Yudhishthira, deeply anxious, came upon Sanjaya seated quietly. With a troubled heart, he addressed him, “O Gavalgana, where is our aged father, now deprived of his sight? And where is my mother, who grieves for her sons lost in battle? Where has my uncle, our steadfast friend, gone? Perhaps, thinking me lacking in wisdom and now bereft of kin, he has, with his wife, sought the sacred Ganga, hoping to find relief from sorrow.” Overwhelmed by these thoughts, Yudhishthira’s distress grew. “After our father Pandu passed away, our uncles protected all our friends and children from calamity. Where have those protectors gone now, leaving us behind?” Suta, the narrator, explains that Sanjaya, overcome by compassion and the pain of separation, was unable to answer Yudhishthira right away. His heart was heavy, and he could not perceive the Lord within himself, so deep was his affliction. After some moments, Sanjaya wiped his tears with his hands, steadied himself, and, remembering the feet of the Lord, prepared to answer Ajatashatru. Sanjaya spoke, “O delight of your lineage, I do not know what your parents or Gandhari have decided, O mighty-armed one. I have been left in the dark by these great souls.” As he spoke, the venerable sage Narada arrived, accompanied by Tumburu. Yudhishthira and his brothers rose at once, greeting and honoring the sage with due reverence. Yudhishthira then addressed Narada, “O revered one, I do not know where my parents have gone, nor where my mother, grieving for her slain sons and devoted to austerity, has departed.” Narada, best among sages, spoke with the clarity of a helmsman guiding a ship across the sea. “Just as cows are bound to a stake by their own ropes, so too are beings bound by names and relationships, performing their duties as offerings to the Lord. The coming together and separation of people, like the gathering and dispersal of playthings, depend on the will of the Divine. What you consider permanent or impermanent in this world is, in truth, neither; such distinctions are not to be grieved for, except by those attached through delusion. Therefore, O dear one, give up this weakness of heart, born of ignorance. How could those helpless and pitiable ones survive without me? Such thoughts are but illusion. “This body, made of the five elements, is subject to time, action, and the modes of nature. How can one protect another, just as someone seized by a serpent cannot save another? In this world, the handless are food for the handed, the footless for the four-footed; among all, the weak are the sustenance of the strong—life lives upon life. “O King, that Supreme Lord, the one Self of all selves, perceives Himself by Himself and dwells both within and without. See Him, who appears through the power of His own illusion. This very Lord, the creator and sustainer of beings, has now descended in the form of Time, to bring about the destruction of the enemies of the gods. The divine task has been accomplished; now He awaits the fulfillment of what remains. Until then, you all should observe, as long as the Lord remains here. “Dhritarashtra, together with his brother and Gandhari, has gone south of the Himalayas to the hermitage of the sages, accompanied by his wife. There, at the sacred river Ganga, which divides herself into seven streams for the pleasure of the seven sages, he bathes at the proper times and offers oblations into the fire, living on water alone, with a tranquil mind, free from all desires. Having conquered posture and breath, withdrawn his six senses, and destroyed the impurities of passion and ignorance through meditation on Hari, he has become pure in the mode of goodness. Merging his mind into knowledge, dissolving the knower of the field into the Self, and placing the Self in Brahman, as space within a pot merges into the sky, he abides. With the residue of illusion and its qualities destroyed, with the senses and mind restrained, having given up all food, he remains unmoving like a pillar. Let there be no obstacle for him, who has renounced all actions. “O King, from today, on the fifth day hence, he will abandon his body, and it will be reduced to ashes. As the body of her husband burns in the fire, the faithful wife, together with her brother-in-law, will stand outside, gazing upon her husband as he enters the flames. Hearing this astonishing news, O descendant of the Kurus, Vidura, filled with both joy and sorrow, will depart from there to visit holy places.” Having spoken thus, Narada, together with Tumburu, ascended to heaven. Yudhishthira, holding the sage’s words in his heart, relinquished his grief. Amidst all this, Yudhishthira pondered, “What is this, that seems so wonderful? In Vasudeva, the Soul of all, unprecedented love is increasing among the people of Vraja and their children.” In that sacred land, natural enemies such as humans and beasts lived together like friends, for the unconquered Lord resided there, along with swift deer and other creatures. There, the Supreme, non-dual, infinite Lord, whose knowledge is unfathomable, enacted the childhood pastimes of a cowherd boy—searching for calves and friends as before, holding a morsel of food in His hand—and was beheld by Brahma, the creator. Seeing the Lord, Brahma quickly descended from his celestial vehicle, bowed down to the earth as if laying down a golden staff, and touched Krishna’s two feet with the crowns of his four heads, tears of joy streaming down as he performed an abhisheka. Rising again and again, Brahma fell at Krishna’s feet, and then sat, recalling the greatness he had witnessed before. Slowly rising and wiping his eyes, his neck bowed, Brahma gazed upon Mukunda. With palms joined in reverence, full of humility and composure, he trembled and spoke in a choked, tearful voice. Meanwhile, Suta continued: When Arjuna had departed for Dvaraka, longing to see his relatives and to learn of the deeds of the illustrious Krishna, several months passed, yet Arjuna did not return. Then, O best of the Kurus, ominous signs of dreadful appearance were seen. Yudhishthira observed the fierce course of Time, the reversal of natural order, and the worsening conduct of people—driven by anger, greed, and falsehood. Dealings became mostly crooked, friendship tainted with deceit, and quarrels arose among fathers, mothers, friends, brothers, and married couples. When such dire omens appeared as Time advanced among people, the king, seeing the rise of greed and unrighteousness, spoke to his younger brother.