SRI AUROBINDO
Translations
from Sanskrit and Other Languages
... But when Yudhishthere had heard
The sages' speech, his heart was moved with sighs
He coveted Imperial Sacrifice.
All bliss went from him. Only to his thought
The majesty of royal saints was brought
By sacrifice exalted, Paradise
Acquired augustly, and before his eyes
He most was luminous who in heaven shone,
Heaven by sacrificial merit won.
He too that offering would absolve; so now
Receiving reverence with a courteous brow,
The assembly broke, to meditate retiring
On that great sacrifice of his desiring.
Frequent the thought and ever all its length
His mind leaned that way. Yet though huge his strength,
His heroism though admired, the King
Forgot no Right, but pondered how this thing
Might touch the peoples, whether well or ill.
For just was Yudhishthere and courted still
His people and with vast impartial mind
Served all, nor ever from this word declined,
“To each his own; nor shall the king disturb
With wrath or violence Right, but these shall curb.”
So was all speech of men one grand acclaim;
The nation as a father trusted him:
No hater had he in his whole realm's bound,
By the sweet name of Enemiless renowned.
And through his gracious government upheld
By Bheema's force and foreign battle quelled
By the two-handed might of great Arjoon;
Sahadev's cultured equity and boon
Nokula's courteous mood to all men shown,
The thriving provinces were void of fear;
Strife was forgotten and each liberal year 
The rains were measured to desire; nor man
The natural limit of his course outran:
Usury, tillage, rearing, merchandise
Throve with good government and sacrifice
Prospered; rack-renting was not nor unjust
Extortion; from the land pestilence was thrust,
And mad calamity of fire unknown
Became while this just monarch had his own.
Robbers and cheats and royal favourites
Were now not heard of to infringe men's rights
Nor the king's harm nor mutual injury
Intrigue. To yield into his treasury
Their taxes traders came and princes high
On the sixfold pretexts of policy,
Or at Yudhishthere's court good grace to win.
Even greedy, passionate, luxurious men
His just rule to the common welfare turned.
He in the glory of all virtues burned,
An all-pervading man, by all adored,
An emperor and universal lord
Bearing upon his shoulders the whole State,
And from the neat-herd to the twice-born great
All in his wide domains that lived and moved,
Him more than father, more than mother loved.
He now his brothers and his ministers
Summoning severally their mind infers
And often with repeated subtle speech
Solicitous questions and requestions each.
All with one cry unanimous advise
To institute Imperial Sacrifice.
“O King,” they said, “the man by God designed
Who has acquired the Oceanic mind
Of kingship, not with this bounds his pretence,
But hungers for imperial excellence.
In thee it dwells, high Kaurav; we thy friends
See clear that Fate this sacrifice intends.
To complete heroes it is subject. Men
Who centre chivalry within them gain 
Its sanction when with ancient chants the fires
Are heaped by sages, lords of their desires
Through self-control intense. The serpentine
And all rites other in this one rite twine.
And he who at its end is safely crowned
Is as World Conqueror, is as King renowned.
Puissance is thine, great-armed, and we are thine.
O King, soon then shall Empire crown thy line:
O King, debate no longer; aim thy will
At Sacrifice Imperial.” So they still
Advised their king together and apart,
And deep their accents sunk into his heart.
Bold was their speech, rang pleasant to his ear,
Seemed excellent and just, yet Yudhishthere
Still pondered though he knew his puissance well.
Again he bade his hardy brothers tell
Their mind and priests high-souled and ministers:
With Dhowma and Dwypaian too confers,
Wise and deliberate he. “Speak justly, friends,
What happy way my hard desire attends.
Hard is the sacrifice imperial meant
For an imperial mind's accomplishment.”
All answered with a seasonable voice:
“Just King, thine is that mind and thou the choice
Of Fate for this high ceremony renowned.”
Sweet did the voice of friends and flamens sound:
Yet still he curbed himself and still he thought.
His yearning for the people's welfare wrought
A noble hesitation. Wise the man
Who often will his power and vantage scan,
Who measures means with the expenditure,
Season with place, then acts; his deeds endure.
“Not with my mere resolve the enterprise
Begins and ends of this great sacrifice.”
While thus in a strong grasp his thought he held,
His mind to Krishna who all beings excelled
Of mortal breed, for surest surety ran,
Krishna, the strong unmeasurable man 
Whom Self-born upon earth conjectured he
Because his deeds measured with deity.
“To Krishna's mind all things are penetrable,
His genius knows not the impossible.”
Pondered the son of Hades, “nor is there
A weight his mighty mind cannot upbear.”
