The Mahabharata, Volume 3: Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 quotes

"Sanjaya said, 'O sire, hearing all that has happened unto the Kauravas through thy fault, thou shouldst not feel any anguish!

He that is wise never feeleth any pain at what Destiny bringeth!

And since Destiny is unconquerable, human purposes may or may not become attainable. Hence, he that is wise never feeleth pain on the acquisition or the reverse of the objects cherished by him.'"

The fulfilment of Duryodhana's wishes is even like locomotion to one that is lame, or the gratification of the poor man's desire, or stray drops of water to one that is thirsty!

Planned in one way, our schemes end otherwise.

Alas, destiny is all powerful, and time incapable of being transgressed! Was my son Duhshasana, O Suta, slain, while flying away from the field, humbled (to the dust), of cheerless soul, and destitute of all manliness?

… compass by means of his arrowy showers, having stupefied the Parthas in battle like the wielder of the thunderbolt stupefying the Asuras, alas, how could that mighty car-warrior, slain by the foe, fall down on the earth like a large tree uprooted by the tempest?

Indeed, I do not behold the end of my sorrows like a drowning man unable to see the end of the ocean.

My anxieties are increasing, I do not desire to live, hearing of Karna's death and Phalguni's victory! Indeed O Sanjaya, I regard the slaughter of Karna to be highly incredible.

Then Arjuna like wind, by means of keen shafts, destroyed that thick shower of weapons dropped by those warriors constituting a mass of congregated clouds.

People then beheld Arjuna crossing that raftless ocean constituted by steeds and foot-soldiers and elephants and cars, and having mighty weapons for its waves, on a bridge constituted by his own mighty weapons of offence and defence.

Then Vasudeva, addressing Partha, said, "Why, O sinless one, dost thou sport in this way? Grinding these samsaptakas, haste thyself for Karna's slaughter."

Beholding the prince of the Pancalas shrouded by those elephants like the Sun by the clouds, the Pandus and the Pancalas proceeded towards him (for his rescue) uttering loud roars and armed with sharp weapons.

Pouring their weapons upon those elephants, those warriors began to dance the dance of heroes, aided by the music of their bow-strings and the sound of their palms, and urged by heroes beating the time.

Then Nakula and Sahadeva, and the sons of Draupadi, and the Prabhadrakas, and Satyaki, and Shikhandi, and Chekitana endued with great energy,—all those heroes—drenched those elephants from every side with their weapons, like the clouds drenching the hills with their showers.

The shafts shot by Nakula, dressed with Kanka and peacock feathers, shrouding the Suta's son, seemed to stay in the welkin. Similarly, the shafts sped by the Suta's son in that dreadful battle, shrouding the son of Pandu, seemed to stay in the welkin.

Shrouded within arrowy chambers, both the warriors became invisible, like the Sun and the Moon, O king, hidden by the clouds.

Then Karna, filled with rage and assuming a terrible aspect in the battle, covered the son of Pandu with showers of arrows from every side.

Thus addressed by Nakula, the Suta's son said unto him the following words befitting a prince and a bowman in particular, "Strike me, O hero. We desire to witness thy manliness. Having achieved some feats in battle, O brave warrior, thou shouldst then boast.

O sire, they that are heroes fight in battle to the best of their powers, without indulging in brag.

Fight now with me to the best of thy might. I will quell thy pride." Having said these words the Suta's son quickly struck the son of Pandu and pierced him, in that encounter, with three and seventy shafts.

All those heroes endued with great impetuosity and desirous of compassing the destruction of one another, fought beautifully and with great activity and skill. Observing the (sanctioned) practices of warriors, they slew one another in battle. None of them fought from behind others.

For only a very short time that battle presented a beautiful aspect. Soon it became an encounter of mad men, in which the combatants showed no regard for one another.

The car-warrior, approaching the elephant, pierced the latter with keen shafts and despatched it to Yama's presence by means of straight arrows. Elephants, approaching steeds, dragged down many of them in that battle, and tore them (with their tusks) most fiercely in diverse places.

Even thus occurred that fierce battle marked by the awful clash of weapons. Like the mad and roaring current of the Ganga it seemed to fill the whole universe with its uproar.

Afflicted with shafts, the warriors failed to distinguish friends from foes.

Solicitous of victory, the kings fought on because they thought that fight they should. The warriors slew both friends and foes, with whom they came in contact.

"Sanjaya said, 'O king, think now of all those wrongful acts of thine like that match at dice and the others—acts that have passed away from the subjects of thought with man.

One should not, however, reflect on bygone acts. One may be ruined by such reflection.

That result (which thou hadst expected) is now much removed from the point of fruition, since, although possessed of knowledge, thou didst not reflect on the propriety or impropriety of thy acts then.

… all the functions of his Soul and to withdraw Soul from Matter,—they who had their soul always under control—beheld him, called Ishana,—that lord of Uma, that mass of energy, that is, who hath no equal in the universe, that source (of everything), that sinless Self.

Though that Deity is one they had imagined him to be of various forms.

Beholding in that high-souled one those diverse forms that each had individually conceived in own heart, all of them became filled with wonder.

The four auspicious days were made the traces of the steeds, and the pitris presiding over them were made the hooks and pins. Action and truth and ascetic penances and profit were made the chords of that car.

The Mind became the ground upon which that car stood, and Speech the tracks upon which it was to proceed.

Beautiful banners of various hues waved in the air. With lightning and Indra's bow attached to it, that blazing car gave fierce light.

In Drona were the skills attendant on practice, and might, and bravery, and the highest of weapons and policy. When even that high-souled one had to succumb to Death, I regard all the others (of our army), strengthless and on the point of death.

In this world I do not find anything, even on reflection, to be stable, in consequence of the inevitable connection of acts.

When the preceptor himself is dead, who then will indulge in the certain belief that he will live till even today's sun-rise?

(Without seeking to tolerate them) I will even follow in the wake of Drona. Wise or ignorant, when his period is run out, everybody is equally regarded by the Destroyer; no one can escape, O learned one, for this, I will proceed against the Parthas.

I am unable to transgress my destiny.

The son of Vichitravirya's son is, O king, always engaged in doing me good. For the accomplishment of his purpose, I will cast away my life-breaths that are so dear, and this body that is so difficult of being cast away.

With that large wealth which thou art desirous of giving away, thou art certainly able to perform many sacrifices. Therefore, O Suta's son, do thou perform those sacrifices. As regards thy desire, entertained from folly, that is surely vain.

We have never heard of a couple of lions having been overthrown by a fox.

Thou seekest what should never be sought by thee. It seems that thou hast no friends for forbidding thee that art speedily falling into a blazing fire. Thou art unable to discriminate between what thou shouldst do and what thou shouldst not.

Therefore, O Suta's son, do thou perform those sacrifices. As regards thy desire, entertained from folly, that is surely vain. We have never heard of a couple of lions having been overthrown by a fox. Thou seekest what should never be sought by thee.

It seems that thou hast no friends for forbidding thee that art speedily falling into a blazing fire.

Thou art unable to discriminate between what thou shouldst do and what thou shouldst not. Without doubt thy period is full. What man desirous of living would utter speeches that are so incoherent and undeserving of being listened to?

As a dog from within the precincts of the house of his master barks at a forest-roaming tiger, even so, O Karna, thou barkest at Dhananjaya, that tiger among men.

A jackal, O Karna, residing in the forest in the midst of hares regardeth himself a lion till he actually sees a lion.

Even so, O son of Radha, thou regardest thyself a lion, for thou dost not behold that repressor of foes, that tiger among men, viz., Dhananjaya.

There was a crow that lived on the refuse of the dishes set before those well-behaved young children of the Vaishya. Those Vaishya children always gave the crow meat and curds, and milk, and sugared milk with rice, and honey, and butter.

Thus fed with the refuse of their dishes by the young children of that Vaishya, the crow became arrogant and came to disregard all birds that were equal to him or even superior.

It chanced that once certain swans of cheerful hearts, of great speed and capable of going everywhere at will and equal unto Garuda himself in range and speed of flight, came to that side of the ocean.

Then fear entered the heart of the crow who became almost senseless at not seeing any island or trees whereon to perch when tired. And the crow thought within his heart as to where he should alight when tired, upon that vast expanse of water.

The ocean, being as it is the abode of countless creatures, is irresistible. Dwelt in by hundreds of monsters, it is grander than space.

Nothing can exceed it in depth, O Suta's son. Men know, O Karna, that the waters of the ocean are as limitless as space. For the extent of its waters, O Karna, what is a crow to it?

Terrible is the hour that is now passing. Duryodhana hath himself come to battle. I am solicitous of seeing his purposes achieved. Thou, however, art acting in such a way that it shows thee to have no friendship (for the Kuru king)!

He is a friend who shows affection for another, who gladdens another, who makes himself agreeable to another, who protects another, who honours another, and who rejoices in the joys of another.

I tell thee that I have all those attributes, and the king himself knows all this. He, on the other hand, that destroys, chastises, sharpens his weapons, injures, causes us to sigh, makes us cheerless, and wrongs us in diverse ways, is a foe.

Everywhere men take delight in jesting with men and wounding one another. Lustful men also may be found everywhere. Everyone on every occasion can command skill in speaking of the faults of others.

No one, however, knows his own faults, or knowing them, feels shame.

Everywhere are kings devoted to their respective religions, and employed in chastising the wicked. Everywhere may be found virtuous men. It cannot be, O Karna, that all the people of a country are sinful.

No one, however, knows his own faults, or knowing them, feels shame. Everywhere are kings devoted to their respective religions, and employed in chastising the wicked. Everywhere may be found virtuous men.

It cannot be, O Karna, that all the people of a country are sinful.

There are men in many countries that surpass the very gods by their behaviour."'"

Everywhere are kings devoted to their respective religions, and employed in chastising the wicked. Everywhere may be found virtuous men. It cannot be, O Karna, that all the people of a country are sinful.

There are men in many countries that surpass the very gods by their behaviour.

"'"

A perfect Babel of voices of the shouting warriors was incessantly heard there, O royal Bharata, as they addressed one another by name.

He who had anything, by his father's or mother's side or in respect of his acts or conduct, that could furnish matter for ridicule, was in that battle made to hear it by his antagonist.

Beholding those brave warriors loudly rebuking one another in that battle, I thought, O king, that their periods of life had been run out.

Returning their brave relatives, seeing them become senseless are throwing down the water they brought and are running wildly, shouting at one another. Behold, many have died after having slaked their thirst, and many, O Bharata, are dying while drinking.

Others, though affectionate towards relatives, are still seen to rush towards foes in great battle deserting their dear relatives.

Others, again, O best of men, biting their nether lips, and with faces rendered terrible in consequence of the contraction of their brows, are surveying the field all around." While saying these words unto Arjuna, Vasudeva proceeded towards Yudhishthira.

Slaughtered by Bhima, those elephants, O king, began to fly away. Some amongst them, with their hearts pierced, fell down on the Earth.

With those fallen and failing elephants adorned with gold, the Earth looked beautiful there, as if strewn with broken mountains.

With the fallen elephant-warriors of blazing resplendence and adorned with gems, the Earth looked beautiful as if strewn with planets of exhausted merit.

Seeing Duryodhana reduced to that plight, Karna, invoking his weapons quickly, began to slaughter the troops of Yudhishthira and Prishata's son. Thus slaughtered by the high-souled Karna, Yudhishthira's troops, O king, afflicted with the arrows of the Suta's son, soon fled away.

Showers of shafts fell together. Indeed, those sped subsequently from the bow of the Suta's son touched with their heads the wings of those sped before.

In consequence of those falling showers, of shafts, O monarch, colliding with one another, a conflagration seemed to blaze forth in the welkin.

He will, besides, be the founder of a race!' Even thus, in the skies, on the summit of the Satasringa mountains, in the hearing of many ascetics, that voice spoke. All that, however, hath not come to pass.

Alas, it shows that the gods even may speak untruths!

Hearing also the words of praise always uttered about thee by many foremost of Rishis, I never expected that Suyodhana would win success and prosperity or that thou thyself wouldst be afflicted with the fear of Karna!

I will tell thee that mystery in all its details. Listen to it, O Dhananjaya! One who speaks truth is righteous. There is nothing higher than truth. Behold, however, truth as practised is exceedingly difficult to be understood as regards its essential attributes.

Truth may be unutterable, and even falsehood may be utterable where falsehood would become truth and truth would become falsehood.

In a situation of peril to life and in marriage, falsehood becomes utterable. In a situation involving the loss of one's entire property, falsehood becomes utterable.

These five kinds of falsehood have been declared to be sinless. On these occasions falsehood would become truth and truth would become falsehood.

He is a fool that practises truth without knowing the difference between truth and falsehood.

One is said to be conversant with morality when one is able to distinguish between truth and falsehood.

There must be some indications for distinguishing virtue from sin. Sometimes that high and unattainable knowledge may be had by the exercise of reason. Many persons say, on the one hand, that the scriptures indicate morality. I do not contradict this.

The scriptures, however, do not provide for every case.

For the growth of creatures have precepts of morality been declared. That which is connected with inoffensiveness is religion. Dharma protects and preserves the people. So it is the conclusion of the Pandits that what maintains is Dharma.

Eight hundred elephants, I have seen, with their frontal globes split open and the ends of their tusks cut off, have today been slain by Bhima with shafts in battle. That slayer of foes is competent to tell me harsh words.

The learned say that the strength of the foremost of Brahmanas lies in speech, and that the Kshatriya's strength is in his arms.

Thou, O Bharata, art strong in words and very unfeeling. Thou thinkest me to be like thyself. I always strive to do thee good with my soul, life, sons and wives.

Today, beholding Karna cut in pieces by me with my arrows, like Vritra in days of yore by Indra in the battle between the gods and the Asuras, let king Duryodhana call to mind the words thou hast spoken for bringing about peace.

Today let the son of Subala, O Krishna, know that my shafts are dice, my Gandiva the box for throwing them, and my car, the chequered cloth.

O Govinda, slaying Karna with keen shafts I will dispel the long sleeplessness of Kunti's son. Today the royal son of Kunti, upon the slaughter of the Suta's son by me, shall be gratified and be of cheerful heart and obtain happiness for ever.

… 'The innumerable divisions of the Pandava army, decked with lofty standards and swelling (with pride and energy) and united together in battle, began to roar aloud, drums and other instruments constituting their mouth, like masses of clouds at the close of summer uttering deep roars.

The battle that ensued resembled a baneful shower out of season, cruel and destructive of living creatures.

Huge elephants were its clouds; weapons were the water they were to pour; the peal of musical instruments, the rattle of car-wheels, and the noise of palms, constituted their roar; diverse weapons decked with gold formed their flashes of lightning;

Then that crusher of foes, viz., the son of Radha, once more achieved an exceedingly wonderful feat, inasmuch as all the Pandavas, united together, were unable to even gaze at him.

Like a swelling mass of water breaking when it comes in contact with a mountain, the Pandava army broke when it came in contact with Karna.

Indeed, O king, the mighty-armed Karna in that battle, burning the vast host of the Pandavas, stood there like a blazing fire without smoke.

I say this truly unto thee. I will never return from the field today without slaying two heroes. Or, slain by those two, I shall today sleep on the field of battle.

Victory is uncertain in battle.

Slaying or slain, I shall today achieve my purpose."

… is, again, protected by that Keshava of great energy, who is Narayana himself and who is without a rival, that high-souled Vasudeva, that ever-victorious Vishnu armed with conch, discus, and mace, whose attributes all the world united together, cannot (in narrating) exhaust in 10,000 years.

Beholding the two Krishnas together on the same car, fear entereth my heart together with courage.

Partha is the foremost of all bowmen, while Narayana is unrivalled in encounters with the discus. Even such are Vasudeva, and the son of Pandu. Indeed, the mountains of Himavat may move from the spot where they stand but not the two Krishnas.

Beholding the two Krishnas together on the same car, fear entereth my heart together with courage. Partha is the foremost of all bowmen, while Narayana is unrivalled in encounters with the discus. Even such are Vasudeva, and the son of Pandu.

Indeed, the mountains of Himavat may move from the spot where they stand but not the two Krishnas.

Both of them are heroes, possessed of great skill, firm in the use of weapons, and mighty car-warriors. Both of them have adamantine frames. Who else, O Shalya, save myself, would proceed against Phalguna and Vasudeva that are even such?

All the inhabitants of the world, O sire, were heard to differ amongst themselves. The gods, the Danavas, the Gandharvas, the Pishacas, the Snakes, the Rakshasas, adopted opposite sides in that encounter between Karna and Arjuna.

The welkin, O monarch, with all the stars, became anxious on Karna's account, while the wide earth became so on Partha's account, like the mother for her son.

The rivers, the seas, the mountains, O best of men, the trees, the deciduous plants and herbs, took the side of the diadem-decked Arjuna. The Asuras, Yatudhanas, the Guhyakas, O scorcher of foes, and ravens and other rangers of the sky, sided with Karna.

"Sanjaya continued, 'Arjuna also asked Govinda a similar question. Krishna, however, smiling, said unto Partha these words of grave import, "

The Sun himself may fall down from his place, the Earth herself may split into a 1,000 fragments; fire itself may become cold.

Still Karna will not be able to slay thee, O Dhananjaya! If, however, any such occurrence takes place, know then that the destruction of the universe will be at hand.

Searching carefully, fix another arrow that may succeed in striking off thy enemy's head." Endued with great activity, the Suta's son, with eyes burning in wrath, then said unto the ruler of the Madras, "O Shalya, Karna never aimeth an arrow twice.

Persons like us never become crooked warriors.

" Having said these words, Karna, with great care, let off that shaft which he had worshipped for many long years. Bent upon winning the victory, O king, he quickly said unto his rival, "Thou art slain, O Phalguna!"

As regards ourselves, we always endeavour, to the best of our ability and knowledge to practise righteousness. That righteousness, however, is destroying us now instead of protecting us that are devoted to it.

I, therefore, think that righteousness does not always protect its worshippers.

" While saying these words, he became exceedingly agitated by the strokes of Arjuna's arrows. His steeds and his driver also were displaced from their usual position.

"Sanjaya said, 'Then Vasudeva, stationed on the car, addressed Karna, saying, "By good luck it is, O son of Radha, that thou rememberest virtue!

It is generally seen that they that are mean, when they sink into distress, rail at Providence but never at their own misdeeds.

Thyself and Suyodhana and Duhshasana and Shakuni, the son of Subala, had caused Draupadi, clad in a single piece of raiment, to be brought into the midst of the assembly. On that occasion, O Karna, this virtue of thine did not manifest itself.

Even thus was the Suta's son, that valiant Karna, slain by Arjuna in the sight of all the kings. Long before, the high-souled Vidura had told me that through the fault of Duryodhana the population of the Earth would be exterminated.

There are some fools that do not see things even though they cast their eyes on them.

Those words of Vidura have been even so unto my foolish self. What Vidura of righteous soul, conversant with attributes of everything, then said, hath turned out exactly, for the words he uttered were nothing but the truth.

The fruits of those acts have now come. For the sake of thy own objects thou hadst, with great care, mustered together a large force. That vast force, as also thyself, O bull of Bharata's race, have fallen into great danger.

Preserve thy own self now, for self is the refuge of everything. If the refuge is broken, O sire, everything inhering thereto is scattered on every side.

He that is being weakened should seek peace by conciliation. He that is growing should make war. This is the policy taught by Brihaspati. We are now inferior to the sons of Pandu as regards the strength of our army.

That vast force, as also thyself, O bull of Bharata's race, have fallen into great danger. Preserve thy own self now, for self is the refuge of everything. If the refuge is broken, O sire, everything inhering thereto is scattered on every side.

He that is being weakened should seek peace by conciliation. He that is growing should make war.

This is the policy taught by Brihaspati. We are now inferior to the sons of Pandu as regards the strength of our army. Therefore, O lord, I think, peace with the Pandavas is for our good.

The world has seen thee penetrate into the midst of the Pandava divisions and fight with the mighty car-warriors of the Pandavas endued with great energy. That which should be said by a friend hast been said by thee.

Thy words, however, do not please me, like medicine that ill pleases the person that is on the point of death.

These beneficial and excellent words, fraught with reason, that thou, O mighty-armed one, hast said do not seem acceptable to me, O foremost of Brahmanas.

I have properly governed my own kingdom. I have enjoyed diverse kinds of enjoyable articles. Religion and profit and pleasure I have pursued. I have paid off my debt to the Pitris and to Kshatriya duty. Certainly, there is no happiness here.

What becomes of kingdom, and what of good name? Fame is all that one should acquire here.

That fame can be obtained by battle, and by no other means. The death that a Kshatriya meets with at home is censurable. Death on one's bed at home is highly sinful.

Heaps upon heaps, looking like mountains, were seen, lying on the ground, of fallen steeds with their riders.

A river appeared on the field of battle, flowing towards the other world. Blood formed its waters and cars its eddies.

Standards formed its trees, and bones its pebbles. The arms (of combatants) were its alligators, bows its current, elephants its large rocks, and steeds its smaller ones. Fat and marrow formed its mire, umbrellas its swans, and maces its rafts.

Indeed, along the track of the angry Partha's car, O monarch, the ground, miry with blood, became impassable, O chief of the Bharatas, like the sporting ground of Rudra.

The scene inspired the timid with fear and the brave with delight.

Having destroyed 2,000 cars with their fences, that scorcher of foes, Partha, looked like a smokeless fire with blazing flames.

The Earth then, O lord of Earth, seemed to me to be made one entire expanse of arrows by thy son Duryodhana, that bowman possessed of great lightness of hands.

Amongst those thousands upon thousands of warriors on the field, belonging to thy side or that of the enemy, it seemed to me that Duryodhana was then the only man.

The prowess that we then beheld of thy son seemed to be exceedingly wonderful, since the Parthas, even uniting together, could not approach his single self.

Neither amongst the enemies nor amongst thine was there a single combatant that turned away from that battle.

The warriors fought, aided by guess and by the names they uttered.

Great was the destruction that occurred as they thus fought with one another.

Loud also became the noise, making the very hair to stand on end, of bodies falling down on the ground, divested of armour and mangled with weapons and of falling weapons also, O king, and of arms and thighs severed from the trunk.

Striking brothers and sons and even sires with keen weapons, the combatants were seen to fight like birds, for pieces of meat.

Excited with rage, thousands of warriors, falling upon one another, impatiently struck one another in that battle. Hundreds and thousands of combatants, killed by the weight of slain horsemen while falling down from their steeds, fell down on the field.

"'Duryodhana said, "

It is not at all a matter of surprise, O king, that fear should enter the hearts of living creatures.

As regards myself, however, O Bharata, I have not fled from the field of battle actuated by the fear of life! My car was destroyed, my quivers were gone, and my Parshni drivers were killed!

There is, however, no longer any need for battle when Drona and Karna have been quieted and when our grandsire Bhishma hath been slain! This shorn earth, O king, now exists for thee!

What king is there that would like to rule a kingdom divested of friends and allies?

Having caused friends such as I had to be slain and even sons and brothers and sires, and seeing my kingdom wrested by you, who is there like myself that would like to live? Clad in deer-skins I would retire into the woods!

Thou didst not formerly agree to give me even that much of the earth which would be covered by the point of a needle! How then, O monarch, dost thou make me a gift of the whole earth?

How is it that thou, who couldst not formerly abandon even that much of land which the point of a needle would cover, now wishest to abandon the whole earth?

What fool is there that would, after having obtained such prosperity and ruled the entire earth, think of making a gift of that earth to his enemies? Stupefied by folly, thou seest not the impropriety of this!

If this be your duty, that one should never be slain by many, why is it then that Abhimanyu was slain by many, acting in accord with thy counsels?

All creatures, when in difficulty forget considerations of virtue. They then view the gates of the other world to be closed.

Put on armour, O hero, and bind thy locks! Take everything else, O Bharata, of which thou standest in need!

Thou hast, therefore, once more allowed a wretched game of chance to commence as that one in former days between thyself and Shakuni, O monarch! Bhima is possessed of might and prowess. King Suyodhana, however, is possessed of skill!

In a contest between might and skill, he that is possessed of skill, O king, always prevails!

Such a foe, O king, thou hast, by thy words, placed in a position of ease and comfort! Thou hast placed thine own self, however, in a position of difficulty. We have, in consequence of this, been placed in great danger!

Up to this day I have never been vanquished in fair fight on the field of battle! If you vanquish me by deceit, your infamy will certainly last for ever! That act of yours will, without doubt, be unrighteous and infamous!

Do not, O son of Kunti, roar fruitlessly in this way like autumnal clouds uncharged with water!

Show all the strength thou hast in battle now!" Hearing these words of his, the Pandavas with the Srinjayas, all inspired with desire of victory, applauded them highly.

This is known to me, O thou of excellent vows! That object also, cherished in thy heart, for the attainment of which thou strivest, O auspicious one, shall, O thou of beautiful face, be accomplished for thee!

Everything is attainable by penances. Everything rests on penances.

All those regions of blessedness, O thou of beautiful face, that belong to the gods can be obtained by penances. Penances are the root of great happiness.

Difficult of accomplishment, she did it from desire of doing good to the Rishi (that had been her guest). Her face did not at all change under that painful process, nor did she feel any cheerlessness on that account.

Having thrust her limbs into the fire, she felt as much joy as if she had dipped them into cool water.

The words of the Rishi, 'Cook these jujubes well' were borne in her mind, O Bharata! The auspicious damsel, bearing those words of the great Rishi in her mind, began to cook those jujubes although the latter, O king, showed no signs of softening.

In word, deed, and thought, he maintained an equal behaviour towards all creatures. Without wrath, O monarch, censure and praise were equal to him. Of equal attitude towards the agreeable and the disagreeable, he was, like Yama himself, thoroughly impartial.

The great ascetic looked with an equal eye upon gold and a heap of pebbles.

He daily worshipped the gods and guests, and Brahmanas (that came to him). Ever devoted to righteousness, he always practised the vow of brahmacarya.

