Verse 52

⁴⁶Though he was roused by Vyasa and the others who know the Lord's workings, and by Krsna of wonderful deeds, with old tellings, he did not wake: he was struck with sorrow. ⁴⁷The king, son of Dharma, brooding on the killing of his friends, spoke, brahmanas, out of an ordinary self, having fallen under the sway of affection and delusion. ⁴⁸Ah, see this ignorance of mine, rooted in the heart of a wicked man: for the sake of a body that belongs to others, many divisions of armies have been killed by me. ⁴⁹For me, who have done harm to children, to brahmanas, to well-wishers, to friends, to fathers, to brothers and to teachers, there would be no release from hell even in ten thousand times ten thousand years.

⁵⁰There is no sin for a king who supports his people in the killing of enemies in a lawful war. But that saying does not serve to wake me. ⁵¹The wrong done to the women whose kinsmen I have killed, which has risen up here, I am not able to wipe away by the works of a householder. ⁵²As muddy water is not made clean by mud, nor what is made of liquor by liquor, so the killing of even one being is not to be wiped away by sacrifices.