The Right Choice

On the eve of Mahabharata war, there was too much anxiety in the both camps of Kauravasa and Pandavas. No body wanted to loose this battle. On the other hand Lord Krishna, the ruler of Dwarka was playing neutral role. But he had mighty army. Arjuna as a representative from Pandava side and Duryodhan from the Kauravas side went to Lord Krishna for the support for their side. Duryodhan wanted to gain upperhand and reached there before Arjun in the palace of Lord Krishna. At that time Lord Krishna was sleeping. Duryodhan hurriedly occupied a seat near the head of Krishna and Arjun decided to sit near the feet of Krishna. When Krishna woke up he saw Arjun first and then Duryodhan. On knowing the reason of their visit Krishna offered two choices to both camps. First was to choose the his mighty army which was capable of destroying any enemy and the second was his own services only as a mentor. Since Kirshna saw Arjun first so he asked Arjun to chose his option first. This made Duryodhan worried because he wanted the army of krishna dearly. On listening this Arjun fell in the feet of Krishna and asked his services in the battle. This was an absolute shocker for Duryodhan and he was overwhelmed with joy that he got the army of krishna which he thought that this would tilt the result of the battle in his own favour. He was sure shot about Kauravas victory after getting the army of krishna. But at the end of 18 day war the result was opposite. Pandavas prevails over Kauravas. Krishna played perfect role as a friend,mentor,philospher and a manager. He guided pandavas from time to time and kept the moral of his side up and high.

The same rule applies to modern day management policy.

A leader of any organisation or a family should have
1)motivational skills(Arjun who looses all his courage at the crunch time, it was krishna who motivates him)
2)controlling skills(Krishna controlled more than 1.5 million army personnel in the war)
3)Good leadership qualities( though with less resourced than Kauravas, still Pandavas won because of good leadership qualities of Krishna and his skills of utilising his limited resources effectively and efficiently)
4) Excellent strategy( Krishna knews that if Arjun fought with Karan then Arjun would surly lost. So he placed Ghatotkach against Karan. This was the turning point of the war as all the powers of Karan was wasted in killing the Ghatotkach and Arjun's strenght was safeguarded.

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!

The Great Army

It is believe that during the mahabharata war which was fought at kurukshetra region nearly 18 akshoni unit of armymen were gathered and fought a battle of their life time. Now , I am sharing the exact constituent of the unit "akshoni". The word “Akshohini” denotes a group of warrior who were the masters in the various forms of art of war. The total 18 akshohini consisted 1968300 soldiers,1180980 horses.393660 horses ,393660 charioteers. Perhaps this was the reason Arjun felt weak at the onset of the war on seeing the huge army! One thing is sure that more than 3 million people were killed in a short span of 18 days. Following is the sub division of akshohini.

The Pandavas fought with 7 akshohini of armymen whereas Kauravas had 11 akshohini. It was the mismanagement of kauravas that led to their downfall.During the span of 18 days Kauravas were led by Bhishma for 10 days and then by Dronacharya,karna and shalya for the rest of the days. this simply rattles their plans.