d emaciated. Suvala's son informed king
Dhritarashtra of this. As a father full of affection for his son,
Dhritarashtra tolerated the evil policy his son pursued. Without doubt,
by disregarding Vidura and the high-souled son of Ganga, and in
consequence of his neglect in restraining his wicked and covetous son,
entirely governed by his passions, the king has met with destruction like
my poor self. Without doubt, Suyodhana, having caused his uterine
brothers to be slain and having cast this couple into burning grief, hath
fallen off from his blazing fame. Burning with the hate he bore to us
Duryodhana was always of a sinful heart. What other kinsman of high birth
could use such language towards kinsmen as he, from desire of battle,
actually used in the presence of Krishna? We also have, through
Duryodhana's fault, been lost for eternity, like suns burning everything
around them with their own energy. That wicked-souled wight, that
embodiment of hostility, was our evil star. Alas, for Duryodhana's acts
alone, this race of ours has been exterminated. Having slain those whom
we should never have slain, we have incurred the censures of the world.
King Dhritarashtra, having installed that wicked-souled prince of sinful
deeds, that exterminator of his race, in the sovereignty, is obliged to
grieve today. Our heroic foes have been slain. We have committed sin. His
possessions and kingdom are gone. Having slain them, our wrath has been
pacified. But grief is stupefying me. O Dhananjaya, a perpetrated sin is
expiated by auspicious acts, by publishing it wildly, by repentance, by
alms-giving, by penances, by trips to tirthas after renunciation of
everything, by constant meditation on the scriptures. Of all these, he
that has practised renunciation is believed to be incapable of committing
sins anew. The Srutis declare that he that practises renunciation escapes
from birth and death, and obtaining the right rood, that person of fixed
soul attains to Brahma. I shall, therefore, O Dhananjaya, go to the
woods, with your leave, O scorcher of foes, disregarding all the pairs of
opposites, adopting the vow of taciturnity, and walking in the way
pointed out by knowledge.[8] O slayer of foes, the Srutis declare it and
I myself have seen it with my eyes, that one who is wedded to this earth
can never obtain every kind Of religious merit. Desirous of obtaining the
things of this earth, I have committed sin, through which, as the Srutis
declare