The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa | Page 8

superior officers? O oppressor of all foes,
O great king, I hope thou slayest thy foes without regarding their
seasons of reaping and of famine? O king, I hope thy servants and
agents in thy own kingdom and in the kingdoms of thy foes continue to
look after their respective duties and to protect one another. O monarch,
I hope trusted servants have been employed by thee to look after thy
food, the robes thou wearest and the perfumes thou usest. I hope, O
king, thy treasury, barns, stables arsenals, and women's apartments, are
all protected by servants devoted to thee and ever seeking thy welfare. I
hope, O monarch, thou protectest first thyself from thy domestic and
public servants, then from those servants of thy relatives and from one
another. Do thy servants, O king, ever speak to thee in the forenoon
regarding thy extravagant expenditure in respect of thy drinks, sports,
and women? Is thy expenditure always covered by a fourth, a third or a
half of thy income? Cherishest thou always, with food and wealth,
relatives, superiors, merchants, the aged, and other proteges, and the
distressed? Do the accountants and clerks employed by thee in looking
after thy income and expenditure, always appraise thee every day in the
forenoon of thy income and expenditure? Dismissest thou without fault
servants accomplished in business and popular and devoted to thy
welfare? O Bharata, dost thou employ superior, indifferent, and low
men, after examining them well in offices they deserve? O monarch,
employest thou in thy business persons that are thievish or open to
temptation, or hostile, or minors? Persecutest thou thy kingdom by the
help of thievish or covetous men, or minors, or women? Are the
agriculturists in thy kingdom contented. Are large tanks and lakes
constructed all over thy kingdom at proper distances, without
agriculture being in thy realm entirely dependent on the showers of
heaven? Are the agriculturists in thy kingdom wanting in either seed or
food? Grantest thou with kindness loans (of seed-grains) unto the tillers,
taking only a fourth in excess of every measure by the hundred? O
child, are the four professions of agriculture, trade, cattle-rearing, and
lending at interest, carried on by honest men? Upon these O monarch,
depends the happiness of thy people. O king, do the five brave and wise
men, employed in the five offices of protecting the city, the citadel, the
merchants, and the agriculturists, and punishing the criminals, always
benefit thy kingdom by working in union with one another? For the

protection of thy city, have the villages been made like towns, and the
hamlets and outskirts of villages like villages? Are all these entirely
under thy supervision and sway? Are thieves and robbers that sack thy
town pursued by thy police over the even and uneven parts of thy
kingdom? Consolest thou women and are they protected in thy realm? I
hope thou placest not any confidence in them, nor divulgest any secret
before any of them? O monarch, having heard of any danger and
having reflected on it also, liest thou in the inner apartments enjoying
every agreeable object? Having slept during the second and the third
divisions of the night, thinkest thou of religion and profit in the fourth
division wakefully. O son of Pandu, rising from bed at the proper time
and dressing thyself well, showest thou thyself to thy people,
accompanied by ministers conversant with the auspiciousness or
otherwise of moments? O represser of all foes, do men dressed in red
and armed with swords and adorned with ornaments stand by thy side
to protect thy person? O monarch! behavest thou like the god of justice
himself unto those that deserve punishment and those that deserve
worship, unto those that are dear to thee and those that thou likest not?
O son of Pritha, seekest thou to cure bodily diseases by medicines and
fasts, and mental illness with the advice of the aged? I hope that the
physicians engaged in looking after thy health are well conversant with
the eight kinds of treatment and are all attached and devoted to thee.
Happeneth it ever, O monarch, that from covetousness or folly or pride
thou failest to decide between the plaintiff and the defendant who have
come to thee? Deprivest thou, through covetousness or folly, of their
pensions the proteges who have sought thy shelter from trustfulness or
love? Do the people that inhabit thy realm, bought by thy foes, ever
seek to raise disputes with thee, uniting themselves with one another?
Are those amongst thy foes that are feeble always repressed by the help
of troops that are strong, by the help of both counsels and troops? Are
all the principal chieftains (of thy empire) all devoted to thee? Are they
ready to lay