The words of Bhima

Vaishampayana said : Having heard these words of Yajnaseni (Draupadi), Bhimasena came to the king (Yudhishthira). And sighing in wrath, he thus spoke to him.

Bhima said: O king, walk as regards kingdoms in the customary path trodden by good men. What do you gain by living in the hermitage of the ascetics, thus deprived of Dharma, Artha and Kama?

Your kingdom has been robbed by Duryodhana by an unfair gambling at dice and not by virtue or by honesty or by prowess.

He has robbed our kingdom like a weak offal-eating jackal that steals the prey from mighty lions.

O king, why do you, abandoning the wealth which is the source of both virtue and pleasures and in obedience of the (mere) trifling virtue of keeping one's promise, suffer such afflictions?

Our kingdom, protected by the wielder of Gandiva (Arjuna) and incapable of being snatched from us by (even) Shakra (Indra), was robbed from us in our very sight (only) on account of your carelessness.

It was for you, that notwithstanding we were alive, our prosperity was wrested from use like a fruit from one who is unable to use his arms or like kine from one who cannot use his legs.

O descendant of Bharata, you are firin in the desire of acquiring virtue. It was to please you that we suffered ourselves to be overwhelmed with such calamities.

O best of the Bharata race, it was because we are at your command that we are giving pain to our friends and joy to our enemies.

It was on our part an act of folly which gives me great pain that we did not, obeying your command, kill the sons of Dhritarashtra then and there.

O king, this your living in the forest like an wild animal is an act which only a weak man alone would submit to.

Your this act is approved of neither by Krishna, nor by Vivatsu (Arjuna), nor by Abhimanyu, nor by the Srinjayas, nor by myself, nor by the sons of Madri.

Afflicted with your vow you always cry, "Virtue, virtue."O king, have you from despair become a man of no manliness?

Cowards only, being unable to win back their prosperity, cherish despair which is fruitless and destructive of one's own purpose.

You have ability and cyes. You see that we possess manliness. O king, it is because you have adopted a peaceful life that you do not feel (the pain of) this distress.

The sons of Dhritarashtra consider us, who are only forgiving, as men really incompetent and weak. O king, this gives me more pain than death in battle would have given me.

If we all die in a fair fight without turning our backs on our foes, even that would be better than this exile, for we shall then obtain regions of bliss.

O best of the Bharata race, on the other hand if we become the ruler of the whole earth by killing them, that would be doing us a great good.

This is our bounded duty, we who ever adhere to the duties of our own order, who are ever desirous of great achievements and who wish to take revenge on our enemies.

Our kingdom having been robbed from us, if we (under the circumstances) engage in a war, our that act, when it well be known in the world, will bring praise and no condemnation.

O king, the virtue, that produces affliction on one's ownself and on one's own friends, is no virtue, at all. It is vice that produces calamities.

O sire, virtue is sometimes (the indirect cause of) the weakness of men. Dharina and Artha forsake such men, as pain and pleasure forsake a dead man.

He who practices virtue only for the sake of virtue always suffers afflictions. He can never be called a wise man. He cannot know the (real) purpose of virtue, as a blind man is incapable of seeing the light of the sun.

He who considers that his wealth exists for himself alone does not at all understand the purpose of wealth. He is like the servant tending kine in the forest.

He, again, who pursues Artha (profit or wealth) too much without pursuing Dharma (virtue) and Kama (pleasure) deserves to be censured and killed by all creatures.

He who always pursues Kama without pursuing Dharma and Artha loses his friends and also loses virtue and profit.

Such a man, indulging in pleasure at will becoming destitute of virtue and profit, meets with certain death at the expiration of the period of enjoyment, as the fish dies when the water is dried up.

It is for this, those that are wise always pursue both virtue and profit, for the union of virtue and profit is the essential requisite of pleasure, as wood is of fire.

Pleasure has always virtue for its root and virtue is always united with pleasure. Know that both are dependent on one another, as the ocean and the clouds (depend on each other).

The sensation that one feels in consequence of the contact with the objects of touch or in consequence of the possession of wealth is called pleasure. It exists in the mind and has no corporeal existence.

