The illusory war

Arjuna said: Then commenced a mighty shower of stones from all sides; (and) those stones, big as rocks, sore oppressed me.

Thereupon, at that terrible encounter, I crushed (those crags) with showers of fleet arrows, resembling the thunderbolt, discharged from Mahendra's weapon.

Those crags being reduced to pieces, there ensued fire and those fragments of stones fell like sparks of flame.

Then, those showers of stones having been destroyed, there fell near me a mighty downpour of water having torrents of the size of an axle.

Thousand of mighty torrents (of water), falling from the sky, enveloped the entire firmament and (all) the directions and the (ten) cardinal points.

(And) I was quite bewildered on account of that (heavy) downpour, blowing of the wind and the yell of the Daityas.

Those showers, covering (the entire space) between the heaven and the earth and incessantly falling upon the ground, (quite) confounded me.

Thereupon, I discharged that terrible, flaming and celestials weapon, Vishoshana, learnt from Indra, which dried the water up.

The showers of stones being destroyed and the watery shower dried up by me, O Bharata, the Danavas created illusions of fire and wind.

Then I totally destroyed the fire by Salila (watery) weapon; and arrested the fury of the wind by the mighty Shaila (rock) weapon.

(And), O Bharata, on the destruction of these (illusions), the Danavas, irrepressible in battle, produced (simultaneously) several other) illusions.

Then commenced a terrible shower of rocks and of the dreadful weapons of fire and wind, making the hair stand on the end (with terror).

And that downpour (of rocks and weapons) oppressed me in battle. Then there spread on all sides a dismal darkness.

When the world was enveloped in that terrible and dense darkness, the horses drew back, Matali stumbled,

And the golden whip fell on the ground from his hand. O best of the Bharata, getting terrified, he repeatedly cried out "Where are you?"

(And), when he lost his senses, I also was seized with a terrible fear. And (thus stupefied) he said to me in a hurry,

"O Sinless being, in days of yore a terrible battle was fought between the gods and the demons for the sake of nectar, which I witnessed.

(And) in that mighty and terrible encounter, which took place for the destruction of the (Asura) Shambara, I acted as the charioteer of the lord of the gods.

Again, I drove the horses on the occasion of Vritra's destruction and also witnessed that awful and terrible encounter with the son of Virochana.

O Pandava, I witnessed all those terrible encounters. But never before (this) did I lose Imy senses.

Verily, it has been ordained by Pitamaha (Brahma) that the creation will be destroyed (at this encounter). For I find no other reason for this battle, If it be not for the destruction of the whole universe."

Hearing these words (of Matali) and pacifying my mind with my own efforts and deliberating (within myself) how to battle this mighty illusion created by the Danavas,

I spoke to terrified Matali, “behold the prowess of my arms and the power of my weapons and that of my bow Gandiva.

O charioteer do not be afraid, calm yourself. I will, this day, destroy the terrible illusion created by them and also this dense darkness, by illusion-creating weapon."

O lord of men, having said this, I produced an illusion by the means of weapons capable of stupefying the whole creating, for the welfare of the celestials.

That illusion being dispelled, some of the foremost amongst the Asuras, possessed of unrivalled prowess, again created various sorts of illusions,

(In consequence of which) now the world displayed itself, now it was enveloped in darkness, now it disappeared (from view) and, now again, it was submerged into water.

And when it displayed itself again to view, Matali with the well-conducted steeds, began to course in battle field which made the hair stand erect (with fear).

Then the furious Nivatakavachas flew towards me. Seizing this opportunity, I began to send them to the abode of Yama.

In that encounter, fatal to the Danavas, which was still regaining, all on a sudden, I could not behold those demons who concealed themselves under the cover of illusion.