Because his deeds measured with deity.

“To Krishna’s mind all things are penetrable,

His genius knows not the impossible.”

Pondered the son of Hades, “nor is there

A weight his mighty mind cannot upbear.”

On Krishna as on sage and guide his mind

(Who is indeed the guide of all mankind)

He fixed and sent his messenger afar

To Yadav land in a swift-rolling car.

Then sped the rushing wheels with small delay

And reached the gated city Dwaraca,

The gated city where Janardan dwelt.

Krishna to Yudhishthere’s desire felt

Answering desire and went with Indrasen

Passing through many lands to Indra-Plain,

Fierily passing with impetuous hooves

To Indraprastha and the men he loves.

With filial soul his brothers Yudhishthere

And Bheem received the man without compeer:

But Krishna to his father’s sister went

And greeted her with joyous love; then bent

His heart to pleasure with his heart’s own friend,

While reverently the courteous twins attend.

But after rest in those bright halls renowned

Yudhisthere sought the immortal man and found

At leisure sitting and revealed his need.

“King’s Sacrifice I covet, but indeed

Thou knowest not practicable by will alone

Like other rites is this imperial one,

But he in whom all kingly things combine,

He whom all men, all lands to honour join,

A King above all kings, he finds alone

Empire. And now though all my friends are one

To bid me forward, I even yet attend

From thy voice only certainty, 0 friend.

Some from affection lovingly suppress

Their friend’s worst fault and some from selfishness, 

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Speaking what most will please. Others conceal

Their own good with the name of commonweal.

Such counsel in his need a monarch hath.

But thou art pure of selfish purpose; wrath

And passion know thee not; and thou wilt tell

What shall be solely and supremely well.”

 

Krishna made answer: “All thy virtues, all

Thy gifts make thee the man imperial.

Thou dost deserve this sacrifice.

Yet well Though thou mayst know it, one thing will I tell.

When Rama, Jamadagni’s son, had slain

The chivalry of earth, those who were fain

To flee, left later “issue to inherit

The name of Kshatriya and the regal spirit.

Of these the rule by compact of the clan

Approved thou knowest, and each high-born man

Whate’er and all the kingly multitude

Name themselves subjects of great Ila’s brood

And the Ikshwaku house. Now by increase

The Ikshwaku Kings and Ilian count no less

Than are a hundred clans. Of all most huge

Yayati of the Bhojas, a deluge

Upon the earth in multitude and gift.

To these all chivalry their eyes uplift,

These and their mighty fortunes serve.

But now King Jarasandha lifts his diademed brow

And Ila and Ikshwaku pale their fires,

O’erwhelmed. He over kings and nations towers;

This way and that way with impetuous hands

Assailing overbears; the middle lands

Inhabits and by division rules the world,

Since he in whose sole hand the earth is furled,

Who is first monarch and supreme may claim,

He and he only, the imperial name.

And him the mighty hero, Shishupal

Owns singly nor disdains his lord to call,

But leads his warfare, and, of captains best, 

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The puissant man and subtle strategist,

Chuccar, the Karoosh king, and those two famed

Grew to his side, Hansa and Dimbic named,

Brave men and high of heart, and Corrusus,

Duntvaccar, Maghavahan, Corobhus,

Great kigs; and the wide-ruler of the West

The Yavan lord upon whose gleaming crest

Burns the strange jewel wonderful, whose might

Is like the boundless Oceans infinite,

Whose rule Narac obeys and Muruland?

King Bhagadutt owns Jarasandh’s command,

Thy father’s ancient friend, and more with hand

Serves him than word. He only of the West

And southern end of earth who is possessed,

The hero Kuntivardhan Purujit

Feel for thee as a tender father might.

Chained by affection to thee is his heart

And by affection in thy weal has part.            

To Jarasandh he whom I did not slay

Is gathered, he who must forsooth display

My signs, gives himself out god humanized

And man ideal, and for such is prized

Now in the world, a madman soiled of soul,

The tyrant of the Chedies, whose control

Poundra and Keerat own, a mighty lord,

King of Bengal and by the name adored

Of Poundrian Vasudev. The Bhoja strong

To whom wide lands, one fourth of all, belong,

Called friend of Indra— he made tameable

Pandya and Cruth and Kayshic by his skill

And science, and his brother Aacrity

Is very Parashuram in prowess — he,

Even Bheeshmuc, even this high, far-conquering king

To Jarasandh is vowed. We worshipping,

We who implore his favour, we his kin

Are utterly rejected, all our pain

Of benefaction met with sharp contempt,

Benefit with harm returned or evil attempt. 

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He has forgot his birth, his pride, his name;

Blinded by Jarasandha’s burning fame

To him is gone. To him high fortune yields;

            Great nations leave their old ancestral fields.

