Arjuna goes to Dvaraka
Inauspicious turn of time
Suta said:
(1) Arjuna went to the city of Dvaraka to see his friends and Krishna, the One glorified in the Vedic Hymns, in order to know what His further plans were.
(2) After a few months had passed, and Arjuna had not returned from there, Yudhishthhira observed various fearful signs. (3) The time had taken an inauspicious turn: he observed seasonal irregularities, and saw that human beings sinfully turned to anger, greed and falsehood in heartening their civil means of livelihood.
(4) There was cheating in ordinary transactions, dishonesty mixed itself in the regard of well-wishers, fathers, mothers and brothers, and also between man and wife there was quarrel. (5) The people gradually were acquiring godless habits like wantonness [baldadigheid, wulpsheid] and such. The king facing these serious matters and bad omens, spoke with his younger brother about it.
Yudhishthhira said [to Bhima]:
(6) Arjuna went to Dvaraka to see his friends and to learn about Krishna's plans. (7) It is now seven months ago that your younger brother left, oh Bhimasena, and I do not know exactly why he does not return. (8) Might it be so that, as Narada told us, the Supreme Personality has decided it is time to leave this physical manifestation of Himself?
(9) We owe our wealth, kingdom and wives to Him. By His grace, the existence of the dynasty and the life of our subjects has become possible. And because of His mercy, we could defeat our enemies and [live for a better] world.
(10) Just look, oh man with the strength of a tiger, at the position of the planets, how things are faring on earth and what is happening to the body and the mind. All these dreadful signs deluding our intelligence indicate a great danger in the near future.
(11) Again and again my thighs, eyes, arms and the left side of my body are quivering and I have heart palpitations due to fear. This is all indicative of undesirable happenings.
(12) See, oh Bhima, how the jackal frantically cries at sunrise, and how the dog barks at me without any fear. (13) Oh tiger among man, the cows leave me [left] aside, and the other animals are turning around me, while my horses seem to weep. (14) The pigeon [appears like] a messenger of death, and the shrieks of the owls and their rivals the crows make my heart tremble as if they wish the void of the cosmos.
(15) Oh Bhima, see how smoke circles in the sky, and how the earth is throbbing along with the hills and mountains with loud thunderbolts out of the blue of a cloudless sky. (16) The wind blows sharply creating darkness with the dust, and rain pours like blood from the clouds as an omnipresent disaster. (17) The sun is shining less - see how the stars in the sky seem to clash into one another, and how the living beings are confounded and agitated as if they are crying.
(18) Rivers and their tributaries, the lakes and the mind are all perturbed, while fire does not ignite with the help of butter. What is this extraordinary time? What is going to happen? (19) The calves do not suck the teats, and the cows do not want to be milked, looking afraid as if they are weeping, while the bulls do not take pleasure in the pasture ground.
(20) The deities seem to be crying and perspiring, as if they want to leave the temple. And also the cities, villages, towns, gardens, mines and hermitages have lost their beauty being bereft of all happiness. What sort of calamities will befall us?
(21) I think that all these great upsurges manifest out of the need for the marks of the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality - the earth, bereft of the extraordinary signs of the Supreme Person, misses that fortune.
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