Queen Vidula re-kindles the flagging spirit of her son Sunjay, dejected by his defeatism [this is an extract[part 4] from *Sri Aurobindo's translation of a section of Udyoga-Parva]:
Mother to her Son
"Never should a prince and leader bow his haughty head to fear, Let his fortune be however desperate, death however near. If his soul grow faint, let him imprison weakness in his heart, Keep a bold and open countenance and play on a hero's part. If the leader fear and faint, then all behind him faint and fear. So a king of men should keep a dauntless look and forehead clear. Now this nation and this army and the statesmen of the land, All are torn by different counsels and they part to either hand. Some affect as yet the foreign tyrant, many leave his side, Others yet shall leave him, frowning, for his insults and his pride. Some there are, thy friends who love thee, but they serve and eat his bread, Weak, though praying for thy welfare, like poor cattle bound and led, Like a cow that sees her calf tied, so they serve reluctantly, Yet they sorrow in thy sorrow, weeping as for kin that die. Some there are whom thou hast loved and honoured, loyal friends of old, Who believe yet in the nation though its king grow faint and cold. Yield not to thy fear, O Sunjoy; let not such thy side forsake Scorning thy poor terrors. Wake for victory, Sunjoy! Warrior, wake! I have laboured to provoke the will, the strength thy heart within. All is truth I've uttered and thou knowst it; thy despair was sin. Know that thou hast still great treasure, know that I have funds concealed, Mighty stores that I alone know; thou shalt have them for the field. Know that thou hast numerous secret helpers, friends who wait their hour, Daring to endure privation and disaster's utmost power. They shall turn not backward from the battle, they are helpers, friends Such as daring souls aspirant need for their gigantic ends." So she spoke with words of varied splendour urging him to dare Till his gloom and shadow left him and his foolish weak despair.
"O thou strong and resolute speaker, even the feeblest fainting soul Would put darkness from him, listening, for thy words would make him whole. I will high uphold my country in its swift precipitous fate, Having thee to lead me on whose vision past and future wait. My denial and my silence were but craft; consent deferred Drew thee on to speak lest I should lose even one inspiring word. It is sudden nectar to the desolate to find a friend! Now I rise to smite the foe and cease not till I make an end." Out he rushed to desperate battle burning in his pride and might, As a noble warhorse wounded rushes faster to the fight. Stung with arrows of her speech he did his mother's high command Driving out the foe and stranger, freeing all the conquered land.
Lo, this strong and famous poem that shall make men gods for might, Kindling fiery joy of battle. When a King has lost the fight By his foemen whelmed and broken, let his well-wishers and friends Read to him this poem. All who need high strength for noble ends, Let them read it daily; for the warrior hearing turns to flame, Tramples down a hundred foemen and acquires a deathless name. And the pregnant woman who shall hear it day by day Bears a hero or a strong man dowered with strength to help or slay, Or a soul of grandiose virtues, or a helper of the Light, Or a glorious giver blazing with the spirit's radiance bright. But a daughter of high princes and a fighter's wife shall bear Splendid like a flame and swift and fortunate, strong to dare, Unapproachable in battle and invincible in war, Armed champion of the right, injustice' scourge, some human star.
*Notes by Sri Aurobindo about his translation/poem:
''There are few more interesting passages in the Mahabharata than the conversation of Vidula with her son. It comes into the main poem as an exhortation from Kunti to Yudhisthir to give up the weak spirit of submission, moderation, prudence, and fight like a true warrior and Kshatriya for right and justice and his own. But the poem bears internal evidence of having been written by a patriotic poet to stir his countrymen to revolt against the yoke of the foreigner. Sanjay, prince and leader of an Aryan people, has been defeated by the king of Sindhu and his Kingdom is in the possession of the invader. The fact of the king of Sindhu or the country around the Indus being named as the invader shows that the poet must have had in his mind one of the aggressive foreign powers, whether Persia, Graeco-Bactria, Parthia or the Scythians, which took possession one after the other of these regions and made them the base for inroads upon the North-West. The poet seeks to fire the spirit of the conquered and subject people and impel them to throw off the hated subjection. He personifies in Vidula the spirit of the motherland speaking to her degenerate son and striving to awaken in him the inherited Aryan manhood and the Kshatriya's preference of death to servitude.''
''This poem is based on a passage comprising four chapters (Adhyayas) in the Udyog-parva of the Mahabharat. It is not a close translation but a free poetic paraphrase of the subject matter; it follows closely the sequence of the thoughts with occasional rearrangements, translates freely in parts, in others makes some departures or adds, develops and amplifies to bring out fully the underlying spirit and idea. The style of the original is terse, brief, packed and allusive, sometimes knotted into a pregnant obscurity by the drastic economy of word and phrase. It would have been impossible to preserve effectively in English such a style; a looser fullness of expression has been preferred sacrificing the letter to the spirit. The text of a Calcutta edition has been followed throughout. The whole passage with its envoi or self-laudatory close reads like an independent poem dovetailed into the vast epic.''
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