01.148
Core:Kunti enquires about Brahmana's grief.
Kuntī said:
I wish to know truly the root of this sorrow. If it is possible to remove, I will remove it having known it.
The Brahmin said:
What you say is fitting for the virtuous, O ascetic one. But this sorrow cannot be removed by a human.
Near this city resides the demon Baka, the powerful lord of this region and town.
Nourished by human flesh, evil-minded, and a man-eater, the powerful demon king constantly protects this region.
Endowed with demonic power, he protects both city and country. Therefore, we have no fear from foreign armies or other beings.
His remuneration is fixed as food — two buffaloes and one man — carried by the rice-bearer who goes with them.
Each man offers the food in turn, and that turn comes only after many years — difficult for men to endure.
Those men who strive at times to free the people — that demon slays them along with their wives and children and devours them.
The king in the palace of the Vetrakīyas has not adopted that policy by which this people may have lasting peace today.
Surely we dwell as is fitting for the weak — constantly anxious in the domain of a bad king upon whom we are dependent.
For whom should the Brahmins speak, or for whom who act at will? They are maintained by qualities alone, like birds that go where they wish.
One should first seek a king, then a wife, then wealth. With the accumulation of these three, he may support his kinsmen and sons.
I acquired this whole trio in reverse, and they, having reached this calamity, we shall suffer greatly.
This destructive turn has come to us — I must give one man as food, as wage.
I have no wealth to buy a man anywhere, nor can I offer a friend. I see no way at all for escape from the demon.
I am deeply sunk in a great and impassable ocean of sorrow. I shall go with these kinsmen today to the demon. Then that vile one will devour all of us together.
