Alas, O lord, great is the grief, like poison or fire, that one suffers
at the loss of sons, of wealth, of kinsmen, and relatives. That grief
causes the limbs to burn and our wisdom to be destroyed. Overwhelmed with
that grief, a person regards death to be preferable. This calamity that
has overtaken me through ill-luck is even like that. It will not, I see,
end except with life itself. O best of regenerate ones, I shall,
therefore, put an end to my life this very day. Having said these words
unto his high-souled sire, that foremost of all persons conversant with
Brahman, Dhritarashtra, overwhelmed with grief, became stupefied. The
king, O monarch reflecting on his woes, became speechless. Hearing these
words of his, the puissant Vyasa thus spoke unto his son afflicted with
grief on account of the death of his children.
"Vyasa said, O mighty-armed Dhritarashtra, listen to what I say. Thou art
possessed of learning, thou hast great intelligence, and thou, O puissant
one, art skilled in understanding duties. Nothing of that which should be
known is unknown to thee, O scorcher of foes! Without doubt, thou knowest
the instability of all things doomed to death. When the world of life is
unstable when this world itself is not eternal, when life is sure to end
in death, why then, O Bharata, dost thou grieve? Before thy very eyes, O
king, the concatenation of facts brought about by Time making thy son the
cause, produced this hostility. This destruction of the Kurus, O king,
was inevitable.
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