Ashvattama alive!!!!!!!!!!

A 5000+ Year Old Man Still Physically Alive? 
order to fully discuss this topic which fascinates me to no end, I'll first need to describe the concept of 'chiranjeev' (this word can also be spelt validly as 'chiranjiv'). 'Chiranjeev' (pronounced 'chir-ahn-jeev') is a Sanskrit word and refers to an EXTREMELY long-lived being (chiran - long, jiva - life). Sometimes chiranjeevs are said to be 'immortal', but this is a misconception. They have unusually long lifespans due to one reason or another, but they still took birth and therefore their souls MUST eventually depart from their bodies. Chiranjeevs are not necessarily the same as siddhas who can physically 'die' at their own will, but their bodies are not subject to decay like ours are. When our bodies expire, they rot away, but when a chiranjeev's lifespan ends, their bodies simply disappear/dematerialise at that very moment. So only in this sense can the chiranjeev be said to be 'immortal', in the sense that it does not experience 'death' in the same manner of decay that all other living entities are subjected to. A chiranjeev attains his/her/its so-called 'immortality' either by way of a blessing or a curse from some other entity or through the law of karma in general. Though there are perhaps multitudes of chiranjeevs that exist across the universe, there are 8 major 'immortals' or chiranjeevs that dwell on the Earth that are recognised in this current Day Of Brahma and they are as follows:

Ashwathama -a man cursed to immortality and extreme suffering without love from anybody for his role in the murder of the five sons of the Pandavas and his attempted murder of Arjuna's grandson
Bali (demon) -a righteous demon king who conquered heaven, earth, and the underworld, but was forced to give it back by Vamana
Vyasa -a sage who narrated the Mahabharata, he was also a sage in the epic
Hanuman -a monkey deva who served Rama
Vibhishana -Ravana's brother who was made King of Lanka by Rama
Kripacharya -a teacher of the princes in the Mahabharata
Parashurama -an avatar of Vishnu
Markandeya -a great rishi

According to the Hindu text known as Srimad Bhagavatam, Ashwathama, Vyasa, Kripa and Parashurama are destined to be future saptarishis (seven sages), Bali is destined to become the next Indra, Hanuman was blessed by Brahma to live as long as him and Vibhishana was blessed by Rama to live for one kalpa (ie. one full Day Of Brahma). There are several other chiranjeevs mentioned in the Hindu epics and also in a variety of other texts. But there is only one chiranjeev in particular that I want to focus on in this thread: Aswatthama

Aswatthama was a fairly prominent figure in the Hindu epic Mahabharata. Here is some general information about him from Wikipedia (from this URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aswatthama):

"In the Hindu epic Mahabharata, Ashwatthama (Sanskrit: अश्वत्थाम, ashvatthâma) or Ashwatthaman (Sanskrit: अश्वत्थमन, ashvatthamana) was the son of guru Dronacharya. He is one of the seven Chiranjeevins. Dronacharya loved him dearly. False rumours about his death in the Kurukshetra war led to the death of his father at the hands of Prince Dhrishtadyumna. A vengeful Ashwatthama obtained permission from the dying Duryodhana to brutally murder Dhrishtadhyumna after the war had officially ended. Ashwathama at the end of the war promised Duryodhana that he would kill the Pandavas, and attacked the Pandava camp in the middle of the night, but by error ended up murdering the 5 sons of the Pandavas by Draupadi.

The Pandavas, incensed by this act, chased him resulting in his fight with Arjuna. During the fight, Ashwatthama invoked the 'Brahmastra' against Arjuna and Arjuna in response invoked the 'Pashupatastra'. Fearing the destruction of the world, the sages advised both to take back their weapons. While Arjuna could do so, Ashwathama (presumably having less skill) could not and was given the option of choosing any single target to destroy. Out of spite, Ashwathama directed the weapon to the womb of Uttara, Arjuna's daughter-in-law.

At this time, Uttara was carrying the unborn Parikshit, son of Abhimanyu, who upon birth would be the future heir to all the Pandava brothers. The Brahmastra weapon was successful in fatally burning the foetus, but Krishna revived the stillborn child and cursed Ashwatthama with leprosy and to roam the world for 3,000 years as an unloved castaway. In another version, it is believed that he is cursed to remain alive till the end of the Kaliyuga. It is believed that Ashwatthama migrated to the land currently known as Arabian peninsula. [CITATION NEEDED]

Ashwatthama also had to surrender a valuable gem set on his forehead, the wearer of which ceases to have any fear from weapons or disease or hunger, and he ceases to have any fear of gods and danavas and nagas.

Ashwatthama was a great warrior and was even known to have revived the Kaurava army from sorrowness by invoking the Narayana astra. But Lord Krishna instructed the Pandava army to lay down their arms and hence the astra was finally conquered. He also invoked the agneyastra against Arjuna but he quelled it with the Brahmastra.

Ashwathama was one of the three survivors of the Kaurava army with Kritavarma and Kripacharya."

