The Death of Duryodhana

Duryodhana said, "O Krishna, if I have been defeated, it is only by your cunning deceit and your violation of the rules to which we all agreed before we joined in battle."

Krishna said, "I was no party to your rules, nor present among you to ratify them."

Duryodhana said, "Be honest, at least; you knew the rules and urged the Pandava to violate them."

Krishna said, "This is true."

Duryodhana howled in derision. Krishna silenced him, blazing like the sun before the dying prince, saying, "Do not confuse the laws and rules made between men for proper conduct with My conduct or the conduct I enjoin, nor yet engage in action on My behalf, except that I have explicitly commanded it."

His celestial throne

Who can ever imagine
     the music we will hear
          around His celestial throne?

Who cannot wish for death
     having heard in life
          only a single note?

Before the spoken word, awareness had no self-awareness. Creation did not know itself.

As we look back upon the ancients and wonder at their barbarous customs, so too will our descendants look back upon us and wonder how it is that we choose our representatives for their purely political skills. They will consider inconceivable that anyone with sense would fail to choose, as the people’s representatives, any but poets, philosophers, scientists, and artists. Yet we appoint instead liars and charlatans, the most debased and ignorant, depraved and fanatical, who delight in power for the sake of power, and serve for the sake of serving themselves. 

How ridiculous we will surely seem.