Page:The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (Volume 1).pdf/427

Rh self-destruction. That which, therefore thou desirest to do is not agreeable to us! Restrain thy mind, therefore, from the sinful act of destroying the whole world ! O child, destroy not the Kshatriyas not the seven worlds! O kill this wrath of thine that staineth thy ascetic energy. "

Thus ends the hundred and eighty-first section in the Chaitra-ratha Parva of the Adi Parva.

SECTION CLXXXII SECTION CLXXX

Y (Chitra-ratha Parva continued) "The Gandharva said, 'Vasistha' after this, continued the narration, saying-Hearing these words of the Pitris, Aurva, O child, replied unto them to this effect:

Ye Pitris, the vow I have made from anger for the destruction of all the worlds, must not be in vain ! I cannot consent to be one whose anger and vows are futile ! Like fire consuming dry woods, this rage of mine will certainly consume me if I do not accomplish my vow! The man that represseth his wrath that hath been excited by Cadequate) cause, becometh incapable of duly com passing the three ends of life (viz., religion, profit and pleasure). The wrath that kings desirous of subjugating the whole Earth exhibit, is not without its uses. It serveth to restrain the wicked' and to protect the honest. While lying unborn within my mother's thigh, I heard the doleful cries of my mother and other women of the Bhrigu race who were then being exterminated by the Kshatriyas. Ye Pitris, when those wretches of Kshatriyas began to exterminate the Bhrigus together with unborn children of their race, it was then that wrath filled my soul! My mother and the other women of our race, each in an advanced state of pregnancy, and my father, while terribly alarmed, found not in all the worlds a single protector ! Then when the Bhrigu women found not a single protector, my mother held me in one of her thighs! If there be a punisher of criures in the worlds no one in all the worlds would dare commit a crime, if he findeth not a punisher, the number of sinners becometh large. The man who having the power to prevent or punish sin doth not do so knowing that a sin hath been committed, is bimself defiled by that sin. When kings and others, capable of protecting my fathers, protect them not, postponing that duty to the pleasures of life. I have just cause to be enraged with them! I am the lord of the creation, capable of punishing its iniquity 1 I am incapable of obeying your command ! Capable of