DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6523#0221
209
Pandavas by force and fraud; you remember the
word she spoke : " This is the moment for which a
Kshattriya woman bears her sons." She sent her sons
off into the battlefield to do their duty to their country,
exactly in the same spirit which you have heard of
and admired in the Japanese woman, who was found
weeping after a great battle. Those who had gather-
ed round to comfort her, consoled her by saying that
her sons had died for Japan. " No," she said, turn-
ing round to the comforters, " I am not weeping be-
cause my sons are dead; I am weeping that I have
no more sons to give to the service of the country."
That was the same spirit you find in Kunti. Again
Damayanti, another name which is familiar to you in
the sacred literature, you know how she tried to come
between the husband and his frantic gambling, how
the elders of the nation, the ministers of the King,
came to her that she might plead with him in order
that he might be saved from his desperate end; and
you see her going to him and praying to him for the
sake of his country to give up his game of dice. You
see similar counsel from Gandharl, the mother of the
Kurus, brought into a council of Kings and warriors,
that her voice might be heard in pleading with her
headlong son. You will find the noblest heroism
linked with the name of Slta, with the name of Savitri,
who showed courage that could follow death itself in
the effort to rescue her husband over whom death's
noose had been cast.
14
Pandavas by force and fraud; you remember the
word she spoke : " This is the moment for which a
Kshattriya woman bears her sons." She sent her sons
off into the battlefield to do their duty to their country,
exactly in the same spirit which you have heard of
and admired in the Japanese woman, who was found
weeping after a great battle. Those who had gather-
ed round to comfort her, consoled her by saying that
her sons had died for Japan. " No," she said, turn-
ing round to the comforters, " I am not weeping be-
cause my sons are dead; I am weeping that I have
no more sons to give to the service of the country."
That was the same spirit you find in Kunti. Again
Damayanti, another name which is familiar to you in
the sacred literature, you know how she tried to come
between the husband and his frantic gambling, how
the elders of the nation, the ministers of the King,
came to her that she might plead with him in order
that he might be saved from his desperate end; and
you see her going to him and praying to him for the
sake of his country to give up his game of dice. You
see similar counsel from Gandharl, the mother of the
Kurus, brought into a council of Kings and warriors,
that her voice might be heard in pleading with her
headlong son. You will find the noblest heroism
linked with the name of Slta, with the name of Savitri,
who showed courage that could follow death itself in
the effort to rescue her husband over whom death's
noose had been cast.
14