The Slaying of Śiśupāla 16
English (machine translation) 16
- Language
- English
16.1
Then a certain quick-witted messenger, instructed by the son of Damaghoṣa, / approached Hari in the assembly and uttered these words of plainly ambiguous meaning:
16.2
“Having then spoken that unpleasant thing, Śiśupāla has attained supreme remorse; / turning his mind toward you, he desires to come and do honour to you who are angry.”
[Double meaning: “Having then spoken that disagreeable word, Śiśupāla has attained great indignation; / setting his mind against you, he desires to march out in fury to destroy you.”]
16.3
“May he, intensely eager, obtain supreme joy by tightly clasping you / all around with his vast body, having attained ample delight of limbs!”
[Double meaning: “May he, exceedingly agitated, find great delight by violently crushing you on all sides / in a vast battle, having obtained ample destruction of your limbs!”]
16.4
“Bowing down with his head, coming together with all the rulers of the earth, / the king will swiftly carry out your command, for today he is entirely subject to you.”
[Double meaning: “Fallen with his head severed, coming together with all the rulers of the earth, / the king will soon impose his command upon you, for today you are under his control.”]
16.5
“Why would kings fail to pay homage to you, whose fiery energy surpasses that of the fire and the sun, / whose capable actions proceed from a resolved mind, and to whom everything is obedient?”
[Double meaning: “Why should kings pay homage to you, whose energy is like that of a moth falling into a fire, / whose acts are capable only in your own obstinate mind, and who act arbitrarily toward everyone?”]
16.6
“Since with a fearless mind you support the people overwhelmed by enemies, / therefore, O Kṛṣṇa, your virtues are regarded as immeasurable by incomparable men.”
[Double meaning: “Since you, lacking understanding through fear, support people humiliated by foes, / therefore, O dark one, your virtues are counted as nothing by peerless men.”]
16.7
“Not shameless before what is harmful, unbending only before excessive haughtiness, / devoted to sacred truth, endowed with modesty, free from pride—where is there another virtuous man equal to you?”
[Double meaning: “Shameless, fearing what is beneficial, devoid of fear even in excessive impiety, / an infidel, governed only by your own will, arrogant—where is there another so-called virtuous man like you?”]
16.8
“Your glorious deed—having delighted the cowherd women and slain the bull-demon Arisṭa, / even now holding high repute through your destruction of sins—is rightly praised by people even in the dreadful Naraka [episode].”
[Double meaning: “Your conduct—copulating with cowherd women, destroying virtue, worthy of terrible hell, / and committing base sins—is properly described by the people.”]
16.9
“Having received the homage of kings, having inspired fear in your foes through your forces, / may you, accompanied by your followers, stand high above even the greatest rulers of the earth!”
[Double meaning: “Having plundered the kings, your forces struck with terror by your enemies, / may you, with your followers, end up high above on the great burial mounds!”]
16.10
“Let your avenues in the cities, surrounded by herds of elephants / resembling dense clouds and difficult to approach, be filled with forest products such as musk!”
[Double meaning: “Let the streets in your cities be impassable with hordes of serpents resembling dense clouds, / and deserted, overrun all around by forest beasts such as deer!”]
16.11
“May the enemy of you whose intellect and mind are noble have his prowess concealed, / his ruin inevitable, and his rise checked, while your policy brings continual prosperity!”
[Double meaning: “May the enemy of your arrogant mind be successful, / your prowess concealed, your ruin inevitable, and your lack of policy be a constant disease!”]
16.12
“O best of the Yadus, as you have approached the battle-array [in alliance] with the king of Cedi, whose eyes are fair as blossoming blue lotuses, / out of kinship and affection new wine with liquor will be drunk with you.”
[Double meaning: “O best of the Yadus, as you face the battle-array of the king of Cedi, / who has eyes beautiful as blossoming blue lotuses, out of ancestral enmity a fresh sword accompanied by gods [desiring the spectacle] will fall upon you.”]
16.13
“With kettledrums sounded before you, accompanied by your army, together with Sāraṇa / and accompanied by Gada, you, arriving eagerly at the assembly, ought to receive him with honor.”
[Double meaning: “Having lost your father Ānakadundubhi before, your strength gone, bereft of refuge, / and afflicted with disease, arriving impetuously in battle, you ought to perish.”]