On Krishna as on sage and guide his mind
(Who is indeed the guide of all mankind)
He fixed and sent his messenger afar
To Yadav land in a swift-rolling car.
Then sped the rushing wheels with small delay
And reached the gated city Dwaraca,
The gated city where Janardan dwelt.
Krishna to Yudhishthere's desire felt
Answering desire and went with Indrasen
Passing through many lands to Indra-Plain,
Fierily passing with impetuous hooves
To Indraprastha and the men he loves.
With filial soul his brothers Yudhishthere
And Bheem received the man without compeer:
But Krishna to his father's sister went
And greeted her with joyous love; then bent
His heart to pleasure with his heart's own friend,
While reverently the courteous twins attend.
But after rest in those bright halls renowned
Yudhisthere sought the immortal man and found
At leisure sitting and revealed his need.
“King's Sacrifice I covet, but indeed
Thou knowest not practicable by will alone
Like other rites is this imperial one,
But he in whom all kingly things combine,
He whom all men, all lands to honour join,
A King above all kings, he finds alone
Empire. And now though all my friends are one
To bid me forward, I even yet attend
From thy voice only certainty, O friend.
Some from affection lovingly suppress
Their friend's worst fault and some from selfishness, 
Speaking what most will please. Others conceal
Their own good with the name of commonweal.
Such counsel in his need a monarch hath.
But thou art pure of selfish purpose; wrath
And passion know thee not; and thou wilt tell
What shall be solely and supremely well.”
Krishna made answer: “All thy virtues, all
Thy gifts make thee the man imperial.
Thou dost deserve this sacrifice. Yet well
Though thou mayst know it, one thing will I tell.
When Rama, Jamadagni's son, had slain
The chivalry of earth, those who were fain
To flee, left later issue to inherit
The name of Kshatriya and the regal spirit.
Of these the rule by compact of the clan
Approved thou knowest, and each high-born man
Whate'er and all the kingly multitude
Name themselves subjects of great Ila's brood
And the Ikshwaku house. Now by increase
The Ikshwaku Kings and Ilian count no less
Than are a hundred clans. Of all most huge
Yayati of the Bhojas, a deluge
Upon the earth in multitude and gift.
To these all chivalry their eyes uplift,
These and their mighty fortunes serve. But now
King Jarasandha lifts his diademed brow
And Ila and Ikshwaku pale their fires,
O'erwhelmed. He over kings and nations towers;
This way and that way with impetuous hands
Assailing overbears; the middle lands
Inhabits and by division rules the world,
Since he in whose sole hand the earth is furled,
Who is first monarch and supreme may claim,
He and he only, the imperial name.
And him the mighty hero, Shishupal
Owns singly nor disdains his lord to call,
But leads his warfare, and, of captains best, 
The puissant man and subtle strategist,
Chuccar, the Karoosh king, and those two famed
Grew to his side, Hansa and Dimbic named,
Brave men and high of heart, and Corrusus,
Duntvaccar, Maghavahan, Corobhus,
Great kings; and the wide-ruler of the West
The Yavan lord upon whose gleaming crest
Burns the strange jewel wonderful, whose might
Is like the boundless Oceans infinite,
Whose rule Narac obeys and Muruland.
King Bhagadutt owns Jarasandh's command,
Thy father's ancient friend, and more with hand
Serves him than word. He only of the West
And southern end of earth who is possessed,
The hero Kuntivardhan Purujit
Feel for thee as a tender father might.
Chained by affection to thee is his heart
And by affection in thy weal has part.
To Jarasandh he whom I did not slay
Is gathered, he who must forsooth display
My signs, gives himself out god humanized
And man ideal, and for such is prized
Now in the world, a madman soiled of soul,
The tyrant of the Chedies, whose control
Poundra and Keerat own, a mighty lord,
King of Bengal and by the name adored
Of Poundrian Vasudev. The Bhoja strong
To whom wide lands, one fourth of all, belong,
Called friend of Indra — he made tameable
Pandya and Cruth and Kayshic by his skill
And science, and his brother Aacrity
Is very Parashuram in prowess — he,
Even Bheeshmuc, even this high, far-conquering king
To Jarasandh is vowed. We worshipping,
We who implore his favour, we his kin
Are utterly rejected, all our pain
Of benefaction met with sharp contempt,
Benefit with harm returned or evil attempt. 
He has forgot his birth, his pride, his name;
Blinded by Jarasandha's burning fame
To him is gone. To him high fortune yields;
Great nations leave their old ancestral fields.
