“Vaisampayana said, ’Having said these words, the celestial Rishi Narada became silent.  The royal sage Yudhishthira, filled with grief, became plunged in meditation.  Beholding that hero cheerless and unmanned by sorrow, sighing like a snake and shedding copious tears, Kunti, herself filled with grief and almost deprived of her senses by sorrow, addressed him in these sweet words of grave import and well-suited to the occasion, ’O mighty-armed Yudhishthira, it behoveth thee not to give way to sorrow thus.  O thou of great wisdom, kill this grief of thine, and listen to what I say.  I tried in past times to apprise Karna of his brothership with thee.  The god Surya also, O foremost of all righteous persons, did the same.  All that a well-wishing friend, from desire of good, should say unto one, was said unto Karna by that god in a dream and once more in my presence.  Neither by affliction nor by reasons could Surya or myself succeed in pacifying him or inducing him to unite himself with thee.  Succumbing to the influence of Time, he became resolved upon wreaking his enmity on thee.  As he was bent upon doing injuries upon you all, I myself gave up the attempt.’  Thus addressed by his mother, king Yudhishthira, with tearful eyes and heart agitated by grief, said these words, ’In consequence of thyself having concealed thy counsels, this great affliction has overtaken me!’ Possessed of great energy, the righteous king, then, in sorrow, cursed all the women of the world, saying, ‘Henceforth no woman shall succeed in keeping a secret.’  The king, then, recollecting his sons and grandsons and kinsmen and friends, became filled with anxiety and grief.  Afflicted with sorrow, the intelligent king, resembling a fire covered with smoke, became overwhelmed with despair.”

SECTION VII

Vaisampayana said, “The righteous-souled Yudhishthira, with an agitated heart and burning with sorrow, began to grieve for that mighty car-warrior Karna.  Sighing repeatedly, he addressed Arjuna, saying, ’If, O Arjuna, we had led a life of mendicancy in the cities of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas, then this miserable end would not have been ours in consequence of having exterminated our kinsmen.  Our foes, the Kurus, have gained in prosperity, while we have become divested of all the objects of life, for what fruits of righteousness can be ours when we have been guilty of self-slaughter?[4] Fie on the usages of Kshatriyas, fie on might and valour, and fie on wrath, since through these such a calamity hath overtaken us.  Blessed are forgiveness, and self-restraint, and purity, with renunciation and humility, and abstention from injury, and truthfulness of speech on all occasions, which are all practised by forest-recluses.  Full of pride and arrogance, ourselves, however, through covetousness and folly and from desire of enjoying the sweets of sovereignty, have fallen into this plight.  Beholding those kinsmen of ours that were bent on acquiring the sovereignty