16.14
“Joining now with Śiśupāla who slays enemies in battles, / be one who enjoys women with confidence for a long time, along with all the Sātvatas!”
[Double meaning: “Encountering now Śiśupāla who slays his foes in battles, / join the company of heaven's apsarases for a long time, together with all the Sātvatas!”]
16.15
“Let the delighted king, having conquered his wrath, behold you—who are a foe only to the proud kings / and who have repeatedly conquered in battle—standing before him with your women in joyous peace!”
[Double meaning: “Let the king behold you, whose wrath has been crushed, who are harmful to great monarchs, / bound many times before him in battle, while he rejoices in his fierce pride!”]
16.16
When the enemy's spy had spoken this speech and fallen silent, / then Sātyaki, prompted by the Discus-Handed one with the slight movement of a single eyebrow, spoke these words:
16.17
“Skilfully have you spoken a speech that is outwardly sweet and inwardly hostile, / in such a way that by its comprehensive meaning it is also understood as outwardly hostile and inwardly pleasant.”
16.18
“Exceedingly soft on one side, yet on the other rough like the stalk of a fresh water-lily, / your speech clearly bears the exact likeness of a vegetable leaf.”
16.19
“One should indeed shrink from such a harsh person who speaks words that are ostensibly gentle / but betrays a harsh meaning within, just as travellers shrink from a bird of ill omen.”
16.20
“If the king [Yudhiṣṭhira] honoured Hari, what envy is there in this for your monarch? / Who begrudges the placing of a fragrant tree-flower upon the head?”
16.21
“Ah, how tender is the heart of the vile, since whatever unpleasantness enters it / they immediately vomit forth! Wise men, on the contrary, digest it.”
16.22
“The good person is naturally inclined to constantly benefit everyone; / nevertheless, ah!, his elevation constantly causes a severe heartache to the wicked.”
16.23
“The superior person is not tormented at all; another, though tormented, conceals it well; / but the base person, afflicted by the prosperity of others, lays bare his wicked intentions clearly.”
16.24
“How could a wise man resort to wickedness, which leaves distress unremoved, / is devoid of fruit, and is shunned by good men, just as one would not resort to a barren, flowerless, burning plot of ground?”
16.25
“Keśava gave no reply to the reviling king of Cedi; / for the lion roars in response to the thunder of the cloud, not to the howls of the jackal.”
16.26
“Those of great intellect have mastered the impetuosity of anger; the petty person is instantly overcome by wrath. / What hostility can the wise have with a fool who is conquered by anger, which is itself conquered by them?”
16.27
“The dignity of the great person surely does not vanish at the insolent words of the wicked. / Does the great value of a gem covered with earthly dust ever depart?”
16.28
“The petty person, who has no personal virtue of his own capable of giving satisfaction, / seeks, it seems, to please his own people by recounting the faults of others.”
16.29
“The wicked are naturally blind to their own misconduct, but possess divine vision for seeing the faults of others; / they have loud voices in proclaiming their own virtues, but take vows of silence when it comes to acknowledging the merits of others.”
16.30
“It is great skill to conceal for a long time the faults of others even when they are obvious; / but it is the total lack of skill of noble minds to reveal their own virtues.”
16.31
Why would a magnanimous man recount his own virtue, / celebrated as it is by the entire world? / For a petty man, no other will declare his merit; / that is why he proclaims it himself.
16.32
Others, who do not boast, discharge their wrath / like poisonous serpents discharging venom; / holding an inner substance, [they act], while the rest, / like drums, have only their loud noise as substance.
16.33
In whatever manner that king of Cedi desires / to see the Slayer of Naraka, / let him come quickly; no failure will be made / to render him a fitting answer.
16.34
Why, pray, has the king girded his armour? / If he seeks an alliance with him, / let Hari come forward by submission; / that [kings] make submission out of fear is indeed no impossibility.
16.35
Passing over the great in hasty recklessness, / a fool is destroyed by his own fault; / the blazing fire, surely, / does not turn moths into its fuel by its own desire.
16.36
Since the king did not previously complete, / by his own mouth, a hundred offences, / so now, through the mouth of his messenger, / he has completed it for the Wielder of the Bow Śārṅga.
16.37
If, mouth unbarred like a city gate, / you speak any further unpleasant word from now on, / it will uncover our wrath / that has long been held in check awaiting the appointed time.
