the water needed for the drinking of
the people; until He left Vraja to meet Kamsa, we find Him ever chasing
away every form of evil that came within the limits of His abode. We are
told that when He had left Vraja and stood in the tournament field of
Kamsa with His brother, His brother and Himself were mere boys, in the
tender delicate bodies of youths. After the whole of the Lila was over
They were still children, when They went forth to fight. From that time
onwards He met, one after another, the great incarnations of evil and
crushed them with His resistless strength: we need not dwell on these
stories, for they fill His life.

We come to the third stage of Statesman, a marvellously interesting
feature in His life--the tact, the delicacy, the foresight, the skill in
always putting the man opposed to Him in the wrong, and so winning His
way and carrying others with Him. As you know, this part of His life is
played out especially in connection with the Pandavas. He is the
one who in every difficulty steps forward as ambassador; it is He who
goes with Arjuna and Bhima to slay the giant king Jarasandha, who was
going to make a human sacrifice to Mahadeva, a sacrifice that was put a
stop to as blasphemous; it was He who went with them in order that the
conflict might take place without transgressing the strictest rules of
Kshattriya morality. Follow Him as He and Arjuna and his brother enter
into the city of the king. They will not come by the open gate, that is
the pathway of the friend. They break down a portion of the wall as a
sign that they come as foes. They will not go undecorated; and
challenged why they wore flowers and sandal, the answer is that they
come for the celebration of a triumph, the fulfilling of a vow. Offered
food, the answer of the great ambassador is that they will not take food
then, that they will meet the king later and explain their purpose. When
the time arrives He tells him in the most courteous but the clearest
language that all these acts have been performed that he may know that
they had come not as friends but as foes to challenge him to battle. So
again when the question arises, after the thirteen years of exile, how
shall the land be won back without struggle, without fight, you see Him
standing in the assembly of Pandavas and their friends with the
wisest counsel how perchance war may be averted; you see Him offering to
go as ambassador that all the magic of His golden tongue may be us