            The Bhojas of the North to western plain

            Their eighteen clans transplanted, Shoorasen,

            Shalwa, Petucchur, Kuntie. Bhadracar,

            Susthal, Kulind, Sucutta. All that are

            Of the Shalwaian kings brother or friend,

            Are with their leaders gone, nor yet an end;

             The Southern Panchals and in Kuntie-land        

             The Eastern Coshalas Their native north

             Abandoning-the Matsyas have gone forth

             And from their fear take southern sanctuary:

             With them the clan Sannyastapad. Lastly

                  The warrior great Panchalas terrified

                 Have left their kingdoms and to every side

             Are scattering before Jarasandh’s name.

             On us the universal tempest came,

              When Kansa furiously crushed of old

              The Yadavs: for to Kansa bad and bold

              The son of Brihadrath his daughters gave

               Born younger- feminine to male Sahadave,

               Ustie and Praj5thie. In this tie made strong

His royal kin he overpowered; nor long,

Being supreme, ruled prudently, but grew

A tyrant and a fool. Whereupon drew

The Bhoja lords together, those whom tired

His cruelties, and these with me conspired

Seeking a national deliverer.

Therefore I rose and Ahuk’s daughter, her

The sweet and slender, gave to Acrur, — then

Made free from tyranny my countrymen.

With me was Ram, the plougher of the foe;

Our swords laid Kansa and Sanaaman low.

Scarce was this inbred peril crossed and we

Safe, Jarasandh arose. Then laid their plans

By vast majority the eighteen clans, 

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That though we fought for ever, though we slew

With mighty blows infallible, o’erthrew

Foe upon foe, three centuries might take wing

Nor yet be slain the armies of the King.

For him and his two men like gods made strong,

Unslayable where the weapons thickest throng,

Hansa and Dimbhuc styled. Those two uniting,

Heroes, and Jarasandh heroic fighting

Might battle with assembled worlds and win;

Such was my thought, nor mine alone has been,

But all the kings this counsel entertain,

0 wisest Yudhisthere. Now there was slain

By Ram in eight days’ battle duelling

One Hansa truly named, a mighty king.

“Hansa is slain,” said one to Dimbhuc. Him

Hearing the Jumna’s waters overwhelm

Devoted. Without Hansa here alone

He had not heart to linger, so is gone

His way to death. Of Dimbhuc’s death when knew

Hansa sacker of cities, he too drew

To the same waves that closed above his friend.

There were they joined in one o’erwhelming end.

This hearing Jarasandha discontent

With empty heart to his own city went.

The King being gone we in all joy again

In Mathura dwelt and our ancestral plain.

But she, the royal princess lotus-eyed,

Went to her father mourning; she, the pride

Of Jarasandh and Kansa’s wife, and cried,

Spurring the mighty Maagadh, weeping: “Kill

My husband’s murderer, 0 my father”, and still, “

Kill him!” But we minding the old thought planned

With heavy hearts out from our native land,

Son, friend and kinsman, all in fear must flee.¹

Our endless riches’ loose prolixity²

Unportable by division we compressed

And with it fared sadly into the West.

 

 ¹ flee fast.    ² Our loose prolixity of riches vast 

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The lovely city, fair Kushasthaly,

With mountains beautiful, our colony

We made, the Ryevat mountains; and up-piled

Ramparts which even the gods in battle wild

Could hardly scale, ramparts which women weak

Might hold — of Vrishny’s swords what need to speak?

Five are the leagues our dwelling place extends,

Three are the mountain-shoulders and each ends

An equal space: hundred-gated the town.

Each gate with heroism and renown

Is bolted and has eighteen keys close-bound,

Eighteen strong bows in whom the trumpets sound

Wakes headlong lust of war. Thousands as many

Our race. Ahuk has hundred sons nor any

Less than a god: And Charudeshna, he

With his dear brother, hero Satyaki,

Chacrodave, I, the son of Rohinie,

And Samba and Pradyumna, seven are we,

Seven strong men; nor other seven more weak,

Cunca, Shuncou, Kountie and Someque

Anadhrishty, Somitinjoy, Critavurm:

Undhuk’s two sons-besides and the old King: firm

As adamant they, heroes energical.

These are the Vrishny men who lead there, all

Remembering the sweet middle lands we lost.

There we behold that flood of danger crossed

The Maagadh, Jarasandh, the mountain jaws

Impassable behold. There free from cause

Of fear, eastern or northern, Madhou’s sons

Dwell glad of safety. Lo, we the mighty ones,

Because King Kansa married, to the West,

By Jarasandha utterly distressed,

Are fled, and there on Ryevat, hill of kine,

Find sanctuary from danger Magadhine.

