​Why did the Pandavas conspire to kill Drona?

Answer Podcast

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Hare Krishna Question, why did the Pandavas conspire to kill Drona? Answer, the Pandavas did not conspire and secondly they did not intend to kill Drona let’s try to understand this firstly on the 15th day of the Kurukshetra war when Drona was the commander that was the day when eventually Drona fell so at that time Drona was becoming increasingly irritated and infuriated by the goading of Duryodhana Duryodhana was accusing Drona of partiality towards the Pandavas because of which he accused that Drona was not fighting wholeheartedly and because of not fighting wholeheartedly that’s why his army Duryodhana’s army was having reversals so because of this Drona became infuriated and by this fury he got into a spell and he started using celestial weapons to kill ordinary soldiers now according to Kshatriya codes celestial weapons are meant to be used against other warriors who may also be having celestial weapons celestial weapons are not meant to be indiscriminately discharged against soldiers who are not at all equipped to fight with such weapons so the point is that he started himself acting unethical and when he started acting unethical he does the seven sages along with his father Gautama they all appeared and they told him that oh Drona you are acting heinously you are acting in a sinful way stop such fighting Drona at that time was troubled by their words and he kept fighting he was fighting so furiously because of being goaded by Duryodhana’s words that he just was slaughtering the Pandava soldiers and he was slaughtering them in an indiscriminate unethical way so at that time Krishna he told Yudhishthira that actually Drona has to be stopped otherwise he will destroy your whole army and then Krishna said how can Drona be stopped the way to stop him is when Yudhishthira had gone and asked Drona how will we be able to stop you so Drona had said that actually you cannot defeat me you cannot kill me you will not be able to defeat me that’s what he had said but if I hear some disagreeable news from a trustworthy source then I will myself put down my weapons and then I will be I can be overcome so he had spoken in a very enigmatic way and Krishna remembered that and Krishna now told that O Yudhishthira that Drona is very attached to his son Ashwathama so if you tell him that Ashwathama is dead then he will not be able to that he will not be able to he will not have the spirit to fight and now Arjuna had great reservations about this idea and so had Yudhishthira but Bhima who was very concerned that their army was being slaughtered Bhima immediately went over and he shouted in the hearing of Drona Ashwathama is dead Ashwathama is dead Ashwathama is dead now before this what he did was that he charged into the opposite army and there was an elephant division and within that elephant division there was a big elephant named Ashwathama and he just smashed the head of that elephant during the course of fighting with the elephant warrior and he destroyed the elephant and the elephant warrior together so now after doing that he went back and said Ashwathama is dead now here he left it to Dronacharya to interpret it he did not say Ashwathama your son is dead he said Ashwathama is dead and Dronacharya started trembling his heart trembled his body trembled at the thought that his son could be dead then he remembered his son’s promise and he thought no my son cannot be killed this Bhima is playful and he must have spoken counterfactually so he kept fighting but still his heart was shaken on hearing this and then he saw Yudhishthir in the vicinity and when he saw Yudhishthir he asked Yudhishthir I have heard that Ashwathama has been killed is this true so Yudhishthir Krishna as Drona was approaching Yudhishthir Krishna told Yudhishthir Yudhishthir now this is the time for you to save your army and when Drona asked this question to Yudhishthir Yudhishthir nodded his head gravely and said Yudhishthir is dead and as soon as he spoke this Krishna lost consciousness and at that time Yudhishthir had a Narova Kunjarova whether it is the man or the elephant I do not know it can be the man or it can be the elephant but the point is that he did not make it specific but Drona was so overcome by grief at that time that Drona did not hear it and he just lost his will to fight and he decided at that time he also remembered the words of the sages who had told him to resist from fighting and he decided that his time had come and he sat down in a yogic posture yogic pose on the chariot itself and he lost himself in a trance desiring to end his life in a yogic trance now when this happened at that time Dhrishtadyumna he immediately charged forward towards Drona with his upper sword and when the Pandava warriors understood what Dhrishtadyumna had in mind they were horrified Arjuna shouted to Dhrishtadyumna stop but Dhrishtadyumna was so blinded by fury Dhrishtadyumna had been born for the death of Drona his father Drupada had performed a yajna from which Dhrishtadyumna had been born and he had been born for the death of Drona but he had been no match to Drona and time and time again he had fought against Drona but Drona had overpowered him very easily so Dhrishtadyumna was infuriated by his inability to fulfill his destiny and thus being blinded by rage he just charged towards Drona and dragged him off the chariot by his head and lopped off the head of Drona and at that time the Pandavas were in shock Dhrishtadyumna and Arjuna they were devastated because Arjuna’s plan was not to kill Drona their plan was to disarm Drona and once Drona was disarmed Drona had given up his martial spirit on hearing the news of Ashwathama’s death then they were planning to have Drona arrested and place him in arrest till the end of the war because they considered he was a Brahmana and he was their teacher and they got no joy in fighting against him and they did not want to kill him but circumstances happened in such a way that Dhrishtadyumna took the extreme step against the desire of Arjuna and Yudhishthir and he killed Drona so yes, Yudhishthir did speak not exactly a lie but spoke something which was open to be interpreted in a counterfactual way and he did that because that was the only way Drona could be stopped at that time Drona was in a frenzy of fury being goaded by Dhrishtadyumna’s unkind, harsh words and Drona was himself fighting unethically using celestial weapons to kill ordinary soldiers so because he was fighting in a frenzy of fury because he was fighting unethically so at that time Yudhishthir had to do whatever it took and when Krishna told him to do such a thing he did not hesitate at least he did not stop he thought about it but eventually he did it and again, so it was not a conspiracy it was a necessity at that time because Drona himself had started fighting unethically and they had to do whatever it took to protect their army and their plan was not to kill Drona but that was an impulsive action which Dhrishtadyumna did and Dhrishtadyumna bore the reaction for that when later on he was killed by Ashwathama so the point here was that it was not that the Pandavas conspired to kill Drona rather they planned so that they could stop Drona from doing unethical action from fighting unethically against their army but because of Dhrishtadyumna’s impulsiveness Drona was killed Thank you