her sons in that state, and embracing them all, and in
accents choked by woe, She said these words,--

"Ye are virtuous and good-mannered, and adorned with all excellent
qualities and respectful behaviour. Ye are all high-minded, and engaged
in the service of your superiors. And ye are also devoted to the gods and
the performance of sacrifices. Why, then, hath this calamity overtaken
you. Whence is this reverse of fortune? I do not see by whose wickedness
this sin hath overtaken you. Alas I have brought you forth. All this must
be due to my ill fortune. It is for this that ye have been overtaken by
this calamity, though ye all are endued with excellent virtues. In energy
and prowess and strength and firmness and might, ye are not wanting. How
shall ye now, losing your wealth and possessions, live poor in the
pathless woods? If I had known before that ye were destined to live in
the woods, I would not have on Pandit's death come from the mountains of
Satasringa to Hastinapore. Fortunate was your father, as I now regard,
for he truly reaped the fruit of his asceticism, and he was gifted with
foresight, as he entertained the wish of ascending heaven, without having
to feel any pain on account of his sons. Fortunate also was the virtuous
Madri, as I regard her today, who had, it seems, a fore-knowledge of what
would happen and who on that account, obtained the high path of
emancipation and every blessing therewith. All, Madri looked upon me as
her stay, and her mind and her affections were ever fixed on me. Oh, fie
on my desire of life, owing to which suffer all this woe. Ye children, ye
are all excellent and dear unto me. I have obtained you alter much
suffering. I cannot leave you. Even I will go with you. Alas, O Krishna,
(Draupadi), why dost thou leave me so? Everything endued with life is
sure to perish. Hath Dhata (Brahma) himself forgotten to ordain my death?
Perhaps, it is so, and, therefore, life doth not quit me. O Krishna, O
thou who dwellest in Dwaraka, O younger brother of Sankarshana, where art
thou? Why dost thou not deliver me and these best of men also from such
woe? They say that thou who art without beginning and without end
deliverest those that think of thee. Why doth this saying become untrue.
These my sons are ever attached to virtue and nobility and good fame and
prowess. They deserve not to suffer affliction. Oh, show them mercy.
Alas, when there are such elders amongst our race as Bhishma and Drona