, when great renown was won
by the son of Pandu, what, O regenerate one, was the cause for which
Krishna had once again to go to Hastinapura? It seems to me, O Brahmana,
that the cause could not be a light one, for it was Janardana of
immeasurable soul who had himself to make the journey! O foremost of all
Adhyaryus, tell me in detail what the cause was for undertaking such a
mission!"

Vaishampayana said, "The question thou askest me, O king, is, indeed,
worthy of thee! I will tell thee everything truly as it occurred, O bull
of Bharata's race! Beholding Duryodhana, the mighty son of Dhritarashtra,
struck down by Bhimasena in contravention of the rules of fair fight, in
fact, beholding the Kuru king slain unfairly, O Bharata, Yudhishthira, O
monarch, became filled with great fear, at the thought of the highly
blessed Gandhari possessed of ascetic merit. 'She hath undergone severe
ascetic austerities and can, therefore, consume the three worlds,' even
thus thought the son of Pandu. By sending Krishna, Gandhari, blazing with
wrath, would be comforted before Yudhishthira's own arrival. 'Hearing of
the death of her son brought to such a plight by ourselves, she will, in
wrath, with the fire of her mind, reduce us to ashes! How will Gandhari
endure such poignant grief, after she hears her son, who always fought
fairly, slain unfairly by us?' Having reflected in this strain for a long
while, king Yudhishthira the just, filled with fear and grief, said these
words unto Vasudeva: 'Through thy grace, O Govinda, my kingdom hath been
reft of thorns! That which we could not in imagination even aspire to
obtain hath now become ours, O thou of unfading glory! Before my eyes, O
mighty-armed one, making the very hair stand on end, violent were the
blows that thou hadst to bear, O delighter of the Yadavas! In the battle
between the gods and the Asuras, thou hadst, in days of old, lent thy aid
for the destruction of the foes of the gods and those foes were slain! In
the same way, O mighty-armed one, thou hast given us aid, O thou of
unfading glory! By agreeing to act as our charioteer, O thou of Vrishni's
race, thou hast all along protected us! If thou hadst not been the
protector of Phalguna in dreadful battle, how could then this sea of
troops have been capable of being vanquished? Many were the blows of the
mace, and many were the strokes of spiked bludgeons and darts and sharp
arrows and lances and battle axes, that have been endured