Page:Echoes from East and West.pdf/39

“Should we not, O Folk—tormenter, try to shun this sinful act,
We who look on race-destruction as a mighty sin in fact?

“With the loss of race each racial rite eternal surely dies;
With the loss of virtue surely all the race is seized by vice;

“With the rise of Vice, O Krishna, all the women of the race
Get corrupt, and, when they are so, racial mixture is the case;

“And to hell the race-destroyers and the race doth mixture call,
For, their sires without oblation and without libation fall.

“By these mixture-breeding Vices of the race-destroying host
All the castely and the racial rites eternal must be lost.

“We have heard from Sacred Scripture that for evermore in hell
They that bring about destruction of their race must have to dwell.

“Woe is us! who are determined to commit a mighty sin,
As, for pleasures of a kingdom, we are forth to slay our kin.

“Better far it would be, if the Dhartarashtras, arms in hand,
In the battle slay me, armless and unable to withstand.”