"Vasudeva said, Great is the joy I feel. Listen to me, Dhananjaya! This that I will tell thee will immediately dispel thy sorrow and infuse delight into thy heart.
O thou of great splendour, know, O Dhananjaya,
that Karna, his dart being baffled through Ghatotkacha, is already slain in battle. The man does not exist in this world that could not stay before Karna armed with that dart and looking like Kartikeya in battle.
- By good luck, his (natural) armour had been taken away.
- By good luck, his earrings also had been taken away.
- By good luck, his infallible dart also is now baffled, through Ghatotkacha.
For thy good, Karna was divested of his
ear-rings by Sakra with the help of an illusion. Similarly was that
subjugator of hostile towns deprived of his (natural) armour. Karna now seems to me to be like an angry snake of virulent
poison stupefied by power of incantation, or like a fire of mild flames.
From that time, O mighty-armed one, when the high-souled Sakra gave
that dart unto Karna in exchange for the latter's ear-rings, and
celestial armour, that dart, viz., which has slain Ghatotkacha, from
that time, Vrisha, having obtained it, had always regarded thee as slain
in battle!
But though deprived of that dart,
Heroic in battle, possessed of mighty arms and with bow
always uplifted, like the lion in the forest depriving leaders of
elephantine herds of their pride, Karna always deprives the greatest
car-warriors of their pride on the field of battle, and resembles the
mid-day sun at whom none can gaze. Contending with all the illustrious
and foremost of warriors of thy army, O tiger among men, Karna, while
shooting his arrowy showers, looked like the autumnal sun with his
thousand rays. Indeed, incessantly shooting showers of shafts like the
clouds pouring torrents of rain at the end of summer, Karna is like a
pouring cloud charged with celestial weapons. He is incapable of being
vanquished in battle by the gods, he would mangle them in such a way
that their flesh and blood would fall copiously on the field. Deprived,
however, of his armour as also of his car-rings, O son of Pandu, and
divested also of the dart given him by Vasava, Karna is now like a man
(and no longer like a god).
There win occur one opportunity for his
slaughter. When his car-wheels will sink in the earth, availing thyself
of that opportunity, thou shouldst slay him in that distressful
situation. I will make thee a sign beforehand.
Warned by it, thou
shouldst act. The vanquisher of Vala himself, that foremost of heroes,
wielding his thunder, is incapable of slaying the invincible Karna while
the latter stands weapon in hand.
