slaying the Dhartarashtras?
Even if they be regarded as foes,[130] sin will overtake us if we slay
them. Therefore, it behoveth us not to slay the sons of Dhritarashtra who
are our own kinsmen.[131] How, O Madhava can we be happy by killing our
own kinsmen? Even if these, with judgments perverted by avarice, do not
see the evil that ariseth from the extermination of a race, and the sin
of internecine quarrels, why should not we, O Janardana, who see the
evils of the extermination of a race, learn to abstain from that sin? A
race being destroyed, the eternal customs of that race are lost; and upon
those customs being lost, sin overpowers the whole race. From the
predominance of sin, O Krishna, the women of that race become corrupt.
And the women becoming corrupt, an intermingling of castes happeneth, O
descendant of Vrishni. This intermingling of castes leadeth to hell both
the destroyer of the race and the race itself. The ancestors of those
fall (from heaven), their rites of pinda and water ceasing. By these sins
of destroyers of races, causing intermixture of castes, the rules of
caste and the eternal rites of families become extinct. We have heard, O
Janardana, that men whose family rites become extinct, ever dwell in
hell. Alas, we have resolved to perpetrate a great sin, for we are ready
to slay our own kinsmen from lust of the sweets of sovereignty. Better
would it be for me if the sons of Dhritarashtra, weapon in hand, should
in battle slay me (myself) unavenging unarmed.--'"

Sanjaya continued,--"Having spoken thus on the field of battle, Arjuna,
his mind troubled with grief, casting aside his bow and arrows, sat down
on his car."

[Here ends the first lesson entitled "Survey of Forces"[132] in the
dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna of the Bhagavadgita, the essence of
religion, the knowledge of Brahma, and the system of Yoga, comprised
within the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata of Vyasa containing one
hundred thousand verses.]

SECTION XXVI
[(Bhagavad Gita Chapter II)]

Sanjaya said,--"Unto him thus possessed with pity, his eyes filled and
oppressed with tears, and desponding, the slayer of Madhu said these
words."

"The Holy One said,--'Whence, O Arjuna, hath come upon thee, at such a
crisis, this despondency that is unbecoming a person of noble birth, that
shuts one out from heaven, and that is productive of infamy? Let no
effeminacy be thine, O son of Kunti. This suits thee not. Shaking off
thi