Functions of the Gods. 87 



other case I will take to show you how Shri Krishna 

 worked when the force was too great for Arjuna to 

 meet, when He saw Arjuna could do nothing with 

 all the valour at his command, that no force of 

 appeal, no stimulus, could enable him to defend 

 himself. One weapon was thrown that might not 

 err in its aim, one weapon a celestial weapon that 

 He had given as a boon, when He waked from His 

 thousand years of sleep. That weapon was cast 

 against Arjuna. Arjuna could not avert it. Alone 

 of all the weapons in earth and heaven, that weapon 

 must go to its ending, and Arjuna would have been 

 slain in the midst of the battle. What can be done? 

 He could not cut it with the arrows from Gandiva, 

 he could not use against it any of the mighty 

 weapons that the Gods had given him. This was the 

 weapon of the Supreme, which nothing was able to 

 oppose. Shri Krishna then, at that last moment^ 

 as the weapon flies straight at the breast of the 

 warrior throws Himself in front, and, as it strikes 

 His bosom, it knows its Master and is changed into 

 a garland of flowers. So also with the chariot on 

 which He drove. He bade Arjuna first get down. 

 He bade him take his weapons, and until Arjuna 

 had left it, Shri Krishna stood there immovable, 

 He would not stir ; and the moment He left it the 

 whole chariot burst into flames, for only His presence 



