Mokshadharma Parva — Discourse on Kshatriya duties and death

Parashara said The father, the friends, the preceptors, and the wishes of the preceptors of men who are shorn of devotion, are unable to give to those men the merits derivable from devotion. Only they who are firmly devoted to such elders, who speak what is agreeable to them, who speek their well-being, and who are submissive to them in conduct, can acquire the merit to devotion.

That father is the highest of gods with his children. It is said that the father is superior to the mother. The acquirement of Knowledge is are considered as the hightest acquisition. They who have subjugating the objects of the senses, acquire what is highest.

That Kshatriya prince, who going to the battle-field, receives wounds amid fiery arrows shooting in all directions and burns therewith, certainly goes to regions which unattainable by the very gods and, arrived there enjoys the happiness of heaven in perfect contentiment.

A Kshatriya should not, O king, strike one who is fatigued, or one who is terrified, or one who has been disarmed, or one who is weeping, or one who is reluctant to fight, or one who is unequipped with mail and cars and horse and infantry, or one who has ceased to exert in the fight, or one who is ill, or one who cries for quarter. Or one who is of tender years, or one who is old.

A Kshatriya should, in battle, fight one of his order, who is equipped with mail and cars and horse and infantry who is ready for battle, and who is a compeer.

Death at the hands of one who is equal or of a superior is praiseworthy, but not that at the hands of one that is low, or of one who is a coward, or of one who is a wretch. This is well known.

Death at the hands of one who is sinful, or of one who is of low birth and wicked conduct, O king is infamous and leads to hell.

One whose lease of life has run out, cannot be saved by any body. Likewise, one whose lease of life has not run out can never be killed by any one.

One should prevent his affectionate elders from doing to his such acts as done by menials, as also all such acts as can injure others. One should never wish to extend his own life by taking the lives of others.

When they sacrifice their lives, it is laudable for all householders observing the duties of men living in sacred places to give up their lives on the banks of sacred rivers.

When one lease of life is over, his body dissolved into the five elements. Sometimes this occurs suddenly and some times it is brought about by (natural) causes.

He who having obtained a body, destroys it himself becomes invested with another body of a similar nature. Though set on the path of Liberation, he yet becomes a traveller and acquires another body like a person going from one room into another.

About such a man's attainment of a second body the only cause is his accidental death. There is no second cause. That new body which embodied creatures obtain, comes into existence and becomes attached to Rudras and Pishachas.

Learned men, conversant with spiritual science say that the body is a compound of arteries and sinews and bones and much repulsive and impure matter and a compound of essences, and the senses and the objects of the senses born of desire, all having an outer cover of skin close to them. Shorn of beauty and other accomplishments, this compound, through force of the desires of a pristine life, assumes a human forin.

Left off by the owner, the body becomes inanimate and motionless. Indeed, when the principal ingredients return to their respective natures, the body is mixed up with the dust.

Caused by its union with deeds, this body reappears under circumstances determined by its deeds. Indeed O king of the Videhas, under whatever circumstances this body is dissolved, its next birth, determined by the these circumstances, is seen to enjoy and endure the fruits of all its pristine deeds.

Individual Soul after dissolution of the body is inhabited, does not, O king, take birth in a different body at once.

ones It roves through the sky for sometime take a spacious cloud. Getting a new receptacle, O king, 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.

Amongst mobile creatures the two legged are superior. Amongst two-legged creatures, those that are are twice-born are superior.

Amongst those that are twice-born they who are endued with wisdom are superior. Amongst them who are endued with wisdom they that have succeeded in acquiring a knowledge of the soul are superior. Amongst those who are endued with a knowledge of the soul, those who are endued with humility are superior.

Death follows birth in all men. This is settled. Creatures, influenced by the qualities of Goodness, Darkness and Ignorance, pursue acts which have an end.

That man is considered as righteous who meets with dissolution when the Sun is in the northern declension, and at a time and under a constellation both of which are sacred and auspicious, He is righteous who, having purified himself of all sins and performed all his acts according to the best of his might and having abstained from giving pain to any man, meets with death when it comes.

The death that one meets with by taking poision, by hanging, by burning, at the hands of robbers and at the teeth of animals, is said to be an infamous one.

Those man who are righteous never meet with such or similar deaths even if they be afflicted with mental and physical diseases of the most painful sort.

The lives of the pious, O king, piercing through the Sun, ascend into the regions of Brahman. The lives of those who are both righteous and sinful rove in the middle regions. The lives of those who are sinful sink into the lowest depths. There is one only enemy (of man) and not another. That enemy is at one with Ignorance, O king. Overwhelmed by it, is led to perpetrate frightful and exceedingly cruel deeds.

That enemy for resisting which one should display his energy waiting upon the aged according to the duties laid down in the Shrutis,-~-that enemy which cannot be Overcome except by steady endeavours,-meets with destruction, O king, only when it is crushed by the arrows of wisdom. One

The man desirous of acquiring merit should at first study the Vedas and practise penances, becoming a Brahimacharin. He should next, becoming a householder, perform the usual Sacrifices. Establishing his race, he should then enter the forest, controlling his senses, and desirous of acquiring Liberation.

One should never emaciate himself by abstaining from every enjoyment. Of all births, that of a human being is preferable even if one has to become a Chandala.

Indeed, O king, that order of birth (viz., humanity) is the foremost, since by becoming a human being one succeeds in rescuing his self by meritorious acts.

Men always perform righteous acts, O lord, guided by the authority of the Shrutis, so that they may not deviate from the status of humanity.

That man who, having been born as a man that is so difficult of attainment, indulges in malice, disregards righteousness and gives way :o desire, is certainly betrayed by his desires.

That man who regards all creatures impartially guided by affection, considering them worthy of being cherished with loving, aid, who disregards all sorts of wealth, who offers them consolation, gives them food, addresses them in sweet words, and who rejoices in their happiness and grieves in their sorrows, has never to suffer misery in the next world.

Repairing to the Sarasvati, the Naimisha forest, the Pushkara lake, and the other sacred spots on Earth, one should make gifts, practise renunciation, render his aspect amiable, O king, and purify his body with baths and penances.

Those men who meet with death within their houses should have their bodies cremated. Their bodies bodies should should be be taken to the crematorium on cars and there they should be burnt according to the rites of purification that have been laid down in the scriptures,

Religious rites, beneficial ceremonies, the performance of sacrifices, officiation at the sacrifices of others, gifts, the doing of other meritorious deeds, the performance according to the best of his power, of all that has been ordained in in the case of his deceased ancestors,-all these one does for benefiting his own self.

O king! All the scriptures of righteousness and the Vedas with six angas proceed for the welfare of sinless one.

Bhishma continued All this was said by that great sage to the king of the Videhas, O king, in days of yore for his well-being.