Thereupon he answered the ascetics, 'I must act in such a way that my religious merit may not suffer a diminution! He that teaches improperly, and he that learns improperly, are both lost in no time and come to hate each other!

It is not upon years, or decrepitude, or wealth, or the number of kinsmen, that Rishis found their claim to merit!

He amongst us is great who is capable of reading and understanding the Vedas!'

"After that twelve year's drought had passed away, the great Rishis solicited one another for lectures on the Vedas.

While wandering with famished stomachs, the Rishis had lost the knowledge of the Vedas.

There was, indeed, not one amongst them that could understand the scriptures. It chanced that someone amongst them encountered Sarasvata, that foremost of Rishis, while the latter was reading the Vedas with concentrated attention.

He that teaches improperly, and he that learns improperly, are both lost in no time and come to hate each other! It is not upon years, or decrepitude, or wealth, or the number of kinsmen, that Rishis found their claim to merit!

He amongst us is great who is capable of reading and understanding the Vedas!

'

Those kings that will perform great sacrifices here will reside as long in heaven as Earth herself will last. The chief of the celestials, Shakra, himself composed a verse here and sang it. Listen to it, O Baladeva! "

The very dust of Kurukshetra, borne away by the wind, shall cleanse persons of wicked acts and bear them to heaven!

" The foremost ones amongst the gods, as also those amongst the Brahmanas, and many foremost ones among the kings of the Earth such as Nriga and others, having performed costly sacrifices here, after abandoning their bodies, proceeded to heaven.

Those two scorchers of foes looked like Kala and Mrityu. They then ran towards each other like two infuriated elephants, swelling with pride and mad with passion in the season of autumn and longing for the companionship of a she-elephant in her time.

Each seemed to vomit upon the other the poison of his wrath like two fiery snakes.

Those two chastisers of foes cast the angriest of glances upon each other. Both were tigers of Bharata's race, and each was possessed of great prowess. In encounters with the mace, those two scorchers of foes were invincible like lions.

Beholding his foe, the son of Pandu, thus whirling his mace endued with unrivalled impetuosity, Duryodhana became filled with amazement. Indeed, the heroic Vrikodara, O Bharata, as he careered in diverse courses, presented a highly beautiful spectacle.

Both bent upon carefully protecting themselves, as they approached, they repeatedly mangled each other like two cats fighting for a piece of meat.

Bhimasena performed diverse kinds of evolutions. He coursed in beautiful circles, advanced, and receded. He dealt blows and warded off those of his adversary, with wonderful activity. He took up various kinds of position (for attack and defence).

In their growth is our growth. Do not, therefore, give way to wrath, O bull among men!" Hearing these words of Vasudeva the wielder of the plough, who was conversant with rules of morality, said, "Morality is well practised by the good.

Morality, however, is always afflicted by two things, the desire of Profit entertained by those that covet it, and the desire for Pleasure cherished by those that are wedded to it.

Whoever without afflicting Morality and Profit, or Morality and Pleasure, or Pleasure and Profit, followeth all three—Morality, Profit and Pleasure—always succeeds in obtaining great happiness.

Alighting from their cars, and letting loose their animals, they cleansed themselves duly and said their evening prayers. The Sun then reached the Asta mountains, and Night, the mother of the universe, came.

The firmament, bespangled with planets and stars, shone like an ornamented piece of brocade and presented a highly agreeable spectacle.

Those creatures that walk the night began to howl and utter their cries at will, while they that walk the day owned the influence of sleep. Awful became the noise of the night-wandering animals.

Those creatures that walk the night began to howl and utter their cries at will, while they that walk the day owned the influence of sleep. Awful became the noise of the night-wandering animals.

The carnivorous creatures became full of glee, and the night, as it deepened, became dreadful.

"'At that hour, filled with grief and sorrow, Kritavarma and Kripa and Drona's son all sat down together. Seated under that banyan, they began to give expression to their sorrow in respect of that very matter:

Success springs from the union of the two. All purposes, high and low, are dependent on a union of those two. In the whole world, it is through these two that men are seen to act as also to abstain.

What result is produced by the clouds pouring upon a mountain? What results are not produced by them pouring upon a cultivated field?

Exertion, where destiny is not auspicious, and absence of exertion where destiny is auspicious, both these are fruitless! What I have said before (about the union of the two) is the truth. If the rains properly moisten a well-tilled soil, the seed produces great results.

Burning with grief as if with a blazing fire, he formed a wicked resolution and then addressed them both saying, "The faculty of understanding is different in different men. Each man, however, is pleased with own understanding.

Every man regards himself more intelligent than others.

Everyone respects his own understanding and accords it great praise. Everyone's own wisdom is with every one a subject of praise. Everyone speaks ill of the wisdom of others, and well of his own, in all instances.

A brave man, if bereft of understanding, by waiting all his life upon a learned person fails to know his duties, like a wooden ladle unable to taste the juicy soup (in which it may lie immersed).

The wise man, however, by waiting upon a learned person for even a moment, succeeds in knowing his duties, like the tongue tasting the juicy soup (as soon as it comes into contact with the latter).

That person who is endued with intelligence, who waits upon his superiors, and who has his passions under control succeeds in knowing all the rules of morality and never disputes with what is accepted by all.

"'"

Well-wishers seek to restrain a friend from sin. He who suffers himself to be dissuaded, succeeds in winning prosperity.

He that does otherwise reaps misery. As a person of disordered brains is restrained by soothing words, even so should a friend be restrained by well-wishers. He that suffers himself to be so restrained never becomes a prey to misery.

The foes, who were vanquished have become victorious! Ourselves, again, while victorious, are vanquished! Having slain brothers and friends and sires and sons and well-wishers, and kinsmen, and counsellors, and having vanquished them all, we ourselves are vanquished at last!

Misery looks like prosperity and prosperity looks like misery!

This our victory has assumed the shape of defeat. Our victory, therefore, has ended in defeat! Having won the victory, I am obliged to grieve as an afflicted wretch. How, then, can I regard it as a victory?

Through affection for thy son, O monarch, thou didst what was agreeable to Duryodhana. Thou art obliged to repent for that now. It behoveth thee, however not to give way to grief.

The man whose eyes are directed towards only the honey without being once directed to the fall, meets with destruction through his covetousness for honey.

Such a man is obliged to repent even like thee. The man who indulges in grief never wins wealth. By grieving one loses the fruits one desires. Grief is again an obstacle to the acquisition of objects dear to us.

The tear-stained face, O king, which thou bearest now is not approved by the scriptures or praised by the wise. These tears, like sparks of fire, burn the dead for whom they are shed.

Kill thy grief with thy intelligence, and bear thyself up with the strength of thy own self!

' Thus was the king comforted by the high-souled Sanjaya. Vidura then, O scorcher of foes, once again addressed the king, displaying great intelligence."

When thy son, O monarch, caught the pride that is born of youth, thou didst not accept the counsels offered unto thee by thy well-wishers. Desirous of fruit, thou didst not, through covetousness, do what was really for thy benefit.

Thy own intelligence, like a sharp sword, has wounded thee.

Thou didst generally pay court to those that were of wicked behaviour. Thy son had Duhshasana for his counsellor, and the wicked-souled son of Radha, and the equally wicked Shakuni and Citrasena of foolish understanding, and Salya.

Death drags all creatures, even the gods. There is none dear or hateful to death, O best of the Kurus! As the wind tears off the tops of all blades of grass, even so, O bull of Bharata's race, death overmasters all creatures.

All creatures are like members of a caravan bound for the same destination.

(When death will encounter all) it matters very little whom he meets with first. It behoveth thee not, O king, to grieve for those that have been slain in battle. If the scriptures are any authority, all of them must have obtained the highest end.

"Vidura said, 'Rise, O king! Why art thou stretched on the earth? Bear thyself up with thy own self. O king, even this is the final end of all living creatures.

Everything massed together ends in destruction; everything that gets high is sure to fall down. Union is certain to end in separation; life is sure to end in death.

The destroyer, O Bharata, drags both the hero and the coward. Why then, O bull amongst Kshatriyas, should not Kshatriyas engage in battle? He that does not fight is seen to escape with life. When, however, one's time comes, O king, one cannot escape.

It behoveth thee not to suffer thyself to be overwhelmed with sorrow and to abandon all actions. There are thousands of mothers and fathers and sons and wives in this world. Whose are they, and whose are we?

From day to day thousands of causes spring up for sorrow and thousands of causes for fear.

These, however, affect the ignorant but are nothing to him that is wise. There is none dear or hateful to Time, O best of the Kurus! Time is indifferent to none. All are equally dragged by Time.

There is none dear or hateful to Time, O best of the Kurus! Time is indifferent to none. All are equally dragged by Time. Time causeth all creatures to grow, and it is Time that destroyeth everything.

When all else is asleep, Time is awake. Time is irresistible.

Youth, beauty, life, possessions, health, and the companionship of friends, all are unstable. He that is wise will never covet any of these. It behoveth thee not to grieve for what is universal.

Time is indifferent to none. All are equally dragged by Time. Time causeth all creatures to grow, and it is Time that destroyeth everything. When all else is asleep, Time is awake. Time is irresistible.

Youth, beauty, life, possessions, health, and the companionship of friends, all are unstable.

He that is wise will never covet any of these. It behoveth thee not to grieve for what is universal. A person may, by indulging in grief, himself perish, but grief itself, by being indulged in, never becomes light.

When all else is asleep, Time is awake. Time is irresistible. Youth, beauty, life, possessions, health, and the companionship of friends, all are unstable. He that is wise will never covet any of these. It behoveth thee not to grieve for what is universal.

A person may, by indulging in grief, himself perish, but grief itself, by being indulged in, never becomes light.

If thou feelest thy grief to be heavy, it should be counteracted by not indulging in it. Even this is the medicine for grief, viz., that one should not indulge in it. By dwelling on it, one cannot lessen it.

They that are destitute of contentment, are stupefied on the accession of vicissitudes dependent upon the possession of wealth. They, however, that are wise, are on the other hand, unaffected by such vicissitudes.

One should kill mental grief by wisdom, just as physical grief should be killed by medicine.

Wisdom hath this power. They, however, that are foolish, can never obtain tranquillity of soul.

They, however, that are wise, are on the other hand, unaffected by such vicissitudes. One should kill mental grief by wisdom, just as physical grief should be killed by medicine. Wisdom hath this power. They, however, that are foolish, can never obtain tranquillity of soul.

The acts of a former life closely follow a man, insomuch that they lie by him when he lies down, stay by him when he stays, and run with him when he runs.

In those conditions of life in which one acts well or ill, one enjoys or suffers the fruit thereof in similar conditions. In those forms (of physical organisation) in which one performs particular acts, one enjoys or suffers the fruits thereof in similar forms.

In those conditions of life in which one acts well or ill, one enjoys or suffers the fruit thereof in similar conditions. In those forms (of physical organisation) in which one performs particular acts, one enjoys or suffers the fruits thereof in similar forms.

One's own self is one's own friend, as, indeed, one's own self is one's own enemy.

One's own self is the witness of one's acts, good and evil. From good acts springs a state of happiness, from sinful deeds springs woe. One always obtains the fruit of one's acts.

"Vidura said, 'He that is wise obtains tranquillity by subduing both grief and joy through means by which one may escape from grief and joy. All those things about which we are anxious, O bull among men, are ephemeral.

The world is like a plantain tree, without enduring strength.

Since the wise and the foolish, the rich and the poor, all, divested of their anxieties, sleep on the crematorium, with bodies reft of flesh and full of bare bones and shrivelled sinews, whom amongst them will the survivors look upon as possessed of distinguishing …

(When all are equal in death) why should human beings, whose understandings are always deceived (by the things of this world) covet one another's rank and position?

The learned say that the bodies of men are like houses. In time these are destroyed.

There is one being, however, that is eternal. As a person, casting off one attire, whether old or new, wears another, even such is the case with the bodies of all embodied beings.

Agitated by his senses, for whatever good and evil has been done at the outset and having enjoyed or suffered the fruits of these, he once more becomes indifferent to his acts of self-slaughter.

Alas, the world is deceived, and covetousness brings it under its dominion.

Deprived of understanding by covetousness, wrath, and fear, one knows not one's own self. Filled with joy at one's own respectability of birth, one is seen to traduce those that are not high-born.

These all are messengers of death. They, however, that are of little understanding know them not to be such. The wise say that all creatures are governed by the Ordainer through their acts.

The body of a creature is called the car. The living principle is the driver of (that car).

The senses are said to be steeds. Our acts and the understanding are the traces. He who followeth after those running steeds has to come repeatedly to this world in a round of rebirths.

Such a person, O king, would obtain that which thou hast obtained. The loss of kingdom, of friends, and of children, O Bharata, and such as these, overtake him who is still under the influence of desire.

He that is wise should apply the medicine of intelligence to all great griefs.

Indeed, obtaining the medicine of wisdom, which is truly very efficacious and is almost unattainable, the man of restrained soul would kill that serious disease called sorrow.

He that is wise should apply the medicine of intelligence to all great griefs. Indeed, obtaining the medicine of wisdom, which is truly very efficacious and is almost unattainable, the man of restrained soul would kill that serious disease called sorrow.

Neither prowess, nor wealth, nor friends, nor well-wishers can cure a man of his grief so effectually as the self-restrained soul.

Therefore, observant of the great duty of abstention from all injuries, or friendship for all creatures, be of pious behaviour, O Bharata! Self-restraint, renunciation, and heedfulness are the three steeds of Brahman.

They, however, that are wise are free from that obligation. Men conversant with the scriptures, for this, describe life's course as a long way.

The wise also call life's round with all its difficulties a forest.

Creatures, O bull of Bharata's race, whether mobile or immobile, have to repeatedly return to the world. The wise alone escape. The diseases, mental and physical, to which mortals are subject, whether visible or invisible, are spoken of as beasts of prey by the wise.

Alas, having slain, for the sake of the earth, such lords of earth as deserved not to be slain by us, we are bearing the weight of existence, deprived of friends and reft of the very objects of life.

Like a pack of dogs fighting one another for a piece of meat, a great disaster has overtaken us!

That piece of meat is no longer dear to us. On the other hand, it shall be thrown aside.

The fault, however, is really ascribable to the sons of Dhritarashtra. Duryodhana's heart was always set upon guile. Always cherishing malice, he was addicted to deception. Although we never offended him, yet he always behaved falsely towards us.

We have not gained our object, nor have they gained theirs. We have not vanquished them, nor have they vanquished us.

The Dhartarashtras could not enjoy this earth, nor could they enjoy women and music. They did not listen to the counsels of ministers and friends and men learned in the scriptures. They could not, indeed, enjoy their costly gems and well-filled treasury and vast territories.

Making no provision for the morrow is a practice that suits Rishis. Thou knowest this well. That, however, which has been called the religion of royalty depends entirely on wealth.

One who robs another of wealth, robs him of his religion as well.[9]

Who amongst us, therefore, O king, would forgive an act of spoliation that is practised on us? It is seen that a poor man, even when he stands near, is accused falsely. Poverty is a state of sinfulness.

Without wealth, a man cannot find the very means of sustaining his life. The acts of a person who, possessed of little intelligence, suffers himself to be divested of wealth, are all dried up like shallow streams in the summer season.

He that has wealth has friends. He that has wealth has kinsmen.

He that has wealth is regarded as a true man in the world. He that has wealth is regarded as a learned man. If a person who hath no wealth desires to achieve a particular purpose, he meets with failure.

I shall not jeer at any one, nor shall I frown at anybody. Restraining all my senses, I shall always be of a cheerful face.

Without asking anybody about the way, proceeding along any route that I may happen to meet with, I shall go on, without taking note of the country or the point of the compass to which or towards which I may go.

Regardless of whither I may proceed, I shall not look behind. Divesting myself of desire and wrath, and turning my gaze inwards, I shall go on, casting off pride of soul and body. Nature always walks ahead; hence, food and drink will somehow be accomplished.

Without ever being attached to action, and always restraining the functions of the senses, I shall give up all desires and purify the soul of all impurities.

Freed from all attachments and tearing off all bonds and ties, I shall live free as the wind.

Living in such freedom from affections, everlasting contentment will be mine. Through desire, I have, from ignorance, committed great sins.

They should acquire religious merit by other ways.

If, O king, anybody were to obtain success from renunciation, then mountains and trees would surely obtain it!

These latter are always seen to lead lives of renunciation. They do not injure any one. They are, again, always aloof from a life of worldliness and are all Brahmacharins.

The life of that king is certainly fruitless who having acquired the entire earth with her mobile and immobile creatures, does not enjoy her.

As regards the man again who lives in the forest upon wild fruits and roots, but whose attachment to things of the earth has not ceased, such a one, O king, lives within the jaws of Death.

Behold, O Bharata, the hearts and the outward forms of all creatures to be but manifestations of thy own.

On the other hand, let that religious merit and that happiness which are his who governs the earth, having cast off all internal attachments also, be the portion of our friends.

The word mama (mine), consisting of two letters, is Death's self; while the opposite word na-mama (not mine), consisting of three letters, is eternal Brahma.[30]

Brahma and death, O king, entering invisibly into every soul, without doubt, cause all creatures to act. If this being, O Bharata, that is called Soul, be not ever subject to destruction, then by destroying the bodies of creatures one cannot be guilty of slaughter.

I do not behold the creature in this world that supports life without doing any act of injury to others. Animals live upon animals, the stronger upon the weaker.

The mongoose devours mice; the cat devours the mongoose; the dog devours the cat; the dog again is devoured by the spotted leopard.

Behold all things again are devoured by the Destroyer when he comes! This mobile and immobile universe is food for living creatures. This has been ordained by the gods. The man of knowledge, therefore, is never stupefied at it.

Animals live upon animals, the stronger upon the weaker. The mongoose devours mice; the cat devours the mongoose; the dog devours the cat; the dog again is devoured by the spotted leopard. Behold all things again are devoured by the Destroyer when he comes!

This mobile and immobile universe is food for living creatures.

This has been ordained by the gods. The man of knowledge, therefore, is never stupefied at it. It behoveth thee, O great king, to become that which thou art by birth. Foolish (Kshatriyas) alone, restraining wrath and joy take refuge in the woods.

Duties have been declared for only the maintenance of the relations of the world. There are two things here, viz., abstention from injury and injury prompted by righteous motives. Of these two, that is superior by which righteousness may be acquired.[40]

There is no act that is wholly meritorious, nor any that is wholly wicked. Right or wrong, in all acts, something of both is seen.

Subjecting animals to castration, their horns again are cut off. They are then made to bear weights, are tethered, and chastised.

"'Arjuna said, "The man armed with the rod of chastisement governs all subjects and protects them.

The rod of chastisement is awake when all else is sleep.

For this, the wise have characterised the rod of chastisement to be Righteousness itself. The rod of chastisement protects Righteousness and Profit. It protects also, O king! For this, the rod of chastisement is identified with the triple objects of life.

Why hast thou forgotten the woes inflicted by Jatasura, the battle with Chitrasena, and the distress suffered at the hands of the Sindhu king? Why hast thou forgotten the kick received by the princess Draupadi from Kichaka while we were living in concealment?

A fierce battle, O chastiser of foes, like that which thou hast fought with Bhishma and Drona is now before thee, to be fought (however) with thy mind alone.

Indeed, that battle is now before thee in which there is no need of arrows, of friends, of relatives and kinsmen, but which will have to be fought with thy mind alone.

They that perform sacrifices go by the Pitri-path, while they that are for salvation, go by the god-path.[51] By penances, by Brahmacharya, by study (of the Vedas), the great Rishis, casting off their bodies, proceeded to regions that are above the power of Death.

Worldly enjoyments have been styled as bonds.

They have also been called Action. Liberated from those two sins (viz., bonds and action), one attains to the highest end.

"'Yudhishthira said, "Discontent, heedless attachment to earthly goods, the absence of tranquillity, might, folly, vanity, and anxiety,—affected by these sins, O Bhima, thou covetest sovereignty. Freed from desire, prevailing over joy and grief and attaining to tranquillity, strive thou to be happy.

That peerless monarch who will govern this unbounded earth, will have but one stomach.

Why dost thou then applaud this course of life? One's desires, O bull of Bharata's race, are incapable of being filled in a day, or in many months. Desire, which is incapable of gratification, cannot, indeed, be fitted in course of one's whole life.

That verse runs thus: 'My treasures are immense, yet I have nothing! If again the whole of Mithila were burnt and reduced to ashes, nothing of mine will be burnt!'

As a person on the hill-top looketh down upon men on the plain below, so he that has got up on the top of the mansion of knowledge, seeth people grieving for things that do not call for grief.

He, however, that is of foolish understanding, does not see this. He who, casting his eyes on visible things, really seeth them, is said to have eyes and understanding.

Fire, when fed with fuel, blazeth forth; when not so fed, it is extinguished. Do thou, therefore, extinguish with little food the fire in thy stomach when it appears. He that is bereft of wisdom seeks much food for his stomach.

Conquer thy stomach first. (Thou shalt then be able to conquer the Earth).

The earth being conquered, that which is for thy permanent good will then be won by thee. Thou applaudest desires and enjoyments and prosperity. They, however, that have renounced all enjoyments and reduced their bodies by penances, attain to regions of beatitude.

If, therefore, the king does not give (food) where will the pious that are desirous of salvation go?[60] They that have food (in their houses) are house-holders. Mendicants are supported by them.

Life flows from food. Therefore, the giver of food is the giver of life.

Coming out from among those that lead a domestic mode of life, mendicants depend upon those very persons from whom they come. Those self-restrained men, by doing this, acquire and enjoy fame and power.

Those that are learned live, reflecting on the scriptures from desire of finding what is unreal. They are, however, often led away to this and to that in the belief that the object of their search exists in this and that.

Having mastered, however, the Vedas, the Aranyakas, and the other scriptures, they miss the real, like men failing to find solid timber in an uprooted banana plant.

Some there are who, disbelieving in its unity, regard the Soul, that dwells in this physical frame consisting of the five elements, to be possessed of the attributes of desire and aversion (and others).[62] Incapable of being seen by the eye, exceedingly subtle, and inexpressible …

"'Devasthana said, "In this connection is cited an old history, viz., the discourse that Vrihaspati, asked by Indra, delivered unto him. Vrihaspati said, '

Contentment is the highest heaven, contentment is the highest bliss. There is nothing higher than contentment.

Contentment stands as the highest. When one draws away all his desires like a tortoise drawing in all its limbs, then the natural resplendence of his soul soon manifests itself.

"'Devasthana said, "In this connection is cited an old history, viz., the discourse that Vrihaspati, asked by Indra, delivered unto him. Vrihaspati said, 'Contentment is the highest heaven, contentment is the highest bliss. There is nothing higher than contentment. Contentment stands as the highest.

When one draws away all his desires like a tortoise drawing in all its limbs, then the natural resplendence of his soul soon manifests itself.

When one does not fear any creature, nor any creature is frightened at one, when one conquers one's desire and aversion, then is one said to behold one's soul.

When one, indeed, in word and thought, seeks to injure nobody and cherishes no desire, one is said to attain to Brahma. Thus, O son of Kunti, whatever religion is followed by creatures, they obtain corresponding fruits. Awaken thyself by this consideration, O Bharata![67]

Some praise Peacefulness, some praise Exertion; some there are that praise Contemplation; and some praise both Peacefulness and Exertion.[68]

Some praise sacrifice; others, renunciation. Some praise gifts; others, acceptance. Some, abandoning everything, live in silent meditation. Some praise sovereignty and the cherishing of subjects, after slaying, cutting and piercing (foes). Some are for passing their days in retirement.

In determining suits and accomplishing religious acts, they that are possessed of great learning should alone be employed.

A prudent king will never repose his confidence upon one individual, however accomplished.

That king who does not protect his subjects, whose passions are ungovernable, who is full of vanity, who is stained with haughtiness and malice, incurs sin and earns the reproach of tyranny.

This body even is not mine. Nothing in this earth is mine. Or, the things of this earth belong as much to others as to me. The wise, seeing this, do not suffer themselves to be deluded.

There are thousands of causes for sorrow, and hundreds of causes for joy.

These every day affect the ignorant only, but not him that is wise. These, in course of Time, become objects of affection or aversion, and appearing as bliss or woe revolve (as if in a wheel) for affecting living creatures.

There is only sorrow in this world but no happiness. It is for this that sorrow only is felt. Indeed, sorrow springs from that affliction called desire, and happiness springs from the affliction called sorrow.

Sorrow comes after happiness, and happiness after sorrow. One does not always suffer sorrow or always enjoy happiness.

Happiness always ends in sorrow, and sometimes proceeds from sorrow itself. He, therefore, that desires eternal happiness must abandon both.

… of happiness, and happiness upon the expiration of sorrow, one should, for that, cast off, like a (snake-bit) limb of one's body, that from which one experiences sorrow or that heart-burning which is nurtured by sorrow or that which is the root of his anxiety.[75]

Be it happiness or sorrow, be it agreeable or disagreeable, whatever comes should be borne with an unaffected heart.

O amiable one, if thou abstainest, in even a slight measure, from doing what is agreeable to your wives and children, thou shalt then know who is whose and why so and for what.

They however, that occupy an intermediate place suffer misery. This, O Yudhishthira, is what Senajit of great wisdom said, that person who was conversant with what is good or bad in this world, with duties, and with happiness and misery.

He who is grieved at other people's griefs can never be happy.

There is no end of grief, and grief arises from happiness itself. Happiness and misery, prosperity and adversity, gain and loss, death and life, in their turn, wait upon all creatures.

Time is the efficacious means for the accomplishment of all acts. During times of adversity, neither science, nor incantations, nor drugs, yield any fruits. In times, however, of prosperity, those very things, properly applied, become efficacious and bear success.

By Time the winds blow violently; by Time the clouds become rain-charged; by Time tanks become adorned with lotuses of different kinds; by Time trees in the forest become decked with flowers.