The Bhojas of the North to western plain
Their eighteen clans transplanted, Shoorasen,
Shalwa, Petucchur, Kuntie, Bhadracar,
Susthal, Kulind, Sucutta. All that are
Of the Shalwaian kings brother or friend,
Are with their leaders gone, nor yet an end;
The Southern Panchals and in Kuntie-land
The Eastern Coshalas. Their native north
Abandoning the Matsyas have gone forth
And from their fear take southern sanctuary:
With them the clan Sannyastapad. Lastly
The warrior great Panchalas terrified
Have left their kingdoms and to every side
Are scattering before Jarasandh's name.
On us the universal tempest came,
When Kansa furiously crushed of old
The Yadavs: for to Kansa bad and bold
The son of Brihadrath his daughters gave
Born younger feminine to male Sahadave,
Ustie and Prapthie. In this tie made strong
His royal kin he overpowered; nor long,
Being supreme, ruled prudently, but grew
A tyrant and a fool. Whereupon drew
The Bhoja lords together, those whom tired
His cruelties, and these with me conspired
Seeking a national deliverer.
Therefore I rose and Ahuk's daughter, her
The sweet and slender, gave to Acrur, — then
Made free from tyranny my countrymen.
With me was Ram, the plougher of the foe;
Our swords laid Kansa and Sanaaman low.
Scarce was this inbred peril crossed and we
Safe, Jarasandh arose. Then laid their plans
By vast majority the eighteen clans, 
That though we fought for ever, though we slew
With mighty blows infallible, o'erthrew
Foe upon foe, three centuries might take wing
Nor yet be slain the armies of the King.
For him and his two men like gods made strong,
Unslayable where the weapons thickest throng,
Hansa and Dimbhuc styled. Those two uniting,
Heroes, and Jarasandh heroic fighting
Might battle with assembled worlds and win;
Such was my thought, nor mine alone has been,
But all the kings this counsel entertain,
O wisest Yudhisthere. Now there was slain
By Ram in eight days' battle duelling
One Hansa truly named, a mighty king.
“Hansa is slain,” said one to Dimbhuc. Him
Hearing the Jumna's waters overwhelm
Devoted. Without Hansa here alone
He had not heart to linger, so is gone
His way to death. Of Dimbhuc's death when knew
Hansa, sacker of cities, he too drew
To the same waves that closed above his friend.
There were they joined in one o'erwhelming end.
This hearing Jarasandha discontent
With empty heart to his own city went.
The King being gone we in all joy again
In Mathura dwelt and our ancestral plain.
But she, the royal princess lotus-eyed,
Went to her father mourning; she, the pride
Of Jarasandh and Kansa's wife, and cried,
Spurring the mighty Maagadh, weeping: “Kill
My husband's murderer, O my father”, and still,
“Kill him!” But we minding the old thought planned
With heavy hearts out from our native land,
Son, friend and kinsman, all in fear must flee.1
Our endless riches' loose prolixity2
Unportable by division we compressed
And with it fared sadly into the West.
The lovely city, fair Kushasthaly,
With mountains beautiful, our colony
We made, the Ryevat mountains; and up-piled
Ramparts which even the gods in battle wild
Could hardly scale, ramparts which women weak
Might hold — of Vrishny's swords what need to speak?
Five are the leagues our dwelling place extends,
Three are the mountain-shoulders and each ends
An equal space: hundred-gated the town.
Each gate with heroism and renown
Is bolted and has eighteen keys close-bound,
Eighteen strong bows in whom the trumpets sound
Wakes headlong lust of war. Thousands as many
Our race. Ahuk has hundred sons nor any
Less than a god: And Charudeshna, he
With his dear brother, hero Satyaki,
Chacrodave, I, the son of Rohinie,
And Samba and Pradyumna, seven are we,
Seven strong men; nor other seven more weak,
Cunca, Shuncou, Kountie and Someque,
Anadhrishty, Somitinjoy, Critavurm:
Undhuk's two sons besides and the old King: firm
As adamant they, heroes energical.
These are the Vrishny men who lead there, all
Remembering the sweet middle lands we lost.
There we behold that flood of danger crossed
The Maagadh, Jarasandh, the mountain jaws
Impassable behold. There free from cause
Of fear, eastern or northern, Madhou's sons
Dwell glad of safety. Lo, we the mighty ones,
Because King Kansa married, to the West,
By Jarasandha utterly distressed,
Are fled, and there on Ryevat, hill of kine,
Find sanctuary from danger Magadhine.
Therefore though thou art with imperialness
Endiademed already, though the race
Of highborn princes thou must weld in one
And be their King and Emperor alone,
Yet not while Jarasandha liveth dream
That thou canst wear thy destined diadem.
