PLATE ONE

At the end of the eighteenth day of the Battle of Kuruksetra, all the
great heroes of the Kuru dynasty and millions of warriors lay dead on the
battlefield. Only the five sons of Pandu and a small handful of others re-
mained to console the relatives of the slain. Prince Duryodhana’s ambi-
tions had been smashed, yet his few surviving followers wished to find
him some last revenge. Still, only ASvatthama was rash enough to carry
out the scheme to murder the Pandavas’ five children in their sleep and
thus finish the line of succession. He had expected that this would please
his master, but Duryodhana was appalled to hear of the atrocity and died
in lamentation. Arrested and dragged to the Pandavas’ camp like a bound
animal, Asvatthama was let free only by the astounding compassion of
Draupadi, the slaughtered boys’ mother, who pleaded for his life. But the
shameless ASvatthama made one more attempt to kill the last heir of the
Pandavas, their unborn grandson in the womb of Uttara, by hurling the
supreme brahmastra weapon. When she saw the missile flying straight at
her, Uttara immediately ran to the shelter of Lord Krsna, who was just
about to depart for His capital city. Krsna protected the Pandavas and
their mother Kunti from imminent death by stopping the weapon’s un-
controllable heat and radiation with His own Sudarsana disc. Having
delivered the Pandavas from this last calamity, and seeing that all His
plans were fulfilled, Lord Krsna was again preparing to leave. For years
Duryodhana had tormented Queen Kunti’s family, but Krsna had pro-
tected them at every turn—and now He was going away. Kunti was over-
whelmed, and she approached Krsna to offer Him prayers from the core
of her heart. (p. J)