O king, he that wishes to have Artha should seek a large share of virtue. Those that wish Karma should seek (also) Artha, but Kama does not yield any thing in return.

Pleasure brings its own fruit; it cannot lead to another (pleasure). Ashes may be had from wood, but nothing could be had from ashes.

O king, as a fowler kills the birds, so does sin kill all the creatures of the world. He who, being misled by pleasure and covetousness, does not understand the nature of virtue, deserves to be killed by all. He becomes a wretch here and hereafter (after death).

O king, it is evident that you know that pleasure is to be derived from virtuous objects of enjoyments. You also know (what) their ordinary states as well as their great changes (are).

From their (objects of enjoyment's) loss, destruction, decrepitude and death, arises what is called affliction. That affliction has overtaken us.

The pleasure that is produce by the five senses, by the mind and by the heart being directed to the objects proper to each, is in my opinion, one of the best fruits of our actions.

Thus Dharma, Artha and Kama should be taken into one's consideration one after the other. One should not pursue virtue alone. No man should consider profit or pleasure as the highest object of his desire. All the three should always be (equally) pursued. The Shastras ordain that one should pursue virtue in the morning, profit at noon and pleasure in the evening.

The Shastras ordain that one should pursue pleasure in the first, profit in the second and virtue in the last portion of his life.

O foremost of eloquent men, those that are learned and fully conversant with the proper divisions of time, dividing their time properly, pursue all three, Dharma Artha and Kama.

O king, O descendant of Kuru, whether freedom from all these three (Dharma, Artha and Kama) or possession of them is the better course for those that desire happiness, should be settled by you after careful thought. O king, you should then without the least hesitation act either to achieve them or to abandon them, for he who lives wavering between the two becomes most miserable.

It is well that your conduct is ever regulated by virtue. Knowing this, your sensible friends advise you to act (thus).

O king, gift, sacrifice, adoration to the honest, study of the Vedas and honesty, these are the highest virtues strong both here and hereafter.

But, O foremost of men, these virtues, cannot be attained by one that has no wealth, even if he possess infinite other accomplishments.

O king, the universe depends on virtue. There is nothing higher than virtue. O king, virtue is attainable (only) by those who possess wealth.

But wealth cannot be acquired by leading the life of a mendicant nor by bearing a life of weakness. O king, wealth can be earned by virtuous intelligence.

O best of men, in your case, begging, which is a success to the Brahmanas, has been forbidden. Therefore try to acquire wealth by prowess and energy.

It is not proper for you to lead a life of mendicancy or the life of Shudra. Prowess and energy constitute the special virtue of the Kshatriya.

Therefore, O son of Pritha, perform the duty of your own (order) and destroy the enemies. Destroy the prowess of the sons of Dhritarashtra with my help and with that of Partha (Arjuna).

The wise and learned man says that prosperity is virtue. Therefore, acquire prosperity, for you ought not to be in frivolity.

O king of kings, awake and understand the eternal virtues (of one's own order). You belong by birth to an order the acts of which are cruel and are the sources of pain to others.

O king, cherish your subjects and reap the fruits (of that good act) that can never be wrong. This is the eternal duty ordained (for us the Kshatriyas) by the Creator himself.

O son of Pritha, if you fall off from it, you will be the laughing stock (of all men). Deviation from the duties of one's own (order) is never praised.

O descendant of Kuru, therefore, making your heart as the order in which you belong requires it and abandoning this your course of weakness, summon prowess an bear your weight (of duty) like one that bears it manfully.

O king, no monarch can acquire the sovereignty of earth or prosperity or affluence by means of being only virtuous-minded.

As a fowler catches a flock of very easilytempled games by offering them some attractive food, so does an intelligent man acquire a kingdom by offering bribes to his enemy's men and covetous enemies.

O foremost of monarchs, the Asuras, though they were elder brothers of the Devas and though they in affluence were, vanquished by the Devas by mean of Stratagem.

O mighty armed hero, O ruler of the world, thus everything belongs to those that possess might. Destroy enemy by means of stratagem.