By Time nights become dark or lighted. By Time the Moon becomes full. If the Time for it does not come, trees do not bear flowers and fruits. If the Time for it does not come, the currents of rivers do not become fierce.

I shall repeat what I have once said. All this is Destiny, O puissant one! Without doubt, all creatures that are born display at first a union (of diverse materials and forces). Dissolution, however, overtakes them at the end.

Like bubbles in the water they rise and disappear.

All things massed together are sure to crumble away and all things that rise must fall down. Union ends in dissolution and life ends in death. Idleness, though temporarily agreeable, ends in misery, and labour with skill, though temporarily painful, ends in happiness.

All this is Destiny, O puissant one! Without doubt, all creatures that are born display at first a union (of diverse materials and forces). Dissolution, however, overtakes them at the end. Like bubbles in the water they rise and disappear.

All things massed together are sure to crumble away and all things that rise must fall down.

Union ends in dissolution and life ends in death. Idleness, though temporarily agreeable, ends in misery, and labour with skill, though temporarily painful, ends in happiness. Affluence, Prosperity, Modesty, Contentment, and Fame dwell in labour and skill but not in idleness.

Even as scent, colour, taste, and touch spring naturally, happiness and misery arise from what has been pre-ordained. Seats and beds and vehicles, prosperity and drink and food, ever approach, leaving creatures according to Time's course.[81]

Physicians even get ill. The strong become weak.

They that are in the enjoyment of prosperity lose all and become indigent. The course of Time is very wonderful. High birth, health, beauty, prosperity, and objects of enjoyment, are all won through Destiny. The indigent, although they may not desire it, have many children.

while some one that is poor drags on his existence, borne down by decrepitude, for a hundred years. One borne in an ignoble race may have a very long life, while one sprung from a noble line perishes soon like an insect.

In this world, it is very common that persons in affluent circumstances have no appetite, while they that are indigent can digest chips of wood.

Impelled by destiny, whatever sins the man of wicked soul, discontented with his condition, commits, saying, "I am the doer," he regards to be all for his good. Hunting, dice, women, wine, brawls, these are censured by the wise.

In this world a thousand kinds of relationship are contracted, such as mother and father and son and wife. In reality, however, whose are they and whose are we? No one can become anyone's own, nor can anyone become anybody else's own.

Our union here with wives and kinsfolk and well-wishers is like that of travellers at a road-side inn.

Where am I? Where shall go? Who am I? How come I here? What for and whom I grieve? Reflecting on these questions one obtains tranquillity.

Our union here with wives and kinsfolk and well-wishers is like that of travellers at a road-side inn. Where am I? Where shall go? Who am I? How come I here? What for and whom I grieve? Reflecting on these questions one obtains tranquillity.

Life and its environments are constantly revolving like a wheel, and the companionship of those that are dear is transitory.

The union with brother, mother, father, and friend is like that of travellers in an inn. Men of knowledge behold, as if with corporeal eyes, the next world that is unseen. Without disregarding the scriptures, one desirous of knowledge should have faith.

Without disregarding the scriptures, one desirous of knowledge should have faith. One possessed of knowledge should perform the rites laid down in respect of the Pitris and the gods, practise all religious duties, perform sacrifices, judiciously pursue virtue, profit, and pleasure.

Alas, no one understands that the world is sinking on the ocean of Time that is so very deep and that is infested with those huge crocodiles called decrepitude and death.

Many physicians may be seen afflicted with all the members of their families, although they have carefully studied the science of Medicine.[82] Taking bitters and diverse kinds of oily drugs, these succeed not in escaping death, like ocean in transcending its continents.

… come upon this inevitable and broad path that has to be trodden by every creature.[83] Whether the body springs from the creature or the creature springs from the body, one's union however, with wives and other friends is like that of travellers in an inn.[84]

One cannot obtain a lasting companionship with anyone. One cannot obtain such companionship with one's own body.

How then it can be had with anyone else? Where, O king, is thy sire today and where thy grandsire? Thou beholdst them not today and they do not behold thee. O sinless one! No person can see either heaven or hell.

The virtuous princess, saying, 'So be it' began to attend upon them in obedience to her father's behest. Her dutiful services and her unrivalled beauty very soon inspired Narada with a tender flame towards her.

That tender sentiment began to grow in the heart of the illustrious saint like the moon gradually waxing on the accession of the lighted fortnight.

The virtuous Narada, however, overwhelmed by shame, could not disclose that burning attachment to his sister's son, the high-souled Parvata. By his ascetic power, as also by signs, Parvata understood all. Inflamed with rage, the latter thereupon resolved to curse the love-afflicted Narada.

If by slaying a single individual a family may be saved, or, if by slaying a single family the whole kingdom may be saved, such an act of slaughter will not be a transgression.

Sin, O king, sometimes assumes the form of virtue, and virtue sometimes assumes the form of sin.

They, however, that are learned, know which is which. Therefore, console thyself, O son of Pandu, for thou art well versed in the scriptures. Thou hast, O Bharata, only followed the path formerly trodden by the very gods.

This discourse on expiation, treating (at the same time) of fasts and capable of exciting great curiosity, fills me with joy.

The practice of virtue and the discharge of kingly duties are always inconsistent with each other.

For always thinking of how one may reconcile the two, my mind is constantly stupefied."'

"Vaisampayana said, 'At the time the Parthas entered the city, thousands upon thousands of the citizens came out to behold the sight.

The well-adorned squares and streets, with crowd swelling at each moment looked beautiful like the ocean swelling at the rise of the moon.

The large mansions that stood on the street-sides, decked with every ornament and full of ladies, seemed to shake, O Bharata, with their weight.

All thy senses, indeed, have been withdrawn into thy soul.[136] The hair on thy body stands erect. Thy mind and understanding are both still. Thou art as immobile now, O Madhava, as a wooden post or a stone.

O illustrious God, thou art as still as the flame of a lamp burning in a place where there is no wind.

Thou art as immobile as a mass of rock. If I am fit to hear the cause, if it is no secret of thine, dispel, O god, my doubt for I beg of thee and solicit it as a favour.

Thou hast thy passions under complete control. Thy devout worshippers, faithfully performing the rites laid down in the scriptures, sacrifice to thee, O giver of every wish! Thou art called the sheath within which the universe lies. All created things live in thee.

Like swans and ducks swimming on the water, all the worlds that we see float in thee.

Thou art Truth. Thou art One and undeteriorating. Thou art Brahma, Thou art That which is beyond Mind and Matter. Thou art without beginning, middle, and end. Neither the gods nor the Rishis know thee.

It abounded also with many a hill formed of the bodies and bones of elephants and steeds, and human heads and skulls lay stretched over it like conch-shells.

Variegated with thousands of funeral pyres and teeming with heaps of armour and weapons, the vast plain looked like the drinking garden of the Destroyer himself used and abandoned recently.

The mighty car-warriors quickly proceeded, viewing the field of battle haunted by crowds of spirits and thronged with Rakshasas.

Kasyapa also, O monarch, having accepted the earth in gift, and made a present of it unto the Brahmanas, entered the great forest. Then Sudras and Vaisyas, acting most wilfully, began to unite themselves, O bull of Bharata's race, with the wives of Brahmanas.

When anarchy sets in on earth, the weak are oppressed by the strong, and no man is master of his own property.

Unprotected duly by Kshatriyas observant of virtue, and oppressed by the wicked in consequence of that disorder, the earth quickly sank to the lowest depths. Beholding the earth sinking from fear, the high-souled Kasyapa held her on his lap;

With the aid of thy intelligence, do thou, O prince of men, drive the sorrow felt by the son of Pandu.

Persons possessed of so great and such varied knowledge live only for comforting men whose minds have been stupefied.

"'

Discomfort and stupefaction and burning and pain and hunger and thirst shall not, O son of Ganga, overcome thee, O thou of unfading glory! Thy perceptions and memory, O sinless one, shall be unclouded.[158] Thy understanding shall not fail thee.

Thy mind, O Bhishma, freed from the qualities of passion and darkness, will always be subject to the quality of goodness, like the moon emerged from the clouds.

Thy understanding will penetrate whatever subject connected with duty, morality, or profit, thou wilt think upon. O tiger among kings, obtaining celestial vision, thou wilt, O thou of immeasurable prowess, succeed in beholding the four orders of created things.

That person who will conduct himself here according to the authority of thy declarations, will obtain hereafter the reward of every meritorious act. For this reason, O Bhishma, I have imparted to thee celestial understanding so that thy fame may be enhanced on earth.

As long as a man's fame lasts in the world, so long are his achievements said to live.

The unslain remnant of the (assembled) kings are sitting around thee, desirous of listening to thy discourses on morality and duty. Do thou speak unto them, O Bharata! Thou art old in years and thy behaviour is consistent with the ordinance of the Srutis.

These two, viz., exertion and destiny, are equal (in their operation). Of them, I regard exertion to be superior, for destiny is ascertained from the results of what is begun with exertion.

Do not indulge in grief if what is commenced ends disastrously, for thou shouldst then exert thyself in the same act with redoubled attention.

This is the high duty of kings. There is nothing which contributes so much to the success of kings as Truth. The king who is devoted to Truth finds happiness both here and hereafter. As regards Rishis also, O king, Truth is their great wealth.

'If the king happens to be always forgiving, the lowest of persons prevails over him, even as the driver who sits on the head of the elephant he guides.' The king, therefore, should not always be mild. Nor should he always be fierce.

He should be like the vernal Sun, neither cold nor so hot as to produce perspiration.

By the direct evidence of the senses, by conjecture, by comparisons, and by the canons of the scriptures. O monarch, the king should study friends and foes. O thou of great liberality, thou shouldst avoid all those evil practices that are called Vyasanas.

What, however, is needed is that thou shouldst not be attached to them. He that is attached to those practices is prevailed over by everyone. The king who cherishes no love for his people inspires the latter with anxiety.

The king should always bear himself towards his subjects as a mother towards the child of her womb.

Hear, O monarch, the reason why this becomes desirable. As the mother, disregarding those objects that are most cherished by her, seeks the good of her child alone, even so, without doubt, should kings conduct themselves (towards their subjects).

This has been said by Vrihaspati. Listen to the verses sung by him: 'By exertion the amrita was obtained; by exertion the Asuras were slain, by exertion Indra himself obtained sovereignty in heaven and on earth.

The hero of exertion is superior to the heroes of speech.

The heroes of speech gratify and worship the heroes of exertion.[169]' The king that is destitute of exertion, even if possessed of intelligence, is always overcome by foes like a snake that is bereft of poison.

The king, even if possessed of strength, should not disregard a foe, however weak.

A spark of fire can produce a conflagration and a particle of poison can kill.

With only one kind of force, an enemy from within a fort, can afflict the whole country of even a powerful and prosperous king.

He should act righteously for keeping his people under subjection. Persons of crooked minds cannot bear the burden of extensive empire. A king who is mild cannot obtain superior rank, the acquisition of which depends upon labour.

A kingdom, coveted by all like meat, can never be protected by candour and simplicity.

A king, O Yudhishthira, should, therefore, always conduct himself with both candour and crookedness. If in protecting his subjects a king falls into danger, he earns great merit. Even such should be the conduct of kings.

Thou shouldst, therefore, O king, regard the study of the Vedas, which is fraught with such high merit, to be equal with the exertion of kingly power, or the pursuits of agriculture, trade, and hunting.

The world is set agoing by Time. Its operations are settled by the course of Time.

Man does all his acts, good, bad, and indifferent, entirely influenced by Time.[195] Those amongst the good acts of a man's past life that exert the greatest influence on the next, are liable to be exhausted.

If, on the other hand, he be engaged, he may exterminate all. That cow which cannot be easily milked has to suffer much torture. On the other hand, that cow which is capable of being easily milked, has not to suffer any torture whatever.

The wood that bends easily does not require to be heated.

The tree that bends easily, has not to suffer any torture (at the hands of the gardener). Guided by these instances, O hero, men should bend before those that are powerful.

"'Bhishma said, "Listen, O monarch, with attention to the diverse duties of kings,—to those acts which the king or one that is in the position of a king should first do.

The king should first subdue himself and then seek to subdue his foes. How should a king who has not been able to conquer his own self be able to conquer his foes?

The conquest of these, viz., the aggregate of five, is regarded as the conquest of self. The king that has succeeded in subduing his senses is competent to resist his foes.

… maintained, when peace and happiness are made to flow from the science of chastisement, when the people become freed from all fear, and the three higher orders endeavour, according to their respective duties, to maintain harmony, know that men become truly happy at such times.

Whether it is the king that makes the age, or, it is the age that makes the king, is a question about which thou shouldst not entertain any doubt. The truth is that the king makes the age.

When the king rules with a complete and strict reliance on the science of chastisement, the foremost of ages called Krita is then said to set in.[225] Righteousness sets in the Krita age. Nothing of unrighteousness exists then.

He should worship the gods without pride. He should seek prosperity, but never do anything that brings infamy. He should wait (upon his seniors) with humility. He should be clever in business but should always wait for the proper time.

He should comfort men and never send them away with empty speeches.

Having favoured a person, he should not abandon him. He should never strike in ignorance. Having slain his foe he should never indulge in sorrow. He should display temper, but should never do so when there is no occasion.

The wealth again that he acquires (by such means) is seen to be lavished on unworthy objects.[227] That avaricious king who through folly oppresses his subjects by levying taxes not sanctioned by the scriptures, is said to wrong his own self.

As a person desirous of milk never obtains any by cutting off the udders of a cow, similarly a kingdom afflicted by improper means, never yields any profit to the king.[228]

He who treats a milch cow with tenderness always obtains milk from it. Similarly, the king who rules his kingdom by the aid of proper means, reaps much fruit from it.

In the season of winter they derive comfort from fire, warm clothes, and the sun. The heart of man may find pleasure in sound, touch, taste, vision, and scent.

The man, however, who is inspired with fear, finds no pleasure in all these things.

That person who dispels the fears of men obtains great merit. There is no gift so valuable in the three worlds as the gift of life. The king is Indra. The king is Yama. The king is Dharma. The king assumes different forms.

The heart of man may find pleasure in sound, touch, taste, vision, and scent. The man, however, who is inspired with fear, finds no pleasure in all these things. That person who dispels the fears of men obtains great merit.

There is no gift so valuable in the three worlds as the gift of life.

The king is Indra. The king is Yama. The king is Dharma. The king assumes different forms. The king sustains and supports everything.'"'"

"'"Kasyapa said, '

Rudra exists in the hearts of men.

He destroys the bodies themselves in which he dwells as also the bodies of others. Rudra has been said to be like atmospheric visitations and his form is like that of the wind-gods.'

"'"Kasyapa said, '

Fire, blazing forth in one house, burneth a whole quarter or an entire village.

Similarly, this deity stupefies the senses of some one and then that stupefaction touches all, the honest and the wicked alike, without any distinction.'

"'"Aila said, '

The earth holds the honest and the wicked. The sun warms the honest and the wicked.

The wind blows equally for them. Water cleanses them equally.'

No person, be he a man virtuously following the domestic mode of life, or be he a king, or be he a Brahmacharin, has ever succeeded in conducting himself without tripping.

It is better to do an act which is good and in which there is small merit than to totally abstain from all acts, for total abstention from acts is very sinful.

When a high-born and righteous person succeeds in obtaining affluence, the king then succeeds in obtaining prosperity in all his affairs. A virtuous king, having obtained a kingdom, should seek to subdue some by gifts, some by force, and some by sweet words.

"'Bhishma said, "

That man from whom a person afflicted with fear obtains relief even for a moment, is the most worthy of heaven amongst us.

This that I tell thee is very true. Be thou cheerfully the king of the Kurus, O foremost one of Kuru's race, acquire heaven, protect the good and slay the wicked.

"'Bhishma said, "

Be he a Sudra or be he the member of any other orders, he that becomes a raft on a raftless current, or a means of crossing where means there are none, certainly deserves respect in every way.

That person, O king, relying upon whom helpless men, oppressed and made miserable by robbers, live happily, deserves to be lovingly worshipped by all as if he were a near kinsman.

In view, however, of those acts which the king should do in person, he should always regard with suspicion all the four. The king should never act heedlessly in the matter of watching his friends. A king that is heedless is always overpowered by others.

A wicked man assumes the garb of honesty, and he that is honest becomes otherwise.

A foe may become a friend and a friend may become a foe. A man cannot always be of the same mind. Who is there that would trust him completely? All the chief acts, therefore, of a king he should accomplish in his own presence.

The king should never act heedlessly in the matter of watching his friends. A king that is heedless is always overpowered by others. A wicked man assumes the garb of honesty, and he that is honest becomes otherwise.

A foe may become a friend and a friend may become a foe. A man cannot always be of the same mind.

Who is there that would trust him completely? All the chief acts, therefore, of a king he should accomplish in his own presence. A complete reliance (on his ministers) is destructive of both morality and profit.

All the chief acts, therefore, of a king he should accomplish in his own presence. A complete reliance (on his ministers) is destructive of both morality and profit. A want of trust again in respect of all is worse than death.

Trustfulness is premature death.

One incurs danger by truthfulness. If one trusts another completely, he is said to live by the sufferance of the trusted person. For this reason every one should be trusted as also mistrusted. This eternal rule of policy, O sire, should be kept in view.

When a kinsman is persecuted by even his friends, every kinsman of the persecuted regards the injury to be inflicted upon himself.

In kinsmen, therefore, there are both merits and faults.

A person destitute of kinsmen never shows favours to any one nor humbles himself to any one. In kinsmen, therefore both merit and demerit may be marked.

What can be more painful for a person than to have both Ahuka and Akrura on his side? What, again, can be more painful for one than not to have both of them on his side?[242]

I am like the mother of two brothers gambling against each other, invoking victory to both.

I am thus, O Narada, afflicted by both. It behoveth thee to tell me that which is for the good of both myself and my kinsmen.'

I never behave with slavish obsequiousness towards my kinsmen by flattering speeches about their prosperity. I give them half of what I have, and forgive their evil speeches.

As a fire-stick is grinded by a person desirous of obtaining fire, even so my heart is ground by my kinsmen with their cruel speeches.

Indeed, O celestial Rishi, those cruel speeches burn my heart every day. Might resides in Sankarshana; mildness in Gada; and as regards Pradyumna, he surpasses even myself in beauty of person. (Although I have all these on my side) yet I am helpless, O Narada!

Supposing the endeavour succeeds, it will do so after much trouble and after the accomplishment of the most difficult feats. A great slaughter and a great loss of wealth will ensue, perhaps, even total destruction.

Use then a weapon that is not made of steel, that is very mild and yet capable of piercing all hearts.

Sharpening and resharpening that weapon correct the tongues of thy kinsmen.'

None who is not a great man with cleansed soul and possessed of accomplishments and friends can bear a heavy burthen. Take up this great weight (of governing the Vrishnis) and bear it on thy shoulders.

All oxen can bear heavy burthens on a level road. The stronger ones only among them can bear such burthens on a difficult road.

From disunion destruction will spring and overtake all the Bhojas and the Vrishnis. Thou, O Kesava, art the foremost one among them. Do thou act in such a manner that the Bhojas and the Vrishnis may not meet with destruction.

The teachers (of mankind) have of old declared what the curses are, O king, of those that serve others.

The lot of those that serve the king is very painful and wretched. He who has any connection with kings is to have connection with snakes of virulent poison.

Kings have many friends as also many enemies. They that serve kings have to fear all of them. Every moment, again, they have fear from the king himself, O monarch.

The learned say that a region inaccessible in consequence of gloom can be passed through with the aid of a light, and a river that is unfordable can be crossed by means of a boat.

No means, however, exist for penetrating or passing through the labyrinth of kingly affairs.

Thy kingdom is like an inaccessible forest enveloped with gloom. Thou (that art the lord of it) canst not trust it. How then can I? Good and evil are regarded here in the same light. Residence here cannot, therefore, be safe.

Thou art like a swan in the midst of dogs, vultures and jackals. Grassy parasites, deriving their sustenance from a mighty tree, swell into luxuriant growth, and at last covering the tree itself overshadow it completely.

A forest conflagration sets in, and catching those grassy plants first, consumes the lordly tree with them.

Thy ministers, O king, resemble those grassy parasites of which I speak. Do thou check and correct them. They have been nourished by thee. But conspiring against thee, they are destroying thy prosperity.

They have found fault with me because I seek thy good. I have no doubt that there is no other cause for that hostility of theirs to me. I do not cherish any hostile intentions towards them. I am engaged in only marking their faults.

As one should fear a wounded snake, every one should fear a foe of wicked heart!'[243]

"'"The king said, 'Reside in my palace, O Brahmana! I shall always treat thee with respect and honour, and always worship thee. They that will dislike thee shall not dwell with me.

Abstention from agreeable speeches makes him so. That person who, upon beholding others, addresses them first and does so with smiles succeeds in making everyone gratified with him.

Even gifts, if not made with agreeable speeches, do not delight the recipients, like rice without curry.

If even the possessions of men, O Sakra, be taken away with sweet speeches, such sweetness of behaviour succeeds in reconciling the robbed. A king, therefore, that is desirous of even inflicting chastisement should utter sweet words.

If even the possessions of men, O Sakra, be taken away with sweet speeches, such sweetness of behaviour succeeds in reconciling the robbed. A king, therefore, that is desirous of even inflicting chastisement should utter sweet words.

Sweetness of speech never fails of its purpose, while, at the same time it never pains any heart.

A person of good acts and good, agreeable, and sweet speeches, has no equal.'"

Thy kingdom will then melt away like a boat wrecked on the sea. If a king governs his subjects with unrighteousness, fear takes possession of his heart and the door of heaven is closed against him.

A kingdom, O bull among men, has its root in righteousness.

That minister, or king's son, who acts unrighteously, occupying the seat of justice, and those officers who having accepted the charge of affairs, act unjustly, moved by self-interest, all sink in hell along with the king himself.

Nobody would work or seek for outturns without sufficient cause.[251] The king should, after reflection, levy taxes in such a way that he and the person who labours to produce the article taxed may both share the value.

The king should not, by his thirst, destroy his own foundations as also those of others.

He should always avoid those acts in consequence of which he may become an object of hatred to his people. Indeed, by acting in this way he may succeed in winning popularity.

The king should (in the matter of taxes) act like the leech drawing blood mildly.

He should conduct himself towards his subjects like a tigress in the matter of carrying her cubs, touching them with her teeth but never piercing them therewith.

He should behave like a mouse which though possessed of sharp and pointed teeth still cuts the feet of sleeping animals in such a manner that they do not at all become conscious of it.

… those that do not reside in thy kingdom, those that are dependent on thee, and those that are thy ministers, as well as those that are independent of party, they that praise or blame thee should never be objects of disregard with thee, O Yudhishthira![263]

No man, O sire, can succeed in earning the good opinion of all persons in the world.

All persons have friends, foes, and neutrals, O Bharata!"

The Srutis declare that Unrighteousness begat a son named Pride upon the goddess of prosperity. This Pride, O king, led many among the gods and the Asuras to ruin. Many royal sages also have suffered destruction on his account. Do thou, therefore, awaken, O king!

He who succeeds in conquering him becomes a king. He, on the other hand, who suffers himself to be conquered by him, becomes a slave.

If, O Mandhatri, thou wishest for an eternal life (of felicity), live as a king should that does not indulge in these two, viz., Pride and Unrighteousness!

In a race scorched by the eyes of the weak, no children take birth. Such eyes burn the race to its very roots. Do not, therefore, come into (hostile) contact with the weak.

Weakness is more powerful than even the greatest Power, for that Power which is scorched by Weakness becomes totally exterminated.

If a person, who has been humiliated or struck, fails, while shrieking for assistance, to obtain a protector, divine chastisement overtakes the king and brings about his destruction. Do not, O sire, while in enjoyment of Power, take wealth from those that are Weak.

If the king does not always attend to the task of slaying his foes, the latter do not diminish.

That king, again, who knows how to kill his own temper finds no enemies.

If the king be possessed of wisdom, he would never do any act that is disapproved by good men. He would, on the other hand, always engage himself in such acts as would lead to his own benefit and that of others.

"'"Vamadeva said, '

The king should win victories without battles.

Victories achieved by battles are not spoken of highly, O monarch, by the wise. When the sovereign's own power has not been confirmed, he should not seek to make new acquisitions.

Of deceitful conduct, such a person is said to slay his own self. Such is the practice of those that are wicked. Even he that is wicked should be subdued by fair means.

It is better to lay down life itself in the observance of righteousness than to win victory by sinful means.

Like a cow, O king, perpetrated sin does not immediately produce its fruits. That sin overwhelms the perpetrator after consuming his roots and branches. A sinful person, acquiring wealth by sinful means, rejoices greatly.

Sometimes even five, or six, or seven men, resolute and standing close together, of high descent and enjoying the esteem of those that know them, vanquish foes much superior to them in number.

The collision of battle is not desirable as long as it can be avoided.

The policy of conciliation, or producing disunion, and making gifts should first be tried, the battle, it is said, should come after these.

… that a battle is raging, the limbs of those that go to join it, as also of him that is conquering, perspire profusely.[307] The entire country, O king, (that is the seat of war), becomes agitated and afflicted with all its mobile and immobile population.

The very marrow of embodied creatures scorched with the heat of weapons, languishes with pain.

A king should, therefore, on all occasions, apply the arts of conciliation, mixing them with measures of severity.

In dealing with the foe, care should be taken for hemming him in from all sides. Forgiveness always comes to those that are good. It never comes to those that are bad. Listen now, O Partha, to the uses of forgiveness and of severity.

The fame of a king who displays forgiveness after conquest spreads more widely.

The very foes of a person that is of a forgiving disposition trust him even when he becomes guilty of a grave transgression.

Kings should, therefore, with close attention, ascertain their friends and foes. If a king becomes mild, he is disregarded. If he becomes fierce, he inspires people with dread. Therefore, do not be fierce. Do not, again, be mild. But be both fierce and mild.

As a rapid current ceaselessly eats away the high bank and causes large landslips, even so heedlessness and error cause a kingdom to be ruined.

