purpose, we accept not the worship offered to us!'


SECTION XXII

"Jarasandha said,--'I do not recollect if I ever acted injuriously towards
ye! Even upon a careful mental scrutiny I fail to see the injury I did
unto ye. When I have never done ye an injury, why, ye Brahmanas do ye
regard me, who am innocent, as your foe? O, answer me truly, for this,
indeed, is the rule followed by the honest. The mind is pained at the
injury to one's pleasure and morality. That Kshatriya who injures an
innocent man's (sources of) pleasure and morality even if he be otherwise
a great warrior and well-versed in all rules of morality, obtains, without
any doubt the fate of sinners (hereafter) and falls off from prosperity.
The practices of the Kshatriyas are the best of those that are honest in
the three worlds. Indeed, those that are acquainted with morality applaud
the Kshatriya practices. Adhering to those practices of my order with
steady soul, I never injure those that are under me. In bringing this
charge, therefore, against me, it appears that ye speak erroneously!'

"Krishna said,--'O thou of mighty arms, there is a certain person of the
head of a (royal) line who upholdeth the dignity of his race. At his
command have we come against thee. Thou hast brought, O king, many of the
Kshatriyas of the world as captives (to thy city.) Having perpetrated that
wicked wrong how dost thou regard thyself as innocent? O best of monarchs,
how can a king act wrongfully towards other virtuous kings? But thou, O
king, treating other kings with cruelty, seekest to offer them as
sacrifice unto the god Rudra! O son of Vrihadratha, this sin committed by
thee may touch even us, for as we are virtuous in our practices, we are
capable of protecting virtue. The slaughter of human being as sacrifice