Chapter 235

Vaisampayana said, “Hearing those words of Dhritarashtra, Sakuni, whenthe opportunity presented itself, aided by Kama, spoke unto Duryodhanathese words, ‘Having exiled the heroic Pandavas by thy own prowess, OBharata, rule thou this earth without a rival like the slayer of Samvararuling the heaven! O monarch, the kings of the east, the south, the west,and the north, have all been made tributory to thee! O lord of earth,that blazing Prosperity which had before paid her court to the sons ofPandu, hath now been acquired by thee along with thy brothers! Thatblazing Prosperity, O king, which we not many days ago saw with heavyhearts in Yudhishthira at Indraprastha, is today seen by us to be ownedby thee, she having, O mighty-armed monarch, been snatched by thee fromthe royal Yudhishthira by force of intellect alone. O slayer of hostileheroes, all the kings of the earth now living in subjection to thee,await thy commands, as they did before under Yudhishthira, awaiting his.O monarch, the goddess Earth with her boundless extent with girth ofseas, with her mountains and forests, and towns and cities and mines, anddecked with woodlands and hills is now thine! Adored by the Brahmanas andworshipped by the kings, thou blazest forth, O king, in consequence ofthy prowess, like the Sun among the gods in heaven! Surrounded by theKurus, O king, like Yama by the Rudra, or Vasava by the Maruts, thoushinest, O monarch, like the Moon among the stars! Let us, therefore, Oking, go and look at the sons of Pandu–them who are now divested ofprosperity, them who never obeyed commands, them who never owedsubjection! It hath been heard by us, O monarch, that the Pandavas arenow living on the banks of the lake called Dwaitavana, with a multitudeof Brahmanas, having the wilderness for their home. Go thither, O king,in all thy prosperity, scorching the son of Pandu with a sight of thyglory, like the Sun scorching everything with his hot rays! Thyself asovereign and they divested of sovereignty, thyself in prosperity andthey divested of it, thyself possessing affluence and they in poverty,behold now, O king, the sons of Pandu. Let the sons of Pandu behold theelike Yayati, the son of Nahusha, accompanied by a large train offollowers and enjoying bliss that is great. O king, that blazingProsperity which is seen by both one’s friends and foes, is regarded aswell-bestowed! What happiness can be more complete than that which heenjoyeth who while himself in prosperity, looketh upon his foes inadversity, like a person on the hill top looking down upon anothercrawling on the earth? O tiger among kings, the happiness that onederives from beholding his foes in grief, is greater than what one mayderive from the acquisition of offering or wealth or kingdom! Whathappiness will not be his who, himself in affluence, will cast his eyeson Dhananjaya attired in barks and deer-skins? Let thy wife dressed incostly robes look at the woeful Krishna clad in barks and deer-skins, andenhance the latter’s grief! Let the daughter of Drupada reproach herselfand her life, divested as she is of wealth, for the sorrow that she willfeel upon beholding thy wife decked in ornaments will be far greater thanwhat she had felt in the midst of the assembly (when Dussasana haddragged her there)!”

Vaisampayana continued, “Having thus spoken unto the king, Karna andSakuni both remained silent, O Janamejaya, after their discourse wasover.”