Pratijna Parva — The consolation of Subhadra

Sanjaya said Then throughout the whole of that night, Vasudeva and Dhananjaya, both afflicted with sorrow and grief and breathing like two serpents, did not enjoy an wink of sleep.

The gods together with Indra himself, understanding Partha and Narayana to be excited with rage, became anxious and they began to think-what will come of it?

Dry and dreadful winds, portending calamities, began to blow. A headless trunk and a bludgeon became manifest in the solar disc.

Although the sky cloudless, thunderbolts fell on the earth, accompanied by dreadful rumbling the flashes of lightning; and the Earth with her mountains, hills and forests, began to quake.

0 mighty monarch, the oceans, the abode of the numerous acquatic creatures, became agitated; and the ocean-going rivers began to flow in directions opposite to their natural was courses.

The lower and upper lips of car-warriors, horses, men and elephants began to tremble, indicating, as if, a great festivity for the fleshcaters and an increase of the population of Death's domain.

The animals on the field began to discharge excreta and urine and they began to wail aloud. Beholding all those dreadful portents capable of making the hair stand on end.

And having heard of the fierce vow of the mighty Savyasachin, all your troops. O foremost of the Bharatas, became preyed upon by anxious thought.

Then the mighty-armed Pakasasaui (Arjuna) addressing Krishna said-"Do you offer consolation to your sister Subhadra and her daughter-in-law.

O Madhava, go, assuage the grief of my daughter-in-law and her companions; O lord, console them with your soft words fraught with truth.

Thereat the son of Vasudeva with a depressed heart, going to the pavilion of Arjuna, began to comport his sorrowful sister afflicted with the grief caused by the death of her son.

The son of Vasudeva said O daughter of the Vrishni race, do not grieve, with your daughter-in-law, for your son. O timid lady, the self-same end is ordained by the Destroyer for all created beings.

This sort of death is worthy of your son, born in an illustrious family, modest and especially belonging to the Kshatriya order. Do not grieve for him.

Indeed it is through good fortune that mighty car-warrior, modest and equal to his father in prowess, has obtained the goal coveted by the heroes, in consequence of his observance of Kshatriya duties.

Vanquishing innumerable foes and dispatching them to the abode of Death, he as attained to the posthumous state of the pious, that is enduring and in which all desires become fruitful.

Your son of tender years has attained to that end which the pious desire to have through the performance ascetic austerities and Brahmacharya and through knowledge of the Shastras and wisdom.

You are the mother of a hero, the wife of a hero, the daughter of a hero and a kins-woman of the heroes: O amiable one do not bewail your son who has attained an excellent mode of existence.

That wretched and sinful ruler of the Sindhus, that murderer of an infant, shall soon reap the fruit of this arrogance, with his relations and kinsmen.

O beautiful lady, when the day dawns, that perpetrator of sinful acts, shall not escape the son of Pritha, even if he seeks shelter in Heaven itself.

Tomorrow you shall hear that the head of the Sindhu ruler has been severed from his trunk in battle, to roll on the precincts of the Samantapanchaka. Dismiss your grief and do not weep.

Keeping in the view duties of the Kshatriya order, that hero has obtained the end of the pious, end, which we also will meet with, as also many other men who live by their weapons.

Of expansive chest and mighty arms, unretreating and slayer of car-warriors, your son, 0 you of dainty waist, has gone to heaven. Renounce yours fever of grief.

Obedient to the behests of his sire and his relations through mother's side, that valiant hero and mighty car-warrior that valiant hero and mighty car-warrior of great prowess, has been slain may of his foes.

O queen, comfort your daughter-in-law; () daughter of a Kshatriya, do not lament, Dismiss your sorrow, O my beloved sister, as in the morrow you will hear such agreeable news.

What the son of Pritha has vowed shall be accomplished and cannot be otherwise. What your husband has set his heart upon, cannot remain undone.

Even if the descendants of Manu and the Pannagas and Pisachas and night-rangers and winged creatures and Asuras and the celestials come forward to protect in battle the ruler of the Sindhus, yet he, with these, shall cease to exist tomorrow. Even if the descendants of Manu and the Pannagas and Pisachas and night-rangers and winged creatures and Asuras and the celestials come forward to protect in battle the ruler of the Sindhus, yet he, with these, shall cease to exist tomorrow.