are certain to have victory. If, however, you fly
away, breaking your array, the Pandavas, pursuing your sinful selves,
will slay all of you. Death in battle, therefore, is for our good. Death
in the field of battle while engaged in fight according to Kshatriya
practices is pleasant. Such death produces no kind of grief. By
encountering such a death, a person enjoys eternal happiness in the other
world. Let all the Kshatriyas assembled here listen to me. It were better
that they should even submit to the power of the angry Bhimasena than
that they should abandon the duties practised by them from the days of
their ancestors. There is no act more sinful for a Kshatriya than flight
from battle. You Kauravas, there is not a better path to heaven than the
duty of battle. The warrior acquires in a day regions of bliss (in the
other world) that take many long years for others to acquire." Fulfilling
those words of the king, the great Kshatriya car-warriors once more
rushed against the Pandavas, unable to endure their defeat and firmly
resolved to put forth their prowess. Then commenced a battle once more,
that was exceedingly fierce, between thy troops and the enemy, and that
resembled the one between the gods and the Asuras. Thy son Duryodhana
then, O monarch, with all his troops, rushed against the Pandavas headed
by Yudhishthira.'"

4

"Sanjaya said, 'Beholding the fallen boxes of cars, as also the cars of
high-souled warriors, and the elephants and foot-soldiers, O sire, slain
in battle, seeing the field of battle assume an aspect as awful as that
of the sporting ground of Rudra, observing the inglorious end obtained by
hundreds and thousands of kings, witnessing also the prowess of Partha
after the retreat of thy son with grief-stricken heart and when thy
troops, filled with anxiety and fallen into great distress, O Bharata,
were deliberating as to what they should next do, hearing also the loud
wails of the Kaurava warriors that were being crushed, and marking the
displayed and disordered tokens of great kings, the Kuru leader Kripa of
great energy, possessed of years and good conduct and filled with
compassion, and endued with eloquence, approached king Duryodhana, and
angrily said these words unto him, "O Duryodhana, listen, O Bharata, to
these words that I will say unto thee. Having heard them, O monarch, do
thou act according to them, O sinless one, if it pleases thee. There is
no path, O monarch, that is better