from beholding his foes in grief, is greater than what one may derive from the acquisition of offering or wealth or kingdom!  What happiness will not be his who, himself in affluence, will cast his eyes on Dhananjaya attired in barks and deer-skins?  Let thy wife dressed in costly robes look at the woeful Krishna clad in barks and deer-skins, and enhance the latter’s grief!  Let the daughter of Drupada reproach herself and her life, divested as she is of wealth, for the sorrow that she will feel upon beholding thy wife decked in ornaments will be far greater than what she had felt in the midst of the assembly (when Dussasana had dragged her there)!”

Vaisampayana continued, “Having thus spoken unto the king, Karna and Sakuni both remained silent, O Janamejaya, after their discourse was over.”

SECTION CCXXXVI

Vaisampayana said, “Having heard these words of Karna, king Duryodhana became highly pleased.  Soon after, however, the prince became melancholy and addressing the speaker said, ’What thou tellest me, O Karna, is always before my mind.  I shall not, however, obtain permission to repair to the place where the Pandavas are residing.  King Dhritarashtra is always grieving for those heroes.  Indeed, the king regarded the sons of Pandu to have become more powerful than before in consequence of their ascetic austerities.  Or, if the king understands our motives, he will never, having regard to the future, grant us permission, for, O thou of great effulgence, we can have no other business in the woods of Dwaitavana than the destruction of the Pandavas in exile!  Thou knowest the words that Kshatri spoke to me to thyself, and to the son of Suvala, at the time of the match at dice!  Reflecting upon all those words as also upon all those lamentations (that he and others indulged in), I cannot make up my mind as to whether I should or should not go!  I shall certainly be highly pleased if I cast my eyes on Bhima and Phalguna passing their days in pain with Krishna in the woods.  The joy that I may feel in obtaining the sovereignty of the entire earth is nothing to that which will be mine upon beholding the sons of Pandu attired in barks of trees and deer-skins.  What joy can be greater, O Karna, that will be mine upon beholding the daughter of Drupada dressed in red rags in the woods?  If king Yudhishthira and Bhima, the sons of Pandu, behold me graced with great affluence, then only shall I have attained the great end of my life!  I do not, however, see the means by which I may repair to those woods, by which, in fact, I may obtain the king’s permission to go thither!  Contrive thou, therefore, some skilful plan, with Suvala’s son and Dussasana, by which we may go to those woods!  I also, making up my mind today as to whether I should go or not, approach the presence of the king tomorrow.  And when I shall be sitting with Bhishma—­that best of the Kurus—­thou wilt, with Sakuni propose the pretext which thou mayst have contrived.  Hearing then the words of Bhishma and of the king on the subject of our journey, I will settle everything beseeching our grandfather.