"The sons had come of age. Up to now Arjuna's father had been ruling the kingdom because the blind brother could not do that, so the question had never arisen before. But now it was a different situation.

"Arjuna had only five brothers, including himself, and on the other side were a hundred sons. They demanded that since their father had been denied half of the kingdom just because he was blind, now they wanted to claim the whole kingdom, '…because you are only five, and we are one hundred.'

"All the armies of both sides gathered near Delhi in a vast, open ground. Krishna was the charioteer of Arjuna. Seeing the situation – on both sides there were relatives; although they were fighting, they were cousin-brothers, and in every way everybody was entangled with each other – the grandfather of Arjuna, who was one of the wisest men of those days, Bhishma, had decided to be on the side of the blind son.

"He loved Arjuna…. Arjuna was the master archer, and there was every possibility that he would win. The teacher who had taught Arjuna had also taught his one hundred cousin-brothers. Now it was such a difficult division. This master who had taught them archery had also chosen to be with the blind man. His blindness created a kind of sympathy, that he had been denied and now it was time for his sons. But the master also loved Arjuna as his best disciple.

"Seeing the complexity, knowing perfectly well that he was going to win but it was going to be a massacre of his own friends, family, relatives, Arjuna told Krishna, 'Take my chariot to the front so I can see who is on my side and who is on the other side.'

"Seeing the faces, he said, 'I don't feel like fighting. The throne is not worth that much massacre, and I cannot conceive of myself on the throne with all these people dead. I have loved them, we have lived together, we have played together. Now this is very unfortunate. It is better that I should retire to the Himalayas and let my brothers rule the kingdom. Obviously, their father had been denied because of his blindness."