kingdom.  Having caused so many heroic kings who were always devoted to righteousness and all of whom had quaffed Soma in sacrifices, what end shall I attain, O great ascetic!  Thinking that this earth has been bereft of many lions among kings, all of whom were in the enjoyment of great prosperity, I burn continually to this day.  Having witnessed this slaughter of kinsmen and millions of other men, I burn with grief, O grandsire!  Oh, what will be the plight of those foremost of ladies who have been deprived of sons, of husbands, and of brothers.  Reproaching the Pandavas and the Vrishnis as cruel murderers, those ladies, with emaciated features and plunged in grief, will throw themselves on the earth!  Not beholding their sires and brothers and husbands and sons, those ladies, through affliction, casting off their life-breath, will go to the abode of Yama, O foremost of Brahmanas!  I have no doubt of this.  The course of morality is very subtle.  It is plain that we shall be stained with the guilt of slaughtering women for this.  Having slain our kinsmen and friends and thereby committed an inexpiable sin, we shall have to fall into hell with heads downwards.  O best of men, we shall, therefore, waste our limbs with the austerest of penances.  Tell me, O grandsire, to what mode of life I should betake myself then.’”

Vaisampayana continued, “Hearing these words of Yudhishthira, the Island-born Rishi, having reflected keenly for some time, addressed the son of Pandu as follows: 

“Vyasa said, ’Remembering the duties of a Kshatriya, O king, do not give way to grief.  All those Kshatriyas, O bull among Kshatriyas, have fallen in the observance of their proper duties.  In the pursuit of great prosperity and of great fame on earth, those foremost of men, all of whom were liable to death,[109] have perished through the influence of Time.  Thou hast not been their slayer, nor this Bhima, nor Arjuna, nor the twins.  It is Time that took away their life-breaths according to the great law of change.  Time hath neither mother, nor father, nor anybody for whom he is disposed to show any favour.  He is the witness of the acts of all creatures.  By him have they been taken away.  This battle, O bull of Bharata’s race, was only an occasion ordained by him.  He causes creatures to be slain through the instrumentality of creatures.  This is the manner in which it puts forth its irresistible power.  Know that Time (in his dealings with creatures) is dependent upon the bond of action and is the witness of all actions good and bad.  It is Time that brings about the fruits, fraught with bliss or woe, of our actions.  Think, O mighty-armed one, of the acts of those Kshatriyas that have fallen.  Those acts were the causes of their destruction and it is in consequence of them that they have perished.  Think also of thy own acts consisting of observances of vows with restrained soul.  And think also how thou hast been forced by the Supreme Ordainer to do such an act (as the slaughter