power to stand absolutely alone in the moment of
trial, the ever clinging to some one stronger than himself, in order
that his own decision might be upheld. That last weakness had to be
burnt out as by fire. In a critical moment of the battle the word came
that the success of Drona was carrying everything before him; that
Drona was resistless and that the only way to slay him was to spread
the report that his son was dead, and then he would no longer fight.
Bhima slew an elephant of the same name as Drona's son, and he said
in the hearing of Drona: "Ashvatthama is dead." But Drona would
not believe unless King Yudhishthira said so. Then the test came.
Will he tell a practical lie but a nominal truth, in order to win the
battle? He refused; not for his brother's pleadings would he do it.
Would he stand firm by truth quite alone when all he revered seemed to
be on the other side? The great One said: "Say that Ashvatthama is
slain." Ought he to have done it because He, Shri Krishna, bade
him? Ought he to have told the lie because the revered One counselled
it? Ah no! neither for the voice of God nor man, may the human soul do a
thing which he knows to be against God and His law; and alone he must
stand in the universe, rather than sin against right. And when the lie
was told under cover of that excuse, Yudhishthira doing what he
wished in his heart under cover of the command from one he revered, then
he fell, his chariot descended to the ground, and suffering and misery
followed him from that day till the day of his ending, until in the face
of the King of the celestials he stood alone, holding the duty of
protection even to a dog higher than divine command and joy of heaven.
And then he showed that the lesson had worked out in his purification,
and that the heart was clean from the slightest taint of weakness. Oh,
but men say, Shri Krishna counselled the telling of a lie! My
brothers, can you not see beneath the illusion? What is there in this
world that the Supreme does not do? There is no life but His, no Self
but His, nothing save His life through all His universe; and every act
is His act, when you go back to the ultimates. He had warned them of
that truth. "I" He said, "am the gambling of the cheat," as well as the
chants of the Veda. Strange lesson, and hard to learn, and yet true. For
at every stage of evolution there is a lesson to be learnt. He teaches
all the lessons; at each point of growth the next step is to b