Verse 20

²⁰When the arrows were used up and the bows were broken, when the weapons were used up, they took the reeds in their fists. ²¹Those reeds, held in the fist, became bars like the thunderbolt. With them they killed their enemies; and though Krsna held them back, they turned on him too. ²²Bewildered, they took Balabhadra as well for the other side, and with their minds set on killing him, king, they came at him with weapons raised. ²³Then those two also, in great anger, delight of the Kurus, lifted up the reed bars in their fists and, moving through them, killed in the fight. ²⁴For those struck by the brahmins' curse, whose selves were covered by Krsna's maya, rivalry and anger brought them to their end, as a fire born of bamboo brings a forest to its end.

²⁵So, when all his own lines had perished, Kesava thought: the burden of the earth has been taken down. And he was what was left.