Mahabharata -Rajagopalachari 130

Mahabharata -Chakravarti Rajagopalachari

38.THE WICKED ARE NEVER SATISFIED MANY brahmanas visited the Pandavas during their exile. And one such, returning to Hastinapura, went to see Dhritarashtra, who received him with due honor. The brahmana told him how the Pandavas, born princes, were, by unkind destiny, at the mercy of the wind and the sun and suffered great privations. Dhritarashtra was probably sorry to hear this. But what troubled him most were the consequences to his own sons. Could Yudhishthira continue to hold the justly wrathful Bhima in check? Dhritarashtra feared that the anger of the Pandavas, long pent up, might one day break its bounds and overflow in a devastating flood. The king anxiously pondered thus: "Arjuna and Bhima will certainly try to punish us. Sakuni, Karna, Duryodhana and the short-sighted Duhsasana are perched precariously up a tree in search of a honeycomb while below is the abyss of Bhima's anger yawning to receive them to their destruction." The blind king pursued his thought: "Alas, why did we become a prey to covetousness? It is not as though poverty drove us to it! Why did we take to the path of injustice? Instead of enjoying our boundless wealth in contentment we succumbed to lust of power and possession and coveted what was not ours. Wrong cannot but yield its bitter harvest! Arjuna has returned from heaven with divine weapons. What could tempt one back to earth from heaven but the craving for vengeance? And we have earned it!" These thoughts would haunt and give him no peace. Though Dhritarashtra was thus worried, Sakuni, Karna and Duryodhana were giddily happy and found much pleasure in exulting congratulation of one another on their prosperity. Karna and Sakuni said to Duryodhana: "The kingdom which was in the hands of Yudhishthira has become ours.