(Vaka-vadha Parva continued)
"Vaisampayana said, 'On hearing these words of her afflicted parents, the
daughter was filled with grief, and she addressed them, saying, "Why are
you so afflicted and why do you so weep, as if you have none to look after
you? O, listen to me and do what may be proper. There is little doubt that
you are bound in duty to abandon me at a certain time. Sure to abandon me
once, O, abandon me now and save every thing at the expense of me alone.
Men desire to have children, thinking that children would save them (in
this world as well as in the region hereafter). O, cross the stream of
your difficulties by means of my poor self, as if I were a raft. A child
rescueth his parents in this and the other regions; therefore is the child
called by the learned Putra (rescuer). The ancestors desire daughter's
sons from me (as a special means of salvation). But (without waiting for
my children) I myself will rescue them by protecting the life of my father.
This my brother is of tender years, so there is little doubt that he will
perish if thou diest now. If thou, my father, diest and my brother
followeth thee, the funeral cake of the Pitris will be suspended and they
will be greatly injured. Left behind by my father and brother, and by my
mother also (for she will not survive her husband and son) I shall be
plunged deeper and deeper in woe and ultimately perish in great distress.
There can be little doubt that if thou escape from this danger as also my
mother and infant brother, then thy race and the (ancestral) cake will be
perpetuated. The son is one's own self; the wife is one's friend; the
daughter, however, is the source of trouble. Do thou save thyself,
therefore, by removing that source of trouble, and do thou thereby set me
in the path of virtue. As I am a girl, O father, destitute of thee, I
shall be helpless and plunged in woe, and shall have to go everywhere. It
is therefore that I am resolved to rescue my father's race and share the
merit of that act by accomplishing this difficult task. If thou, O best of
Brahmanas, goest thither (unto the Rakshasa), leaving me here, then I
shall be very much pained. Therefore, O father, be kind to me. O thou best
of men, for our sake, for that of virtue and also thy race, save thyself,
abandoning me, whom at one time thou shall be constrained to part from.
There need be no delay, O father, in doing that which is inevitable. What
can be more painful than that, when thou hast ascended to heaven, we shall
have to go about begging our food, like dogs, from strangers. But if thou
art with thy relations from these difficulties, I shall then live happily
in the region of the celestials. It hath been heard by us that if after
bestowing thy daughter in this way, thou offerest oblations to the gods
and the celestials, they will certainly be propitious."'
"Vaisampayana continued, 'The Brahmana and his wife, hearing these various
lamentations of their daughter, became sadder than before and the three
began to weep together. Their son, then, of tender years, beholding them
and their daughter thus weeping together, lisped these words in a sweet
tone, his eyes having dilated with delight, "Weep not, O father, nor thou,
O mother, nor thou O sister!" And smilingly did the child approach each of
them, and at last taking up a blade of grass said in glee, "With this will
I slay the Rakshasa who eateth human beings!" Although all of them had
been plunged in woe, yet hearing what the child lisped so sweetly, joy
appeared on their faces. Then Kunti thinking that to be the proper
opportunity, approached the group and said these words. Indeed, her words
revived them as nectar reviveth a person that is dead.'"