Never attack many foes at the same time. By applying the arts of conciliation, or gift, or production of disunion, O Purandara, they should be ground one by one. As regards the remnant, (being few in number,) the victor may behave peacefully towards them.

Having overcome one's foes, one should not sleep at ease.

A foe that is wicked raises his head again like a fire carelessly put out making its appearance again.

When victory may be won by either side, a hostile collision of arms should be avoided. Having lulled a foe into security, one should reduce him into subjection and gain one's object.

Man should cast off his desires. By acting in that way, by abandoning joy and sorrow, and earning the wealth of knowledge, he succeeds in obtaining felicity.[318] I grieve for them that adhere to worldly happiness as dependent on wealth.

All that, however, vanishes like a dream.

They that can abandon vast wealth achieve a very difficult feat. As regards ourselves we are unable to abandon that wealth which is even no longer existent.[319] I am divested of prosperity and have fallen into a miserable and joyless plight.

By acting in that way, by abandoning joy and sorrow, and earning the wealth of knowledge, he succeeds in obtaining felicity.[318] I grieve for them that adhere to worldly happiness as dependent on wealth. All that, however, vanishes like a dream.

They that can abandon vast wealth achieve a very difficult feat. As regards ourselves we are unable to abandon that wealth which is even no longer existent.[319]

I am divested of prosperity and have fallen into a miserable and joyless plight. Instruct me, O Brahmana, what happiness I may yet strive for.' Thus addressed by the intelligent prince of Kosala, the sage Kalakavrikshiya of great splendour made the following answer.

Whatever things had been earned and acquired by those that came before, and whatever was earned and acquired by those that succeeded them, have all perished. Reflecting on this, who is there that will yield to grief?

Things that were, are no more. Things that are, will again be (no more).

Grief has no power to restore them. One should not, therefore, indulge in grief. Where, O king, is thy sire to-day, and where thy grandsire? Thou seest them not today, nor do they see thee now.

Reflecting on this, who is there that will yield to grief? Things that were, are no more. Things that are, will again be (no more).

Grief has no power to restore them.

One should not, therefore, indulge in grief. Where, O king, is thy sire to-day, and where thy grandsire? Thou seest them not today, nor do they see thee now. Reflecting on thy own instability, why dost thou grieve for them?

Thou desirest to enquire after that particular frame of mind (which would enable thee to enjoy felicity notwithstanding the loss of thy possessions). The advice I give thee is to renounce all those objects of desire.

Objects that should be avoided appear in the guise of those that should be striven for, while those that should be striven for appear in the guise of objects that should be avoided.

Some lose their wealth in the pursuit of wealth. Others regard wealth as the root of infinite happiness, and therefore pursue it eagerly. Some again, delighted with wealth, think that there is nothing superior to it.

Objects that should be avoided appear in the guise of those that should be striven for, while those that should be striven for appear in the guise of objects that should be avoided.

Some lose their wealth in the pursuit of wealth.

Others regard wealth as the root of infinite happiness, and therefore pursue it eagerly. Some again, delighted with wealth, think that there is nothing superior to it. In his eager desire for the acquisition of wealth, such a person loses all other objects of life.

Who is there that would set his heart upon hoarding when destruction is its end, upon life when death is its end, and upon union when separation is its end?

Sometimes man renounces wealth, and sometimes wealth renounces man.

What man possessed of knowledge is there that would feel grieved at the loss of wealth? There are many other persons in the world that lose wealth and friends.

He that cheerfully leads such a life in the forest, with large-tusked elephants for companions, with no human being by his side, and contented with the produce of the wilderness, is said to act after the manner of the wise.

A large lake when it becomes turbid, resumes its tranquillity of itself. Similarly, a man of wisdom, when disturbed in such matters, becomes tranquil of himself.

I see that a person that has fallen into such a plight as thine may live happily even thus. When thy prosperity is almost impossible to recover, and when thou art without ministers and counsellors, such a course is open to thee.

Cast thy eyes on righteousness, giving up covetousness that is improper. It behoveth thee not to abandon the duties of thy order from lust or desire of battle.

Victory, O sire, is not certain. Defeat also is not certain.

Remembering this, peace should be made with an enemy by giving him food and other articles of enjoyment. One may see victory and defeat in his own case. They that seek to exterminate a foe are sometimes exterminated themselves in course of their efforts.'

Righteousness was declared (by Brahman) for the advancement and growth of all creatures. Therefore, that which leads to advancement and growth is righteousness. Righteousness was declared for restraining creatures from injuring one another. Therefore, that is Righteousness which prevents injury to creatures.

Righteousness (Dharma) is so called because it upholds all creatures.

In fact, all creatures are upheld by righteousness. Therefore, that is righteousness which is capable of upholding all creatures. Some say that righteousness consists in what has been inculcated in the Srutis. Others do not agree to this.

After the dissolution of their (human) bodies, they take rebirth as crows and vultures. One should, in any matter, behave towards another as that other behaves in that matter.

He who practises deceit should be resisted with deceit while one that is honest should be treated with honesty.

"'"

The fear that arises in the heart of a person who is summoned by the king is unknown to persons passing their days contentedly in the woods, supporting life upon fruits and roots.

Simple food and drink obtained without effort, and luxurious food procured with fear, widely differ from each other.

Reflecting upon these two, I am of opinion that there is happiness where there is no anxiety. A few only amongst those that serve kings are justly punished for their offences. A large number of them, however, suffer death under false accusations.

I do not covet luxurious enjoyments or the happiness that arises from them. My conduct, again, may not agree with that of thy old servants. If they happen to be of wicked conduct, they will produce disunion between thee and me.

Dependence upon another, even if that other happens to be possessed of splendour, is not desirable or praiseworthy.

I am of cleansed soul. I am highly blessed. I am incapable of showing severity to even sinners. I am of great foresight. I have capacity for great exertion. I do not look at small things. I am possessed of great strength.

Thy subjects will, as a consequence, become anxious and discontented. Such a state of things has many faults. The wise do not regard that situation happy in which there is honour first and dishonour afterwards.

It is difficult to reunite the two that have been separated, as, indeed, it is difficult to separate the two that are united.

If persons reunited after separation approach one another again, their behaviour cannot be affectionate. No servant is to be seen who is moved (in what he does) by only the desire of benefiting his master.

No servant is to be seen who is moved (in what he does) by only the desire of benefiting his master. Service proceeds from the motive of doing good to the master as also one's own self.

All acts are undertaken from selfish motives. Unselfish acts or motives are very rare.

Those kings whose hearts are restless and unquiet cannot acquire a true knowledge of men. Only one in a hundred can be found who is either able or fearless. The prosperity of men, as also their fall, comes of itself.

In consequence of this disposition of theirs to resist our currents, they are obliged to leave the place of their growth. Canes, however, act differently.

The cane, beholding the advancing current, bends to it.

The others do not act in that way. After the current has passed away, the cane resumes its former posture. The cane knows the virtues of Time and opportunity. It is docile and obedient. It is yielding, without being stiff.

Even thus does a shameless man boast of an act about which no one should boast. Such a wretch among men should carefully be disregarded. The man of wisdom should endure everything that such a person of little intelligence may say.

What can a vulgar fellow do by either his praise or his blame?

He is even like a crow that caws uselessly in the woods. If those who accuse others by only their words could establish those accusations by such means, then, perhaps, their words would have been regarded to be of some value.

The endurer, in such a case, communicates the demerit of all his own bad acts to the person who under the influence of wrath indulges in abuse. An intelligent man should disregard an abusive language who resembles, after all, only a Tittibha uttering dissonant cries.[347]

One who yields to hate is said to live in vain.

A fool may often be heard to say, 'Such a respectable man was addressed by me in such words amid such an assembly of men,' and to even boast of that wicked act.

The king should do good to all persons without transgressing the dictates of righteousness.

That king stands immovable as a hill whom everybody regards—'He is mine.'

Having set himself to the task of adjudicating between litigants, the king, without making any difference between persons that are liked and those that are disliked by him, should uphold justice.

he should never repose confidence upon persons destitute of intelligence. Steadiness, cleverness, self-restraint, intelligence, health, patience, bravery, and attention to the requirements of time and place,—these eight qualities lead to the increase of wealth, be it small or be it much.

A little fire, fed with clarified butter, may blaze forth into a conflagration. A single seed may produce a thousand trees.

A king, therefore, even when he hears that his income and expenditure are great, should not disregard the smaller items. A foe, whether he happens to be a child, a young man, or an aged one, succeeds in slaying a person who is heedless.

The deity of Sraddhas (viz., Manu), gave it unto his sons for the sake of true righteousness and wealth. Chastisement should be inflicted with discrimination, guided by righteousness and not by caprice. It is intended for restraining the wicked.

Fines and forfeitures are intended for striking alarm, and not for filling the king's treasury.

The maiming of one's body or the infliction of death should not proceed from trivial causes. The infliction of physical pain by diverse means, hurling from tops of mountains, and banishment also, should not proceed from similar causes.

Other things again than Wealth (such as fasts and vows) have led to the acquisition of Virtue. As regards this topic, therefore, a dullard whose understanding has been debased by ignorance, never succeeds in acquiring the highest aim of Virtue and Wealth, viz., Emancipation.

Virtue's dross consists in the desire of reward; the dross of Wealth consists in hoarding it; when purged of these impurities, they are productive of great results.

In this connection is cited the narrative of the discourse that look place in days of old between Kamandaka and Angaristha.

When that hope is destroyed, great is the grief that succeeds, and which, without doubt, is equal to almost death itself. Fool that I am, Dhritarashtra's wicked-souled son, Duryodhana, destroyed the hope I had cherished. Behold, O king, the foolishness of my mind!

I think that hope is vaster than a mountain with all its trees. Or, perhaps, it is vaster than the firmament itself.

Or, perhaps, O king, it is really immeasurable. Hope, O chief of the Kurus, is exceedingly difficult of being understood and equally difficult of being subdued. Beholding this last attribute of Hope, I ask, what else is so unconquerable as this?"

"'"'The sage said, "

There is nothing, O king, that equals Hope in slenderness. I had solicited many kings and found that nothing is so difficult of acquisition as an image that Hope sets before the mind.

"

The very ascetic leading a solitary life in the depths of the forest is no exception. A Kshatriya should not live, relying upon destiny,[395] especially he, O chief of the Kurus, who is desirous of ruling.

The king and the kingdom should always mutually protect each other.

This is an eternal duty. As the king protects, by spending all his possessions, the kingdom when it sinks into distress, even so should the kingdom protect the king when he sinks into distress.

"'Bhishma said, "O Yudhishthira, this question is certainly worthy of thee. Its answer is fraught with great happiness. Listen to me, O son, as I declare to thee, O Bharata, all the duties generally known that should be practised in seasons of distress.

A foe becomes a friend and a friend also becomes a foe.

The course of human actions, through the combination of circumstances, becomes very uncertain.

A person when afflicted by a stronger one should make peace with even an enemy. Professors of the science of policy say that even this should be the conduct of one who having fallen into distress seeks the safety of his life.

It is better to have a learned person for an enemy than a fool for a friend.

As regards myself, my life now rests entirely in the hands of my enemy the cat. I shall now address the cat on the subject of his own liberation.

What is that reason, I ask, for which I have become so dear to thee, besides thy desire of making me thy prey? Thou shouldst know that I am not forgetful of this.

Time spoils reasons.

Thou seekest thy own interests. Others, however, possessed of wisdom, understand their own interests. The world rests upon the example of the wise. Thou shouldst not address such words to a person possessed of learning and competent to understand his own interests. Thou art powerful.

Thou art powerful. The reason of this affection that thou showest for me now is ill-timed. Guided, however, by my own interests, I myself am firm in peace and war that are themselves very unstable.

The circumstances under which peace is to be made or war declared are changed as quickly as the clouds change their form.

This very day thou wert my foe. This very day, again, thou wert my friend. This very day thou hast once more become my enemy. Behold the levity of the considerations that move living creatures.

'Wait in silence, O amiable one! Expedition is not necessary. Drive all thy fears. We know the requirements of time. We are not wasting time.

When an act is begun at an improper time, it never becomes profitable when accomplished. That act, on the other hand, which is begun at the proper time, always produces splendid fruits.

If thou be freed at an improper time, I shall have to stand in great fear of thee. Therefore, do thou wait for the proper time. Do not be impatient, O friend!

The person that does not protect himself after having made a covenant with a stronger individual, finds that covenant to be productive of injury instead of benefit.

Nobody is anybody's friend; nobody is anybody's well-wisher; persons become friends or foes only from motives of interest.

Interest enlists interest even as tame elephants catch wild individuals of their species. After, again, an act has been accomplished, the doer is scarcely regarded. For this reason, all acts should be so done that something may remain to be done.

He who, disregarding all considerations of policy, sets his heart upon an affectionate union with either friends or foes, comes to be regarded as a person whose understanding has been unhinged.

One should not repose trust upon a person undeserving of trust, nor should one trust too much a person deserving of trust.

The danger that arises from blind reposing of confidence is such that it cuts the very roots (of the person that reposes such confidence).

In such a case, the man's fault should be properly weighed.[415] When hostility has arisen with even a friend, no further confidence should be reposed upon him.

Feelings of animosity lie hid like fire in wood.

Like the Aurvya fire within the waters of the ocean, the fire of animosity can never be extinguished by gifts of wealth, by display of prowess, by conciliation, or by scriptural learning.

Creatures act (i.e., take birth and live) in consequence of Time, and it is in consequence also of Time that they cease to live. Some are seen to die at once. Some die one at a time. Some are seen to live for long periods.

Like fire consuming the fuel, Time consumes all creatures.

O blessed lady, I am, therefore, not the cause of your sorrow, nor art thou the cause of mine. It is Time that always ordains the weal and woe of embodied creatures.

Some foolish persons say that there is no misery in others' misery.[417] Only he who has not felt any misery himself can say so in the midst of men. He, however, that has felt sorrow and misery, would never venture to say so.

One that has felt the pangs of every kind of misery feels the misery of others as one's own.

What I have done to thee, O king, and what thou has done to me, cannot be washed away by even a hundred years. After what we have done to each other, there cannot be a reconciliation.

The unfortunate man of inaction, however, is always overwhelmed by all sorts of calamity. Therefore, abandoning everything else, one should put forth his energy. Indeed, disregarding everything, men should do what is productive of good to themselves.

Knowledge, courage, cleverness, strength, and patience are said to be one's natural friends.

They that are possessed of wisdom pass their lives in this world with the aid of these five. Houses, precious metals, land, wife, and friends,—these are said by the learned to be secondary sources of good. A man may obtain them everywhere.

They that are possessed of wisdom pass their lives in this world with the aid of these five. Houses, precious metals, land, wife, and friends,—these are said by the learned to be secondary sources of good. A man may obtain them everywhere.

A person possessed of wisdom may be delighted everywhere. Such a man shines everywhere.

He never inspires anybody with fear. If sought to be frightened, he never yields to fear himself. The wealth, however little, that is possessed at any time by an intelligent man is certain to increase. Such a man does every act with cleverness.

The king is the root of one's triple aggregate (i.e., Virtue, Wealth, and Pleasure). He should protect his subjects with heedfulness. Taking from his subjects a sixth share of their wealth, he should protect them all.

That king who does not protect his subjects is truly a thief.

That king who, after giving assurances of protection, does not, from rapacity, fulfil them,—that ruler of sinful soul,—takes upon himself the sins of all his subjects and ultimately sinks into hell.

If the king becomes mild, the people disregard him. If he becomes stern, the people feel it as an affliction. The rule is that he should be stern when the occasion requires sternness, and mild when the occasion requires mildness.

By mildness should the mild be cut. By mildness one may destroy that which is fierce.

There is nothing that mildness cannot effect. For this reason, mildness is said to be sharper than fierceness.

The rule is that he should be stern when the occasion requires sternness, and mild when the occasion requires mildness. By mildness should the mild be cut. By mildness one may destroy that which is fierce. There is nothing that mildness cannot effect.

For this reason, mildness is said to be sharper than fierceness.

That king who becomes mild when the occasion requires mildness and who becomes stern when sternness is required, succeeds in accomplishing all his objects, and in putting down his foes.

He should then win over and bring under his sway the allies and partisans of that foe. When calamities overtake the king, he should without losing time, counsel wisely, display his prowess properly, fight with ability, and even retreat with wisdom.

In speech only should the king exhibit his humility, but at heart he should be sharp as a razor.

He should cast off lust and wrath, and speak sweetly and mildly. When the occasion comes for intercourse with an enemy, a king possessed of foresight should make peace, without reposing blind trust on him.

Having incurred the animosity of a person possessed of knowledge and wisdom, one should not draw comfort from the conviction that one is at a distance (from one's foe).

Far-reaching are the arms of an intelligent man by which he injures when injured.

That should not be sought to be crossed which is really uncrossable. That should not be snatched from the foe which the foe would be able to recover.

The person, however, that is possessed of wisdom, should be assured by present services. The person who is desirous of achieving prosperity should join hands, swear, use sweet words, worship by bending down his head, and shed tears.[420]

One should bear one's foe on one's shoulders as long as time is unfavourable.

When however, the opportunity has come, one should break him into fragments like an earthen jar on a stone.

When however, the opportunity has come, one should break him into fragments like an earthen jar on a stone.

It is better, O monarch that a king should blaze up for a moment like charcoal of ebony-wood than that he should smoulder and smoke like chaff for many years.

A man who has many purposes to serve should not scruple to deal with even an ungrateful person. If successful, one can enjoy happiness. If unsuccessful, one loses esteem.

… his good, imitating a cuckoo, a boar, the mountains of Meru, an empty chamber, an actor, and a devoted friend.[421] The king should frequently, with heedful application, repair to the houses of his foes, and even if calamities befall them, ask them about their good.

They that are idle never win affluence; nor they that are destitute of manliness and exertion; nor they that are stained by vanity; nor they that fear unpopularity; nor they that are always procrastinating.

The king should act in such a way that his foe may not succeed in detecting his laches. He should, however, himself mark the laches of his foes. He should imitate the tortoise which conceals its limbs. Indeed, he should always conceal his own holes.

He should then put obstacles in the way of the fulfilment of those hopes. He should say that those obstacles are merely due to occasion. He should next represent that those occasions are really the results of grave causes.

As long as the cause of fear does not actually come, the king should make all his arrangements like a person inspired with fear. When, however, the cause of fear comes upon him, he should smite fearlessly.

No man can reap good without incurring danger. If, again, he succeeds in preserving his life amid danger, he is sure to earn great benefits.[423] A king should ascertain all future dangers; when they are present, he should conquer them;

As long as the cause of fear does not actually come, the king should make all his arrangements like a person inspired with fear. When, however, the cause of fear comes upon him, he should smite fearlessly.

No man can reap good without incurring danger.

If, again, he succeeds in preserving his life amid danger, he is sure to earn great benefits.[423] A king should ascertain all future dangers; when they are present, he should conquer them;

These should be recognised and arrested and put down. The king should not trust the person that does not deserve to be trusted nor should he trust too much the person that is deserving of trust.

Danger springs from trust.

Trust should never be placed without previous examination. Having by plausible reasons inspired confidence in the enemy, the king should smite him when he makes a false step. The king should fear him, from whom there is no fear;

Without piercing the very vitals of others, without accomplishing many stern deeds, without slaughtering living creatures after the manner of the fisherman, one cannot acquire great prosperity.

There is no separate species of creatures called foes or friends. Persons become friends or foes according to the force of circumstances.

The king should never allow his foe to escape even if the foe should indulge piteous lamentations. He should never be moved by these; on the other hand, it is his duty to destroy the person that has done him an injury.

To eat cow-horns is fruitless and never invigorating. By, eating them one's teeth are broken while the taste is not gratified. The triple aggregate has three disadvantages with three inseparable adjuncts. Carefully considering those adjuncts, the disadvantages should be avoided.[424]

The unpaid balance of a debt, the unquenched remnant of a fire, and the unslain remnant of foes, repeatedly grow and increase.

Therefore, all those should be completely extinguished and exterminated. Debt, which always grows, is certain to remain unless wholly extinguished. The same is the cause with defeated foes and neglected maladies. These always produce great feats. (One should, therefore, always eradicate them).

The duties of a king can never be discharged by rules drawn from a morality that is one-sided. A weak-minded king can never display wisdom (in the discharge of his duties) in consequence of his not having drawn any wisdom from the examples before him.

Righteousness sometimes takes the shape of unrighteousness. The latter also sometimes takes the shape of the former.

He who does not know this, becomes confounded when confronted by an actual instance of the kind. Before the occasion comes, one should, O Bharata, comprehend the circumstances under which righteousness and its reverse become confused.

Even if they understand the true meaning of the scriptures, they are still in the habit of proclaiming that scriptural injunctions are unsound. Such men, by decrying the knowledge of others proclaim the superiority of their own knowledge.

They have words for their weapons and words for their arrows and speak as if they are real masters of their sciences.

Know, O Bharata, that they are traders in learning and Rakshasas among men. By the aid of mere pretexts they cast off that morality which has been established by good and wise men.

What I have told thee is the result of wisdom and experience. This is the honey that the learned have gathered. Kings should gather wisdom from various sources.

One cannot accomplish his course through the world with the aid of a morality that is one-sided.

Duty must spring from the understanding; and the practices of those that are good should always be ascertained, O son of Kuru! Attend to these words of mine. Only kings that are possessed of superior intelligence can rule, expecting victory.

Even the words heard from an ignorant person, if in themselves they be fraught with sense, come to be regarded as pious and wise.

In days of old, Usanas said unto the Daityas this truth, which should remove all doubts, that scriptures are no scriptures if they cannot stand the test of reason.

The possession or absence of knowledge that is mixed with doubts is the same thing. It behoves thee to drive off such knowledge after tearing it up by the roots.

Indeed, the wretch, through force of habit alone, committed that sin even at such a time. He then beheld in the midst of that forest a lordly tree, blue as the clouds. It was the resort of myriads of birds desirous of shade and shelter.

It seemed to have been placed there by the Creator for the good of all creatures like a good man in the world.

Soon the sky cleared and became spangled with myriads of stars, presenting the aspect of a magnificent lake smiling with blooming lilies. Turning his eyes towards the clear firmament rich with stars, the fowler began to advance, still trembling with cold.

It was the resort of myriads of birds desirous of shade and shelter. It seemed to have been placed there by the Creator for the good of all creatures like a good man in the world.

Soon the sky cleared and became spangled with myriads of stars, presenting the aspect of a magnificent lake smiling with blooming lilies.

Turning his eyes towards the clear firmament rich with stars, the fowler began to advance, still trembling with cold.

Worthy of praise is that person on earth who owns such a spouse. That amiable creature knows that I am fatigued and hungry. Devoted to me and constant in her love, my famous spouse is exceedingly sweet-tempered and worships me devoutly.

Even the foot of a tree is one's home if one lives there with one's spouse as a companion. Without one's spouse, a very palace is truly a desolate wilderness.

One's spouse is one's associate in all one's acts of Virtue, Profit and Pleasure. When one sets out for a strange land one's wife is one's trusted companion. It is said that the wife is the richest possession of her lord.

Is every thing right with that dear spouse of mine in the forest? Separated from her, this my home appears to me empty! A house-holder's home, even if filled with sons and grandsons and daughters-in-law and servants, is regarded empty if destitute of the housewife.

One's house is not one's home; one's wife only is one's home. A house without the wife is as desolate as the wilderness.

If that dear wife of mine, of eyes fringed with red, of variegated plumes, and of sweet voice, does not come back today, my life itself will cease to be of any value.

I wish thee to give me some food.' Hearing his words the bird said, 'I have no stores by which to appease thy hunger. We, denizens of the woods, always live upon what we get every day.

Like the ascetics of the forest we never hoard for the morrow.

' Having said these words, the bird's face became pale (from shame). He began to reflect silently as to what he should do and mentally deprecated his own method of living. Soon, however, his mind became clear.

Tell me, what I shall do for thee. Thou shouldst not repine. This is thy home.[435] Tell me quickly what I am to do and what is thy pleasure. I ask thee this in affection, for thou hast solicited shelter at our hands.

Hospitality should be shown to even one's foe when he comes to one's house. The tree withdraws not its shade from even the person that approaches it for cutting it down.

One should, with scrupulous care, do the duties of hospitality towards a person that craves for shelter. Indeed, one is especially bound to do so if one happens to lead a life of domesticity that consists of the five sacrifices.

"'"Saunaka said, 'What wonder is there that a person destitute of wisdom should do many improper acts? Knowing this, a person of real wisdom is never angry with creatures (when they become guilty of folly).

By ascending upon the top of wisdom's palace, one grieves for others, one's own self being then too pure for becoming an object of other people's grief.

In consequence of one's wisdom one surveys all creatures in the world like a person on a mountain-top surveying people below.

By committing such an act repeatedly, one may cleanse one's self by a trip to sacred places. One who is desirous of obtaining prosperity should do all that results in blessedness.

They who live amidst fragrant odours themselves become fragrant in consequence. They, on the other hand, who live in the midst of foul stench themselves become foul.

One devoted to the practice of ascetic penances is soon cleansed of all one's sins. By worshipping the (homa) fire for a year, one stained by diverse sins becomes purified. One guilty of foeticide is cleansed by worshipping the fire for three years.

Do you shed tears for him for some time, and do you look at him a little longer with affection? Objects so dear are, indeed, difficult to abandon.

It is friends and not others that wait by the side of him that is weak, of him that is prosecuted in a court of law, of him that is borne towards the crematorium.

Life-breaths are dear unto all, and all feel the influence of affection.

Witnessing their great affection I had shed tears myself. (It seems however, that their affection is not strong)! One should always exert oneself. Thence does one succeed through destiny. Exertion and destiny, joining together, produce fruit.

One should always exert oneself with hopefulness. How can happiness be had from despondency?