It gets even MORE interesting! There are many rumours in India that revolve around a tall man with gaping hole in the centre of his forehead aimlessly roaming the forests of Northern India. My grandfather recently told me an account about how one of his brothers (I think he was his brother, I'm not too sure though! lol) and that man's wife went to visit a small village in Northern India. I'm not sure how many years ago they visited this place and my overall memory of this account is quite poor, so I'll try to ask my grandfather to re-tell the whole thing to me as soon as possible. Anyway, moving on..... they were sight-seeing this village and engaging in simple chit-chat with the villagers. All of a sudden, a VERY tall man (approximately 12 feet tall, I think my grandfather said! ) walked into the village. This man had a noticeable dent in his forehead and in the middle of his forehead, there was clearly a circle or hole there. It seemed to be an injury of some sort, but there was no scab which had developed where the hole was. Small drops of blood seemed to seep out of this hole and there were numerous flies that flew around this particular area of his body. The man was quite silent until he approached a man inside a small restaurant selling traditional Indian food. He asked the owner of the store something like 'What have you cooked for me this time?' and, in response, the owner of the store served him a vast variety of foods to quell his appetite. So HUGE was this mysterious man's appetite that he apparently cleared out the restaurant's entire stock of food! Then this man became thirsty and requested water. He was pointed in the direction of a large pot (about half my height and twice my width) which was filled right to the top with water. He promptly went to this pot and proceeded to drink ALL of the water held inside it until not even a single DROP remained! My grandfather's brother and his wife had seen this occurring in front of their very eyes and were quite astonished. They asked a nearby onlooker if he knew who this man was. He responded by saying......... that he was Aswatthama from the Mahabharata! He further clarified that Aswatthama entered this particular village every year (but only once every year) for about a few hours in one day simply to eat and drink. Then he would silently walk off deeper into the forest without making a sound. I asked my grandfather out of curiosity how and why these villagers could be so calm and offer him food and water even though they are aware of the many grievous sins associated with Aswatthama. My grandfather responded by saying that whenever one is hungry, he or she should be given food and whenever one is thirsty, he or she should be given water... REGARDLESS of that person's character or identity. It should be done because it is a selfless thing to do. It should be done not because it generates very positive karma for a person, but because it is the right thing to do. This is what my grandfather's response was. Upon closer inspection on this anecdote my grandfather told me, it makes SENSE that the man who entered that village was indeed Aswatthama himself! The man was said to be EXTREMELY tall. The events of the Mahabharata occurred during Dwapar Yuga (the age which occurred just before this one) and, if I remember correctly, the average height of humankind during this age is between 12-14 feet (to be honest, I don't REALLY know much about this 'feet' unit of measurement at all, since we use the metric system here in Australia! ). This man was said to have eaten an ENORMOUS amount of food and drank an entire pot FULL of water. The regular appetite of people in Dwapar Yuga is stated as being considerably greater than what it is today. Also, this man was said to have had an injury in the middle of his forehead. In the Mahabharata, Aswatthama was said to have been born with a precious gem known as chintamani embedded onto the centre of his forehead. After the end of the Kurukshetra War, Krishna is said to have forcefully pulled this gem out of Aswatthama's forehead as a part of his punishment for his crimes. It is written in the Mahabharata that blood began to pour profusely out of the hole in the centre of Aswatthama's forehead where the chintamani gemstone had been removed. The removal of the chintamani gemstone caused him SEVERE physical pain. To me, it ALL adds up. That man was most likely Aswatthama. It is also said that Aswatthama is engaged in intense meditation within a cave in the Himalayas to atone for his misdeeds. However, since Aswatthama is said to be a siddha, you will not be able to see him with your limited mortal eyes if he does not want to be seen. He can adopt an incorporeal form and render himself invisible at will wherever and whenever he does not wish to be perceived by people. The man who was encountered in that village was most likely the very SAME Aswatthama described in the Mahabharata. If this is indeed the case, then he is living PROOF that the Mahabharata is not simply a mere mythological story but an actual HISTORICAL document. Aswatthama may be a testament to the Mahabharata being a book that recorded actual historical events.

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Well, according to the Vedic literatures, when people in the previous yugas aged, the rate at which they aged was less than what it is today by a factor of 10. For example, right now in Kali Yuga, a person who is 90 years old could be said to be nearing his/her expected time of death (approximately 100 years, give or take a few years of course) but since the average human lifespan of Dwapar Yuga is said to be approximately 1000 years, an age of 900 in that particular era would be equivalent to an age of 90 in this particular era.

If someone went to Vindhyachal with a video camera or something, SAW Ashwatthama with his or her own two physical eyes and took footage of him for the whole world to see, then that would be BEYOND EPIC. It could prove, beyond all doubt, of the validity of the Mahabharat as a HISTORICAL document instead of a mere mythological poem. I mean, Ashwatthama had a fairly prominent role to play in the events of the Mahabharat story. He could be the Mahabharat's final physically living link. Well, so could Kripa (since Kripa is said to be a chiranjiva too) - but that's entirely another issue. lol
In any case, there's some dudes and dudettes out there who claim that Ashwatthama is a siddha. In this context, Ashwatthama's alleged status as a siddha would mean that Ashwatthama has perfected his nature through penances to such an extent that other people can see him with their physical eyesight only when and if he wants them to. So in other words, he can make himself invisible to us and move from one place to another incognito. Apparently, an Indian newspaper from more than a decade ago had an article in it about a railway employee on leave. During his wanderings in the jungles of Navsari (Gujarat), he had reported a very tall man of about 12 feet with a wound on his forehead. He claims to have had a conversation with him, but I have no idea what it could have been about. If Ashwatthama is indeed still alive in the flesh due to the curse that was temporarily placed against him (just like the Mahabharat tells us), then he appears to be living the rest of his life in a nomadic manner - aimlessly wandering from place to place. A broken man still awaiting his redemption.

It is commonly wrongly associated by sages by taking the literal words of one kalpa and assigning hundreds of thousands of years to every yuga. for example, Swami Prabhupada gave the following time span of each yug-

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http://sanskrit.safire.com/pdf/ReadingtheVedicLiterature.pdf