I tell thee that I have all those attributes, and the king
himself knows all this. He, on the other hand, that destroys, chastises,
sharpens his weapons, injures, causes us to sigh, makes us cheerless, and
wrongs us in diverse ways, is a foe. All these attributes are to be found
in thee and thou discoverest all of them in me. For the sake of
Duryodhana, for the sake of doing what is agreeable to thee, for the sake
of victory, for the sake of myself, and for the sake of God himself, I
will with vigorous exertion, fight with Partha and Vasudeva. Witness
today my feats. Behold today my excellent weapons, my brahmastra and
other celestial weapons, as also those that are human. I will today slay
that hero of fierce prowess, like an exceedingly infuriate elephant
slaying an infuriate compeer. I shall, by my mind alone, hurl today at
Partha, for my victory, that weapon of immeasurable energy, called the
brahmastra. Arjuna will never be able to escape that weapon, if only the
wheels of my car do not sink into the Earth in battle today. Know this, O
Shalya, that I would not take fright at Yama himself armed with his rod,
or Varuna himself armed with his noose, or Kuvera himself armed with his
mace, or Vasava himself armed with the thunderbolt, or at any other foe
whatever that may approach for slaying me. Therefore, I have no fear from
Partha, nor from Janardana. On the other hand, I shall encounter them
both in today's destructive battle. Once on a time, while wandering for
the sake of practising weapons on my bow called Vijaya, O king, I had, by
shooting many fierce shafts of terrible forms, heedlessly struck the calf
of a (brahmana's) homa cow with one of those shafts, and unwillingly
killed it white it was wandering in a solitary forest.
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