to slay us by means
of superhuman weapons. Professing himself to be a Brahmana, he was in the
habit of using irresistible illusion. By an illusion itself hath he been
slain today. O Partha, what is there that is improper in this? Drona
having been thus punished by me, if his son, from rage, uttereth loud
roars, what do you lose by that? I do not think it at all wonderful that
Drona's son, urging the Kauravas to battle, will cause them to be slain,
unable to protect them himself. Thou art acquainted with morality. Why
then dost thou say that I am a slayer of my preceptor? It was for this
that I was born as a son to the king of the Panchalas, having sprung from
the (sacrificial) fire. How, O Dhananjaya, you call him a Brahmana or
Kshatriya, with whom, while engaged in battle, all acts, proper and
improper, were the same? O foremost of men, why should not he be slain,
by any means in our power, who, deprived of his senses in wrath, used to
slay with the Brahma weapons even those that were unacquainted with
weapons? He that is unrighteous is said by those that are righteous to be
equal to poison. Knowing this, O thou that art well versed with the
truths of morality, why dost thou, O Arjuna, reproach me? That cruel
car-warrior was seized and slain by me. I have done nothing that is
worthy of reproach. Why then, O Vibhatsu, dost thou not congratulate me?
O Partha, I have cut off that terrible head, like unto the blazing sun or
virulent poison or the all-destroying Yuga fire, of Drona. Why then dost
thou not applaud an act that is worthy of applause? He had slain in
battle only my kinsmen and not those of any one else. I say that having
only cut off his head, the fever of my heart hath not abated. The very
core of my heart is being pierced for my not having thrown that head
within the dominion of the Nishadas, like that of Jayadratha![264] It
hath been heard, O Arjuna, that one incurreth sin by not slaying his
foes. Even this is the duty of a Kshatriya, viz., to slay or be slain.
Drona was my foe. He hath been righteously slain by me in battle, O son
of Pandu, even as thou hast slain the brave Bhagadatta, thy friend.
Having slain thy grandsire in battle, thou regardest that act to be
righteous. Why then shouldst thou regard it unrighteous in me for my
having slain my wretched foe? In consequence of our relationship, O
Partha, I cannot raise my head in thy presence and am like a prostrate
elephant with a ladder against his body