Page:The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (1884).djvu/497

This, indeed, is the highest and the eternal duty of women, viz, that sacrificing their lives they should seek the good of their husbands. Such an act done by me will make thee happy, and bring me fame in this world and eternal bliss in the world hereafter! This, indeed, is the highest virtue that I tell thee. And thou mayst, by this, acquire both virtue and happiness. The object for which one desireth a wife hath already been achieved by thee through me. I have borne thee a daughter and a son and thus been freed from the debt I owed thee. Thou art well able to support and cherish the children. I, however, can never support and cherish them like you. Thou art my life, wealth, and lord! Bereft of thee how shall these children of tender years, how also shall I myself exist? Widowed and masterless, with two little children depending on me, how shall I, without thee, keep alive the pair, myself leading an honest life? If this daughter of thine is solicited (in marriage) by persons dishonorable and vain and unworthy of contracting an alliance with thee, how shall I be able to protect the girl? Indeed, as brids seek with avidity for meat that hath been thrown away on the ground, so do men solicit a woman that hath lost her husband. And, O thou best of Brahmanas, solicited by wicked men I may waver and may not be able to continue in the path that is desired by all honest men. How shall I be able to place this sole daughter of thy house—this innocent girl—in the way along which her ancestors have always walked? How shall I then be able to impart unto this child every desirable accomplishment to make him virtuous as thyself, in that season of every want when I am masterless? Overcoming myself who shall be masterless, unworthy persons will demand (the hand of) this daughter of thine, like Sudras desiring to hear the Vedas. And if I bestow not upon them this girl possessing thy blood and qualities, they may even take her away by force like crows taking away the sacrificial butter. And beholding thy son become so unlike to thee, and thy daughter placed under the control of some unworthy person, I shall be despised in the world by even persons that are dishonorable, and scarcely knowing myself I will certainly