Therefore though thou art with imperialness

Endiademed already, though the race

Of highborn princes thou must weld in one

And be their King and Emperor alone, 

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Yet not while Jarasandha liveth dream

That thou canst wear thy destined diadem.

Great Jarasandha living; for he brings

The princes of the earth and all her kings

And Girivraj with mighty prisoners fills, —

As in a cavern of the lordly hills,

A lion’s homestead, slaughtered elephants lie,

So they a hecatomb of royalty

Wait their dire ending; for Magadha’s King

A sacrifice of princes purposing,

With fierce asceticism of will adored

Mahadev mighty-minded, Uma’s lord.

Conquering he moves towards his purpose, (brings

Army on army, kings on battling kings,

Victorious brings and binds and makes of men

His mountain city a huge cattle-pen.

Us too his puissance drove in strange dismay

To the fair-gated city, Dwaraca)

Therefore if of Imperial Sacrifice

Thou art ambitious, first, 0 Prince, devise

To rescue all those murdered kings and slay

King Jarasandha, since thus only may

The instituted Sacrifice attain

Its great proportion and immenser plan.

King, I have said; yet as thy deeper mind

Adviseth thee. Only when all’s designed,

All reasons weighed, then give me word.” “0 thou

Art only wise,” Yudhishthere cried: “Lo now

A word no other heart might soar so high

To utter; yet thy brave sagacity

Plainly hath phrased it; nor like thee on earth

Another loosener of doubts takes birth.¹

(Behold, the earth is full of kings; they still

Each in his house do absolutely their will;

Yet who attains to empire? Nay, the word

Itself is danger.) He who has preferred

His enemy’s greatness by sad study known,

 

¹Another sword of counsel shall take birth. 

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How shall he late forget and praise his own ?

Only who in his foemen’s shock not thrown

Wins by ordeal praise, deserves the crown.

(This vast and plenteous earth, this mine of gems,

Is from a distance judged, how vast its realms,

Not from the dells. Nor otherwise, 0 pride

Of Vrishny’s seed, man’s greatness is espied.

In calm and sweet content is highest bliss,

Mine be the good that springs from chastened peace.)

Or I with this attempt hope not the crown

Of high supremacy to wear. Renown

Girds these and high-born minds; and so they deem

Lo I and I am warrior and supreme.

But we by Jarasandha’s force alarmed

And all his bold tyrannies iron-armed

Shun the emprise. 0 Hero, 0 high-starred,

In whose great prowess we have done and dared,

In whose heroic arm our safeties dwell,

Yet lo thou fearest him, deemst invincible

And where thou fearest, my conceit of strength

Becomes a weakling’s dream until at length

I hardly dare to hope by strongest men

This mighty Jarasandha can be slain,

Arjoon or Bheem or Rama or combined.

Thou, Keshav, in all things to me art mind.”

Out Bhema spoke, the strong man eloquent:

“The unstrenuous king, unhardy, unvigilant

Sinks like an ant-hill; nor the weak-kneed less

Who on a stranger leans his helplessness.

But the unsleeping and “resourceful man

With wide and adequate attempt oft can

His mightier enemy vanquish; him though feeble

His wished-for good attends invariable.

Krishna has policy and I have strength

And with our mother’s son Dhananjoy, length

Assured of victory dwells; we shall assail

Victoriously the Magadhan and quell

As triple fire a victim.” Krishna then: 

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“Often we see that rash unthinking men

Imprudent undertake nor consequence

Envisage; yet will not his foe dispense

Therefore the one-ideaed and headstrong man.

Now since the virtuous ages first began

Five emperors have reigned to history known,

Maroutta, Bharat, Yuvanaswa’s son,

Great Bhagirath and Kartavirya old.

By wealth Maroutta conquered, Bharat bold

By armed strength; Mandhata’s victories

Enthroned him and his subtle soul and wise.

By strenuous greatness Kartavirya bent

The world, but Bhagirath beneficent

Gathered the willing nations to his sway.

But thou purposing like greatness, to one way

Not limited, restor’st the imperial five.

Their various masteries reunited live:

Virtue, high policy, wealth without dearth

And conquest and the rapid grasp at Earth —

Yet these avail not to make solely great.

Strong Jarasandha bars thee from thy fate,

(Whom not the hundred nations can deter

But with great might he grows an emperor;

The jewel-sceptred kings to serve him start.

Yet he in his unripe and violent heart)

Unsatisfied, assumes the tyrant’s part.

He, the first man of men, lays his rude hand

On the anointed monarchs of the land

And pillages. Not one we see exempt.

How then shall feebler king his fall attempt?

Well-nigh a hundred in his sway are whelmed.

With these like cattle cleansed, like cattle hemmed

In Shiva’s house, the dreadful Lord of beasts,

Purified as for sacrificial feasts,

Surely life’s joy is turned to bitterness,

Not dying like heroes in the battle’s press.