Great Jarasandha living; for he brings
The princes of the earth and all her kings
And Girivraj with mighty prisoners fills, —
As in a cavern of the lordly hills,
A lion's homestead, slaughtered elephants lie,
So they a hecatomb of royalty
Wait their dire ending; for Magadha's King
A sacrifice of princes purposing,
With fierce asceticism of will adored
Mahadev mighty-minded, Uma's lord.
Conquering he moves towards his purpose, (brings
Army on army, kings on battling kings,
Victorious brings and binds and makes of men
His mountain city a huge cattle-pen.
Us too his puissance drove in strange dismay
To the fair-gated city, Dwaraca.)
Therefore if of Imperial Sacrifice
Thou art ambitious, first, O Prince, devise
To rescue all those murdered kings and slay
King Jarasandha, since thus only may
The instituted Sacrifice attain
Its great proportion and immenser plan.
King, I have said; yet as thy deeper mind
Adviseth thee. Only when all's designed,
All reasons weighed, then give me word.” “O thou
Art only wise,” Yudhishthere cried: “Lo now
A word no other heart might soar so high
To utter; yet thy brave sagacity
Plainly hath phrased it; nor like thee on earth
Another loosener of doubts takes birth.3
(Behold, the earth is full of kings; they still
Each in his house do absolutely their will;
Yet who attains to empire? Nay, the word
Itself is danger. ) He who has preferred
His enemy's greatness by sad study known,
How shall he late forget and praise his own?
Only who in his foemen's shock not thrown
Wins by ordeal praise, deserves the crown.
(This vast and plenteous earth, this mine of gems,
Is from a distance judged, how vast its realms,
Not from the dells. Nor otherwise, O pride
Of Vrishny's seed, man's greatness is espied.
In calm and sweet content is highest bliss,
Mine be the good that springs from chastened peace.)
Or I with this attempt hope not the crown
Of high supremacy to wear. Renown
Girds these and high-born minds; and so they deem
Lo I and I am warrior and supreme.
But we by Jarasandha's force alarmed
And all his bold tyrannies iron-armed
Shun the emprise. O Hero, O high-starred,
In whose great prowess we have done and dared,
In whose heroic arm our safeties dwell,
Yet lo thou fearest him, deemst invincible
And where thou fearest, my conceit of strength
Becomes a weakling's dream until at length
I hardly dare to hope by strongest men
This mighty Jarasandha can be slain,
Arjoon or Bheem or Rama or combined.
Thou, Keshav, in all things to me art mind.”
Out Bhema spoke, the strong man eloquent:
“The unstrenuous king, unhardy, unvigilant
Sinks like an ant-hill; nor the weak-kneed less
Who on a stranger leans his helplessness.
But the unsleeping and resourceful man
With wide and adequate attempt oft can
His mightier enemy vanquish; him though feeble
His wished-for good attends invariable.
Krishna has policy and I have strength
And with our mother's son Dhananjoy, length
Assured of victory dwells; we shall assail
Victoriously the Magadhan and quell
As triple fire a victim.”
Krishna then:
“Often we see that rash unthinking men
Imprudent undertake nor consequence
Envisage; yet will not his foe dispense
Therefore the one-ideaed and headstrong man.
Now since the virtuous ages first began
Five emperors have reigned to history known,
Maroutta, Bharat, Yuvanaswa's son,
Great Bhagirath and Kartavirya old.
By wealth Maroutta conquered, Bharat bold
By armèd strength; Mandhata's victories
Enthroned him and his subtle soul and wise.
By strenuous greatness Kartavirya bent
The world, but Bhagirath beneficent
Gathered the willing nations to his sway.
But thou purposing like greatness, to one way
Not limited, restor'st the imperial five.
Their various masteries reunited live:
Virtue, high policy, wealth without dearth
And conquest and the rapid grasp at Earth —
Yet these avail not to make solely great.
Strong Jarasandha bars thee from thy fate,
(Whom not the hundred nations can deter
But with great might he grows an emperor;
The jewel-sceptred kings to serve him start.
Yet he in his unripe and violent heart)
Unsatisfied, assumes the tyrant's part.
He, the first man of men, lays his rude hand
On the anointed monarchs of the land
And pillages. Not one we see exempt.
How then shall feebler king his fall attempt?
Well-nigh a hundred in his sway are whelmed.
With these like cattle cleansed, like cattle hemmed
In Shiva's house, the dreadful Lord of beasts,
Purified as for sacrificial feasts,
Surely life's joy is turned to bitterness,
Not dying like heroes in the battle's press.
Honour is his who in swift battle falls
And best mid swords high death to princes calls.
