01.147
Core-Pancharatra:Lamentation of Brahmana's daughter
Vaiśampāyana said:
Hearing the excessive words of those two grieving ones, the girl, whose body was overcome with great sorrow, addressed them both.
Why do you cry out so bitterly, as if helpless and afflicted with great grief? Please listen also to me and, having heard, act in a fitting way.
By righteousness, I am to be abandoned by you both — of this there is no doubt. Abandoning me, all has been saved by me alone.
It is for this reason that a child is desired — that he may rescue me. Now that the time has come, let me be the boat for your crossing.
Whether here by rescuing from danger or hereafter after death — in all ways, a rescuer he must be; that is why a son is called 'putra' by the wise.
Grandfathers always desire even their daughter’s sons — I shall myself protect them, preserving the life of my father.
My young brother here, once you depart to the next world, will soon perish — there is no doubt of it.
If my father goes to heaven and my younger brother is also lost, the funeral offerings to the ancestors would be interrupted — which would be displeasing to them.
Abandoned by father, mother, and brother — without doubt, I would attain a sorrow greater than sorrow itself, and die undeservedly.
If you are freed from this illness, then my mother, my infant brother, the lineage, and the funeral offerings — all will be surely preserved.
The self is a son, a friend, a wife; but the daughter is indeed a hardship. So release yourself from hardship and unite me with righteousness.
I shall become a helpless, pitiable girl, wandering anywhere — alas, father, I shall be wretched, deprived of you.
Or else I shall liberate this lineage and become the fruit-bearing end, having performed a most difficult deed.
Or if you go there, abandoning me, O best of Brahmins, I will be afflicted — consider me as well.
Therefore, O noble one, for our sake, for righteousness and for progeny, protect yourself — abandon me, who must be forsaken.
May time not pass beyond you in what must certainly be done — by the water you offer, benefit will come to me as well.
What greater sorrow than this — that when you have gone to heaven, we would beg for food from others, running about like dogs?
If you are freed from disease, I shall live happily with our relatives, in this world as though in immortality, freed from this suffering.
Thus, hearing her many forms of lamentation, the father, mother, and the girl herself — all three wept together.
Then, hearing all of them weeping, the son of the two, a young boy with bright eyes, spoke indistinctly and inarticulately.
“Do not cry, father; do not, mother; you too, sister” — speaking thus and smiling as if playfully, he approached them one by one.
Then, taking a blade of grass and gleefully saying again, “With this I shall slay the demon, the man-eater.”
Even so, hearing the indistinct words of the boy while they were overwhelmed by grief, great joy arose in them.
Knowing that this was the time, Kuntī approached them and, as though reviving the lifeless with nectar, spoke these words.
