nor by myself, nor by the sons of Madri. Afflicted
with the vows, thy cry is Religion! Religion!
Hast thou from despair been deprived of thy manliness?
Cowards alone, unable to win back their prosperity,
cherish despair, which is fruitless and destructive
of one’s purposes. Thou hast ability and
eyes. Thou seest that manliness dwelleth in us.
It is because thou hast adopted a life of peace that
thou feelest not this distress. These Dhritarashtras
regard us who are forgiving, as really incompetent.
This, O king, grieveth me more than death in battle.
If we all die in fair fight without turning our backs
on the foe, even that would be better than this exile,
for then we should obtain regions of bliss in the
other world. Or, if, O bull of the Bharata race,
having slain them all, we acquire the entire earth,
that would be prosperity worth the trial. We who
ever adhere to the customs of our order, who ever
desire grand achievements, who wish to avenge our
wrongs, have this for our bounden duty. Our kingdom
wrested from us, if we engage in battle, our deeds
when known to the world will procure for us fame and
not slander. And that virtue, O king, which tortureth
one’s own self and friends, is really no virtue.
It is rather vice, producing calamities. Virtue
is sometimes also the weakness of men. And though
such a man might ever be engaged in the practice of
virtue, yet both virtue and profit forsake him, like
pleasure and pain forsaking a person that is dead.
He that practiseth virtue for virtue’s sake
always suffereth. He can scarcely be called a
wise man, for he knoweth not the purposes of virtue
like a blind man incapable of perceiving the solar
light. He that regardeth his wealth to exist for
himself alone, scarcely understandeth the purposes
of wealth. He is really like a servant that tendeth
kine in a forest. He again that pursueth wealth
too much without pursuing virtue and enjoyments, deserveth
to be censured and slain by all men. He also that
ever pursueth enjoyments without pursuing virtue and
wealth, loseth his friends and virtue and wealth also.
Destitute of virtue and wealth such a man, indulging
in pleasure at will, at the expiration of his period
of indulgence, meeteth with certain death, like a
fish when the water in which it liveth hath been dried
up. It is for these reasons that they that are
wise are ever careful of both virtue and wealth, for
a union of virtue and wealth is the essential requisite
of pleasure, as fuel is the essential requisite of
fire. Pleasure hath always virtue for its root,
and virtue also is united with pleasure. Know,
O monarch, that both are dependent on each other like
the ocean and the clouds, the ocean causing the clouds
and the clouds filling the ocean. The joy that
one feeleth in consequence of contact with objects
of touch or of possession of wealth, is what is called
pleasure. It existeth in the mind, having no corporeal
existence that one can see. He that wisheth (to