f thine, O Janardana, this
lightness of heart, seems to me like the drying up of the ocean or the
locomotion of Meru."'

"'Vasudeva said, "Great is the joy I feel. Listen to me, Dhananjaya! This
that I will tell thee will immediately dispel thy sorrow and infuse
delight into thy heart. O thou of great splendour, know, O Dhananjaya,
that Karna, his dart being baffled through Ghatotkacha, is already slain
in battle. The man does not exist in this world that could not stay
before Karna armed with that dart and looking like Kartikeya in battle.
By good luck, his (natural) armour had been taken away. By good luck, his
earrings also had been taken away. By good luck, his infallible dart also
is now baffled, through Ghatotkacha. Clad in (natural) coat of mail and
decked with his (natural) ear-rings, Karna, who had his senses under
control, could singly vanquish the three worlds with the very gods.
Neither Vasava, nor Varuna the lord of the waters, nor Yama, could
venture to approach him. Indeed, if that bull among men had his armour
and ear-rings, neither thyself, bending the Gandiva, nor myself,
uplifting my discus, called Sudarsana, could vanquish him in battle. For
thy good, Karna was divested of his ear-rings by Sakra with the help of
an illusion. Similarly was that subjugator of hostile towns deprived of
his (natural) armour. Indeed, because Karna, cutting off his (natural)
armour and his brilliant ear-rings, gave them unto Sakra, it is for that
he came to be called Vaikartana. Karna now seems to me to be like an
angry snake of virulent poison stupefied by power of incantation, or like
a fire of mild flames. From that time, O mighty-armed one, when the
high-souled Sakra gave that dart unto Karna in exchange for the latter's
ear-rings, and celestial armour, that dart, viz., which has slain
Ghatotkacha, from that time, Vrisha, having obtained it, had always
regarded thee as slain in battle! But though deprived of that dart, O
sinless one, I swear to thee that hero is still incapable of being slain
by anybody else save thee. Devoted to Brahmanas, truthful in speech,
engaged in penances, observant of vows, kind even unto foes, for these
reasons Karna is called Vrisha. Heroic in battle, possessed of mighty
arms and with bow always uplifted, like the lion in the forest depriving
leaders of elephantine herds of their pride, Karna always deprives the
greatest car-warriors of their pride on the field of battle, and
resembles the m