Well-wishers seek to restrain a friend from sin.  He who suffers himself to be dissuaded, succeeds in winning prosperity.  He that does otherwise reaps misery.  As a person of disordered brains is restrained by soothing words, even so should a friend be restrained by well-wishers.  He that suffers himself to be so restrained never becomes a prey to misery.  When a wise friend is about to perpetrate a wicked act, well-wishers possessed of wisdom repeatedly and according to the extent of their power endeavour to restrain him.  Setting thy heart on what is truly beneficial, and restraining thyself by thy own self, do my bidding, O son, so that thou mayst not have to repent afterwards.

In this world, the slaughter of sleeping persons is not applauded, agreeably to the dictates of religion.  The same is the case with persons that have laid down their arms and come down from cars and steeds.  They also are unslayable who say We are thine!’ and they that surrender themselves, and they whose locks are dishevelled, and they whose animals have been killed under them or whose cars have been broken.  All the Pancalas will sleep tonight.  O lord, divesting themselves of armour.  Trustfully sunk in sleep, they will be like dead men.  That crooked-minded man who would wage hostility with them then, it is evident, would sink in deep and limitless hell without a raft save himself.  In this world thou art celebrated as the foremost of all persons conversant with weapons.  Thou hast not as yet committed even a minute trespass.  When the sun rises next morning and light shall discover all things, thyself, like a second sun in effulgence wilt conquer the foe in battle.  This censurable deed, so impossible in one like thee, will look like a red spot on a white sheet.  Even this is my opinion.”

Ashvatthama said, “Without doubt, it is even so, O maternal uncle, as thou sayest.  The Pandavas, however, have before this broken the bridge of righteousness into a hundred fragments.  In the very sight of all the kings, before thy eyes also, my sire, after he had laid down his weapons, was slain by Dhrishtadyumna.  Karna also, that foremost of car-warriors, after the wheel of his car had sunk and he had been plunged into great distress, was slain by the wielder of gandiva.  Similarly, Shantanu’s son Bhishma, after he had laid aside his weapons and become disarmed, was slain by Arjuna with Shikhandi placed in his van.  So also, the mighty bowman Bhurishrava, while observant of the praya vow on the field of battle, was slain by Yuyudhana in total disregard of the cries of all the kings!  Duryodhana too, having encountered Bhima in battle with the mace, hath been slain unrighteously by the former in the very sight of all the lords of earth.  The king was all alone in the midst of a large number of mighty car-warriors standing around him.  Under such circumstances was that tiger among men slain by Bhimasena.  Those lamentations that I have heard, of the king lying prostrate on