SECTION LXXIII
Vaisampayana said,--'O monarch, it was then that the virtuous Gandhari,
afflicted with grief on account of her affection for her sons, addressed
king Dhritarashtra and said, "When Duryodhana was born, Vidura of great
intelligence had said, 'It is well to send this disgrace of the race to
the other world. He cried repeatedly and dissonantly like a jackal. It is
certain he will prove the destruction of our race. Take this to heart, O
king of the Kurus. O Bharata, sink not, for your own fault, into an ocean
of calamity. O lord, accord not your approbation to the counsels of the
wicked ones of immature years. Be not you the cause of the terrible
destruction of this race. Who is there that will break an embankment
which hath been completed, or re-kindle a conflagration which hath been
extinguished? O bull of the Bharata race, who is there that will provoke
the peaceful sons of Pritha? Thou rememberest, O Ajamida, everything, but
still I will call your attention to this. The scriptures can never control
the wicked-minded for good or evil. And, O king, a person of immature
understanding will never act as one of mature years. Let your sons follow
thee as their leader. Let them not be separated from you for ever (by
losing their lives). Therefore, at my word, O king, abandon this wretch
of our race. Thou couldst not, O king, from parental affection, do it
before. Know that the time hath come for the destruction of race through
him. Err not, O king. Let your mind, guided by counsels of peace, virtue,
and true policy, be what it naturally is. That prosperity which is
acquired by the aid of wicked acts, is soon destroyed; while that which
is won by mild means taketh root and descendeth from generation to
generation."
"The king, thus addressed by Gandhari who pointed out to him in such
language the path of virtue, replied unto her, saying,--'If the
destruction of our race is come, let it take place freely. I am ill able
to prevent it. Let it be as they (these my sons) desire. Let the Pandavas
return. And let my sons again gamble with the sons of Pandu."
--------------------END OF PARVA 2 : UPA-PARVA 73 ---------------------
