poke the
following pungent words, "These all are mean eunuchs, ruined, and damned
for a lengthened time." And Sakuni, the king of the Gandhara land, spoke
to Yudhishthira at the time of the game of dice the following words by
way of a wily trick, "Nakula hath been won by me from you, what else have
you got? Now you should better stake your wife Draupadi." You know, O
Sanjaya, all these words of an approbrious kind which were spoken at the
time of the game of dice. I desire to go personally to the Kurus, in
order to settle this difficult matter. If without injury to the Pandava
cause I succeed in bringing about this peace with the Kurus, an act of
religious merit, resulting in very great blessings, will then have been
done by me; and the Kurus also will have been extricated from the meshes
of death. I hope that when I shall speak to the Kurus words of wisdom,
resting on rules of righteousness, words fraught with sense and free from
all tendency to inhumanity, Dhritarashtra's son will, in my presence, pay
heed to them. I hope that when I arrive, the Kurus will pay me due
respect. Else thou mayst rest assured that those vicious sons of
Dhritarashtra, already scorched by their own vicious acts, will be burnt
up by Arjuna and Bhima ready for battle. When Pandu's sons were defeated
(at the play), Dhritarashtra's sons spoke to them words that were harsh
and rude. But when the time will come, Bhima will, no doubt, take care to
remind Duryodhana of those words. Duryodhana is a big tree of evil
passions; Karna is its trunk; Sakuni is its branches; Dussasana forms its
abundant blossoms and fruits; (while) the wise king Dhritarashtra is its
roots. Yudhishthira is a big tree of righteousness; Arjuna is its trunk;
and Bhima is its branches; the sons of Madri are its abundant flowers and
fruits; and its roots are myself and religion and religious men. King
Dhritarashtra with his sons constitutes a forest, while, O Sanjaya, the
sons of Pandu are its tigers. Do not, oh, cut down the forest with its
tigers, and let not the tigers be driven away from the forest. The tiger,
out of the woods, is easily slain; the wood also, that is without a
tiger, is easily cut down. Therefore, it is the tiger that protects the
forest and the forest that shelters the tiger. The Dhritarashtras are as
creepers, while, O Sanjaya, the Pandavas are Sala trees. A creeper can
never flourish unless it hath a large tree to twine round. The sons of
Pritha are ready to