Objects of desire may be won by resolution. Why then do you go back so heartlessly? Where do you go, abandoning in the wilderness this son of your own loins, this perpetuator of the race of his sires?

Ye cruel wights, how can you go away, casting off parental affection upon hearing the words of a sinful vulture of uncleansed soul?

Happiness is followed by misery, and misery by happiness. In this world which is enveloped by both happiness and misery, none of these two exists uninterruptedly.

Ye men of little understanding, whither would ye go, casting off on the bare ground this child of so much beauty, this son that is an ornament of your race.

Even if thy might had been thy own (instead of being derived), I would not still have been afraid of thee. I am superior to thee in might. I should not be afraid of thee.

They are really strong in understanding. They, on the other hand, are not to be regarded strong that are possessed of only physical strength.

' Thus addressed, the Wind-god said, 'Tomorrow I shall test thy strength.' After this, night came.

A person of foolish understanding should never provoke the hostility of one that is possessed of intelligence. In such cases the intelligence of the intelligent man penetrates (the subject upon which it is employed) like fire penetrating a heap of dry grass.

Intelligence is the most precious possession that a person can have.

Similarly, O king, a man can have nothing here more valuable than might.

Covetous men are wedded to envy and anger. They are outside the pale of good behaviour.

Of crooked hearts, the speeches they utter are sweet. They resemble, therefore, dark pits whose mouths are covered with grass.

They attire themselves in the hypocritical cloak of religion. Of low minds, they rob the world, setting up (if need be) the standard of religion and virtue. Relying upon the strength of apparent reasons, they create diverse kinds of schisms in religion.

They are free from lust and anger. They are not attached to any worldly object. They have no pride. They are observant of excellent vows. They are always objects of regard. Do thou, therefore, always wait upon them and seek instruction from them.

They never acquire virtue, O Yudhishthira, for the sake of wealth or of fame. They acquire it on the other hand, because it is a duty like that of cherishing the body.

Fear, wrath, restlessness, and sorrow do not dwell in them. There is not the outward garb of religion for misleading their fellow men. There is no mystery with them. They are perfectly contented. There is no error of judgment arising from covetousness.

In life, men are unable, whether infants or youth or adults, to abandon covetousness. Such is the nature of covetousness that it never decays even with the decay of life.

Like the ocean that can never be filled by the constant discharge of even innumerable rivers of immeasurable depths, covetousness is incapable of being gratified by acquisitions to any extent.

The covetousness, however, which is never gratified by acquisitions and satiated by the accomplishment of desires, that which is not known in its real nature by the gods, the Gandharvas, the Asuras, the great snakes, and, in fact, by all classes of beings, that irresistible …

He never incurs obloquy. He is free from envy. He is never gratified with small acquisitions (in the form of earthly happiness of any kind.) He is even like the ocean which can never be filled.[459]

The man of self-restraint is never bound by the attachments that arise from earthly connections like to those involved in sentiments like these, 'I am thine, Thou art thine, They are in me, and I am in them.'

Such a man, who adopts the practices of either cities or the woods, and who never indulges in slander or adulation, attains to emancipation.

… is afraid, has, after the dissolution of his body, no fear to encounter.[460] He who exhausts his merits (by actual enjoyment) without seeking to store them up, who casts an equal eye upon all creatures and practises a course of universal friendliness, attains to Brahma.

As the track of birds along the sky or of fowl over the surface of water cannot be discerned, even so the track of such a person (on earth) does not attract notice.

For him, O king, who abandoning home adopts the religion of emancipation, many bright worlds wait to be enjoyed for eternity.

O thou of great wisdom, this attribute has only one fault. Its merits are many. By forgiveness (which is only another form of self-control), the man of self-control may easily acquire innumerable worlds.

What need has a man of self-control for a forest? Similarly, O Bharata, of what use is the forest to him that has no self-control?

That is a forest where the man of self-control dwells, and that is even a sacred asylum."'

By forgiveness (which is only another form of self-control), the man of self-control may easily acquire innumerable worlds. What need has a man of self-control for a forest? Similarly, O Bharata, of what use is the forest to him that has no self-control?

That is a forest where the man of self-control dwells, and that is even a sacred asylum.

"'

The penance involved in abstention from food is superior, O king, to even compassion, truthfulness of speech, gifts, and restraining the senses.

There is no act more difficult to accomplish than gift. There is no mode of life that is superior to serving one's mother.

There is no creature superior to those that are conversant with the three Vedas. Similarly, renunciation constitutes the highest penance. People keep their senses under control for taking care of their virtue and heaven.

All these, O Bharata, support Truth and strengthen it. It is impossible, O monarch, to exhaust the merits of Truth. It is for these reasons that the Brahmanas, the Pitris, and the gods, applaud Truth.

There is no duty which is higher than Truth, and no sin more heinous than untruth.

Indeed, Truth is the very foundation of righteousness. For this reason, one should never destroy Truth. From Truth proceed gifts, and sacrifice with presents, as well as the threefold Agnihotras, the Vedas, and everything else that leads to righteousness.

From Truth proceed gifts, and sacrifice with presents, as well as the threefold Agnihotras, the Vedas, and everything else that leads to righteousness. Once on a time a thousand horse-sacrifices and Truth were weighed against each other in the balance.

Truth weighed heavier than a thousand horse-sacrifices.

"'"

Through compassion for every creature and in consequence of a disregard for all earthly objects, it is extinguished. Malice proceeds from the abandonment of truth and indulgence in wickedness. This vice, O child, disappears in consequence of one's waiting upon the wise and good.

Pride, in men, springs from birth, learning, and prosperity. When those three, however, are truly known, that vice instantly disappears.

Jealousy springs from lust and delight in low and vulgar people. In consequence of wisdom it is destroyed. From errors (of conduct) inconsistent with the ordinary course of men, and through disagreeable speeches expressive of aversion, slander takes its rise.

I shall now speak to thee of their origin, of the objects upon which they rest, and of the means of their destruction, O lord of the earth! Listen, first, O king, with undivided attention, to the origin of wrath truly and in detail.

Anger springs from covetousness. It is strengthened by the faults of others.

Through forgiveness it remains dormant, and through forgiveness it disappears. As regards lust, it springs from resolution. Indulgence strengthens it. When the man of wisdom resolutely turns away from it, it disappears and dies. Envy of others proceeds from between wrath and covetousness.

With regard to such faults, however, as similar to those that stain his own self, he does not refer to them even remotely, for the sake of the advantage he reaps from them.

He regards the person that does him good as a simpleton whom he has cleverly deceived.

He is filled with regret for having at any time made any gift of wealth even unto a benefactor.

"'Arjuna said, "

This world, O king, is the field of action. Action, therefore, is applauded here.

Agriculture, trade, keep of cattle, and diverse kinds of arts, constitute what is called Profit. Profit, again, is the end of all such acts. Without Profit or Wealth, both Virtue and (the objects of) Desire cannot be won. This is the declaration of the Sruti.

Traders, agriculturists, keepers of cattle, artists and artisans, and those who are employed in rites of propitiation, all act from Desire. Some there are that dive unto the depths of the ocean, induced by Desire.

Desire, indeed, takes various forms. Everything is pervaded by the principle of Desire.

A man outside the pale of Desire never is, was, or will be, seen in this world. This, O king, is the truth. Both Virtue and Wealth are based upon Desire.

Some there are that dive unto the depths of the ocean, induced by Desire. Desire, indeed, takes various forms. Everything is pervaded by the principle of Desire.

A man outside the pale of Desire never is, was, or will be, seen in this world.

This, O king, is the truth. Both Virtue and Wealth are based upon Desire. As butter represents the essence of curds, even so is Desire the essence of Profit and Virtue. Oil is better than oil-seeds. Ghee is better than sour milk.

They, however, that are possessed of learning seek Extinction. For this reason, one should never regard anything as either agreeable or disagreeable.[486] This view seems to be the best.

No one in this world can act as he pleases. I act precisely as I am made (by a superior power) to act.

The great Ordainer makes all creatures proceed as He wills. The Ordainer is Supreme. Know this, all of you.[487] No one can, by his acts, obtain what is unobtainable. That which is to be, takes place. Know this.

What kind of men are said to be of gentle disposition? With whom may the most delightful friendship exist? Tell us also who are able to do good in the present time and in the end.

I am of opinion that neither swelling wealth, nor relatives, nor kinsmen, occupy that place which well-wishing friends occupy. A friend capable of listening to beneficial counsels, and also of doing good, is exceedingly rare.

It behoveth thee, O foremost of virtuous men, to discourse fully on these topics."

Thou didst not know him. Who art thou and for whom dost thou grieve? Grieve arises from the disease constituted by desire. Happiness again results from the disease of desire being cured. From joy also springs sorrow, and hence sorrow arises repeatedly.

Sorrow comes after joy, and joy after sorrow. The joys and sorrows of human beings are revolving on a wheel.

After happiness sorrow has come to thee. Thou shalt again have happiness. No one suffers sorrow for ever, and no one enjoys happiness for ever.

From joy also springs sorrow, and hence sorrow arises repeatedly. Sorrow comes after joy, and joy after sorrow. The joys and sorrows of human beings are revolving on a wheel. After happiness sorrow has come to thee. Thou shalt again have happiness.

No one suffers sorrow for ever, and no one enjoys happiness for ever.

The body is the refuge of both sorrow and happiness.[501] Whatever acts an embodied creature does with the aid of his body, the consequence thereof he has to suffer in that body. Life springs with the springing of the body into existence.

Life springs with the springing of the body into existence. The two exist together, and the two perish together.[502]

Men of uncleansed souls, wedded to worldly things by various bonds, meet with destruction like embankments of sand in water.

Woes of diverse kinds, born of ignorance, act like pressers of oil-seeds, for assailing all creatures in consequence of their attachments. These press them like oil-seeds in the oil-making machine represented by the round of rebirths (to which they are subject).

Friends are not the cause of one's happiness. Foes are not the cause of one's misery.

Wisdom is not competent to bring an accession of wealth; nor is wealth competent to bring an accession of happiness.

Intelligence is not the cause of wealth, nor is stupidity the cause of penury. He only that is possessed of wisdom, and none else, understands the order of the world.

I again think that all this (which I see) is as much mine as it belongs to others. Grief cannot approach me in consequence of this thought. Having acquired such an understanding, I do not yield either to joy or to grief.

As two pieces of wood floating on the ocean come together at one time and are again separated, even such is the union of (living) creatures in this world.

Sons, grandsons, kinsmen, relatives are all of this kind. One should never feel affection for them, for separation with them is certain. Thy son came from an invisible region. He has departed and become invisible. He did not know thee. Thou didst not know him.

Idleness is misery; while cleverness (in action) is the cause of happiness. Affluence and prosperity dwell in one possessed of cleverness, but not in one that is idle.

Be it happiness or be it misery, be it agreeable or be it disagreeable, what comes to one should be enjoyed or endured with an unconquered heart.

Every day a thousand occasions for sorrow, and hundred occasions for fear assail the man of ignorance and folly but not the man that is possessed of wisdom.

Relying upon such an understanding, the man of intelligence and wisdom lives at ease. A person should disregard all his desires, and never allow his wrath to get the better of him.

This wrath springs in the heart and grows there into vigour and luxuriance. This wrath that dwells in the bodies of men and is born in their minds, is spoken of by the wise as Death.

When a person succeeds in withdrawing all his desires like a tortoise withdrawing all its limbs, then his soul, which is self-luminous, succeeds in looking into itself.[508] That object, whatever it may be, in respect of which the idea of meum is cherished, becomes a …

Before this, I did not, however approach that Essence of Purity. I shall cover this house of one column and nine doors (by means of true Knowledge).[510] What woman is there that regards that Supreme Soul as her dear lord, even when He comes near?[511]

I am now awake. I have been roused from the sleep of ignorance. I am no longer influenced by desire.

Human lovers, who are really the embodied forms of hell, shall no longer deceive me by approaching me lustfully. Evil produces good through the destiny or the acts of a former life.

… his Maker in animal-sacrifices involving cruelty, or sacrifices of the body, such as Pisachas only can perform and such as produce fruits that are transitory?[519] That person whose words, thoughts, penances, renunciation, and yoga meditation, all rest on Brahma, succeeds in earning the highest good.

There is no eye which is equal to (the eye of) Knowledge. There is no penance like (that involved in) Truth.

There is no sorrow equal to (that involved in) attachment. There is no happiness (that which is obtainable from) renunciation. I have sprung from Brahma through Brahma. I shall devote myself to Brahma, though I am childless. I shall return to Brahma.

What use hast thou, O Brahmana, of wealth or kinsmen and relatives, of wives, when thou shalt have to die?

Seek thy Self which is concealed in a cave.

Where are thy grandsires and where thy sire?"'[520]

(When death is approaching steadily) who is there that would, like a fish in a shallow water, feel happy? Death comes to a man before his desires have been gratified.

Death snatches away a person when he is engaged in plucking flowers and when his heart is otherwise set, like a tigress bearing away a ram.

Do thou, this very day, accomplish that which is for thy good. Let not this Death come to thee. Death drags its victims before their acts are accomplished. The acts of tomorrow should be done today, those of the afternoon in the forenoon.

Do thou, this very day, accomplish that which is for thy good. Let not this Death come to thee. Death drags its victims before their acts are accomplished.

The acts of tomorrow should be done today, those of the afternoon in the forenoon. Death does not wait to see whether the acts of its victim have all been accomplished or not.

Who knows that Death will not come to him even today? In prime of age one should betake oneself to the practice of virtue. Life is transitory. If virtue be practised, fame here and felicity hereafter will be the consequences.

Casting my eyes on every part of the three worlds, I do not behold the person who is equal to a poor man of pure conduct and without attachment (to worldly things).

I weighed poverty and sovereignty in a balance. Poverty weighed heavier than sovereignty and seemed to possess greater merits.

Between poverty and sovereignty there is this great distinction, viz., that the sovereign, possessed of affluence, is always agitated by anxiety and seems to be within the very jaws of death.

Without Renunciation one can never attain to happiness. Without Renunciation one can never obtain what is for one's highest good.

Without Renunciation one can never sleep at ease.

Therefore, renouncing everything, make happiness thy own.' All this was said to me in past times at Hastinapur by a Brahmana about what Sampaka had sung. For this reason, I regard Renunciation to be the foremost of things."'"

O my wealth-coveting and foolish Soul, when wilt thou succeed in emancipating thyself from the desire of wealth? Shame on my foolishness! I have become a toy of thine! It is thus that one becomes a slave of others.

No one born on earth did ever attain to the end of desire, and no one that will take birth will succeed in attaining to it.

Casting off all acts, I have at last been roused from sleep. I am now awake. Without doubt, O Desire, thy heart is as hard as adamant, since though affected by a hundred distresses, thou does not break into a hundred pieces!

Lastly, respecting acquisition itself, it is very uncertain. Wealth cannot be got by even the surrender of one's person. What can be more painful than this? When acquired, one is never gratified with its measure, but one continues to seek it.

Like the sweet water of the Ganges, wealth only increases one's hankering.

It is my destruction. I am now awakened. Do thou, O Desire, leave me!

I have now adopted the path of Goodness. Having cast off Desire and Cupidity, great is my happiness now. I shall no longer yield to the influence of Cupidity and no longer suffer misery like a person of uncleansed soul.

One is sure to obtain happiness according to the measure of the desires he may be able to cast off.

Truly, he who yields himself up to Desire always suffers misery. Whatever passions connected with Desire are cast off by a person, all appertain to the quality of Passion. Sorrow and shamelessness and discontent all arise from Desire and Wealth.

A certain maker of shafts, while employed at his work, was so deeply attentive to it that he did not notice the king who passed by his side.

When many are together, dispute ensues.

Even when two reside together, they are sure to converse. I, however, wander alone like the anklet made of sea-shells in the wrist of the maiden in the story."'"[535]

I sometimes eat only a portion of a grain; sometimes the dry sesame cakes from which the oil has been pressed out, I sometimes eat rice and other food of the richest kind.

Sometimes I sleep on an elevated bedstead of the best kind. Sometimes I sleep on the bare ground.

Sometimes my bed is made within a fine palace or mansion. I am sometimes clad in rags, sometimes in sackcloth, sometimes in raiments of fine texture, sometimes in deer-skins, sometimes in robes of the costliest kind.

If by any means (led away by the alluring prospect of heavenly bliss) thou becomest a god (instead of attaining to a superior position), thou wilt then covet for the chiefdom of the gods. In no condition wilt thou be contented.

Contentment does not result from acquisition of desirable objects.

Thirst is never slaked although there is profusion of water.[539] The thirst for acquisition only blazes up with each fresh acquisition like a fire with new faggots thrown into it. In thee there is grief. But joy also dwells in thee.

In no condition wilt thou be contented. Contentment does not result from acquisition of desirable objects. Thirst is never slaked although there is profusion of water.[539]

The thirst for acquisition only blazes up with each fresh acquisition like a fire with new faggots thrown into it.

In thee there is grief. But joy also dwells in thee. Both happiness and misery dwell in thee. Why then shouldst thou yield to grief?

Why then shouldst thou yield to grief? One should shut up, like birds in a cage, the very springs, viz., the understanding and the sense of all one's desires and acts. There can be no cutting of a second head, nor of a third hand.

That which does not exist can produce no fear.

One that is not acquainted with the enjoyment a certain object affords, never feels a desire for that object. Desires arise from the actual experience of the pleasures that touch or sight, or hearing gives.

Know this, O giver of honours, that possessed of far-famed splendour, even these last do not behold the limits of the firmament in consequence of the inaccessibility and infinity of those limits.

This Space which the very gods cannot measure is full of many blazing and self-luminous worlds each above the other.

Beyond the limits of land are oceans of water. Beyond water is darkness. Beyond darkness is water again, and beyond the last is fire. Downwards, beyond the nether regions, is water. Beyond water is the region belonging to the great snakes.

The root of a tree that has been cut down does not grow up again. Only the seeds put forth sprouts. Where is the person who having died comes back (to some sort of new existence)? Only seeds were originally created.

All this universe is the result of seeds in succession.

They that die, die to perish Seeds result from seeds.'"'"

"'"Bharadwaja said, 'If the distinction between the four orders (of human beings) be made by means only of colour (attribute), then it seems that all the four orders have been mingled together.[562]

Lust, wrath, fear, cupidity, grief, anxiety, hunger, toil, possess and prevail over all men.

How can men be distinguished by the possession of attributes? The bodies of all men emit sweat, urine, faeces, phlegm, bile, and blood. How then can men be distributed into classes? Of mobile objects the number is infinite;

one's knowledge from honour and disgrace; and one's soul from error. That intelligent person, O regenerate one, who does all acts without desire of fruit, whose whole wealth exists for charity, and who performs the daily Homa, is a real Renouncer.[566]

One should conduct oneself as a friend to all creatures, abstaining from all acts of injury.

Rejecting the acceptance of all gifts, one should, by the aid of one's own intelligence, be a complete master of one's passions. One should live in one's soul where there can be no grief.

Rejecting the acceptance of all gifts, one should, by the aid of one's own intelligence, be a complete master of one's passions.

One should live in one's soul where there can be no grief.

One would then have no fear here and attain to a fearless region hereafter. One should live always devoted to penances, and with all passions completely restrained; observing the vow of taciturnity, and with soul concentrated on itself;

On this subject there is a verse:

If a guest turns away from a house with expectations unfulfilled, he is supposed to take away the merits of the householder and leave the latter all his misdeeds.

Then again in the domestic mode of life the deities are gratified by sacrifices and other religious rites; the Pitris by the performance of obsequial rites;

A fish and water exist in a state of union. Each, however, is different from the other. The same is the case with Intelligence and Soul.

The qualities do not know the Soul, but the Soul knows them all.

The Soul is the spectator of the qualities and regards them all as proceeding from itself.

Unto him from whom these great primal elements take their origin, they return repeatedly, severing themselves from all creatures (into whose compositions they enter), even like the waves of the ocean (subsiding into that from which they seem to take their rise).

As the tortoise stretches its limbs and withdraws them again, even so the Supreme Soul creates all objects and again withdraws into Himself.

The Creator places the five primal elements in all created objects in different proportions. The living creature, however, does not see it (through ignorance). Sound, the organs of hearing, and all holes,—these three,—spring from Space as their progenitor.

When that doubt will be removed, one will no longer have to indulge in sorrow of any kind. Men of filthy hearts may by knowledge obtain success like persons plunging in a well-filled stream purifying themselves of all filth.

One who has to cross a broad river does not feel happy at only seeing the other shore.

If the case were otherwise (i.e., if by only beholding the other shore one could reach it by a boat), then might one become happy. The matter is otherwise with one acquainted with the Truth. The mere knowledge of Truth will bring him happiness.

"'"The Brahmana said, 'I do not, O puissant lord, wish to reside in heaven itself without this body of mine. Leave me, O Dharma!

I have no desire to go to heaven itself without my own body.

'

"'"The king said, '

It has been said that Brahmanas are armed with the thunder of speech, and that Kshatriyas have might of arms.

Hence, learned Brahmana, this wordy warfare has set in between thee and me.'

… a state in which one is not freed from the mind.[661] Devoted to the fruits of acts, whatever kind of acts (Sattwika or Rajasika or Tamasika) a person covetous of fruits accomplishes, the fruits, good or bad, that he actually enjoys partake of their character.

Like fishes going against a current of water, the acts of a past life come to the actor.

The embodied creature experiences happiness for his good acts, and misery for his evil ones.

If, however, the quantity of water gets stirred, the person standing by it can no longer see those images. Similarly, if the senses become perturbed, the Soul can no longer be seen by the understanding.

Ignorance begets Delusion. Delusion affects the mind.

When the mind becomes vitiated, the five senses which have the mind for their refuge become vitiated also. Surcharged with Ignorance, and sunk in the mire of worldly objects, one cannot enjoy the sweets of contentment or tranquillity.

"'"Manu said, 'Upon the appearance of the physical and mental sorrow, one does not become able to practise yoga. It is advisable, therefore, for one not to brood over such sorrow. The remedy for sorrow is abstention from brooding over it.

When sorrow is brooded over, it comes aggressively and increases in violence.

One should relieve mental sorrow by wisdom, while physical sorrow should be cured by medicaments. Wisdom teaches this. One should not, while under sorrow, behave like a child.

After the same manner, the Understanding, whose course is witnessed by the soul, is obliged to follow the path marked out by the acts of previous lives.[695]

From knowledge springs desire. From desire springs resolution.

From resolution flows action. From action proceed fruits (i.e., consequences, good and bad). Fruits, therefore, are dependent on actions as their cause. Actions have the understanding for their cause. The understanding has knowledge for its cause; and knowledge has the Soul for its cause.

When primordial matter produces existences through the action of the primal energy, the universe with all its potencies begins to flow from it.

From one lighted lamp thousands of other lamps are capable of being lighted.

After the same manner, primordial matter produces thousands of existent things. In consequence, again, of its infinity primordial matter is never exhausted. From the Unmanifest flows the Understanding determined by acts. The Understanding produces Consciousness. From Consciousness proceeds Space. From Space proceeds Wind.

Similarly, employing the eye, it is the Soul that sees. This body furnishes the means by which the Soul derives knowledge. The bodily organs are not the doers, but it is the Soul that is the doer of all acts.

There is fire in wood, but it can never be seen by cutting open a piece of wood.

After the same manner, the Soul dwells within the body, but it can never be seen by dissecting the body. The fire that dwells in wood may be seen by employing proper means, viz., rubbing the wood with another piece of wood.

One that is possessed of a sound heart should utter words that are not fraught with dishonesty, that are not harsh, that are not cruel, that are not evil, and that are not characterised by garrulity.

The universe is bound in speech.

If disposed to renunciation (of all worldly objects) then should one proclaim,[759] which a mind fraught with humility and a cleansed understanding, one's own evil acts.[760] He who betakes himself to action, impelled thereto by propensities fraught with the attribute of Passion, obtains much misery …

A person with desire and attachment obtains those imaginings (in dreams) based upon the impressions of countless lives in the past.

Nothing that impresses the mind once is ever lost, and the Soul being cognisant of all those impressions causes them to come forth from obscurity.

[767] Whichever among the three attributes of Goodness, Passion, and Darkness is brought about by the influence of past acts and by whichever amongst them the mind is affected for the time being in whatever way, the elements (in their subtile forms) display or indicate …

As the fibres of a lotus-stalk overspread themselves into every part of the stalk, after the same manner the fibres of desire, which have neither beginning nor end, spread themselves over every part of the body.

As a weaver drives his threads into a cloth by means of his shuttle, after the same manner the threads that constitute the fabric of the universe are woven by the shuttle of Desire.

He who properly knows transformations of Prakriti, Prakriti herself and Purusha, becomes freed from Desire and attains to Emancipation.[792] The divine Rishi Narayana, that refuge of the universe, for the sake of compassion towards all creatures, clearly promulgated these means for the acquisition of immortality."'"

The knowledge with respect to this world is even this: it exists (in the case of erring persons). It does not exist (in the case of those who have not been stupefied by error).

The whole universe, bound up in desire, is revolving like a wheel.

As the fibres of a lotus-stalk overspread themselves into every part of the stalk, after the same manner the fibres of desire, which have neither beginning nor end, spread themselves over every part of the body.

… inciting to those acts, and all acts connected with the conduct of men in the world, would be equally unmeaning, for the Soul being dissociated from the understanding and the mind, there is no one to enjoy the fruits of good acts and Vedic rites.[812]

Thus diverse kinds of speculations arise in the mind. Whether this opinion is right or that is right, there is no means of settling.

Engaged in reflecting on those opinions, particular persons follow particular lines of speculation. The understandings of these, directed to particular theories, become wholly taken up with them and are at last entirely lost in them.

… to be above decrepitude and death?[803] When the question is whether an object exists or does not exist, and when that whose existence is asserted presents all the indications of non-existence, what is that upon which ordinary people rely in settling the affairs of life?

Direct evidence is the root of both inference and the scriptures.

