Does not the malicious Duryodhana, together with his sons and kinsmen, deserve destruction, when, unable to bear the sight of Yudhishthira's prosperity and finding no other honest means, that wretch, O slayer of Madhu, robbed us of our kingdom by the sinful trick of loaded dice? What archer, born into the order of kshatriyas and summoned to battle, would turn away from the fight, even knowing he would surely die? Seeing ourselves defeated by sinful means and driven into the forest, even then, O scion of Vrishni, I thought Suyodhana deserved death at my hands. Yet what you, O Krishna, wish to do for your friends is hardly strange, though it seems inexplicable how a set purpose can be swayed either by gentleness or by its opposite.