f her sons) Pritha gave expression
to all her diverse griefs. And she said, 'Can gambling and the slaughter
of deer, which, O chastiser of foes, occupied all wicked kings of old, be
a pleasant occupation for the Pandavas? The thought consumeth, O Kesava,
that being dragged into the presence of all the Kurus in their assembly
by Dhritarashtra's sons, insults worse than death were heaped on Krishna,
O chastiser of foes, the banishment of my sons from their capital and
their wanderings in the wilderness,--these and various other griefs, O
Janardana, have been mine. Nothing could be more painful to me or to my
sons themselves, O Madhava, than that they should have had to pass a
period of concealment, shut up in a stranger's house. Full fourteen years
have passed since the day when Duryodhana first exiled my sons. If misery
is destructive of fruits of sins, and happiness is dependent on the
fruits of religious merit, then it seems that happiness may still be ours
after so much misery. I never made any distinction between
Dhritarashtra's sons and mine (so far as maternal affection is
concerned). By that truth, O Krishna, I shall surely behold thee along
with the Pandavas safely come out of the present strife with their foes
slain, and the kingdom recovered by them. The Pandavas themselves have
observed their vow with such truthfulness sticking to Dharma that they
are incapable of being defeated by their enemies. In the matter of my
present sorrows, however, I blame neither myself nor Suyodhana, but my
father alone. Like a wealthy man giving away a sum of money in gift, my
father gave me away to Kuntibhoja. While a child playing with a ball in
my hands, thy grandfather, O Kesava, gave me away to his friend, the
illustrious Kuntibhoja. Abandoned, O chastiser of foes, by my own father,
and my father-in law, and afflicted with insufferable woes, what use, O
Madhava, is there in my being alive? On the night of Savyasachin's birth,
in the lying-in-room, an invisible voice told me, "This son of thine will
conquer the whole world, and his fame will reach the very heavens.
Slaying the Kurus in a great battle and recovering the kingdom, thy son
Dhananjaya will, with his brothers, perform three grand sacrifices." I do
not doubt the truth of that announcement. I bow unto Dharma that upholds
the creation. If Dharma be not a myth, then, O Krishna, thou wilt surely
achieve all that the invisible voice said. Neither the loss of my
husband, O M