The scriptures are capable of being contradicted by direct evidence. As to inference, its evidentiary effect is not much. Whatever be the topic, cease to reason on inference alone. There is nothing else called jiva than this body.

… nobility, calmness of disposition, contentment, faith, forgiveness, invariable simplicity, the absence of garrulity, humility, reverence for superiors, benevolence, compassion for all creatures, frankness, abstention from talk upon kings and men in authority, from all false and useless discourses, and from applause and censure of others.

The self-restrained man becomes desirous of emancipation and, quietly bearing present joys and griefs, is never exhilarated or depressed by prospective ones.

Destitute of vindictiveness and all kinds of guile, and unmoved by praise and blame, such a man is well-behaved, has good manners, is pure of soul, has firmness or fortitude, and is a complete master of his passions.

Tranquil like the ocean at a dead calm, wisdom fills his soul and he is never cheerful. Possessed of intelligence, and deserving of universal reverence, the man of self-restraint never cherishes fear of any creature and is feared by no creature in return.

That man who never rejoices even at large acquisitions and never feels sorrow when overtaken by calamity, is said to be possessed of contented wisdom.

Such a man is said to be self-restrained. Indeed, such a man is said to be a regenerate being.

Success in respect of religious rites never occurs in the case of one that is not self-restrained. Religious rites, penances, truth,—all these are established upon self-restraint.

Self-restraint enhances one's energy. Self-restraint is said to be sacred.

The man of self-restraint becomes sinless and fearless and wins great results. One that is self-restrained sleeps happily and wakes happily. He sojourns happily in the world and his mind always remains cheerful. Every kind of excitement is quietly controlled by self-restraint.

Religious rites, penances, truth,—all these are established upon self-restraint. Self-restraint enhances one's energy. Self-restraint is said to be sacred. The man of self-restraint becomes sinless and fearless and wins great results.

One that is self-restrained sleeps happily and wakes happily.

He sojourns happily in the world and his mind always remains cheerful. Every kind of excitement is quietly controlled by self-restraint. One that is not self-restrained fails in a similar endeavour.

Every kind of excitement is quietly controlled by self-restraint. One that is not self-restrained fails in a similar endeavour. The man of self-restraint beholds his innumerable foes (in the form of lust, desire, and wrath, etc.), as if these dwell in a separate body.

Like tigers and other carnivorous beasts, persons destitute of self-restraint always inspire all creatures with dread.

For controlling these men, the Self-born (Brahman) created kings. In all the (four) modes of life, the practice of self-restraint is distinguished above all other virtues. The fruits of self-restraint are much greater than those obtainable in all the modes of life.

"'"Vali said, 'Thou seest not now, O Vasava, my jar and umbrella and fans. Thou seest not also my garland, that gift of the Grandsire.

Those precious possessions of mine about which thou askest are now buried in the darkness of a cave.

When my time comes again, thou wilt surely behold them again. This conduct of thine, however, does not become thy fame or birth. Thyself in prosperity, thou desirest to mock me that am sunk in adversity.

Those precious possessions of mine about which thou askest are now buried in the darkness of a cave. When my time comes again, thou wilt surely behold them again. This conduct of thine, however, does not become thy fame or birth.

Thyself in prosperity, thou desirest to mock me that am sunk in adversity.

They that have acquired wisdom, and have won contentment therefrom, they that are of tranquil souls, that are virtuous and good among creatures, never grieve in misery nor rejoice in happiness. Led, however, by a vulgar intelligence, thou indulgest in brag, O Purandara!

One that slays, only slays a victim already slain. One that is destroyed has been before destroyed. A thing that is acquired by a person is that which is already arrived and intended for his acquisition.

This Time is like an ocean. There is no island in it. Where, indeed, is its other shore?

Its boundary cannot be seen. Reflecting even deeply, I do not behold the end of this continuous stream that is the great ordainer of all things and that is certainly celestial.

Formerly, O Purandara, on occasions of my wrath everything used to become agitated. I am acquainted, however, O Sakra, with the eternal attributes of all things in the world. Do thou also know the truth. Do not suffer thyself to be filled with wonder.

Affluence and its origin are not under one's control.

Thy mind seems to be like that of a child. It is the same as it was before. Open thy eyes, O Maghavat, and adopt an understanding established on certitude and truth.

It is Time that establishes all things. Time works upon all things and leads them to their final consummation.[840] I was the worshipped lord of the Danavas. Burning all with my energy, I used to roar in strength and pride.

When Time hath assailed even myself, who is there whom he will not assail?

Formerly, O chief of the deities, singly I bore the energy of all the twelve illustrious Adityas with thyself amongst them. It was I that used to bear up water and then to shower it as rain, O Vasava!

Thou also, O lord of Sachi, shalt have to pass away after the same manner. Thee, too, O Sakra, that art possessed of swelling might and that art the chief of the deities, when thy hour comes, all-powerful Time will extinguish!

Time sweeps away all things. For this reason, O Indra, do not brag.

Time is incapable of being quieted by either thee or me or by those gone before us. This regal prosperity that thou hast attained and that thou thinkest to be beyond comparison, had formerly been possessed by me. It is unsubstantial and unreal.

Time is incapable of being quieted by either thee or me or by those gone before us. This regal prosperity that thou hast attained and that thou thinkest to be beyond comparison, had formerly been possessed by me. It is unsubstantial and unreal.

She does not dwell long in one place.

Indeed, she had dwelt in thousands of Indras before thee, all of whom, again, were very much superior to thee. Unstable as she is, deserting me she hath now approached thee, O chief of the deities! Do not, O Sakra, indulge in such brag again.

"'"Namuchi answered, 'By indulging in such sorrow as cannot be warded off one only wastes one's body and gladdens one's foes.

Then, again, no one can lighten another's sorrow by taking any portion of it upon oneself.

For these reasons, O Sakra, I do not indulge in sorrow. All this that thou seest hath one end.[849] Indulgence in sorrow destroys personal comeliness, prosperity, life, and virtue itself, O chief of the deities!

"'"Namuchi answered, '

By indulging in such sorrow as cannot be warded off one only wastes one's body and gladdens one's foes.

Then, again, no one can lighten another's sorrow by taking any portion of it upon oneself. For these reasons, O Sakra, I do not indulge in sorrow.

That person is a very superior one whom even great success cannot gladden and even dire calamities cannot afflict, and who bears pleasure and pain, and that which is between them both, with an unmoved heart.

Into whatever condition a person may fall, he should summon cheerfulness without yielding to sorrow.

Indeed, even thus should one drive off from one's self one's swelling grief that is born in one's mind and that is (if not dispelled) sure to give pain.

Before I was born, they that have the matter in their hands had ordained what I am to do and suffer. I am fulfilling what was thus ordained for me.

What then can death do to me?

One obtains only that which has been ordained to be obtained. One goes thither whither it was ordained that one is to go. Those sorrows and joys are obtained that are ordained to be obtained.

The body is never emaciated of one that is always possessed of fortitude.

Grieflessness bears happiness within it, and also health that is a superior possession.

In consequence again of this health of body, once may again acquire prosperity. That wise man, O sire, who adheres to a course of righteous conduct (while afflicted by distress) succeeds in acquiring prosperity, patience, and perseverance in the accomplishment of all his objects.

Gain and loss, happiness and misery, lust and wrath, birth and death, captivity and release,—these all one encounters in Time's course. I am not the actor. Thou art not the actor. He is the actor who, indeed, is omnipotent.

That Time ripens me (for throwing me down) like a fruit that has appeared on a tree.

There are certain acts by doing which one person obtains happiness in Time's course. By doing those very acts another obtains misery in the course of Time.

Versed as I am with the virtues of Time, it behoves me not to indulge in grief when it is Time that has assailed me. It is for this reason, O Sakra, that I do not grieve.

Grief cannot do us any good. The grief of one that indulges in grief never dispels one's calamity.

On the other hand, grief destroys one's power. It is for this that I do not indulge in grief.'

Hence, because the ostensible doer is himself the product of another, that another is the Supreme Being above whom there is nothing higher.

Aided by Time I had vanquished thee. Aided by Time thou hast vanquished me.

It is Time that is the mover of all beings that move. It is Time that destroys all beings. O Indra, in consequence of thy intelligence being of the vulgar species thou seest not that destruction awaits all things.

For all that, how can one like us that know the course of the world, indulge in grief in consequence of having been afflicted by Time, or suffer our understanding to be stupefied, or yield to the influence of error?

Shall my understanding or that of one like me, even when we are overwhelmed by Time, coming in contact with a calamity, suffer itself to be destroyed like a wrecked vessel at sea?

[856] Myself, thyself, and all those who will in future become the chiefs of the deities, shall have, O Sakra, to go the way along which hundreds of Indras have gone before thee.

This position of thine had been attained by many before thee. With none did it prove stable or unending. In consequence, however, of a foolish understanding, thou alone regardest it to be immutable and eternal.

Thou trustest in that which is not deserving of trust. Thou deemest that to be eternal which is not eternal.

O chief of the deities, one that is overwhelmed and stupefied by Time really regards oneself after this manner. Led by folly thou regardest thy present regal prosperity to be thine.

Cast off this desire that thou cherishest for objects of affection and enjoyment. Cast off this pride that is born of prosperity. If thou actest in this manner, thou wilt then be able to bear the grief that attends the loss of sovereignty.

When the hour of sorrow comes, do not yield to sorrow. Similarly, when the hour of joy comes, do not rejoice.

Disregarding both the past and the future, live contentedly with the present.

All things are being cooked in Time's cauldron. Time has no master. Time is ever heedful. Time is always cooking all things within itself. No one who has once entered the domain of Time which is ceaselessly going on, can escape therefrom.

All embodied beings may be heedless of Time, but Time is heedful and is broad awake behind them.

No one has ever been seen to have driven off Time from him. Ancient and eternal, and the embodiment of justice, Time is uniform in respect of all living creatures. Time cannot be avoided, and there is no retrogression in its course.

No one has ever been seen to have driven off Time from him. Ancient and eternal, and the embodiment of justice, Time is uniform in respect of all living creatures. Time cannot be avoided, and there is no retrogression in its course.

Like a usurer adding up his interest, Time adds up its subtile portions represented by kalas, and lavas, and kashthas, and kshanas, and months, and days and nights.

Like the current of a river washing away a tree whose roots are reached by it, Time, getting at him who says, "This I will do today but this other act I will do tomorrow" sweeps him away.

Thou dost not, even mentally, realise what thou wert some time ago. Time that is strong, assailing the universe, cooks it within itself and sweeps away everything without consideration of seniority of years or the reverse.

For all that, one that is being dragged by Time is unconscious of the noose thrown round one's neck.

People, given to jealousy and vanity and cupidity to lust, wrath, and fear, to desire, heedlessness, and pride, suffer themselves to be stupefied. Thou, however, art acquainted with the truth of existence. Thou art possessed of learning and endued with wisdom and penance.

Every one is assailed here by Time. Nothing among beings that are subtile or gross enjoys an immunity from Time's sway.

All things are being cooked in Time's cauldron. Time has no master.

Time is ever heedful. Time is always cooking all things within itself. No one who has once entered the domain of Time which is ceaselessly going on, can escape therefrom.

They are tranquil in respect of all their desires, and are engaged in the good of all creatures. They never give way to wrath, or indulge in transports of joy, or injure any creature.

Untying all the knots of their hearts, they pass on very happily.

They have no friends nor are they the friends of others. They have no foes nor are they the foes of other creatures. Indeed, men that can live in this way can pass their days for ever in happiness.

Decried by others, why shall I get annoyed with them, or praised by others, why shall I be pleased? Let men obtain whatsoever objects they please from whatsoever pursuits in which they engage themselves. (I am indifferent to acquisitions and losses).

Praise and blame are unable to contribute to my advancement or the reverse.

He that has understood the truths of things becomes gratified with even disregard as if it were ambrosia. The man of wisdom is truly annoyed with regard as if it were poison.

Let men obtain whatsoever objects they please from whatsoever pursuits in which they engage themselves. (I am indifferent to acquisitions and losses). Praise and blame are unable to contribute to my advancement or the reverse.

He that has understood the truths of things becomes gratified with even disregard as if it were ambrosia. The man of wisdom is truly annoyed with regard as if it were poison.

He who is freed from all faults sleeps fearlessly both here and hereafter even if insulted by others. On the other hand, he who insults him, suffers destruction.

He loves all. He is pure in body and mind. He is sweet-speeched. He is free from envy and malice. For this he is everywhere worshipped with respect. He is certainly always employed in doing good to all people. No sin dwells in him.

He never rejoices at other people's misfortunes.

For this he is everywhere worshipped with respect. He always seeks to conquer all earthly desires by listening to Vedic recitations and attending to the Puranas. He is a great renouncer and he never disregards any one.[869] For this he is everywhere worshipped with respect.

For this he is everywhere worshipped with respect. He has no yearning for objects connected with profit and pleasure. He never glorifies his own self. He is free from malice. He is mild in speech. For this he is everywhere worshipped with respect.

He observes the hearts, different from one another, of all men, without blaming any of them.

He is well-versed in all matters connected with the origin of things. He never disregards or shows hatred for any kind of science. He lives according to his own standard of morality. He never suffers his time to pass away fruitlessly.

These, of course, are the contentions of those that depend on Acts, with reference to objects. They however, whose vision is directed to truth regard Brahma as the cause.[885] Penance is the highest good for living creatures.

The roots of penance are tranquillity and self-restraint.

By penance one obtains all things that one wishes for in one's mind. By penance one attains to that Being who creates the universe. He who (by penance) succeeds in attaining to that Being becomes the puissant master of all beings.

The whole universe, wrapt by those flames, begins to blaze forth in a vast conflagration. All things mobile and immobile that are on the earth first disappear and merge into the substance of which this planet is composed.

After all mobile and immobile objects have thus disappeared, the earth, shorn of trees and herbs, looks naked like a tortoise shell.

Then water takes up the attribute of earth, viz., scent. When earth becomes shorn of its principal attribute, that element is on the eve of dissolution. Water then prevails.

Then water takes up the attribute of earth, viz., scent. When earth becomes shorn of its principal attribute, that element is on the eve of dissolution. Water then prevails.

Surging into mighty billows and producing awful roars, only water fills this space and moves about or remains still.

Then the attribute of water is taken by Heat, and losing its own attribute, water finds rest in that element. Dazzling flames of fire, ablaze all around, conceal the Sun that is in the centre of space.

He should avoid all kinds of inauspicious discourse and all acts of unrighteous injury. This preliminary course of conduct is first laid down for a Brahmana. Subsequently, when knowledge comes, he should engage himself in acts, for in acts lies success.[902]

The Brahmana who is endued with intelligence succeeds in crossing the stream of life that is so difficult to cross and that is so furious and terrible, that has the five senses for its waters, that has cupidity for its source, and wrath for its mire.

He should never shut his eyes to the fact that Time stands behind him in a threatening attitude.—Time who is the great stupefier of all things, and who is armed with very great and irresistible force, issuing from the great Ordainer himself.

Hence the man destitute of wisdom never succeeds in crossing that river. He also who sits inactively (in doubt) can never pass it over.

The man destitute of the raft of wisdom, in consequence of his having to bear the heavy weight of great faults, sinks down.

One that is seized by the crocodile of desire, even if possessed of knowledge, can never make knowledge one's raft.[904] For these reasons, the man of wisdom and intelligence should strive to float over the stream of Time (without sinking in it).

He also who sits inactively (in doubt) can never pass it over. The man destitute of the raft of wisdom, in consequence of his having to bear the heavy weight of great faults, sinks down.

One that is seized by the crocodile of desire, even if possessed of knowledge, can never make knowledge one's raft.

[904] For these reasons, the man of wisdom and intelligence should strive to float over the stream of Time (without sinking in it). He indeed, succeeds in keeping himself afloat who becomes conversant with Brahma.

This is the course of conduct that was ordained of old for a Brahmana. He should strive for the acquisition of Knowledge, and do all the scriptural acts. By living thus, he is sure to obtain success.

One who is not possessed of clear vision does wrong even when one wishes to do right.

Such a person, by even exercising his judgment, does such acts of virtue as partake of the nature of inequity. Desiring to do what is right, one does what is wrong. Similarly, desiring to do what is wrong one does what is right.

Without speaking of the results of the attainment of Brahma by yoga, it may be said that he who sets himself to only enquiring after the Soul transcends the necessity of observing the acts laid down in the Vedas.

The body with jiva within it is an excellent car.

When sacrifices and religious rites are made its upastha, shame its varutha, Upaya and Apaya its kuvara, the breath called Apana its aksha, the breath called Prana its yuga, knowledge and the allotted period of existence its points for tying the steeds, heedfulness its handsome …

… now tell thee the speedy means that should be adopted by the person who would equip his car in such a fashion for passing through this wilderness of the world in order to reach the goal constituted by Brahma that is above decrepitude and destruction.

To set the mind upon one thing at a time is called Dharana.

[907] The Yogin observing proper vows and restraints, practises in all seven kinds of Dharana.

"'"Vyasa said, 'If Emancipation be desirable, then knowledge should be acquired.

For a person who is borne now up and now down along the stream of Time or life, knowledge is the raft by which he can reach the shore.

Those wise men who have arrived at certain conclusions (regarding the character of the soul and that which is called life) by the aid of wisdom, are able to assist the ignorant in crossing the stream of time or life with the raft of knowledge.

Desire, however, never creates the three attributes.[956] The man of wisdom, capable of subduing his senses, beholds the seventeenth, viz., the Soul, as surrounded by six and ten attributes, in his own knowledge by the aid of the mind.

The Soul cannot be beheld with the aid of the eye or with that of all the senses. Transcending all, the Soul becomes visible by only the light of the mind's lamp.

Divested of the properties of sound and touch and form, without taste and scent, indestructible and without a body (either gross or subtile) and without senses, it is nevertheless beheld within the body. Unmanifest and supreme, it dwells in all mortal bodies.

The very gods are stupefied in the track of that trackless man who constitutes himself the soul of all creatures, who is engaged in the good of all beings, and who desire to attain to (Brahma which is) the final refuge (of all things).[960]

Indeed, the track which is pursued by men of knowledge is as visible as that of birds in the sky or of fish in water.

Time of its own power, cooks all entities within itself.

… the good of all beings, and who desire to attain to (Brahma which is) the final refuge (of all things).[960] Indeed, the track which is pursued by men of knowledge is as visible as that of birds in the sky or of fish in water.

Time of its own power, cooks all entities within itself. No one, however, knows That in which Time, in its turn, is itself cooked.

[961] That (of which I speak) does not occur above, or in the middle or below, or in transverse or in any other direction. That is no tangible entity; it is not to be found in any place.[962] All these worlds are within That.

… and wrath, seek to attain to Brahma.[970] Firmly uniting the senses and the mind (having drawn them away from all external objects) with gaze fixed inwards, one should, in the still hours of evening or in those before dawn, place one's mind upon the knowledge.

If even one of the five senses of a human being be kept unrestrained, all his wisdom may be seen to escape through it like water through an unstopped hole at the bottom of a leathern bag.

The mind in the first instance should be sought to be restrained by the Yogin after the manner of a fisherman seeking at the outset to render that one among the fish powerless from which there is the greatest danger to his nets.

If even one of the five senses of a human being be kept unrestrained, all his wisdom may be seen to escape through it like water through an unstopped hole at the bottom of a leathern bag.

The mind in the first instance should be sought to be restrained by the Yogin after the manner of a fisherman seeking at the outset to render that one among the fish powerless from which there is the greatest danger to his nets.

Having first subdued the mind, the Yogin should then proceed to subdue his ears, then his eyes, then his tongue, and then his nose. Having restrained these, he should fix them on the mind.

He should not seek the good or the evil of one or the other. He should not rejoice at an acquisition or suffer anxiety when he meets with failure or loss.

Of uniform behaviour towards all beings, he should imitate the wind.

[974] Unto one whose mind is thus turned to itself, who leads a life of purity, and who casts an equal eye upon all things,—indeed, unto one who is ever engaged in Yoga thus for even six months,—Brahma as represented by sound appears very vividly.[975] …

The old, the young, the afflicted, the wasted have power over the sky.[1002] The eldest brother is like unto the sire himself (to all his younger brothers).

The wife and the son are one's own body.

One's menial servants are one's own shadow. The daughter is an object of great affection.

The old, the young, the afflicted, the wasted have power over the sky.[1002] The eldest brother is like unto the sire himself (to all his younger brothers). The wife and the son are one's own body.

One's menial servants are one's own shadow.

The daughter is an object of great affection. For these reason, a house-holder endued with learning, observant of duties, and possessed of endurance, should bear, without warmth or anxiety of heart every kind of annoyance and even censure from the last named relatives.

The old, the young, the afflicted, the wasted have power over the sky.[1002] The eldest brother is like unto the sire himself (to all his younger brothers). The wife and the son are one's own body. One's menial servants are one's own shadow.

The daughter is an object of great affection.

For these reason, a house-holder endued with learning, observant of duties, and possessed of endurance, should bear, without warmth or anxiety of heart every kind of annoyance and even censure from the last named relatives.

The Soul, also called Mahat, is superior to the understanding. Superior to Mahat is the Unmanifest (or Prakriti). Superior to the Unmanifest is Brahma. There is nothing Superior to Brahma. That is the highest limit of excellence and the highest goal.

The Supreme Soul is concealed in every creature.

It is not displayed for ordinary men to behold. Only Yogins with subtile vision behold the Supreme Soul with the aid of their keen and subtile understanding.

… (viz., Sattwa, Rajas, and Tamas), inhere to these three (viz., Mind, Understanding, and Consciousness) and like the spokes of a car-wheel acting in consequence of their attachment to the circumference of the wheel, they follow the different objects (that exist in Mind, Understanding, and Consciousness).[1053]

The mind must make a lamp of the senses for dispelling the darkness that shuts out the knowledge of the Supreme Soul.

This knowledge that is acquired by Yogins with the aid of all especial agency of Yoga, is acquired without any especial efforts by men that abstain from worldly objects.[1054] The universe is of this nature (viz., it is only a creation of the understanding).

… duly,[1056] and takes delight in the one really existent entity, viz., the Soul, who has constituted himself the soul of all created beings, and who succeeds in keeping himself aloof from the three attributes, obtains an understanding and senses that are created by the Soul.

The qualities are incapable of apprehending the Soul. The Soul, however, apprehends them always.

The Soul is the witness that beholds the qualities and duly calls them up into being. Behold, this is the difference between the understanding and the Soul both of which are exceedingly subtile. One of them creates the qualities. The other never creates them.

Its current spreading in diverse directions, frightful is this river of life bearing the world onward in its course. The five senses are its crocodiles.

The mind and its purposes are the shores.

Cupidity and stupefaction of judgment are the grass and straw that float on it, covering its bosom. Lust and wrath are the fierce reptiles that live in it. Truth forms the tirtha by its miry banks. Falsehood forms its surges, anger its mire.

The five senses are its crocodiles. The mind and its purposes are the shores. Cupidity and stupefaction of judgment are the grass and straw that float on it, covering its bosom. Lust and wrath are the fierce reptiles that live in it.

Truth forms the tirtha by its miry banks. Falsehood forms its surges, anger its mire.

Taking its rise from the Unmanifest, rapid is its current, and incapable of being crossed by persons of uncleansed souls. Do thou, with the aid of the understanding cross that river having desires for its alligators.

"'"Vyasa said, '

There is a wonderful tree, called Desire, in the heart of a man.

It is born of the seed called Error. Wrath and pride constitute its large trunk. The wish for action is the basin around its foot (for holding the water that is to nourish it).

It is born of the seed called Error. Wrath and pride constitute its large trunk. The wish for action is the basin around its foot (for holding the water that is to nourish it).

Ignorance is the root of that tree, and heedlessness is the water that gives it sustenance.

Envy constitutes its leaves. The evil acts of past lives supply it with vigour. Loss of judgment and anxiety are its twigs; grief forms its large branches; and fear is its sprout.

Then again the senses, agitated by the stained mind, lose their own stability. Those objects again for whose acquisition the understanding strives (regarding them to be beneficial) become productive of grief and ultimately meet with destruction.

Those objects, after destruction, are recollected by the mind, and accordingly they afflict the mind even after they are lost.

The understanding is afflicted at the same time, for the mind is said to be different from the understanding only when the mind is considered in respect of its chief function of receiving impressions about whose certainty it is no judge.

Ignorance is the root of that tree, and heedlessness is the water that gives it sustenance. Envy constitutes its leaves. The evil acts of past lives supply it with vigour.

Loss of judgment and anxiety are its twigs; grief forms its large branches; and fear is its sprout.

Thirst (after diverse objects) that is (apparently) agreeable forms the creepers that twine round it on every side.

I shall not be able to cut off dear sons and loved friends and brothers and mothers and fathers. If these die (through my act), their surviving relatives will surely curse me. I am filled with fear at the prospect of this.[1111]

The tears of the sorrow-stricken survivors will burn me for eternity.

I am very much afraid of them (whose relatives I shall have to cut off). I seek thy protection. All sinful creatures (slain by me) will have to sink into the infernal regions. I seek to gratify thee, O boon-giving god!

Conduct is the refuge of righteousness. Thou shouldst know what righteousness is, aided by conduct.[1117] (It is the nature of man that he neither sees nor proclaims his own faults but notices and proclaims those of others).

The very thief, stealing what belongs to others, spends the produce of his theft in acts of apparent virtue.

During a time of anarchy, the thief takes great pleasure in appropriating what belongs to others. When others, however, rob him of what he has acquired by robbery, he then wishes forthwith for a king (for invoking punishment on the head of the offenders).

One behaving in this way hath no fear of dishonest men or thieves or the king. Not having done any injury to any one, such a man lives fearlessly and with a pure heart.

A thief fears everybody, like a deer driven from the woods into the midst of an inhabited village.

He thinks other people to be as sinful as himself. One that is of pure heart is always filled with cheerfulness and hath no fear from any direction.

