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The lull before the storm

Source: here.

We were waiting quietly on the undergrowth beside the banks of the River mahAsankaTa. There was a tense silence in the air. We had performed our karma to the best we could, but were indeed limited by our terrible short comings. Would we tide over it? Time would tell, but would we be around to receive the answer? There was no going back now. The war had been declared. The previous encounters and their results flashed in our minds eye. We felt supersitious, but that hardly helped. The disastrous showing on the hillock of the shudra bard, came to our minds. We invoked sarasvatI, even as divodAsa and vadhryAshva did on the great day of the show down with the paNis. We now could feel how it was for sahadeva, somaka and bhayamAna as they readied themselves to face the dasyus and the shimyus. It was clear that it needed a great effort like that of sudAsa if we were to come out victorious on the other side. The weather is supposed to be cold, we have no rathas, and we were battling on alien territory….

We now realize that we have to build fortifications at home when the counter-attack is pressed on us.

The princess of Hayastan, with calves like palmyra trees, and ever energetic, destroyer of many will be there ! Is it through design or chance? The beauty of the princess always had an tremendously ironic aspect to it. Will she prove to be a charm or luck or otherwise? She has both those faces in us.

Zarathushtra had asked Ahura Mazda with outstreached arms for aid. As atharvan had, as shunaHshepa, as vasiShTha had, we seek thy aid, O rAjan varuNa, in this great saMgrAma.