“Sanjaya said, ‘I will tell thee all, for everything hath been witnessed
by me with my own eyes. Listen calmly. Great is thy fault. Even as an
embankment is useless after the waters (of the field) have flowed away,
even so, O king, are these lamentations of thine useless! O bull of
Bharata’s race, do not grieve. Wonderful as are the decrees of the
Destroyer, they are incapable of being transgressed. Do not grieve, O
bull of Bharata’s race, for this is not new. If thou hadst formerly
restrained Yudhishthira, the son of Kunti, and thy sons also from the
match at dice, this calamity then would never have overtaken thee. If,
again, when time for battle came, hadst thou restrained both the parties
inflamed by wrath, this calamity then would never have overtaken thee.
If, again, hadst thou formerly urged the Kurus to slay the disobedient
Duryodhana, then this calamity would never have overtaken thee. (If thou
hadst done any of these acts), the Pandavas, the Panchalas, the Vrishnis,
and the other kings would then have never known thy wrong-headedness. If,
again, doing thy duty as a father, thou hadst, by placing Duryodhana in
the path of righteousness, caused him to tread along it, then this
calamity would never have overtaken thee. Thou art the wisest man on
earth. Forsaking eternal virtue, how couldst thou follow the counsels of
Duryodhana and Karna and Sakuni? These lamentations of thine, therefore,
O king, that I hear,--of thine that art wedded to (worldly) wealth, seem
to me to be honey mixed with poison. O monarch, formerly Krishna did not
respect king Yudhishthira, the son of Pandu, or Drona, so much as he used
to respect thee. When, however, he came to know thee as one fallen off
from the duties of a king, since then Krishna hath ceased to regard thee
with respect. Thy sons had addressed various harsh speeches towards the
sons of Pritha. Thou wast indifferent to those speeches then, O thou that
wieldest sovereignty, unto thy sons. The consequence of that indifference
of thine hath now overtaken thee. O sinless one, the ancestral
sovereignty is now in danger. (If it is not so), obtain now the whole
earth subjugated by the sons of Pritha.[134] The kingdom that the Kurus
enjoy, as also their fame had been acquired by the Pandus. The virtuous
sons of Pandu added to that kingdom and that fame. Those achievements,
however, of theirs became (to them) barren of fruit as they came in
contact with thee, since they were deprived of even their ancestral
kingdom by thy covetous self. Now, O king, when the battle has begun,
thou censurest thy sons indicating diverse faults of theirs. This is
scarcely becoming. The Kshatriyas, while fighting, do not take care of
their very lives. Indeed, those bulls among Kshatriyas fight, penetrating
into the array of the Parthas. Who else, indeed, save the Kauravas, would
venture to fight with that force which is protected by Krishna and
Arjuna, by Satyaki and Vrikodara? Them that have Arjuna for their
warrior, them that have Janardana for their counsellor, them that have
Satyaki and Vrikodara for their protectors, what mortal bowman is there
that would dare fight with, save the Kauravas and those that are
following their lead? All that is capable of being achieved by friendly
kings endued with heroism and observant of the duties of Kshatriyas, all
that is being done by the warriors on the Kauravas side. Listen now,
therefore, to everything that hath taken place in the terrible battle
between those tigers among men viz., the Kurus and the Pandavas.’”