That Kshatriya who knows how to correct the faults of behaviour of the other orders and to wash them clean like a washerman is really their father and deserve to be their king.  The respective ages called Krita, Treta, Dwapara and Kali, O bull of Bharata’s race, are all dependent on the conduct of the king.  It is the king who constitutes the age.[269] The four orders, the Vedas and the duties in respect of the four modes of life, all become confused and weakened when the king becomes heedless.  The three kinds of Fire, the three Vedas, and sacrifices with Dakshina, all become lost when the king becomes heedless.  The king is the creator of all creatures, and the king is their destroyer.  That king who is of righteous soul is regarded as the creator, while he that is sinful is regarded as the destroyer.  The king’s wives, sons, kinsmen, and friends, all become unhappy and grieve when the king becomes heedless.  Elephants and steeds and kine and camels and mules and asses and other animals all lose their vigour when the king becomes unrighteous.  It is said, O Mandhatri, that the Creator created Power (represented by the king) for the object of protecting Weakness.  Weakness is, indeed, a great being, for everything depends upon it.[270] All creatures worship the king.  All creatures are the children of the king.  If, therefore, O monarch, the king becomes unrighteous, all creatures come to grief.  The eyes of the weak, of the Muni, and of the snake of virulent poison, should be regarded as unbearable.  Do not, therefore, come into (hostile) contact with the weak.  Thou shouldst regard the weak as always subject to humiliation.  Take care that the eyes of the weak do not burn thee with thy kinsmen.  In a race scorched by the eyes of the weak, no children take birth.  Such eyes burn the race to its very roots.  Do not, therefore, come into (hostile) contact with the weak.  Weakness is more powerful than even the greatest Power, for that Power which is scorched by Weakness becomes totally exterminated.  If a person, who has been humiliated or struck, fails, while shrieking for assistance, to obtain a protector, divine chastisement overtakes the king and brings about his destruction.  Do not, O sire, while in enjoyment of Power, take wealth from those that are Weak.  Take care that that the eyes of the Weak do not burn thee like a blazing fire.  The tears shed by weeping men afflicted with falsehood slay the children and animals of those that have uttered those falsehoods.  Like a cow a sinful act perpetrated does not produce immediate fruits.[271] If the fruit is not seen in the perpetrator himself, it is seen in his son or in his son’s son, or daughter’s son.  When a weak person fails to find a rescuer, the great rod of divine chastisement falls (upon the king).  When all subjects of a king (are obliged by distress to) live like Brahmanas, by mendicancy, such mendicancy brings destruction upon the king.  When all the officers of the king posted in the provinces