Is Ashwathama of Mahabharata Still Alive??

If you belive on hinduisam and krishna you must belive on

Mahabharat.. according mahabharat ashwatham could not
die.. so what do you think about Ashwathama is he alive...
some where i read long before.. in desert of Rajasthan Army
saw many times.. the old old person walking far in Desert
according mahabharat krishna took off his mani from head
so as he will always alive on earth and bleeding on his
head..... it was his punishment of using Bhramastra ... so
is he alive on earth and some where in desert of
Rajasthan...what do you think.

Courtesy: http://bhaktiyoga.tribe.net/thread/cafa71b1-
fb75-4c6c-b606-e16ea6a42041

New Edition

A 5000+ Year Old Man Still Physically Alive? 

Post by rishi on Mar 24, 2007, 1:01pm

In 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:

1. 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 

2. Bali (demon) -a righteous demon king who conquered

heaven, earth, and the underworld, but was forced to give
it back by Vamana
 
3. Vyasa -a sage who narrated the Mahabharata, he was
also a sage in the epic
 
4. Hanuman -a monkey deva who served Rama 
5. Vibhishana -Ravana's brother who was made King of
Lanka by Rama
 
6.Kripacharya -a teacher of the princes in the
Mahabharata 
7.Parashurama -an avatar of Vishnu
8.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.