Honour is his who in swift battle falls

And best mid swords high death to princes calls. 

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In battle let us ‘gainst the Maagadh thrust,

By battle ignominy repel. To just

Eighty and six the royal victims mount,

Fourteen remain to fill the dire account,

Who being won his horrid violence

No farther pause will brook. (Glory immense

He wins, glory most glorious who frustrates

Interposing the tyrant and amates.

Kings shall acclaim him lord inevitably.”)

But Yudhisthere made answer passionately:

“Shall I, ambitious of imperial place,

Krishna expose, in my mad selfishness,

Urged on by naked daring, men to death

Whom most I love ? 0 Krishna, what is breath

To one that’s mad and of his eyes bereft?

What joy has he that life to him is left?

These are my eyes/Thou Krishna art my mind,

Lo, I have come as one who stumbles blind

Upon the trackless Ocean’s spuming shore,

Then wakes, so I all confident before

Upon this dreadful man whom even death

Dare not in battle cross. What use is breath ‘

Of hopeless effort? Mischief only can

Result to the too blindly daring man.

Better not undertaken, is my mind

On riper thought, than fruitlessly designed.

Nay, let us leave this purpose, wiser so

Than with eyes open to our death to go.

For all my heart within is broken and slain

Viewing the vast impracticable pain

Of Sacrifice Imperial.” Then replied

To Yudhishthere great Partha in the pride

Of wonders self-attained, banner and car,

And palace Titan-built (and in the war

Quiver made inexhaustible) and great

Unequalled bow. “0 King,” he said, “since Fate

Has given me bow and shafts, a sword like flame,

Great lands and strength, courage, allies and fame, 

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Yea, such has given as men might covet long

And never win; 0 King, what more? For strong                                 

Is Birth and conquers, cries the theorist

Conversant in deep books; but to my taste

Courage is strongest strength. How helps it then

The uncourageous that heroic men

His fathers were? From uncourageous sires

Who springs a hero, he to glory towers.

That man the name of Kshatriya merits best

Whose soul is ever to the battle drest.

Courage, all gifts denied, ploughs through amain

A sea of foes: courage without, in vain

All other gifts conspire; rather all gifts

Courage into a double stature lifts.

But conquest is in three great strengths complete —

Action, capacity, fate: where these three meet,

There conquest comes; nor strengths alone suffice;

Men by neglect forfeit their Paradise.

And this the cause the strong much-hated man

Before his enemies sinks. Hard ‘tis to scan

Whether of these flaws strength most fatally,

A spirit poor or an o’erweening eye.

Both are destruction. Kings who highly aim

And court success, must either quite disclaim.

And if by Jarasandha’s overthrow,

Rescuing Kings, to Sacrifice we go,

What fairer, what more glorious ? Mighty prince,

Deeds unattempted virtue maimed evince.

In us when virtue dwells, why deemst thou, brother,

A nothingness the children of thy mother.

Easy it is the ochre gown to take

Afterwards, if for holy calmness’ sake

We must the hermit virtues imitate.

But here is Empire! here a royal fate’!¹

Let others quietism’s sweets embrace;

We the loud battle seek, the foeman’s face.”

“In Kuntie’s son and born of Bharat’s race

What spirit should dwell, Arjoon’s great words express,” 

Page – 48

Said Krishna. “And of death we have no light

(Whether it comes by day or comes by night;

Nor this of mortal man was ever known

That one by going not to fight has grown

Immortal. Let him then who’s man indeed

Clash forth against his foes, yet rule decreed

Of policy forget not: so his mind

Shall live at poise. For when in battle combined

Conduct meets long felicity, then high

Success must come nor two met equally

Equal can issue thence: from clash and strife

Of equals inequality takes life.

But rash impolicy with helplessness

Having joined issue in their mutual stress

Breed ruin huge; equality inglorious

Then doubt engenders, nor are both victorious.

Therefore in skilful conduct putting trust

If with our foe we grapple, fell him we must

As a wild torrent wrestling with a tree

Uproots and hurls it downward to the sea.

‘Trying the weak points in thine enemy’s mail,

Subtly thine own disguise, then prompt assail’;

So runs the politic maxim of the wise

And to my mind rings just. If we devise

Secret, yet with no spot of treacherous blame,

To penetrate our foeman’s house and limb

Grappling with limb, oh, won infallibly then

Our object is. Often one man of men

Pervades the nations like a soul, whose brow

Glory eternal-seeming wears; so now

This lion lord of men; but yet I deem

Shall that eternal vanish like a dream

In battle slaying him if at the last

By many swords we perish, so ‘tis best

We shall by death the happy skies attain,

Saving from tyranny our countrymen.”

 

           Sabhaparva, Adhyayas 13-16, Adhyaya 17 incomplete       

 

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