in such a manner that the Bhojas and the Vrishnis may not meet with destruction.  Nothing but intelligence and forgiveness, restraint of the senses, and liberality are present in a person of wisdom.  Advancing one’s own race is always praiseworthy and glorious and conducive to long life.  Do thou, O Krishna, act in such a way that destruction may not overtake thy kinsmen.  There is nothing unknown to thee in respect of policy and the art of war, O Lord!  The Yadavas, the Kukuras, the Bhojas, the Andhakas, and the Vrishnis, are all dependent on thee even as all the worlds and all the regents of those worlds, O mighty-armed one!  The Rishis, O Madhava, always pray for thy advancement.  Thou art the lord of all creatures.  Thou knowest the past, the present, and the future.  Thou art the foremost one among all the Yadavas.  Relying on thee, they expect to live in happiness.’”

SECTION LXXXII

“Bhishma said, ’This that I have told thee constitutes the first means.  Listen now, O Bharata to the second means.  That man who seeks to advance the interests of the king should always be protected by the king.  If a person, O Yudhishthira, that is paid or unpaid, comes to thee for telling thee of the damage done to thy treasury when its resources are being embezzled by a minister, thou shouldst grant him an audience in private and protect him also from the (impeached) minister.  The ministers guilty of peculation seek, O Bharata, to slay such informants.  They who plunder the royal treasury combine together for opposing the person who seeks to protect it, and if the latter be left unprotected, he is sure to be ruined.  In this connection also an old story is cited of what the sage Kalakavrikshiya had said unto the king of Kosala.  It hath been heard by us that once on a time the sage Kalakavrikshiya came to Kshemadarsin who had ascended the throne of the kingdom of Kosala.  Desirous of examining the conduct of all the officers of Kshemadarsin, the sage, with a crow kept within a cage in his hand, repeatedly travelled through every part of that king’s dominions.  And he spoke unto all the men and said, ’Study, ye the corvine science.  The crows tell me the present, the past, and the future.’  Proclaiming this in the kingdom, the sage, accompanied by a large number of men, began to observe the misdeeds of all the officers of the king.  Having ascertained all the affairs in respect of that kingdom, and having learnt that all the officers appointed by the king were guilty of malversation, the sage, with his crow, came to see the king.  Of rigid vows, he said unto the king, ‘I know everything (about thy kingdom).’  Arrived at the presence of the king, he said unto his minister adorned with the insignia of his office that he had been informed by his crow that the minister had done such a misdeed in such a place, and that such and such persons know that he had plundered the royal treasury.  ’My crow