Section LXXIV

Vaisampayana said,—'O monarch, it was then that the virtuous Gandhari, afflicted with grief on account of her affection for her sons, addressed king Dhritarashtra and said,

"When Duryodhana was born, Vidura of great intelligence had said,

'It is well to send this disgrace of the race to the other world.

He cried repeatedly and dissonantly like a jackal. It is certain he will prove the destruction of our race. Take this to heart, O king of the Kurus.

O Bharata, sink not, for your own fault, into an ocean of calamity. O lord, accord not your approbation to the counsels of the wicked ones of immature years. Be not you the cause of the terrible destruction of this race.

Who is there that will break an embankment which has been completed, or re-kindle a conflagration which has been extinguished?

O bull of the Bharata race, who is there that will provoke the peaceful sons of Pritha?

You rememberest, O Ajamida, everything, but still I will call your attention to this. The scriptures can never control the wicked-minded for good or evil. And, O king, a person of immature understanding will never act as one of mature years.

Let your sons follow you as their leader. Let them not be separated from you for ever (by losing their lives). Therefore, at my word, O king, abandon this wretch of our race. You couldst not, O king, from parental affection, do it before. Know that the time has come for the destruction of race through him.

Err not, O king. Let your mind, guided by counsels of peace, virtue, and true policy, be what it naturally is. That prosperity which is acquired by the aid of wicked acts, is soon destroyed; while that which is won by mild means takes root and descends from generation to generation."

"The king, thus addressed by Gandhari who pointed out to him in such language the path of virtue, replied unto her, saying,—

'If the destruction of our race is come, let it take place freely. I am ill able to prevent it. Let it be as they (these my sons) desire. Let the Pandavas return. And let my sons again gamble with the sons of Pandu."