As a child Krishna came up with a variety of lies, which make us laugh heartily. But He continued to tell lies, even later on. The motive, of course, was to establish dharma, said M.A. Venkatakrishnan in a discourse. But was it necessary to tell lies to establish dharma? Rama too stood on the side of dharma, but never uttered lies. So what was the need for Krishna to utter lies?
Rama was up against enemies who were, at the very least, bound by the truth. But in the Kurukshetra war, the enemies that the Pandavas faced were not bound by such rules. They were prepared to use any means to destroy the Pandavas. Therefore, absolute adherence to honesty would not have helped the Pandavas. A harmless white lie now and then would not be wrong, for the larger cause was to crush the wicked and re-establish dharma, which was being threatened. And so, we find Krishna, on the battlefield, resorting to a trick or two to gain victory for the Pandavas. Asvattama, son of Drona, could not be killed. He was a chiranjeevi. And yet, his threat to the Pandavas was great. Dronacharya too was not an easy opponent to tackle. Drona would give up his life if he heard that his son was no more. But how could Asvattama be killed when he was immortal?
So Krishna asked Bhima to kill an elephant called Asvattama. He then asked Yudhishthira to announce that Asvattama was dead. Drona would never doubt Yudhisthira’s words, for the latter was known for his strict adherence to truth. But Yudhishthira was unwilling to lie. So he said, “Asvattama is dead,” and then added “the elephant.” But Krishna blew His conch loudly when Yudhisthitra said “elephant.” So Drona did not hear all of Yudhisthira’s words, and assumed that his son Asvattama had been killed. Killing Drona then became easy.