Arjuna reaches Dwaraka and meets his son Abhimanyu. While he is talking to him, Duryodhana overtakes them and enters the palace. Krishna, who is watching them all, decides to take a nap. Finding Krishna asleep, Duryodhana takes a seat near his head. Arjuna enters the room soon and sits down at Krishna's feet. Krishna wakes up and sees Arjuna first. Duryodhana protests and says he came first and demands preference over Arjuna. Krishna insists he saw Arjuna first, so he should be allowed to stake his claim first, but assures Duryodhana that his desires too would be met. Krishna then tells Arjuna he should either choose him or his entire army, with the additional injunction that he would never take up arms in the war. Arjuna wants Krishna's support alone and Duryodhana is happy to receive the entire army of Krishna. Balarama joins them and is told about Duryodhana's mission in garnering support for Hastinapur. Balarama says he loves both Pandavas and Kauravas equally and wouldn't like to take sides. He reveals that he has planned not to participate in the war. Duryodhana returns happily to Hastinapur.
Arjuna tells Balarama and Krishna that he has fixed Abhimanyu's marriage. So he requests Krishna, Subhadra and Balarama to bring all the Upapandavas (Pandavas' sons through Draupadi) to Virata's country. Subhadra and Sudeshna (King Virata's wife) want to test if Draupadi would recognize her own sons. True enough, Draupadi is able to recognize all of them (Satanika, Srutasena, Srutakarma, Sutasoma and Prativindya born respectively to Nakula, Sahadeva, Arjuna, Bhima and Yudhishtra) and Krishna's attributes this to the instinctive maternal power of women.
Shakuni rebukes Duryodhana for his haughtiness in not recognizing Krishna's greatness and sitting near Krishna's feet. By neglecting to choose Krishna over his army, he has lost a chance of winning the war.
Narada goes to Indra and warns him about the impending war between Pandavas and the Kauravas. He tells Indra about the threat to his son Arjuna's life from Karna whose body armour (kavacha and kundala) has made him invincible. He suggests Indra should go to Karna as a Brahmin and ask for the kavacha kundala as a gift. Next, Narada goes to Surya and tells him about the threat to Karna from Indra and why he should prevent Karna from parting with his armour.
Dhritarashtra receives invitation for attending Abhimanyu's wedding. Duryodhana intervenes and says nobody should attend the wedding. Shakuni explains the underlying message of the invitation to be confrontational, intended to show the support the Pandavas have received from Virata and Panchala. Dhritarashtra dodders as usual between the vestiges of love he has for his brothers' sons and for his own. Duryodhana blames Bhima, Vidura and other elders to have caused the rift between him and the Pandavas by always telling that Duryodhana to be the successor to Hastinapur throne when Pandu and his wives were in the forest. And when Pandavas returned to Hastinapur, it was but natural for Duryodhana to become wary and envious of the Pandavas. Surprisingly, in the private conversation, even Kunti blames Vidura for having stoked the fire of envy in Duryodhana.
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