than the duty of battle. Having
recourse to that path, Kshatriyas, O bull of the Kshatriya order, engage
in battle. He who lives in the observance of Kshatriya practices fights
with son, sire, brother, sister's son, and maternal uncle, and relatives,
and kinsmen. If he is slaughtered in battle, there is great merit in it.
Similarly, there is great sin in it if he flies from the field. It is for
this that the life of a person desirous of living by the adoption of
Kshatriya duties is exceedingly terrible. Unto thee, as regards this, I
will say a few beneficial words. After the fall of Bhishma and Drona and
the mighty car-warrior Karna, after the slaughter of Jayadratha and thy
brothers, O sinless one, and thy son Lakshmana, what is there now for us
to do? They upon whom we had rested all burdens of sovereignty we had
been enjoying, have all gone to regions of blessedness attainable by
persons conversant with Brahma, casting off their bodies. As regards
ourselves, deprived of those great car-warriors possessed of numerous
accomplishments, we shall have to pass our time in grief, having caused
numerous kings to perish. When all those heroes were alive, even then
Vibhatsu could not be vanquished. Having Krishna, for his eyes, that
mighty-armed hero is incapable of being defeated by the very gods. The
vast (Kaurava) host, approaching his Ape-bearing standard that is lofty
as an Indra's pole (set up in the season of spring) and that is effulgent
as Indra's bow, hath always trembled in fear. At the leonine roars of
Bhimasena and the blare of Panchajanya and the twang of Gandiva, our
heart will die away within us. Moving like flashes of lightning, and
blinding our eyes, Arjuna's Gandiva is seen to resemble a circle of fire.
Decked with pure gold, that formidable bow as it is shaken, looks like
lightning's flash moving about on every side. Steeds white in hue and
possessed of great speed and endued with the splendour of the Moon or the
Kusa grass, and that run devouring the skies, are yoked unto his car.
Urged on by Krishna, like the masses of clouds driven by the wind, and
their limbs decked with gold, they bear Arjuna to battle. That foremost
of all persons conversant with arms, Arjuna, burned that great force of
thine like a swelling conflagration consuming dry grass in the forest in
the season of winter. Possessed of the splendour of Indra himself, while
penetrating into our ranks, we have seen Dhananjaya to look like an
eleph