished for that. So, basically there was that understanding also that they were all meant to die.
Now, this does not again excuse Ashwathama because their death could have happened anyway. It is like when we have a particular desire to do something, then the higher powers may use us and our desire to execute their plan. But we are responsible because we had the desire.
So, even if those warriors had to die, their death could have been arranged by some other group. So, today, it is seen as a higher plan and that’s why Krupacharya was not an evil person. But at that time circumstantially he just acted in a, he was a part of a team that was evil.
And we also see this principle, his last point is that that was just a one-off incident. Otherwise he was always very kind and graceful. And even after that he served them faithfully.
So, his royalty is where to the Kuru dynasty. And if the Kauravas were ruling, he was loyal to the Kauravas. But when the Pandavas were ruling, he was loyal to the Pandavas also.
So, loyal to the Pandavas, not loyal, loyal to the Pandavas. So, in that sense, because that was just a one-off terrible thing which he did, that was not held against him. In general, the third point is that the brahmanas are not punished.
Ashwathama did a very un-brahminical activity and that’s why he was punished. Yeah, he himself personally killing was not a totally un-brahminical activity. But Krupacharya was much older to all of them and he was a wise brahmana and all their elders had already been killed.
So, there was no idea where Vidura was, whether Vidura was going to come back. And Dhritarashtra was not going to be in a position to be an elder of any guidance. So, they felt the need to have some elder with them.
Actually, Krupacharya was extremely remorseful and so, the Kauravas, Dhritarashtra never showed any remorse. So, Krupacharya was very remorseful. So, because of all that, they felt that his presence would be beneficial for them and that’s why they incorporated him in their government afterwards.