Means or Ends ?

Lord Krishna, on many occasions in the Magnum Opus Mahabharata, put ends above means. A few instances come to mind first.

-Dronacharya was proving to be the nemesis of the Pandavas in the Kurukshetra war. It was becoming clearer by the hour that, for the Pandavas to win, Drona had to go.
Meanwhile, Bhima kills the elephant Ashwathama and roars in delight that he has killed the mighty Ashwathama. Drona on hearing this mistakenly assumes that Bhima has killed his son Ashwathama. Unable to come to terms with his loss, he approaches Yudhishtira to confirm. Yudhishtira, on advice from Krishna, tells Drona that Ashwathama is indeed dead. And then whispers out of earshot of Drona that he doesn't know if Ashwathama is a man or an elephant. Drona, given Yudhishtira's reputation for speaking the truth always, is heart broken and becomes a spent force in the war.

-Jayadratha in the Kaurava army was instrumental in unjustly killing Arjuna's son Abhimanyu. An enraged Arjuna swore that he would kill Jayadratha before sunset the next day, failing which, would enter fire. The news of this vow spread like wild fire in the enemy camp. Jayadratha panicked.
The next day, by using an innovative protective human shield around himself, Jayadratha manages to keep Arjuna at bay for most part of the day. As Arjuna waged on, the day drew to a close and Krishna, in His infinite wisdom, realized that it was not going to be possible for Arjuna to get at Jayadratha. He held up his Sudarshana Chakra to cover the sun and blots it out.
The Kaurava warriors assume that sunset was upon them and start rejoicing at Arjuna’s imminent suicide, lowering their guard. At that crucial moment, Krishna advises Arjuna to take aim at Jayadratha and kill him.
Arjuna obeys Him and thus a catastrophe is averted.

-Krishna knew that man to man, Karna was a better warrior than Arjuna. He knew that left to himself, Arjuna would be overcome. During the course of the deadly fight between Karna and Arjuna, the former had just let loose an arrow which had struck the latter in his chest and had left him dazed. Karna, seeing that the iron was hot, got ready to strike. The arrow that he let loose was headed straight at Arjuna's neck. But Krishna pushed the wheel of His chariot into the ground, as a result of which the arrow took away Arjuna's crown and thus saved him.

The story is replete with such instances.

All the more reason I feel that even in our day to day life, it is acceptable to place ends above means, if the situation warrants it.