The previous birth of Draupadi

 In her previous birth,Draupadi  was born as the daughter of King Nala and Damayanti. Her name was Nalayani. She was a true devotee of Lord Shiva since childhood. Once Lord Shiva granted a wish. She said that she wanted to marry a man who possessed the desired 14 qualities. Though Lord Shiva asked to change her wish , but she was adamant. Lord Shiva blessed her that in the next birth she would married to 5 men with all the desired 14 qualities. In the next birth she was born from the fire as a daughter of King Drupad. Her father arranged swayamvar for her marriage in which Arjuna won her hand. After the marriage when Arjuna went to home along with his four brothers and Draupadi, they knocked the door and said to the  mother,kunti, that there was a  surprise for her. But mother Kunti without looking at Draupadi, thought that her sons must have brought some eatables from the forest for her, so she asked her sons to divide whatever they got among themselves. Finally, in order to obey mother’s order, all the five Pandavas accepted Draupadi as their wife. It is believe that she was a composite avatar of ‘Shakti’.

Panch Kanya

'Ahalya, Draupadi, Sita, Tara, Mandodari tatha,

Panchakanya smarn nityam maha pataka nasanam'

As per above shloka, remembering the 5 panch kanya(5 women), mentioned here in pooja can remove the sin

According to scriptures the following 5 women are called "Panch Kanyas" .

1)Ahilya- She was a wife of Sage Gautam. She suffered the curse of her husband for many years.She waited of Lord Rama for many years to liberate her from the curse

2) Draupadi- During the exile, she supported her husbands at every point.She took the death of her son,Abhimanyu with courage and strength

3)Sita- She was an incarnation of goddess lakshmi. She remained with Lord Rama in the most difficult conditions which she could had been avoided. The was totally dedicated to Lord Rama.

4)Tara- She was the wife of King Bali. She was famous for her diplomacy and even after the death of her husband she laid condition before her brother in law Sugriv to make her son successor of the throne.

5)Mandodri- She was the wife of King Ravana. She knew the nature of her husband and she handled him very well till the end and kept persuading him to drop the idea of Sita from his mind.

remembering them helps to destroy the greatest sins.

The literal meaning of 'kanya' means 'a young girl'. Though the above 5 women were married and their lives were full of miseries.They were much ahead of the time and tackled the most difficult situations of their lives with courage.

The 3 sins of Ashwathama

Ashwathama, the son of Dronacharya was a great warrior. During the Mahabharata war he joined the Kaurava's camp. On the 13^th day of war he committed the first crime by involving in a killing of Abhimanyu by unfair means. Later,he lost all his senses when his friend Duryodhan was killed . He decided to took revenge and attacked at the Pandavas camp at night which was against the rules of war and killed the sons of Draupadi.It was his second sin. This created havoc in the Pandavas camp and they chased Ashwathama. A fierce battle broke between Ashwathama and Arjun. Despite restrictions Ashwathama invoke the “Brahmastra”, a divine weapon to kill Arjun. But sage Vyas intervened and advised Ashwathama to stop the use of the weapon to save earth. But Ashwatham didn’t knew the trick of withdrawing the weapon. To take revenge he directed the weapon towards the womb of the daughter in law of Arjun,Uttra who was carrying Abhimanyu’s son,Parikshit. He wanted to destroy the lineage of Arjun. Later Uttra delivered stillborn child. Here Lord Krishna cursed Ashwathama that he will roam like a ghost till the end of Kaliyuga and his body will suffer from the uncurable wounds. Lord Krishna also took away the divine jewel from Ashwathama which he used to wear on his forehead as this jewel had all the powers. Still it is belive that the Ashwathama is roaming with a wound on his forehead and many people has witnessed a strange man with wounds and blood oozing from his forehead.Surly, the current age of Ashwathama would be 5000 years+ today!