people.  So it is the conclusion of the Pandits that what maintains is Dharma.  O Partha, I have narrated to you the signs and indications of Dharma.  Hearing this, you decide whether Yudhishthira is to be slaughtered by you or not.”  Arjuna said, “Krishna, your words are fraught with great intelligence and impregnated with wisdom.  Thou art to us like our parents and our refuge.  Nothing is unknown to thee in the three worlds, so thou art conversant with the canons of morality.  O Keshava of the Vrishni clan, thou knowest my vow that whoever among men would tell me, ‘Partha, give thy Gandiva to some one braver than you,’ I shall at once put an end to his life.  Bhima has also made a promise that whoever would call him ‘tularak’, would be slaughtered by him there and then.  Now the King has repeatedly used those very words to me in thy presence, O hero, viz., ‘Give thy bow.’  If I slay him, O Keshava, I will not be able to live in this world for even a moment.  Having intended again the slaughter of the king through folly and the loss of my mental faculties, I have been polluted by sin.  It behoveth thee today, O foremost of all righteous persons, to give me such counsel that my vow, known throughout the world, may become true while at the same time both myself and the eldest son of Pandu may live.’”

“’Vasudeva said, “The king was fatigued, and under the influence of grief, He had been mangled in battle by Karna with numerous arrows.  After that, O hero, he was repeatedly struck by the Suta’s son (with his shafts), while he was retreating from battle.  It was for this that, labouring under a load of sorrow, he spoke those improper words unto thee in wrath.  He provoked thee by those words so that thou mightest slay Karna in battle.  The son of Pandu knows that the wretched Karna is incapable of being borne by any one else in the world (save thee).  It was for this, O Partha, that the king in great wrath said those harsh words to thy face.  The stake in the game of today’s battle has been made to lie in the ever alert and always unbearable Karna.  That Karna being slain, the Kauravas would necessarily be vanquished.  Even this is what the royal son of Dharma had thought.  For this the son of Dharma does not deserve death.  Thy vow also, O Arjuna, should be kept.  Listen now to my counsels that will be agreeable to thee, to counsels in consequence of which Yudhishthira without being actually deprived of life may yet be dead.  As long as one that is deserving of respect continues to receive respect, one is said to live in the world of men.  When, however, such a person meets with disrespect, he is spoken of as one that is dead though alive.  This king hath always been respected by thee and by Bhima and the twins, as also by all heroes and all persons in the world that are venerable for years.  In some trifle then show him disrespect.  Therefore, O Partha, address this Yudhishthira as ‘thou’ when his usual form of address is ‘your honour.’  A superior, O Bharata,