16.38
Having heard those forceful words / of the grandson of Śini, unreached by sins, / the messenger of his enemies, casting off all fear, / spoke in reply once more:
16.39
A common man of impoverished intellect / does not discern his own good by himself; / but that he does not understand it even when spoken by others— / that is a great wonder!
16.40
Wise men foresee a coming danger by themselves, / or else place their faith in [the word of] another; / a petty mind does not grasp it through another, / nor by himself, except through direct experience.
16.41
That word which I addressed to you, Kṛṣṇa, / was indeed for your own welfare; / the virtuous are devoted to counsel even for enemies / who are rushing toward their own destruction.
16.42
Both conciliation and its opposite / have been spoken by me simultaneously to you with haste; / having distinguished them separately by your discernment, / you will surely do that which befits your nature.
16.43
Or rather, good counsel goes to waste / on those whose intellects are obstinately set, / like the mass of rays of the cold-beamed moon / on lotus beds that are devoted to the sun.
16.44
Disregarding merits and defects, / a person undeniably follows his own inclination; / did not the elder brother of Bhīma, setting aside the lord of the earth, / worship you in the assembly?
16.45
Devoted to you, the Kuru king did not honour / the lord of Cedi, who was indeed his elder; / is a pearl born from an elephant's temple flawed / because it is cast aside by the lion fond of meat?
16.46
The white is made high indeed by the white, / but by what is other than white it is made low: / Śaṅkara placed the foam of the river of the gods on his head, / while the Slayer of Madhu [placed it] beneath his foot.
16.47
Whence is there any fitness in you, / who have had your mind formed by fools, the sons of Pṛthā? / The berry of the guñjā, blown upon by monkeys in winter, / does not indeed attain warmth.
16.48
The king surpasses you, who are forbearing with a hundred faults, / by just a single act of forbearance; / for even though you abducted the daughter of Bhīṣmaka, / he, though capable, forgave you.
16.49
Abducting a bride given by his elders / to a king who was his own kinsman, / you are plainly the father of Mind-Born Kāma, Janārdana, / since you have destroyed virtue and worldly benefit!
16.50
Of you, whose splendour of form cannot be discerned, / or rather whose hue is like the wing of a cuckoo, / who pervades everything, the king is now / the destroyer, as the sun is of darkness.
16.51
My proposal of peace toward you / is useless when the king has been provoked; / what can an overflow do to the world / when the ocean has surged up at cosmic dissolution?
16.52
I have been sent by the king, O Mādhava, / to summon you to battle; / those of great valour do not harm their enemies / through deception, like thieves.
16.53
Therefore this king approaches, / irresistible like a flood of waters; / bend down quickly like a reed, O Mādhava; / do not be broken like a tree!
16.54
Do not rely upon his name, / thinking, 'He protects only children (śiśu)'; / that refuge-giver, full of forbearance, / protects even youthful enemies who have come for refuge.
16.55
How could others, intent on self-interest, / fail to do unpleasant things without fear to a great man? / Even when angered, that noble-minded one / is appeased by a mere bow.
16.56
If you desire to hear what is beneficial though unpleasant, / make peace before you perish; / but if you are pleased with pleasant falsehoods: / 'May you conquer, live, and be lord of the earth!'
16.57
Even though you conquer your adversaries, / you will undoubtedly be conquered in battle by the king of Cedi; / for the darkness named Rāhu / repeatedly swallows the dispeller of darkness, the lord of day.
16.58
Having soon conquered the one whose banner is a fish, / resplendent, bowed down to by the hosts of Vṛṣṇis, / having destroyed the arrogant Antaka, / that king will imitate the divine sport of Hara.
16.59
He does not fear in battle even Hari, / who has slain furious, wicked elephants / and bears vast fame acquired in succession; / what count has he of the Vṛṣṇis?
16.60
It is no wonder that enemies in battle, / out of fear, do not look upon his face; / for he sees only the backs of fleeing foes, / never their faces.
16.61
Holding slender, flashing lightning, / having their weapons shattered upon reaching autumn, / clouds, if they lacked rain, / would resemble his enemies.
16.62
Soiled repeatedly by the dust of battle, / washed by the tears of enemies' wives, / the pair of his feet is then anointed / with the pigments that are the rays of kings' diadems.
