Rajadharmanushasana Parva — The fresh birth of Kshatriya on earth described.

Vaishampayana said Hearing of those wonderful deeds of Rama, king Yudhishthira became stricken with wonder and said to Janardana,-'O you of Vrishni's race, the prowess of the great Rama, who in anger had freed the Earth of Kshatriyas was like that of Shakra himself.

The sons of Kshatriyas, stricken with the fear of Rama, were concealed (and brought up) by kine, Ocean, pards, bears, and monkeys.

Indeed, Praiseworthy is this world of men and fortunate are they that live in it where such a wonderful but righteous deed was performed by a Brahinana.

After this discourse, those two illustrious heroes, viz., Krishna of undecaying glory and Yudhishthira proceeded where the powerful son of Ganga lay on his bed of arrows.

They then saw Bhishma lying on his arrowy bed and shining like the evening Sun covered with his own rays.

The Kuru hero was encircled by many ascetics like Indra of a hundred sacrifices by the denizens of heaven. The spot on which he lay was highly sacred, for it was situate on the banks of the river Oghavati.

Seeing him from a distance, Krishna and Dharma's royal son, the four Pandavas, and the others headed by Shwaradwat, got down from their cars and restraining their minds and concentrating all their senses, approached the great Rishis.

Saluting those foremost of Rishis headed by Vyasa, Govinda and Satyaki and the others came to the son of Ganga.

Seeing Ganga's son of great ascetic merit, the Yadu and Kuru princes, took their seats, around him.

Seeing Bhishma resembling a fire about to be extinguished, Keshava with a rather depressed heart addressed him as follows.

Keshava said Is your understanding now as clear as before? I hope your understanding, O foremost of orators, is not clouded?

I hope your limbs are not afflicted by the pain originating from the wounds inflicted by arrows? Mental grief also weakens the body.

By virtue of the boon granted to you by your father, the righteous Shantanu, your death, O powerful hero, depends on your own will. I myself have not that merit for which you have obtained this boons.

Even the smallest Pin when put into the body produces pain. What need then be said, O king, hundreds of arrows that have pierced you?

Surely, pain cannot be said to assail you, You can, O Bharata, instruct the very celestials regarding the origin and dissolution of living creatures.

Possessed of great knowledge, you know everything belonging to the Past, the Future and the Present.

The dissolution of created beings and the mode of righteousness, are well known to you, O you of great wisdom, for you are an ocean of virtue and duty.

While living in the climax of prosperity. I saw you forego female intercourse though surrounded by female companions.

Except Shantanu's highly powerful son Bhishma firmly devoted to righteousness, possessed of heroism and having virtue for the only object of life, we have never heard of any other person in the three worlds who could, by his power of asceticism, though lying on a bed of arrows and on the point of death, prevent death (from attacking him).

We have never heard of anyone else who was so devoted to truth, to penances, to gifts, to the celebration of sacrifices, to the sciences of arms, to the Vedas, and to the protection of persons begging for the same, and who abstained from injuring any creature, so pure in conduct, so self-controlled, and so bent upon doing good to all creatures, and who was also so great a car-warrior as you.

Forsooth, you are competent to defeat, on a single car, the gods, Gandharvas, Asuras, Yakshas, and Rakshasas.

O mighty-armed Bhishma, you are described by the Brahinanas as the ninth of the Vasus. By your virtues, however, you have excelled them all and are equal to Vasava himself.

I know, O best of persons, that you are celebrated for your prowess, O foremost of beings, among even the very abstracts.

Among men on Earth, O foremost of men, we have never seen nor heard of any one endued with such accomplishments.

O Kshatriya chief, you excell the gods themselves in these accomplishments. By your ascetic power you can create a universe of mobile and immobile creatures. What is the use of saying that you have acquired many blessed regions by means of your foremost of virtues?

Remove now the sorrow of the eldest son of Pandu who is burning with sorrow on account of the destruction of his kinsinen.

All the duties that have been laid down for the four orders about the four modes of life and well known to you.

Everything again that is in the four branches of learning, in the four Hotras, O Bharata, as also those eternal duties that are laid down in Yoga and Sankhya philosophy, the duties too of the four orders and those duties that are not inconsistent with their practices, all these, along with their interpretations,-O son of Ganga, are known to you.

The duties that have been laid down for the issues of intermarriages and those laid down for particular countries and tribes and families, and those declared by the Vedas and the wise men, are all well known to you.

You are the master-topics of histories and the Puranas. All the scriptures treating of duty and practice are centered in your memory.

Except you, O foremost of men, there is no other person that can dispell the doubts that may arise regarding the subjects of knowledge studied in the world.

With the help of your intelligence, do you, O prince of men, drive the sorrow felt by the son of Pandu. Persons endued with so great and such varied knowledge live only for solacing those whose minds have been stupefied.