92 Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead

by him. (According to the Vedic system, once being used by some boy, a
girl cannot be married or given to any other boy. Nor would anyone agree
to marry a girl who had already thus associated with another boy.) The
elderly members of the family, such as Bhisma, wanted to arrest him. All
the members of the Kuru dynasty, especially the great fighters, joined
together just to teach him a lesson, and Karna was made the commander-
in-chief for this small battle.

While the plan was being made to arrest Samba, the Kurus counciled
amongst themselves that upon his arrest, the members of the Yadu dynasty
would be very angry with them. There was every possibility of the Yadus’
accepting the challenge and fighting with them. But they also thought,
“If they came here to fight with us, what could they do? The members
of the Yadu: dynasty cannot equal the members of the Kuru dynasty
because the kings of the Kuru dynasty are the emperors, whereas the
kings of the Yadu dynasty are able to enjoy their landed property.” The
Kurus thought, “If they come here to challenge us because their son was
arrested, we will nevertheless accept the fight. All of us will teach them a
lesson, so that automatically they will become subdued under pressure, as
the senses are subdued by the mystic yoga process, pranayama.” (In the
mechanical system of mystic yoga, the airs within the body are controlled,
and the senses are subdued and checked from being engaged in anything
other than meditation upon Lord Visnu.)

After consultation and after receiving permission from the elderly mem-
bers of the Kuru dynasty, such as Bhisma and Dhrtarastra, six great warriors
—Karna, Sala, Bhurigrava, Yajfiaketu, and Duryodhana, the father of the
girl—all maha-rathis and guided by the great fighter Bhismadeva, attempted
to arrest the boy Samba. There are different grades of fighters, including
maha-rathi, eka-rathi, and rathi, classified according to their fighting
capacity. These mahd-rathis could fight alone with many thousands of
men. All of them combined together to arrest Simba. Samba was also a
maha-rathi, but he was alone and had to fight with the six other maha-
rathis. Still he was not deterred when he saw all the great fighters of the
Kuru dynasty coming up behind him to arrest him.

Alone, he turned towards them and took his nice bow, posing exactly
as a lion stands adamant in the face of other animals. Karna was leading
the party, and he challenged Samba, “Why are you fleeing? Just stand, and
we shall teach you a lesson!” When challenged by another ksatriya to
stand and fight, a ksatriya cannot go away; he must fight. Therefore, as
soon as Samba accepted the challenge and stood alone before them, he was
overpowered by showers of arrows thrown by all the great warriors. As a
