“Vaishampaayana said, ‘On hearing these words of her pained
parents, the daughter was filled with grief, and she addressed them, saying, ‘Why
are you so pained and why do you so weep, as if you have none to look after
you? O, listen to me and do what may be proper. There is little doubt that you
are bound in duty to abandon me at a certain time. O, anyhow you have to
abandon me (by getting me married), abandon me now and save every thing at
the expense of me alone. Men desire to have children, thinking
that children would save them (in this world
as well as in the region hereafter). O, cross the stream of your difficulties
by means of my poor self, as if I were a boat. A child
rescues his parents in this and the other regions; therefore is the child
called by the learned Putra (rescuer). The ancestors desire daughter's sons from me (as a special means
of Moksha). But (without waiting for
my children) I myself will rescue them
by protecting the life of my father. This my brother is of tender years, so
there is little doubt that he will perish if you die now. If you, my father,
die and my brother follows you, the funeral cake (Pinda in Sanskrit) of the Pitris will be suspended and they
will be greatly injured. Left behind by my father and brother, and by my mother
also (for she will not survive her husband and son) I shall be plunged deeper and deeper in sadness and ultimately perish
in great distress.
“There can be little doubt that if you escape from
this danger as also my mother and infant brother, then your race and the (ancestral) cake (Pinda
in Sanskrit) will be continued. The son
is one's own self; the wife is one's friend; the daughter, however, is the
source of trouble. You do save yourself, therefore, by removing that source of
trouble, and you do thereby set me in the path of Dharma. As I am a girl, O
father, without you, I shall be helpless and plunged in trouble, and shall have
to go everywhere. It is therefore that I am resolved to rescue my father's race
and share the merit of that act by accomplishing this difficult task. O best of
Brahmanas, if you go there (to the Rakshasa), leaving me here, then I shall be very much pained. Therefore, O
father, be kind to me.
“O you best of men, for our sake, for that of Dharma
and also your race, save yourself, abandoning me, whom at one time you shall be
forced to separate from. There need be no delay, O father, in doing that which
is inevitable. What can be more painful than that, when you have ascended to
heaven, we shall have to go about begging our food, like dogs, from strangers.
But if you are rescued with your relations from these difficulties, I shall
then live happily in heaven. It has been heard by us that if after giving your
daughter in this way, you offer Aachamana to Devas, they will certainly be favourable.’
“Vaishampaayana
continued, ‘The Brahmana and his wife, hearing these various lamentations of
their daughter, became sadder than before and the three began to weep together.
Their son, then, of tender years, seeing them and their daughter thus weeping
together, lisped these words in a sweet tone, his eyes having dilated with
delight, ‘Weep not, O father, nor you, O mother, nor you O sister!’ And
smilingly did the child approach each of them, and at last taking up a blade of
grass said in happiness, ‘With this will I slay the Rakshasa who eats human
beings!’ Although all of them had been plunged in sadness, yet hearing what the
child lisped so sweetly, joy appeared on their faces. Then Kunti thinking that
to be the proper opportunity, approached the group and said these words.
Indeed, her words revived them as Amrita (divine ambrosia) that revives a person who is dead.’”
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