बक-वध पर्व — ब्राह्मणीका वचन

The Brahmani said: You should not grieve like ordinary men. This is not the time for lamentation. You are learned.

All men must die. None should grieve for that which is inevitable.

Man desires son, daughter and wife for himself. Therefore abandon grief, for you are greatly intelligent; I shall myself go there. It is the highest and eternal duty of women, namely to sacrifice their lives and to seek the good of their husbands.

Such an act done by me will give you pleasure; it will (also) bring me fame in this world and eternal bliss hereafter.

What I speak to you is the highest virtue. You can acquire by it (by my sacrificing myself) both virtue and profit.

The object for which one desires a wife has already been achieved by you from me. I have borne you a daughter and a son, by which I have been freed from the debt I owe you.

You are able to support and protect your children. I cannot support and protect the children as you can (do it).

You are my life, wealth and lord; having been abandoned by you, how these children to tender years and how myself, can live?

Being a helpless widow with two children of tender years depending on me how shall I be able to live leading my life in the path of virtue.

How shall I be able to protect the girl, if your this daughter is solicited by dishonourable and vain persons, unworthy of contracting an alliance with you?

As birds eagerly seek with avidity for the piece of) meat thrown on the ground, so men solicit women who have lost their husbands. O best of the twice-born, being solicited by wicked men, I might waver and I might not be able to keep myself on the path of virtue.

How shall I be able to place this only daughter of your house, this innocent girl, in the (virtuous) way in which her ancestors have always walked?

How shall I be able to teach this child (your son) every desirable accomplishment to make him as virtuous as yourself in that time of want I shall be helpless (without you)?

When I shall be in such helpless state, the unworthy persons will demand this orphan girl, like Shudras desiring to hear the Vedas.

If I do not bestow this girl, endued with all qualities and possessing your blood, they may take her away by force as cows take the sacrificial ghee.

Seeing your son (thoroughly) unlike yourself and your daughter under the control of unworthy person. I shall be despised in the world. I do not know what will happen to me. O Brahmana, there is no doubt I shall certainly die.

There is no doubt these children of tender years, being bereft of me and you, will die as fish (in a tank) when the water is dried up.

There is no doubt the three (myself, our son and daughter) will all die without you. Therefore you ought to abandon me.

O Brahmana, persons learned in the precepts of virtue have said that to predecease their husbands in an act of the highest merit for women who have borne children.

I am ready to abandon this son and this daughter, these my relations, my this life itself.

To be ever engaged in serving her husband is a higher duty to a women than sacrifices, asceticism, vows and various charities.

Therefore the act I desire to perform is consonant with the highest virtue. It is for your good and for the good of your race.

The virtuous (men) say, that children, relatives, wives and all things dear in this world) are cherished for rescuing oneself from distress.

Man cherishes wealth for (rescuing himself) from distress and danger. By wealth be cherishes his wife. He must always cherish himself both by his wealth and wife.

The wise men have said that wife, son, wealth or house is acquired to provide for foreseen or unforescen accidents.

The wise men have said that one's all relations, weighed against one's own self, would not be equal to one's own self.

Therefore, O respected Sir, accomplish your object by me. Protect yourself by abandoning me. Give me your permission cherish children.

In fixing moralities the men, learned in the precepts of virtue, have said that women should never be killed; and (they have also said that the Rakshasas are learned in the rules of morality. Therefore he (the Rakshasas) may not kill me.

It is certain that he will kill a man, but it is doubtful whether he will kill a woman. O virtuously learned man, you ought to send me.

I have enjoyed much happiness; I have obtained many things agreeable; I have earned much of religious merits; I have obtained from you beloved sons; I do not grieve to die.

I have borne son and I have grown old; I am ever desirous of doing good to you. Having considered all this, I have come to this resolution.

O respected Sir, you can take another wife by abandoning me. You may be then again placed on the path of virtue.

To marry more than one wife is not sin among men. It is very sinful for a woman to take second husband after the first.

Having considered all this and knowing that your self-sacrifice is censurable, save today yourself, your race and your these two children without loss of time.

O foremost of the Bharata race, when Brahmani told thus, her husband became griefstricken and, embracing her, shed copious tears along with her.