Such extensive destruction, however, causes the growth and
advancement of those that remain. He who protects people from plunder,
slaughter, and affliction, in consequence of thus protecting their lives
from robbers, comes to be regarded as the giver of wealth, of life, and
of food. The king, therefore, by thus adoring the deities by means of a
union of all sacrifices whose Dakshina is the dispelling of everybody's
fear, enjoys every kind of felicity here and attains to a residence in
Indra's heaven hereafter.[288] That king who, going out, fights his foes
in battles that have arisen for the sake of Brahmanas and lays down his
life, comes to be regarded as the embodiment of a sacrifice with
illimitable presents. If a king, with his quivers full of shafts, shoots
them fearlessly at his foes, the very gods do not see anyone on earth
that is superior to him. In such a case, equal to the number of shafts
with which he pierces the bodies of his enemies, is the number of regions
that he enjoys, eternal and capable of granting every wish. The blood
that flows from his body cleanses him of All his sins along with the very
pain that he feels on the occasion. Persons conversant with the
scriptures say that the pains a Kshatriya suffers in battle operate as
penances for enhancing his merit. Righteous persons, inspired with fear,
stay in the rear, soliciting life from heroes that have rushed to battle,
even as men solicit rain from the clouds. If those heroes, without
permitting the beseechers to incur the dangers of battle, keep them in
the rear by themselves facing those dangers and defend them at that time
of fear, great becomes their merit.
Pages:
1386
1387
1388
1389
1390
1391
1392
1393
1394
1395
1396
1397
1398
1399
1400
1401
1402
1403
1404
1405
1406
1407
1408
1409
1410