Balarama Laments the Pandavas' Suffering

The Vrishnis arrived at the sacred tirtha of Prabhasa, on the shores of the great ocean, and found the Pandavas there. They surrounded the five brothers and offered them homage — the respect due to kings, even kings who now wore bark and matted hair. Balarama — the wielder of the plough, white as cow's milk, white as the kunda flower, the moon, lotus, and silver — looked at them and could not contain himself. He spoke to Krishna. "O Krishna. The pursuit of dharma does not lead to good. The pursuit of that which is not dharma does not lead to defeat. Look at the great-souled Yudhishthira — miserable in the forest, clad in bark, his hair matted. And Duryodhana rules the entire earth, and the earth does not swallow him up. From this, a man with limited intelligence will think that adharma is superior to dharma." He was not speaking abstractly. He was describing what he saw: a king who had followed truth and generosity and given away his kingdom and his happiness, while the man who had cheated him sat on a throne. Balarama asked what any subject would ask: when Duryodhana prospers and Yudhishthira grieves, what is the duty of those who witness it? He turned to the elders who had allowed this to happen. "After banishing the Parthas, will Bhishma, the brahmana Kripa, Drona, and the king — the eldest of the lineage — find happiness? Shame on the evil-minded chiefs of the Bharata lineage!" He imagined Dhritarashtra meeting his ancestors in the hereafter and being asked what he had done. "Having deprived his innocent sons of the kingdom, will he be able to say that he has treated his sons properly?" Dhritarashtra had been born sightless among all the kings of the earth. Balarama saw a reason for it now: he had banished the Kounteyas from the kingdom. "There is no doubt that Vichitravirya's son, together with his sons, after the performance of this cruel act, will not see trees of gold blossom in the world of the ancestors." Then he spoke of Bhima. "Yudhishthira and his younger brothers are armed. They are tall, wide of shoulder, and have red eyes. Did he not ask them and hear their reply? How could he have fearlessly banished them to the forest?" He described what Bhima was capable of — slaying a large army without weapons, making soldiers release their bowels and bladders with his roars. "He suffers now from hunger and thirst and is emaciated from journeys. But when he meets them, he will have weapons and arrows in his hands. He will then remember the extremely terrible dwelling in the forest. I am certain that he will not leave any survivors." He listed the others: Sahadeva, now an ascetic in ascetic's garb, who had once defeated all the kings of the south at Dantakura. Nakula, brave in battle, who had conquered the kings of the west alone on a chariot, now living on roots and fruit with dirt smeared on his body. And Draupadi — the daughter of an atiratha (great warrior), who had arisen from a prosperous sacrificial altar, always accustomed to comfort and ease. "How can she endure the great misery of dwelling in the forest?" He ended where he began: with the paradox. "These are the sons of Dharma, the wind, the lord of the gods, and the Ashvins. They are the sons of the gods and deserve to be happy. Deprived of happiness, how can they roam around in the forest? Dharma's son was conquered, together with his wife, his brothers and his attendants, and was driven out. Duryodhana has begun to flourish. Why did the earth, with all her mountains, not collapse?" He had no answer. He had only the question.