16.63
For battle, as his bow, exceedingly hard, / is drawn in an instant, / the host of his foes swiftly attains / a bowing down, with its destruction feared.
16.64
His friends regard him as the cool-rayed moon, / his enemies as the hot-rayed sun, / just as, through confusion of sight produced by arts, / some see a garland and others a serpent.
16.65
Having an imperishable arrival, / bearing a superhuman body in another world, / not standing upon the earth at present, / his enemies have become equal to the gods.
16.66
Of that king of wondrous deeds, / who releases justice, / whatever obstacle appears, / he brings the inextinguishable race of his enemies to extinction.
16.67
Whose wealth consisted of trembling upright trunks, / whose paths were blocked by crocodile-arrays, / he crossed repeatedly with the might of his own arms / the great oceans of battle.
16.68
If a king, puffed up with pride, / does not wish to place his head at his feet, / he, free from pride, / places his very foot upon that king's head.
16.69
With only the pair of his own arms as weapon, / leaving behind his four-limbed army, / he repeatedly entered into four-tusked battle / against Indra's elephant.
16.70
Although both of you have an unswerving, lovely discus / and are embraced by Śrī with affection, / between you two there is only this difference: / that you are Upendra (subordinate to Indra), while he is Atīndra (surpassing Indra).
16.71
Though endowed with power, enjoying immense pleasures, / and conqueror of many cities of his enemies, / that birthless king, lovely as the full moon, / takes delight in the crescent moon [of Śiva].
16.72
Resorting to high standing, whose rise is unbroken, / he swiftly and forcibly brings one to ruin, / while another, whose branch-like arms flash over the surface of the earth, / he raises exceedingly to prominence.
16.73
Finding an opening between them and causing dissension in the circle of kings, / in an instant, by breaking their coalition, / he tears up even the vast foundations of someone.
16.74
Forcibly pulling some close, he turns them into followers bearing heavy tribute; / but another, though firmly established, if hostile, / he utterly casts down.
16.75
Thus, like a spate of water produced by the rains in rivers / with the trees on their banks, / he, immense, his advance unchecked anywhere, / sports with the hosts of kings.
16.76
Adorned with heavy rows of stones, / enclosing the sky everywhere without gaps, / having ascended the mountain slopes, / they do not abandon their girdles for a long time.
16.77
With lovely arms adorned with new pearls / they resort to the mountain ridges, / and by means of the large boulders / they constantly preserve their cosmetics intact.
16.78
Thus, whatever prosperity the wives of his enemies formerly enjoyed in their palaces, / they now obtain the very same completely / through misfortune on the mountain peaks.
16.79
Though burning the great Kukura and Andhaka trees excessively / like a forest fire, / it is a great wonder that this king / will make the earth devoid of blackness (akṛṣṇā, devoid of Kṛṣṇa).
16.80
Though concise in expression all around, it has pervaded every realm / and attained firm authority; / indeed, like an authoritative rule of grammar, / his weighty command is never thwarted anywhere.
16.81
That earth which the ancient Puruṣa, assuming the form of a boar, / bore for a mere moment in the beginning, / is now properly borne unbroken / by him, the slayer of his foes, as a repeatedly wedded wife.
16.82
Though both are abundant, unswerving anywhere, / and attain great height, / the waves of the ocean break on reaching the shore, / but the great billows of his virtues do not.
16.83
The modest radiance of the hot-rayed sun, obstructed by the Lokāloka mountain, / is unable to spread; / but his bold fiery energy, while the world watches before him, / swiftly strides high over kings.
16.84
Fresh sandalwood smears their bodies, their lips are pierced by lac dye, / kohl has fallen from their exceedingly clear eyes, their girdles rest loose on their hips, / and pearl necklaces are draped across their high, rounded breasts— / in this way, in times of fortune as in adversity, / the young women of his enemies remain perpetually adorned.
16.85
He of mighty glory, having swiftly slain you in battle, / will make the title Śiśupāla truly meaningful, / with a compassionate heart / toward your weeping womenfolk.
Commentaries (2)
- Sarvaṅkaṣā — Mallinātha Sūri, Sanskrit
- Śiśupālavadhaṭīkā — Mallinātha, Sanskrit
Linked texts (1)
- Śiśupālavadha — Māgha, Sanskrit