When, however, those wealthy men meet with poverty in consequence of some turn of fortune, the practice of charity then recommends itself to them. Men that are exceedingly wealthy do not necessarily meet with happiness.[1121]

Knowing how painful it is to himself, a person should never do that to others which he dislikes when done to him by others.[1122]

What can one who becomes the lover of another man's wife say to another man (guilty of the same transgression)?

In seasons of distress, a person by even speaking an untruth acquires the merit of speaking the truth, even as a person who accomplishes an unrighteous act acquires by that very means the merit of having done a righteous act.

Conduct is the refuge of righteousness.

Thou shouldst know what righteousness is, aided by conduct.[1117] (It is the nature of man that he neither sees nor proclaims his own faults but notices and proclaims those of others).

When, however, the Srutis and the Smritis contradict each other, how can either be authoritative? Then again, it is seen that when some wicked persons of great might cause certain portions of certain courses of righteous acts to be stopped, these are destroyed for ever.[1131]

Whether we know it or know it not, whether we are able to ascertain it or not to ascertain it, the course of duty is finer than the edge of a razor and grosser than even a mountain.

Righteousness (in the form of sacrifices and other religious acts) at first appears in the form of the romantic edifices of vapour seen in the distant sky.

… be stopped, these are destroyed for ever.[1131] Whether we know it or know it not, whether we are able to ascertain it or not to ascertain it, the course of duty is finer than the edge of a razor and grosser than even a mountain.

Righteousness (in the form of sacrifices and other religious acts) at first appears in the form of the romantic edifices of vapour seen in the distant sky. When, however, it is examined by the learned, it disappears and becomes invisible.[1132]

Like the small ponds at which the cattle drink or the shallow aqueducts along cultivated fields that dry up very soon, the eternal practices inculcated in the Smritis, falling into discontinuance, at last disappear totally (in the Kali age).

When a person does not conduct himself sinfully towards any creature in thought, word, or deed, then is he said to attain to Brahma.

There is no past, no future. There is no morality or righteousness.

He who is not an object of fear with any creature succeeds in attaining to a state in which there is no fear.[1150] On the other hand, that person who for harshness of speech and severity of temper, is a source of trouble unto all …

There is no duty, O Jajali, that is not prompted by some motive (of happiness). Duty, however, is very subtile. Duties have been laid down in the Vedas for the sake of both Brahma and heaven.[1158]

The subject of duties hath many secrets and mysteries. It is so subtile that it is not easy to understand it fully.

Amongst diverse conflicting ordinances, some succeed in comprehending duty by observing the acts of the good.[1159] Why dost thou not consume them that emasculate bulls and bore their noses and cause them to bear heavy burthens and bind them and put them under diverse kinds …

I think that such acts of injury done to animals are in no way distinguished from foeticide. People regard the profession of agriculture to be sinless. That profession, however, is certainly fraught with cruelty.

The iron-faced plough wounds the soil and many creatures that live in the soil.

Cast thy eyes, O Jajali, on those bullocks yoked to the plough. Kine are called in the Srutis the Unslayable.

Thou practisest them because they are practised by all men from ancient times, and not because they agree with the dictates of thy cleansed understanding.

One should practise what one considers to be one's duty, guided by reasons, instead of blindly following the practices of the world.

Listen now, O Jajali, as to what my behaviour is towards him that injures and him that praises me. I regard both of them in the same light. I have none whom I like and none whom I dislike.

The existence of the mother invests one with protection; the reverse deprives one of all protection. The man who, though divested of prosperity, enters his house, uttering the words, "O mother!"—hath not to indulge in grief. Nor doth decrepitude ever assail him.

A person whose mother exists, even if he happens to be possessed of sons and grandsons and even if he counts a hundred years, looks like a child of but two years of age.

Able or disabled, lean or robust, the son is always protected by the mother. None else, according to the ordinance, is the son's protector.

None else, according to the ordinance, is the son's protector. Then doth the son become old, then doth he become stricken with grief, then doth the world look empty in his eyes, when he becomes deprived of his mother.

There is no shelter (protection against the sun) like the mother. There is no refuge like the mother.

There is no defence like the mother. There is no one so dear as the mother. For having borne him in her womb the mother is the son's Dhatri. For having been the chief cause of his birth, she is his Janani.

For having nursed his young limbs into growth, she is called Amva. For bringing forth a child possessed of courage she is called Virasu. For nursing and looking after the son she is called Sura.

The mother is one's own body.

What rational man is there that would slay his mother, to whose care alone it is due that his own head did not lie on the street-side like a dry gourd?

If the king acts properly, the superior subjects imitate him. The inferior people, again in their turn, imitate their immediate superiors.

Men are so constituted that they imitate those whom they regard as their superiors.[1222]

That king who, without restraining himself, seeks to restrain others (from evil ways) becomes an object of laughter with all men in consequence of his being engaged in the enjoyment of all worldly pleasures as a slave of his senses.

If the king acts properly, the superior subjects imitate him. The inferior people, again in their turn, imitate their immediate superiors. Men are so constituted that they imitate those whom they regard as their superiors.[1222]

That king who, without restraining himself, seeks to restrain others (from evil ways) becomes an object of laughter with all men in consequence of his being engaged in the enjoyment of all worldly pleasures as a slave of his senses.

That man who, through arrogance or error of judgment, offends against the king in any way, should be restrained by every means. It is by this way that he is prevented from committing offences anew.

Men of learning regard them as authoritative in consequence of their following the Brahmanas.[1237] Sacrifices have the Brahmanas for that progenitor, and truly they rest upon the Brahmanas. The whole universe rests upon sacrifice, and sacrifice rests upon the universe.[1238]

The syllable Om is the root from which the Vedas have sprung.

(Every rite, therefore, should commence with the utterance of that syllable of vast import).

Indeed, as all living creatures are able to live in consequence of their dependence on their respective mothers, after the same manner the three other modes of life exist in consequence of their dependence upon the domestic mode.

The householder who leads the life of domesticity, performs sacrifices, and practises penances.

Whatever is done by anybody from desire of happiness has for its root the domestic mode of life. All living creatures regard the procreation of offspring as a source of great happiness.

Thus worshipped, the Cloud became very soon pleased with his worshipper and uttered these words fraught with benefit to that Brahmana, 'The wise have ordained expiation for one guilty of Brahmanicide, or of drinking alcohol or of stealing, or of neglecting all meritorious vows.

There is no expiation, however, for one that is ungrateful.[1278]

Expectation hath a child named Iniquity. Ire, again, is regarded to be a child of Envy. Cupidity is the child of Deceit. Ingratitude, however, is barren (and hath no offspring).'

There is no expiation, however, for one that is ungrateful.[1278]

Expectation hath a child named Iniquity. Ire, again, is regarded to be a child of Envy.

Cupidity is the child of Deceit. Ingratitude, however, is barren (and hath no offspring).' After this, that Brahmana, stretched on a bed of Kusa grass, and penetrated with the energy of Kundadhara, beheld all living beings in a dream.

There is no expiation, however, for one that is ungrateful.[1278] Expectation hath a child named Iniquity. Ire, again, is regarded to be a child of Envy.

Cupidity is the child of Deceit. Ingratitude, however, is barren (and hath no offspring).

' After this, that Brahmana, stretched on a bed of Kusa grass, and penetrated with the energy of Kundadhara, beheld all living beings in a dream.

"'"Kundadhara said, 'With these (vices) all human beings are enchained.

The gods are afraid of men.

These vices, at the command of the gods, mar and disconcert on every side.[1282] No man can become virtuous unless permitted by the gods. (In consequence of their permission) thou hast become competent to give away kingdoms and wealth through thy penances.'"

The gods are truly propitious to thee since thy mind is devoted to virtue.

In wealth there may be a very little happiness but in virtue the measure of happiness is very great.

"'"

… possessions of even little value fascinate the foolish.[1320] Whatever happiness exists here, derivable from the gratification of desire, and whatever heavenly happiness exists of high value, do not come up to even a sixteenth part of the felicity that attends the total disappearance of desire.

As the horns of a cow grow with the growth of the cow itself, after the same manner the thirst for wealth increases with increasing acquisitions of wealth.

Whatever the object for which one feels an attachment, that object becomes a source of pain when it is lost. One should not cherish desire. Attachment to desire leads to sorrow. When wealth has been acquired, one should apply it to purposes of virtue.

As the horns of a cow grow with the growth of the cow itself, after the same manner the thirst for wealth increases with increasing acquisitions of wealth.

Whatever the object for which one feels an attachment, that object becomes a source of pain when it is lost.

One should not cherish desire. Attachment to desire leads to sorrow. When wealth has been acquired, one should apply it to purposes of virtue.

"'"The son said, '

The world is assailed by Death. It is besieged by Decrepitude.

Days and Nights are continually falling (like bolts). Why do you not take heed of these?

I shall perform the Sacrifice of Self, I need no offspring to rescue me.[1328] He whose words and thoughts are always well-restrained, he who has Penances and Renunciation, and Yoga, is sure to attain to everything through these.

There is no eye equal to Knowledge. There is no reward equal to Knowledge.

There is no sorrow equal to attachment. There is no happiness equal to Renunciation.

There is no eye equal to Knowledge. There is no reward equal to Knowledge.

There is no sorrow equal to attachment. There is no happiness equal to Renunciation.

For a Brahmana there can be no wealth like residence in solitude, an equal regard for all creatures, truthfulness of speech, steady observance of good conduct, the total abandonment of the rod (of chastisement), simplicity, and the gradual abstention from all acts.[1329] What need hast …

"'"The son said, 'The world is assailed by Death. It is besieged by Decrepitude.

Days and Nights are continually falling (like bolts).

Why do you not take heed of these?

and that which one thinks of doing in the afternoon should be done in the forenoon.

Death does not wait, mindful of one's having done or not done one's acts.

Do today what is for thy good (without keeping it for tomorrow). See that Death, who is irresistible, may not overcome thee (before you accomplish thy acts). Who knows that Death will not come to one this very day?

"'Bhishma said, "Everything, O great monarch, hath an end. Everything hath bounds assigned to it. Even rebirth, it is well-known, hath an end.

In this world there is nothing that is immutable.

Thou thinkest, O king, that this (viz., the affluence with which thou art invested is a fault). That it is not so is not true, in regard to our present topic of disquisition. Ye, however, are conversant with virtue, and have readiness.

"'Bhishma said, "

Everything, O great monarch, hath an end. Everything hath bounds assigned to it.

Even rebirth, it is well-known, hath an end. In this world there is nothing that is immutable. Thou thinkest, O king, that this (viz., the affluence with which thou art invested is a fault).

Possessed of dreadful and gigantic forms, they numbered by hundreds and thousands. They filled the sky with their confused cries and shrieks. That noise filled the denizens of heaven with fear. The very mountains were riven and the earth trembled. Whirl winds began to blow.

The Ocean rose in a surge. The fires that were kindled refused to blaze up.

The Sun became dimmed. The planets, the stars, and constellations, and the moon, no longer shone. The Rishis, the gods, and human beings, looked pale. A universal darkness spread over earth and sky. The insulted Rudras began to set fire to everything.

Whirl winds began to blow. The Ocean rose in a surge. The fires that were kindled refused to blaze up. The Sun became dimmed. The planets, the stars, and constellations, and the moon, no longer shone. The Rishis, the gods, and human beings, looked pale.

A universal darkness spread over earth and sky.

The insulted Rudras began to set fire to everything. Some amongst them of terrible form began to smite and strike. Some tore up the sacrificial stakes. Some began to grind and others to crush.

Some tore up the sacrificial stakes. Some began to grind and others to crush. Endued with the speed of wind or thought, some began to rush close and far. Some began to break the sacrificial vessels and the celestial ornaments.

The scattered fragments strewed the ground like stars bespangling the firmament.

Heaps of excellent viands, of bottles of drink, and of eatables there were that looked like mountains. Rivers of milk ran on every side, with clarified butter and Payasa for their mire, creamy curds for their water, and crystalised sugar for their sands.

The conditions or states called Sattwa, Rajas, and Tamas, depend upon the senses for their refuge or formation. The senses exist for simply seizing the impressions of their respective objects.

The Mind has doubt for its function. The Understanding is for ascertainment.

The Kshetrajna is said to be only an inactive witness (of the functions of the others). Sattwa, Rajas, Tamas, Time, and Acts, O Bharata, these attributes direct the Understanding.

One of these, viz., the Understanding, creates attributes. The other, viz., the Soul, does not create them. Although they are, by nature, distinct from each other, yet they always exist in a state of union.

A fish is different from the water in which it dwells, but the fish and the water must exist together.

The attributes cannot know the Soul. The Soul, however, knows them. They that are ignorant regard the Soul as existing in a state of union with the attributes like qualities existing with their possessors.

It is only by conduct that one can attain to felicity there. The Understanding of the man unconversant with Yoga can never be directed towards Emancipation. One unconversant with Yoga can never have happiness.

Patience and the resolution to cast off sorrow, these two indicate the advent of happiness.

Anything agreeable leads to pleasure. Pleasure induces pride. Pride, again, is productive of sorrow. For these reasons, I avoid all these.

The Understanding of the man unconversant with Yoga can never be directed towards Emancipation. One unconversant with Yoga can never have happiness. Patience and the resolution to cast off sorrow, these two indicate the advent of happiness. Anything agreeable leads to pleasure.

Pleasure induces pride. Pride, again, is productive of sorrow.

For these reasons, I avoid all these.

The very deities, who exist freed from diseases, exist (in that state) by virtue of their past acts. The strong and the weak, all, live by virtue of past acts. It is fitting, therefore, that thou shouldst hold us in esteem.

The owners of thousands live. The owners of hundreds also live. They that are overwhelmed with sorrow live.

Behold, we too are living! When we, O Narada, do not give way to grief, what can the practice of the duties (of religion) or the observance of (religious) acts do to us?

Wandering in the night, sleep during the day, indulgence in idleness, roguery, arrogance, excessive indulgence and total abstention from all indulgence in objects of the senses, should be relinquished by one desirous of achieving what is excellent.[1467]

One should not seek self-elevation by depreciating others.

Indeed, one should, by one's merits alone, seek distinction over persons that are distinguished but never over those that are inferior. Men really destitute of merit and filled with a sense of self-admiration depreciate men of real merit, by asserting their own virtues and affluence.

One possessed of real wisdom and endued with real merits, acquires great fame by abstaining from speaking ill of others and from indulging in self-praise.

Flowers shed their pure and sweet fragrance without trumpeting forth their own excellence.

Similarly, the effulgent Sun scatters his splendours in the firmament in perfect silence.

One possessed of real wisdom and endued with real merits, acquires great fame by abstaining from speaking ill of others and from indulging in self-praise. Flowers shed their pure and sweet fragrance without trumpeting forth their own excellence.

Similarly, the effulgent Sun scatters his splendours in the firmament in perfect silence.

After the same manner those men blaze in the world with celebrity who by the aid of their intelligence, cast off these and similar other faults and who do not proclaim their own virtues.

After the same manner those men blaze in the world with celebrity who by the aid of their intelligence, cast off these and similar other faults and who do not proclaim their own virtues.

The fool can never shine in the world by bruiting about his own praise. The man, however, of real merit and learning obtains celebrity even if he be concealed in a pit.

Evil words, uttered with whatsoever vigour of voice die out (in no time). Good words, uttered however softly, blaze forth in the world.

The fool can never shine in the world by bruiting about his own praise. The man, however, of real merit and learning obtains celebrity even if he be concealed in a pit.

Evil words, uttered with whatsoever vigour of voice die out (in no time). Good words, uttered however softly, blaze forth in the world.

As the Sun shows his fiery form (in the gem called Suryakanta), even so the multitude of words, of little sense, that fools filled with vanity utter, display only (the meanness of) their hearts.

"'Bhishma continued, "Thus addressed by Sagara, Arishtanemi of Tarkshya's race, conversant with all the scriptures, regarding the questioner to be every way deserving of his instructions, said these words,[1480] '

The felicity of Emancipation is true felicity in the world.

The man of ignorance knows it not, attached as he is to children and animals and possessed of wealth and corn. An understanding that is attached to worldly objects and a mind suffering from thirst,—these two baffle all skilful treatment.

All creatures live on the Earth, protected by their own acts, and obtaining their food as the result of what is ordained by Him who assigns the fruits of acts.

A man is but a lump of clay, and is always himself completely dependent on other forces.

One, therefore, being oneself so infirm, what rational consideration can one have for protecting and feeding one's relatives?

… diverse ends.[1500] As vessels of white brass, when steeped in liquefied gold or silver, catch the hue of these metals, even so a living creature, who is completely dependent upon the acts of his past lives takes his colour from the character of those acts.

Nothing can sprout forth without a seed.

No one can obtain happiness without having accomplished acts capable of leading to happiness. When one's body is dissolved away (into its constituent elements), one succeeds in attaining to happiness only in consequence of the good acts of previous lives.

The person that casts off both happiness and misery walks along a particular path (the path, viz., of knowledge). Those men, however, O king, who suffer themselves to be attached to all worldly objects, tread along a path that is entirely different.

A person should not himself do that act which, if done by another, would call down his censure.

Indeed, by doing an act that one censures in others, one incurs ridicule.

… of life has not been exhausted can never be slain by any one.[1547] One should prevent one's affectionate seniors from doing unto one (for one's benefit) such acts as are done by menials, as also all such acts as are fraught with injury to others.

One should never desire to extend one's own life by taking the lives of others.[1548]

When they lay down their lives, it is laudable for all householders observant of the duties of men living in sacred places to lay down their lives on the banks of sacred streams.[1549] When one's period of life becomes exhausted, one dissolves away into the …

Jiva, after dissolution of the body it inhabited, does not, O king, take birth in a different body immediately. It roves through the sky for some time like a spacious cloud. Obtaining a new receptacle, O monarch, it then takes birth again.

The soul is above the mind. The mind is above the senses.

Mobile creatures, again, are foremost of all created objects. Of all mobile creatures those that have two legs are superior. Amongst two-legged creatures, those that are regenerate are superior. Amongst those that are regenerate they that are possessed of wisdom are superior.

The lives of the righteous, O king, piercing through the Sun, ascend into the regions of Brahma. The lives of those that are both righteous and sinful rove in the middle regions. The lives of those that are sinful sink into the lowest depths.

There is only one foe (of man) and not another. That foe is identifiable with ignorance, O king.

Overwhelmed by it, one is led to perpetrate acts that are frightful and exceedingly cruel.

They are as destitute of vigour as the pith of the banana plant. (Left to themselves) they sink in the world's ocean like a boat (made of weak materials).

There is no fixed time for the acquisition of righteousness. Death waits for no man.

When man is constantly running towards the jaws of Death, the accomplishment of righteous acts is proper at all times.

… manner the mind, by the aid of Yoga-contemplation, raises Jiva sunk in the world's ocean and unemancipated from consciousness of body.[1568] As all rivers running towards the ocean, unite themselves with it, even so the mind, when engaged in Yoga, becomes united with primal Prakriti.[1569]

Men whose minds become bound by diverse chains of affection, and who are engulfed in ignorance, meet with destruction like houses of sand in water.[1570]

That embodied creature who regards his body as only a house and purity (both external and internal) as its sacred water, and who walks along the path of the understanding, succeeds in attaining to happiness both here and hereafter.[1571] The Diverse are productive of misery;

I have no thirst. My wrath hath been suppressed. Seduced by covetousness I do not fall away from the path of righteousness. I do not also approach any one (with solicitations) for wealth.[1578] If cursed, I do not curse in return.

I know that self-restraint is the door of immortality.

I disclose unto you a great mystery. There is no status that is superior to that of humanity. Freed from sin like the Moon from murky clouds, the man of wisdom, shining in resplendence, attains to success by patiently waiting for his time.

I do not also approach any one (with solicitations) for wealth.[1578] If cursed, I do not curse in return. I know that self-restraint is the door of immortality. I disclose unto you a great mystery.

There is no status that is superior to that of humanity.

Freed from sin like the Moon from murky clouds, the man of wisdom, shining in resplendence, attains to success by patiently waiting for his time.

The sacrifices that one performs in anger, the gifts one makes in anger, the penances one undergoes in anger, and the offerings and libations one makes to the sacred fire in anger, are such that their merits are robbed by Yama.

The toil of an angry man becomes entirely fruitless.

Ye foremost of immortals, that person is said to be conversant with righteousness whose four doors, viz., the organ of pleasure, the stomach, the two arms, and speech, are well-restrained.

One should not be an utterer of cruel speeches. One should never take scriptural lectures from a person that is mean. One should never utter such words as inflict pain on others, as cause others to burn (with misery), and as lead to hell.

Wordy shafts fall from the lips. Pierced therewith one (to whom they are directed) burns incessantly.

Those shafts do not strike any part other than the very vitals of the person aimed. Hence he that is possessed of learning should never aim them at others.

On the other hand, the gods associate with those men that are observant of the vow of truth, that are grateful, and that are engaged in the practice of righteousness.

Silence is better than speech. To speak the truth is better than silence.

Again to speak truth that is connected with righteousness is better than to speak the truth. To speak that which, besides being true and righteous, is agreeable, is better than to speak truth connected with righteousness.'

"'"The Swan said, 'The world is enveloped by (the darkness of) Ignorance. Men fail to shine in consequence of malice.

People cast off friends, induced by covetousness. Men fail to attain to heaven in consequence of attachment.

'

"'"The Swan said, '

The world is enveloped by (the darkness of) Ignorance. Men fail to shine in consequence of malice.

People cast off friends, induced by covetousness. Men fail to attain to heaven in consequence of attachment.'

As a weak man, O king, is swept away by a current, even so is a weak Yogin helplessly carried away by objects of the senses.

An elephant withstands a mighty current.

After the same manner, a Yogin, having acquired Yoga-puissance, withstands all objects of the senses.

They are Desire and Wrath and Fear and Sleep and Breath. These faults are seen in the bodies of all embodied creatures.

Those that are endued with wisdom cut the root of wrath with the aid of Forgiveness.

Desire is cut off by casting off all purposes. By cultivation of the quality of Goodness (Sattwa) sleep is conquered, and Fear is conquered by cultivating Heedfulness. Breath is conquered by abstemiousness of diet O king.

Skin, flesh, blood, fat, bile, marrow, and sinews, and these senses (of both knowledge and action), about which thou wert speaking unto me, exist. Objects flow from objects; the senses from the senses.

From body one obtains a body, as a seed is obtained from seed.

When the Supreme Being is without senses, without seed, without matter, without body, He must be divested of all attributes, and in consequence of His being so, how, indeed, can He have attributes of any kind?

That Supreme Soul which is Unborn and which is the essence of nectar, that is seen by high-souled Brahmanas endued with intelligence and wisdom and conversant with the Vedas, is subtiler than what is subtile and greater than what is great.

That Soul, though dwelling in all creatures, is not seen by them.

The creator of the worlds, He is seen only by a person endued with wealth of intelligence when aided by the lamp of the mind.

The measure of their night also is the same.[1649] The Mind roveth over all things, O king, led on by the Senses.

The Senses do not perceive anything. It is the Mind that perceives through them.

The Eye sees forms when aided by the Mind but never by itself. When the Mind is distracted, the Eye fails to perceive with even the objects fully before it. It is commonly said that the Senses perceive.

The Sankhyas are devoted to the practices of their system. The Yogins are devoted to the practices inculcated by their system. Others there are that are desirous of achieving their Emancipation. Unto these latter this science is productive of visible fruits, O lion among kings.

Emancipation flows from Knowledge. Without Knowledge it can never be attained.

The wise have said it, O monarch. Hence, one should strive one's best for acquiring true Knowledge in all its details, by which one may succeed in freeing oneself from birth and death.

Do thou, therefore, O monarch, become Pure! The giver, the receiver of the gift, the gift itself, and that which is ordered to be given away, are all to be deemed as the unmanifest Soul.

The Soul is the Soul's one possession. Who, therefore, can be a stranger to one?

Do thou think always in this way. Never think otherwise. He who does not know what is Prakriti possessed of attributes and what is Purusha transcending attributes, only he, not possessed as he is of knowledge, repairs to sacred waters and performs sacrifices.

I got all this knowledge from Janaka. The latter had obtained it from Yajnavalkya.

Knowledge is very superior. Sacrifices cannot compare with it.

With the aid of Knowledge one succeeds in crossing the world's ocean which is full of difficulties and dangers. One can never cross that ocean by means of sacrifices.

Neither days, nor nights, nor months, cease to go on. Only that man, who, though transitory, betakes himself to the eternal path (of the religion of Nivritti or abstention from all acts) succeeds in avoiding birth and death. Destruction overtakes all creatures.

All creatures seem to be ceaselessly borne along the infinite current of time.

Those that are borne along the infinite current of time which is without a raft (to rescue) and which is infested by those two mighty alligators, viz., decrepitude and death, sink down without anybody coming to their assistance.

One meets with spouses and other friends only on one's road. One had never before enjoyed this kind of companionship with any one for any length of time.

Creatures, as they are borne along the current of time, become repeatedly attracted towards one another like masses of clouds moved by the wind meeting one another with loud sound.

Decrepitude and death are devourers of all creatures, like wolves. Indeed, they devour the strong and the weak, the short and the tall. Among creatures, therefore, which are all so transitory, only the Soul exists eternally.

Or, if, beholding the mitigation of sorrow in it, thou hast betaken thyself to these emblems of Sannyasi, why then should not the mitigation of sorrow be beheld in the umbrella and the sceptre to which I have betaken myself?

Emancipation does not exist in poverty; nor is bondage to be found in affluence.

One attains to Emancipation through Knowledge alone, whether one is indigent or affluent.

This is the case with his objects of enjoyment, with the food he eats, and with the robes he wears. He is thus attached to a very limited share of all things. He is, again, attached to the duties of rewarding and punishing.

The king is always dependent on others.

He enjoys a very small share of all he is supposed to own, and to that small share he is forced to be attached (as well as others are attached to their respective possessions).