In battle let us 'gainst the Maagadh thrust,
By battle ignominy repel. To just
Eighty and six the royal victims mount,
Fourteen remain to fill the dire account,
Who being won his horrid violence
No farther pause will brook. (Glory immense
He wins, glory most glorious who frustrates
Interposing the tyrant and amates.
Kings shall acclaim him lord inevitably.”)
But Yudhisthere made answer passionately:
“Shall I, ambitious of imperial place,
Krishna, expose, in my mad selfishness,
Urged on by naked daring, men to death
Whom most I love? O Krishna, what is breath
To one that's mad and of his eyes bereft?
What joy has he that life to him is left?
These are my eyes, Thou Krishna art my mind,
Lo, I have come as one who stumbles blind
Upon the trackless Ocean's spuming shore,
Then wakes, so I all confident before
Upon this dreadful man whom even death
Dare not in battle cross. What use is breath
Of hopeless effort? Mischief only can
Result to the too blindly daring man.
Better not undertaken, is my mind
On riper thought, than fruitlessly designed.
Nay, let us leave this purpose, wiser so
Than with eyes open to our death to go.
For all my heart within is broken and slain
Viewing the vast impracticable pain
Of Sacrifice Imperial.” Then replied
To Yudhishthere great Partha in the pride
Of wonders self-attained, banner and car,
And palace Titan-built (and in the war
Quiver made inexhaustible) and great
Unequalled bow. “O King,” he said, “since Fate
Has given me bow and shafts, a sword like flame,
Great lands and strength, courage, allies and fame,
Yea, such has given as men might covet long
And never win; O King, what more? For strong
Is Birth and conquers, cries the theorist
Conversant in deep books; but to my taste
Courage is strongest strength. How helps it then
The uncourageous that heroic men
His fathers were? From uncourageous sires
Who springs a hero, he to glory towers.
That man the name of Kshatriya merits best
Whose soul is ever to the battle drest.
Courage, all gifts denied, ploughs through amain
A sea of foes: courage without, in vain
All other gifts conspire; rather all gifts
Courage into a double stature lifts.
But conquest is in three great strengths complete —
Action, capacity, fate: where these three meet,
There conquest comes; nor strengths alone suffice;
Men by neglect forfeit their Paradise.
And this the cause the strong much-hated man
Before his enemies sinks. Hard 'tis to scan
Whether of these flaws strength most fatally,
A spirit poor or an o'erweening eye.
Both are destruction. Kings who highly aim
And court success, must either quite disclaim.
And if by Jarasandha's overthrow,
Rescuing Kings, to Sacrifice we go,
What fairer, what more glorious? Mighty prince,
Deeds unattempted virtue maimed evince.
In us when virtue dwells, why deemst thou, brother,
A nothingness the children of thy mother.
Easy it is the ochre gown to take
Afterwards, if for holy calmness' sake
We must the hermit virtues imitate.
But here is Empire! here a royal fate!
Let others quietism's sweets embrace;
We the loud battle seek, the foeman's face.”
“In Kuntie's son and born of Bharat's race
What spirit should dwell, Arjoon's great words express,”
Said Krishna, “And of death we have no light
(Whether it comes by day or comes by night;
Nor this of mortal man was ever known
That one by going not to fight has grown
Immortal. Let him then who's man indeed
Clash forth against his foes, yet rule decreed
Of policy forget not: so his mind
Shall live at poise. For when in battle combined
Conduct meets long felicity, then high
Success must come nor two met equally
Equal can issue thence: from clash and strife
Of equals inequality takes life.
But rash impolicy with helplessness
Having joined issue in their mutual stress
Breed ruin huge; equality inglorious
Then doubt engenders, nor are both victorious.
Therefore in skilful conduct putting trust
If with our foe we grapple, fell him we must
As a wild torrent wrestling with a tree
Uproots and hurls it downward to the sea.
‘Trying the weak points in thine enemy's mail,
Subtly thine own disguise, then prompt assail’;
So runs the politic maxim of the wise
And to my mind rings just. If we devise
Secret, yet with no spot of treacherous blame,
To penetrate our foeman's house and limb
Grappling with limb, oh, won infallibly then
Our object is. Often one man of men
Pervades the nations like a soul, whose brow
Glory eternal-seeming wears; so now
This lion lord of men; but yet I deem
Shall that eternal vanish like a dream
In battle slaying him if at the last
By many swords we perish, so 'tis best
We shall by death the happy skies attain,
Saving from tyranny our countrymen.”
Sabhaparva, Adhyayas 13-16, Adhyaya 17 incomplete
1 flee fast.
2 Our loose prolixity of riches vast
3 Another sword of counsel shall take birth.
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18
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From Sanskrit
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