Sanjaya said Alas, as I have seen everything with my own eyes, I shall tell you. Hear me patiently. Great indeed is your fault.

O king, these lamentations of yours are as useless as the construction of embankments when the waters have receeded from a flooded field. O foremost of the Bharatas, do not indulge in grief.

The decrees of Destiny and wonderful and enevitable. O foremost of the Bharatas, do not give way to grief, for these things are not unique.

If in days gone by, you had prevented Kunti's son Yudhishthira or your own sors, from the tournament at dice, then this calamity would not have overtaken you.

If, again, on the eve of the battle, you had prevented the enraged parties from joining in the battle, then this calamity would not have overtaken you.

If, again, formerly you had incited the other Kurus to put an end to the existence of the refractory Duryodhana, then this calamity would never have overtaken you.

If, indeed, you had done one of these alternatives, then the Pandavas, the Panchalas, the Vrishnis and the other rulers of Earth have never had the reason for blaming you for your pervert understanding.

If, again, doing the duty of a father, you had (by directing Duryodhana on the path of virtue) compelled him to follow in the same path, then this calamity would never have befallen you.

You are the wisest man on the face of the Earth. But inspite of your being so, you accepted the counsel of Karna, Duryodhana and Shakuni, abounding the ways of eternal virtue.

Therefore, O king, all these lamentations of yours that I have heard, you who are absorbed in the enjoyment of worldly objects-appear to me to be like honey-mixed with poison.

In days gone by, Krishna did not hold king Yudhishthira the son of Pandu or Bhishma or Drona, in so high an estimation as he did hold you, O king.

But when he came to know you fallen from the duties of royalty, that time forward, he did not respect you as before.

When your sons applied harsh epithets to the sons of Pritha, you assumed an indifferent attitude. The result of that indifference of yours has now overtaken you-you who long to see your sons installed on the throne.

O sinless one, the royalty you inherited from your fore-fathers, is now going to slip off your hands; or on the other hand you will have it, obtaining it from the sons of Pritha (who would certainly snatch it away from your sons after slaying them).

The dominions of the Kurus and their fame, had been cquired by Pandu and the rightbehaving sons of Pandu have again added to that fame and those dominions.

All those endeavours of their became fruitless when indeed their interests clashed with yours, in as much as they were despoiled of their ancestral sovereignty by your very avaricious self.

So, O king, the fact of your attributing blame to your sons at the time of the actual warfare and the face of your expatiating on their faults, indeed, seem very unbecoming.

The monarchs, when engaged in battle, do not pay the least regard to their lives. Those foremost of the Kshatriyas fight (to the best of their abilities, having penetrated into the heart of the array of troops belonging to the sons of Pritha.

The army which Krishna and Arjuna and Satyaki and Vrikodara protect what persons except the Kauravas would hazard a battle with that army.

They whose warrior is Gudakesha (Arjuna), they whose counsellor is Krishna, they whose protectors are Vrikodara and Satyaki.

What human wielder of bow would venture to fight them, save and except the Kauravas and those who follow their lead.

Everything that can possibly be done by devoted (tributary) kings endued with heroism and observant of the duties of the Kshatriyas, all that is being done for the Kauravas by their partisans.

Hear now from me everything that transpired in that dreadful battle between those foremost of men, viz., the Kauravas and the Pandavas.