Even when there is no cause of fear, the king entertains fear of those that always wait upon and worship him. Those I have mentioned O king, also find fault with him. Behold, in what way the king's fears may arise from even them!

Then again all men are kings in their own houses.

All men, again, in their own houses are house-holders. Like kings, O Janaka, all men in their own houses chastise and reward. Like kings others also have sons and spouses and their own selves and treasuries and friends and stores.

The king is afflicted (like others) by all couples of opposites (as pleasure and pain, etc). He is alarmed at everything. Indeed, full of foes and impediments as kingdom is, the king, while he enjoys it, passes nights of sleeplessness.

Sovereignty, therefore, is blessed with an exceedingly small share of happiness. The misery with which it is endued is very great.

It is as unsubstantial as burning flames fed by straw or the bubbles of froth seen on the surface of water. Who is there that would like to obtain sovereignty, or having acquired sovereignty can hope to win tranquillity?

Sovereignty, therefore, is blessed with an exceedingly small share of happiness. The misery with which it is endued is very great. It is as unsubstantial as burning flames fed by straw or the bubbles of froth seen on the surface of water.

Who is there that would like to obtain sovereignty, or having acquired sovereignty can hope to win tranquillity?

Thou regardest this kingdom and this palace to be thine. Thou thinkest also this army, this treasury, and these counsellers to belong to thee. Whose, however, in reality are they, and whose are they not?

Only those that regard the soul to be identical with the body, and that think the several orders and modes of life to be really different from one another, are open to the error of supposing an intermingling to be possible.

My body is different from thine. But my soul is not different from thy soul.

When I am able to realise this, I have not the slightest doubt that my understanding is really not staying in thine though I have entered into thee by Yoga.[1709] A pot is borne in the hand. In the pot is milk.

It is again well known that nobody asks any of these, saying, who art thou? Each of them also has no knowledge either of itself or of the others.

The eye cannot see itself. The ear cannot hear itself.

The eye, again, cannot discharge the functions of any of the other senses, nor can any of the senses discharge the functions of any sense save its own.

The constituent elements of the body, which serve diverse functions in the general economy, undergo change every moment in every creature. Those changes, however, are so minute that they cannot be noticed.[1700]

The birth of particles, and their death, in each successive condition, can not be marked, O king, even as one cannot mark the changes in the flame of a burning lamp.[1701]

When such is the state of the bodies of all creatures,—that is when that which is called the body is changing incessantly even like the rapid locomotion of a steed of good mettle,—who then has come whence or not whence, or whose is it or …

Do thou employ thyself in seeking for thy soul which is hidden in a cave. Where have all thy grandsires gone? Do that today which thou wouldst keep for tomorrow. Do that in the forenoon which thou wouldst keep for the afternoon.

Death does not wait for any one, to see whether one has or has not accomplished one's task.

Following the body after one's death (to the crematorium), one's relatives and kinsmen and friends come back, throwing it on the funeral pyre.

Rest thou on truth, firmly devoted to righteousness, abandoning all sort of insincerity and deceit. Do thou support thy life on what remains of food after feeding gods and guests.

Thy body is as transitory as the froth on the surface of water.

The Jiva-soul is sitting unattached in it as a bird on a tree. The companionship of all agreeable object is exceedingly short-lived. Why then, O son, dost thou sleep in such forgetfulness?

Those that are not righteous should not be counted among men even as grains without kernel are not counted among grain and as cockroaches are not counted among birds.

The acts that one does, follow one even when one runs fast.

Whatever acts one does, lie down with the doer who lays himself down. Indeed, the sins one does, sit when the doer sits, and run when he runs. The sins act when the doer acts, and, in fact follow the doer like his shadow.

The acts that one does, follow one even when one runs fast. Whatever acts one does, lie down with the doer who lays himself down.

Indeed, the sins one does, sit when the doer sits, and run when he runs.

The sins act when the doer acts, and, in fact follow the doer like his shadow.

O thou of high intelligence, the desires and purposes of those whose sins have been washed off by long-continued penances well-performed, become crowned with fruition.

The track of the righteous cannot be discerned even as that of birds in the sky or that of fishes in the water.

There is no need of speaking ill of others, nor of reciting the instances in which others have tripped. On the other hand, one should always do what is delightful, agreeable, and beneficial to one's own self."'"[1736]

In this connection, there is a saying sung of old by king Yayati and borne in remembrance, O sire, by all persons conversant with the scriptures bearing upon Emancipation.

The effulgent ray (i.e., the Supreme Soul) exists in one's Soul and not anywhere else. It exists equally in all creatures.

One can see it oneself if one's heart be devoted to Yoga.

One observing the duties of the mendicant orders should restrain one's senses and the mind even like a tortoise withdrawing its out-stretched limbs.[1744]

As a house enveloped in darkness is capable of being seen with the aid of a lighted lamp, after the same manner can the soul be seen with the aid of the lamp of the understanding.

O foremost of intelligent persons, I see that all this knowledge that I am communicating to thee dwells in thee. Whatever else should be known by one desirous of learning the religion of Emancipation is already known to thee.

Nor should they be given for dwelling in one that is of uncleansed soul. These should be known as the proper qualifications of persons that can be accepted as disciples (for the communication of Vedic knowledge).

No science should be imparted unto one without a proper examination of one's character, as pure gold is tested by heat, cutting and rubbing, after the same manner disciples should be tested by their birth and accomplishments.

Ye should never set your disciples to tasks to which they should not be set, or to tasks that are fraught with danger. One's knowledge is always commensurate with one's understanding and diligence in study.

Ye should never set your disciples to tasks to which they should not be set, or to tasks that are fraught with danger.

One's knowledge is always commensurate with one's understanding and diligence in study.

Let all disciples conquer all difficulties, and let all of them meet with auspicious success. Ye are competent to lecture on the scriptures unto persons of all the orders. Only ye should, while lecturing, address a Brahmana, placing him in the van.

One should, by every means in one's power, restrain both desire and wrath if one seeks to achieve what is for one's good. Those two (viz., desire and wrath) arise for only destroying one's good.[1756]

One should always protect one's penances from wrath, and one's prosperity from pride.

One should always protect one's knowledge from honour and dishonour and one's soul from error.[1757] Compassion is the highest virtue. Forgiveness is the highest might. The knowledge of self is the highest knowledge. There is nothing higher than truth.

Those two (viz., desire and wrath) arise for only destroying one's good.[1756] One should always protect one's penances from wrath, and one's prosperity from pride. One should always protect one's knowledge from honour and dishonour and one's soul from error.[1757]

Compassion is the highest virtue. Forgiveness is the highest might.

The knowledge of self is the highest knowledge. There is nothing higher than truth. It is always proper to speak the truth. It is better again to speak what is beneficial than to speak what is true.

One should always protect one's knowledge from honour and dishonour and one's soul from error.[1757] Compassion is the highest virtue. Forgiveness is the highest might.

The knowledge of self is the highest knowledge. There is nothing higher than truth.

It is always proper to speak the truth. It is better again to speak what is beneficial than to speak what is true.

Forgiveness is the highest might. The knowledge of self is the highest knowledge. There is nothing higher than truth. It is always proper to speak the truth.

It is better again to speak what is beneficial than to speak what is true.

I hold that that is truth which is fraught with the greatest benefit in all creatures.[1758] That man is said to be truly learned and truly possessed of wisdom who abandons every act, who never indulges in hope, who is completely dissociated from all worldly …

Forgiveness is the highest might. The knowledge of self is the highest knowledge. There is nothing higher than truth. It is always proper to speak the truth. It is better again to speak what is beneficial than to speak what is true.

I hold that that is truth which is fraught with the greatest benefit in all creatures.[1758]

That man is said to be truly learned and truly possessed of wisdom who abandons every act, who never indulges in hope, who is completely dissociated from all worldly surroundings, and who has renounced everything that appertains to the world.

"'"Narada said, 'In days of yore the illustrious Sanatkumara had said these words unto certain Rishis of cleansed souls that had repaired to him for enquiring after the truth.

There is no eye like that of knowledge. There is no penance like renunciation.

Abstention from sinful acts, steady practice of righteousness, good conduct, the due observance of all religious duties,—these constitute the highest good. Having obtained the status of humanity which is fraught with sorrow, he that becomes attached to it, becomes stupefied:

Casting off all attachments, O child, do thou subjugate all thy senses, and by that means attain to felicity both here and hereafter.

They that are free from cupidity have never to suffer any sorrow.

One should, therefore, cast off all cupidity from one's soul. By casting off cupidity, O amiable and blessed one, thou shalt be able to free thyself from sorrow and pain.

One attains to the status of the deities by means of good acts; to the status of humanity by means of acts that are good and bad; while by acts that are purely wicked, one helplessly falls down among the lower animals.

Always assailed by sorrow and decrepitude and death, a living creature is being cooked in this world (in the cauldron of Time).

Dost thou not known it? Thou frequently regardest that to be beneficial which is really injurious; that to be certain which is really uncertain; and that to be desirable and good which is undesirable and not good.

Thou frequently regardest that to be beneficial which is really injurious; that to be certain which is really uncertain; and that to be desirable and good which is undesirable and not good. Alas, why dost thou not awake to a correct apprehension of these?

Like a silkworm that ensconces itself in its own cocoon, thou art continually ensconcing thyself in a cocoon made of thy own innumerable acts born of stupefaction and error.

Alas, why dost thou not awake to a correct apprehension of thy situation? No need of attaching thyself to things of this world. Attachment to worldly objects is productive of evil.

Relatives, sons, spouses, the body itself, and all one's possessions stored with care, are unsubstantial and prove of no service in the next world.

Only acts, good and bad, that one does, follow one to the other world.

When it is certain that thou shalt have to go helplessly to the other world, leaving behind thee all these things alas, why dost thou then suffer thyself to be attached to such unsubstantial things of no value, without attending to that which constitutes thy …

… that thou shalt have to go helplessly to the other world, leaving behind thee all these things alas, why dost thou then suffer thyself to be attached to such unsubstantial things of no value, without attending to that which constitutes thy real and durable wealth?

The path which thou shalt have to travel through is without resting places of any kind (in which to take rest).

There is no support along that way which one may catch for upholding oneself. The country through which it passes is unknown and undiscovered. It is, again enveloped in thick darkness.

Having obtained the status of humanity which is fraught with sorrow, he that becomes attached to it, becomes stupefied: such a man never succeeds in emancipating himself from sorrow.

Attachment (to things of the world) is an indication of sorrow.

The understanding of person that is attached to worldly things becomes more and more enmeshed in the net of stupefaction. The man who becomes enmeshed in the net of stupefaction attains to sorrow, both here and hereafter.

The desire that one feels for living in the midst of human habitations is like a binding cord. They that are of good acts succeed in tearing that bond and freeing themselves. Only men of wicked deeds do not succeed in breaking them.

The river of life (or the world) is terrible.

Personal beauty or form constitutes its banks. The mind is the speed of its current. Touch forms its island. Taste constitutes its current. Scent is its mire. Sound is its waters. That particular part of it which leads towards heaven is attended with great difficulties.

Personal beauty or form constitutes its banks. The mind is the speed of its current. Touch forms its island. Taste constitutes its current. Scent is its mire. Sound is its waters. That particular part of it which leads towards heaven is attended with great difficulties.

Body is the boat by which one must cross that river. Forgiveness is the oar by which it is to be propelled.

Truth is the ballast that is to steady that boat. The practice of righteousness is the string that is to be attached to the mast for dragging that boat along difficult waters. Charity of gift constitutes the wind that urges the sails of that boat.

Scent is its mire. Sound is its waters. That particular part of it which leads towards heaven is attended with great difficulties. Body is the boat by which one must cross that river. Forgiveness is the oar by which it is to be propelled.

Truth is the ballast that is to steady that boat.

The practice of righteousness is the string that is to be attached to the mast for dragging that boat along difficult waters. Charity of gift constitutes the wind that urges the sails of that boat.

Whatever objects exist of knowledge, should be known gradually, one after another. All objects that are apprehended by the senses are called Manifest. Whatever objects transcend the senses and are apprehended by means only of their indications are said to be Unmanifest.

By restraining the senses, one wins great gratification, even like a thirsty and parched traveller at a delicious shower of rain.

Having subjugated the senses one beholds one's soul spread out for embracing all objects, and all objects in one's soul.

One should always seek to find out the faults of those things to which one begins to become attached. One should always regard such things to be fraught with much evil. By doing so, one should soon free oneself therefrom.

The man who grieves for what is past fails to acquire either wealth or religious merit or fame.

That which exists no longer cannot be obtained. When such things pass away, they do not return (however keen the regret one may indulge in for their sake). Creatures sometimes acquire and sometimes lose worldly object.

When such things pass away, they do not return (however keen the regret one may indulge in for their sake). Creatures sometimes acquire and sometimes lose worldly object. No man in this world can be grieved by all the events that fall upon him.

Dead or lost, he who grieves for what is past, only gets sorrow for sorrow. Instead of one sorrow, he gets two.[1763]

Those men who, beholding the course of life and death in the world with the aid of their intelligence, do not shed tears, are said to behold properly. Such persons have never to shed tears, (at anything that may happen).

Such persons have never to shed tears, (at anything that may happen). When any such calamity comes, productive of either physical or mental grief, as is incapable of being warded off by even one's best efforts, one should cease to reflect on it with sorrow.

This is the medicine for sorrow, viz., not to think of it.

By thinking of it, one can never dispel it; on the other hand, by thinking upon sorrow, one only enhances it. Mental griefs should be killed by wisdom; while physical grief should be dispelled by medicines. This is the power of knowledge.

This is the medicine for sorrow, viz., not to think of it. By thinking of it, one can never dispel it; on the other hand, by thinking upon sorrow, one only enhances it.

Mental griefs should be killed by wisdom; while physical grief should be dispelled by medicines.

This is the power of knowledge. One should not, in such matters, behave like men of little understandings. Youth, beauty, life, stored wealth, health, association with those that are loved,—these all are exceedingly transitory. One possessed of wisdom should never covet them.

"'"Narada said, 'By listening to such scriptures as are blessed, as bring about tranquillity, as dispel grief, and as are productive of happiness, one attains to (a pure) understanding, and having attained to it obtains to high felicity.

A thousand causes of sorrow, a hundred causes of fear, from day to day, afflict one that is destitute of understanding, but not one that is possessed of wisdom and learning.

Do thou, therefore, listen to some old narratives as I recite them to you, for the object of dispelling thy griefs. If one can subjugate one's understanding, one is sure to attain to happiness.

on the other hand, by thinking upon sorrow, one only enhances it. Mental griefs should be killed by wisdom; while physical grief should be dispelled by medicines. This is the power of knowledge. One should not, in such matters, behave like men of little understandings.

Youth, beauty, life, stored wealth, health, association with those that are loved,—these all are exceedingly transitory.

One possessed of wisdom should never covet them. One should not lament individually for a sorrowful occurrence that concerns an entire community.

That man who casts off both joy and sorrow, is said to attain to Brahma. When such a man departs from this world, men of wisdom never indulge in any sorrow on his account.

In spending wealth there is pain. In protecting it there is pain.

In acquiring it there is pain. Hence, when one's wealth meets with destruction, one should not indulge in any sorrow for it. Men of little understanding, attaining to different grades of wealth, fail to win contentment and at last perish in misery.

In acquiring it there is pain. Hence, when one's wealth meets with destruction, one should not indulge in any sorrow for it. Men of little understanding, attaining to different grades of wealth, fail to win contentment and at last perish in misery.

Men of wisdom, however, are always contented.

All combinations are destined to end in dissolution. All things that are high are destined to fall down and become low. Union is sure to end in disunion and life is certain to end in death. Thirst is unquenchable. Contentment is the highest happiness.

Men of wisdom, however, are always contented. All combinations are destined to end in dissolution. All things that are high are destined to fall down and become low. Union is sure to end in disunion and life is certain to end in death.

Thirst is unquenchable. Contentment is the highest happiness.

Hence, persons of wisdom regard contentment to be the most precious wealth. One's allotted period of life is running continually. It stops not in its course for even a single moment.

Union is sure to end in disunion and life is certain to end in death. Thirst is unquenchable. Contentment is the highest happiness. Hence, persons of wisdom regard contentment to be the most precious wealth.

One's allotted period of life is running continually. It stops not in its course for even a single moment.

When one's body itself is not durable, what other thing is there (in this world) that one should reckon as durable?

Do thou, therefore, listen to some old narratives as I recite them to you, for the object of dispelling thy griefs.

If one can subjugate one's understanding, one is sure to attain to happiness.

By association of what is undesirable and dissociation from what is agreeable, only men of little intelligence, become subject to mental sorrow of every kind. When things have become past, one should not grieve, thinking of their merits.

… do not long after success, to be crowned with the fruition of all their desires.[1772] Some one else, who is always ready to do acts of injury to all creatures, and who is engaged in deceiving all the world, is seen to wallow in happiness.

Some one that sits idly, obtains great prosperity; while another, by exerting earnestly, is seen to miss desirable fruits almost within his reach.[1773]

Do thou ascribe it as one of the faults of man! The vital seed, originating in one's nature from sight of one person, goes to another person. When imparted to the womb, it sometimes produces an embryo and sometimes fails.

The body of a person that is tortured by thirst, that is agitated by agony, that is perfectly helpless, and that is desirous of prolonging his life, is dragged towards destruction.[1769]

Days and nights are ceaselessly running bearing away in their current the periods of life of all human beings.

Like currents of rivers, these flow ceaselessly without ever turning back.[1770] The ceaseless succession of the lighted and the dark fortnights is wasting all mortal creatures without stopping for even a moment in this work.

All men wish to attain to gradual superiority of position. To gratify this wish they strive to the best of their power.

The result, however, does not agree with wish.[1780]

Even men that are perfectly heedful, that are honest, and brave and endued with prowess, are seen to pay their adorations to men intoxicated with the pride of affluence and with even alcoholic stimulants.[1781] Some men are seen whose calamities disappear before even these are …

Others there are who are seen to possess no wealth but who are free from misery of every kind. A great disparity is observable in respect of the fruits that wait upon conjunctions of acts.

Some are seen to bear vehicles on their shoulders, while some are seen to ride on those vehicles.

All men are desirous of affluence and prosperity. A few only have cars (and elephants and steeds) dragged (or walking) in their processions. Some there are that fail to have a single spouse when their first-wedded ones are dead;

A few only have cars (and elephants and steeds) dragged (or walking) in their processions. Some there are that fail to have a single spouse when their first-wedded ones are dead; while others have hundreds of spouses to call their own.

Misery and happiness are the two things that exist side by side.

Men have either misery or happiness. Behold, this is a subject of wonder! Do not, however, suffer thyself to be stupefied by error at such a sight! Cast off both righteousness and sin! Cast off also truth and falsehood!

… that is tortured by thirst, that is agitated by agony, that is perfectly helpless, and that is desirous of prolonging his life, is dragged towards destruction.[1769] Days and nights are ceaselessly running bearing away in their current the periods of life of all human beings.

Like currents of rivers, these flow ceaselessly without ever turning back.[1770]

The ceaseless succession of the lighted and the dark fortnights is wasting all mortal creatures without stopping for even a moment in this work.

From Pradyumna I take birth myself as Aniruddha. I create (myself) repeatedly. From Aniruddha springs Brahman. The latter takes birth from Aniruddha's navel. From Brahman spring all creatures mobile and immobile. Know that Creation springs in this way repeatedly at the beginning of every Kalpa.

Creation and destruction succeed each other even as sunrise and sunset in this world.

Then, again, as Time, endued with immeasurable energy, forcibly brings back the Sun after his disappearance, after the same manner I shall, assuming the form of boar and putting forth my strength, bring back the Earth with her belt of seas to her own position …

The Brahmanas become immortal by studying the Vedas, and repair to heaven through the aid of such study. The intelligence, speech, acts and observances, faith, and the penances of the Brahmanas uphold both the Earth and the heaven like slings of strings upholding bovine nectar.[1856]

There is no duty higher than Truth. There is no superior more worthy of reverence than the mother.

There is none more efficient than the Brahmana for conferring felicity both here and hereafter. The inhabitants of those realms where Brahmanas have no certain means of support (from lands or other kinds of property assigned to them) become very miserable.

It is for this reason that I came to bear this secret name. Yaksha of great intelligence, having adored me by the name Sipivishta, succeeded in restoring the Niruktas which had disappeared from the surface of the Earth and sunk into nether regions.

I was never born. I never take birth. Nor shall I ever be born.

I am the Kshetrajna of all creatures. Hence am I called by the name of Aja (unborn).[1865] I have never uttered anything base or anything that is obscene.

The Unmanifest (or Prakriti) merges into Purusha (Jivatman) and Purusha merges into the Supreme Soul (or Brahman). Then Darkness spreads over the face of the universe, and nothing can be perceived. From that primal Darkness arises Brahma (endued with the principle of Creation).

Darkness is primeval and fraught with immortality.

Brahma that arises from primeval Darkness develops (by its own potency) into the idea of the universe, and assumes the form of Purusha. Such Purusha is called Aniruddha. Divested of sex, it is called otherwise by the name of Pradhana (Supreme or Primary).

By adopting that religion one attains to the highest end and attains to Emancipation which has Narayana for its soul. That person upon whom Narayana looks with compassion succeeds in becoming awakened.[1906]

No one, O king, can become awakened through his own wishes.

That nature which partakes of both Rajas and Tamas is said to be mixed.

The Sankhya system, the Aranyaka-Veda, and the Pancharatra scriptures, are all one and the same and form parts of one whole. Even this is the religion of those that are devoted with their whole souls to Narayana, the religion that has Narayana for its essence.[1909]

As waves of the ocean, rising from the ocean, rush away from it only to return to it in the end, even so diverse kinds of knowledge, springing from Narayana, return to Narayana in the end.

I have thus explained to thee, O son of Kuru's race, what the religion of Sattwa is. If thou beest competent for it, O Bharata, do thou practise that religion duly.

During that Manwantara, O son, thou shalt, in respect of merits, be superior to even the Manus of the several periods. Without doubt, thou shalt be so through my grace. Whatever exists in the world represents the result of my exertion.

The thoughts of others may not correspond with their acts.

As regards myself, however, I always ordain what I think, without the least impediment!'[1914] Having said these words unto the Rishi Apantaratamas, otherwise called by the name of Saraswat, the Supreme Lord dismissed him, saying unto him.—'Go.'

I shall, however, according to the measure of my knowledge, discourse to thee upon that eternal Purusha and his Oneness and supreme greatness. The learned speak of him as the one Purusha. That one eternal Being deserves the appellation of Mahapurusha (the great supreme Purusha).

Fire is an element, but it may be seen to blaze up in a thousand places under thousand different circumstances. The Sun is one and single, but his rays extend over the wide universe.

Penances are of diverse kinds, but they have one common origin whence they have flowed. The Wind is one, but it blows in diverse forms in the world.

… that task.[1928] And since the best portion of my life has passed away in the observance of domesticity, I desire to devote the remnant of my life in earning the means of defraying the expenses of my journey in respect of the time to come.

The desire has arisen in my mind of crossing the ocean of the world.

Alas, whence shall I get the raft of religion (with which to accomplish my purposes)?

"'"The guest said, 'I myself also am confounded with respect to this topic. The same thought occupies my mind. I am unable to arrive at definite conclusions.

Heaven has many doors.

There are some that applaud Emancipation. Some regenerate persons praise the fruits attainable by the performance of sacrifices. Some there are that take refuge in the forest mode of life. Some, again, betake themselves to the domestic mode of life.

Endued with pure souls, such men of truth and simplicity, have become honoured denizens of heaven. In this world, it is seen, that men betake themselves to heaven, through a thousand doors of duty, all standing wide open.

My understanding has been troubled by thy question, like a fleecy cloud before the wind.

'"'"

It is said that the duties of a Kshatriya embrace the protection of all creatures from wrong and oppression. The duty of the Sudra is to serve with humility persons of the three regenerate orders, viz., Brahmanas, Kshatriyas and Vaisyas.

The religion of the house-holder, O chief of the Nagas, consists in doing good to all creatures.

Frugality of fare and observance of vow in due order, constitute merit (for persons of all classes) in consequence of the connection that exists between the senses and the duties of religion.[1933] "Who am I? Whence have I come?

It behoveth thee not to suffer thyself to be consumed by disappointing that Brahmana. The king or the prince, by refusing to wipe the tears of persons that come to him from hopes of relief, incurs the sin of foeticide.

By abstaining from speech one attains to wisdom. By practising gifts one acquires great fame.

By adhering to truthfulness of speech, one acquires the gift of eloquence and comes to be honoured in heaven. By giving away land one attains to that high end which is ordained for Rishis leading the sacred mode of life.

In consequence, however, of my birth, the measure of my arrogance was considerable. Of wrath, which is born of desire, O blessed lady, I have none. It has all been consumed by the fire of thy excellent instructions.

I do not behold, O blessed dame, any darkness that is thicker than wrath.

In consequence, however, of the Naga having excess of wrath, they have become object of reproach with all persons.[1938] By succumbing to the influence of wrath, the ten-headed Ravana of great prowess, became the rival of Sakra and was for that reason slain by Rama …

"'"The Naga said, 'The divine Surya is the refuge or home of innumerable wonders. All the creatures that inhabit the three worlds have flowed from Surya.

Innumerable Munis, crowned with ascetic success, together with all the deities, reside in the rays of Surya like birds perching on the branches of trees.

What, again, can be more wonderful than this that the mighty Wind, emanating from Surya, takes refuge in his ray and thence yawns over the universe?

"'"The Brahmana said, 'It is even so, O thou of great wisdom, O Naga that hast acquired a knowledge of the soul. It is very true that the deities are not superior to thee in any respect.

He that is thyself, is verily myself, as he that is myself is truly thyself.

Myself, thyself, and all other creatures, shall all have to enter into the Supreme Soul. Doubt penetrated my mind, O chief of Nagas, in the matter of the best means for winning righteousness or merit.