There is none equal to Arjuna in wielding the bow in battle. There is none equal to me in wielding the mace.

O king, men of prowess engage in battle depending on their prowess alone and not on the strength of numbers and not on information of the enemy' plan through spies. O son of Pandu, therefore exert your prowess. were

Prowess is the root of wealth; whatever else is called its root is not so. As the shade of the tree in winter is useless, so is everything fruitless without prowess.

O son of Kunti, wealth should be spent in the way that seeds are scattered on the ground by one who wishes to increase it. Let there be no doubt (about it) in your mind.

But where wealth is more than sufficient, there should be no expenditure of wealth. In such cases investment of wealth is like the scratching of an ass, which is first pleasurable and then painful.

O king of men, a man, who in order to earn a greater measure of virtue casts away like seeds the little virtue that he is sticking to, is certainly considered to be wise.

Those, that are learned, alienate the friends of the foe that possesses friends. Having thus weakened him by making his friends abandon him, they bring him to subjugation.

O king, those that are strong engage in battle by depending on their own courage. They do not conquer people by continued efforts or by the arts of conciliation.

O king, sometimes those that are weak kill a powerful enemy by combination, as bees kill the spoiler of their honey by the force of their numbers.

O king, like the sun that sustains as well as destroys all creatures by this rays, you too adopt the ways of the sun.

O king, it has been heard by us in the Puranas that to protect one's own kingdom and cherish one's own subjects, as was done by our forefathers, is a kind of Tapa (austerities).

O king, a Kshatriya cannot acquire those regions of blessedness which he can by fair fight, whether (that fight) ends in victory or defeat.

Seeing your this affliction, (the people of) the world have come to this conclusion that light may (some day) forsake the sun and beauty may (some day) forsake the moon.

O king, the learned men, both separately and assembling together, talk with one another by praising you and blaming the other (Duryodhana).

O king, over and above this the Brahmanas and the Kurus assembling together talk cheerfully of your great adherence to truth.

They say that you have never from delusion, from meanness, from covetousness, from fear, from desire or from wealth, uttered an untruth.

Whatever sin a king commits in acquiring dominions, he consumes it all by means of performing sacrifices in which large Dakshinas are given away.

O king, as the moon emerges from the clouds, so does a king emerge from all sins by bestowing thousands of villages and kine on the Brahmanas.

O descendant of Kuru, O Yudhishthira, all the citizens and the inhabitants of the country, both young and old, praise you.

"As milk in a bag made of a boar's hide, as the Vedas in a Shudra, as truth in a robber and as strength in a woman, so is sovereignty in Duryodhana.

Thus talk the people among one another. O descendant of Bharata, even women and children are repeating it, as if it were a lesson they wanted to commit to memory.

O chastiser of foes, you have fallen into this state along with me. Alas! we too are lost with you on account of your this calamity.

Therefore, ascending on your chariot, furnished with every implement of war and making the chief Brahmanas utter benedictions on you, march at once, even this very day, against Hastinapur, so that you may be able to give to the Brahmanas the spoils of your victory. Surrounded by your brothers, who are all great wielders of bows and by (other) heroes, who are all skilled in weapons and all like virulent snakes, start (at once) like the slayer of Vritra (Indra) surrounded by the Marutas. Destroy with your prowess your weak enemies as the slayer of Vritra (Indra) destroyed the Asuras. O son of Kunti, snatch away from the son of Dhritarashtra (Duryodhana) the prosperity he (now) enjoys.

There is no mortal who can withstand the touch of the arrows which are equipped with the feathers of vulture and which are like the snakes of virulent poison when these are shot from the Gandiva (bow).

O descendant of Bharata, there is not a warrior, nor an elephant, nor an horse that can withstand the force of my mace when I am angry in battle.

O son of Kunti, why should we not snatch back our kingdom from our foe after fighting a great battle with the help of the Srinjayas the Kaikeyas and the chief of the Vrishnis.

O king, why should we not succeed in Snatching away the (sovereignty of the) earth from the hands of our enemy? Let us but try with the help of a large army.