d my child. I have injured him for that. I have by
that act, O king, become liable to be slain by thee. Moved by grief for
my son, I have done this injury to thy son. Listen now to the reason why
I have become liable to be killed by thee. Men wish for birds either to
kill them for food or to keep them in cages for sport. There is no third
reason besides such slaughter or immurement for which men would seek
individuals of our species. Birds, again, from fear of being either
killed or immured by men seek safety in flight. Persons conversant with
the Vedas have said that death and immurement are both painful. Life is
dear unto all. All creatures are made miserable by grief and pain. All
creatures wish for happiness. Misery arises from various sources.
Decrepitude, O Brahmadatta, is misery. The loss of wealth is misery. The
adjacence of anything disagreeable or evil is misery. Separation or
dissociation from friends and agreeable objects is misery. Misery arises
from death and immurement. Misery arises from causes connected with women
and from other natural causes. The misery that arises from the death of
children alters and afflicts all creatures very greatly. Some foolish
persons say that there is no misery in others' misery.[417] Only he who
has not felt any misery himself can say so in the midst of men. He,
however, that has felt sorrow and misery, would never venture to say so.
One that has felt the pangs of every kind of misery feels the misery of
others as one's own. What I have done to thee, O king, and what thou has
done to me, cannot be washed away by even a hundred years. After what we
have done to each other, there cannot be a reconciliation. As often as
thou wilt happen to think of thy son, thy animosity towards me will
become fresh. If a person after avenging oneself of an injury, desires to
make peace with the injured, the parties cannot be properly reunited even
like the fragments of an earthen vessel. Men conversant with scriptures
have laid it down that trust never produces happiness. Usanas himself sang
two verses unto Prahlada in days of old. He who trusts the words, true or
false, of a foe, meets with destruction like a seeker of honey, in a pit
covered with dry grass.[418] Animosities are seen to survive the very
death of enemies, for persons would speak of the previous quarrels of
their deceased sires before their surviving children. Kings extinguish
animosities by having recourse to conciliation but, wh