Mokshadharma Parva — What yields good. What is the best path? What is that which being done is never destroyed? What is that place from which there is no return? Parasara's replies

Daksha said Once again Janaka, the king of Mithila, asked the great Parashara gifted with certain knowledge regarding all duties.

Janaka said What yields good? What is the best path (for living creatures)? What is that which being done is never destroyed? What is that spot going where one has not to return? Tell me all this, O you of great intelligence.

Parashara said Dissociation is the root of what is good. Knowledge is the greatest path. Penances practised are never destroyed. Gifts also, made to worthy persons, are not lost.

When one, snapping the fetters of sin, begins to take pleasure in virtue, and when one makes that highest of all gifts, viz., the promise of all harmlessness to all creatures, then does one acquire success.

He who gives away thousands of kine and hundreds of horses, and who promises harmlessness to all creatures receives in return the promise of harmlessness from all.

One may live in the midst of all sorts or riches and cnjoyment, yet, if blessed with intelligence, one does not live in them; while he who is shorn of intelligence lives wholly in objects of enjoyment which unsubstantial.

Sin cannot attach to a wise man as water cannot drench the leaves of the lotus. Sin sticks more firmly to him who is without attachment as lac and wood stick firmly to each other.

Sin, which cannot be dissipated except by endurance of its fruits, never leaves the doer. The doer, when the time comes, has to suffer the consequences thereof. They, however, who are of purified souls and who realise the cxistence of Brahma, are never afflicted by the fruits of their deeds. are even

Careless in about one's senses of knowledge and of action, one who is not conscious of his wicked deeds, and whose heart is attached to both good and bad, becomes afflicted with great fear.

One who at all times becomes entirely freed from attachments and who completely subdues the passion of anger, is never sullied by sin even if he lives in the enjoyment of worldly objects.

As a dyke set across a river, if not washed away, makes the waters thereof to swell up, so the man who, without being attached to objects of pleasure, creates the dyke of virtue whose materials consist of the limitations set down in the scriptures, has never to wane away. On the other hand, his merits and penances, increase.

As the pure gem absorbs and attracts to itself, according to the natural law, the rays of the Sun, so, O foremost of kings, does Yoga proceed by help of rapt attention.

As sesame seeds, for being always with sweet-scented flowers, become in respect of quality very sweet, so the quality of Goodness arises in men proportionate to the extent of their association with persons of purified souls.

When one becomes desirous of living in heaven, he abandons his wives and riches and rank and vehicles and various sorts of good deeds. indeed, when one gets such a bent of mind, his understanding is said to be dissociated from the objects of the senses.

That man who, with understanding attached to the objects of the senses, becomes blind to what is for his real well-beings, is dragged by his heart which runs after all earthly objects, like a fish by the bait of meat.

Like the body that is made up of different limbs and organs, all mortal creatures exist depending upon one another. They are weak like the pith of the banana plant. They sink in the world's ocean like a boat.

There is no fixed time for the acquisition of virtue. Death waits for no man. When man is constantly running towards the jaws of Death, the doing of pious deeds is proper at all times.

Like a blind man who, with attention, can move about his own house, the wise man, with mind fixed on Yoga, can proceed along the road.

It has been said that death originates from birth. Birth is subject to the control of death. One unacquainted with the course of the duties of Liberation revolves like a wheel between birth and death, unable to free himself from that fate.

One who walks along the road recommended by the understanding acquires happiness both in this world and the next. Many of them are fraught with misery; while the Few yield happiness. Fruits represented by Nescience form the Many. Renunciation yields the soul's happiness.

As the lotus stalk quickly leaves the mire attached to it, so the Soul can quickly renounce the mind.

It is the mind that at first inclines the Soul to Yoga. The latter then merges the former into itself. When the Soul gains success in Yoga, it then sees itself invested with qualities.

Engaged amid the objects of the senses, one who considers such engagement to be his employment falls away from his true employment on account of such devotion to those objects.

The soul of the wise man acquires, through its pious deeds, a state of great happiness in heaven, while that of the man who is not endued with wisdom sinks very low or is born among intermediate creatures.

As a liquid substance, if kept in a baked earthen pot, does not escape therefrom but remains undiminished similarly, one's body with which one had practised penances enjoys (without rejecting) all objects of pleasure.

Verily, that man who enjoys earthly objects can never be liberated. That man, however, who renounces such objects, succeeds in enjoying great happiness hereafter.

Like one suffering from blindness and, therefore, incapable of seeing his way, the sensualist, with soul confined in an opaque case, seems to be surrounded by a mist and cannot see (the true object).

As merchants, going across the sea, make profits according to their capital, so creatures, in this world of men, attain to ends proportionate to their respective deeds.

Like a snake devouring air, Death walks in this world made up of days and nights in the form of Decrepitude and devours all ceatures.

A creature, when born, enjoys or suffers the fruits of deeds done by him in his pristine lives. There is nothing agreeable or disagreeable which one enjoys or suffers without its being the result of the deeds one has done in his previous lives.

Whether lying or proceeding, whether sitting idly or engaged in his business, in whatever state a man may be, his pristine deeds good or bad, always approach him.

One who has gone to the other end of the ocean, wishes not to cross the sea for returning to the bank whence he had sailed.

As the fisherman, when he wishes, raises with the help of his chord his boat sunk in the waters, similarly the mind by the help of Yoga contemplation, raises individual Soul sunk in the world's ocean and unliberated from consciousness of body.

As all rivers running towards the ocean, join it, so the mind, when engaged in Yoga, becomes united with primal Nature.

Men whose minds become fettered by various bonds of affection, and who are sunk in ignorance, meet with destruction like houses of sand in water.

That embodied creature who considers his body as only a house and purity as its sacred water, and who walks along the road of the understanding, acquires happiness both in this world and the next.

The Many yield misery; while the Few yield happiness. The Many are the fruits represented by the Nescience. Renunciation produces the soul's benefit.

One's friends who originate from his determination, and one's kinsmen whose attachment is due to selfish reasons, one's wives and sons and servants only devour his riches.

Neither the mother, nor the father, can confer the slightest benefit upon him in the next world. Gifts form the diet upon which he can live. Indeed, one is compelled to enjoy the fruits of his own deeds.

The mother, the son, the father, the brother, the wife, and friends, are like lines drawn with gold by the side of gold itself.

All acts, good and bad, done in pristine lives, visit the doer. Knowing that everything enjoys or suffers at present is the outcome of his pristine deeds, the soul makes the understanding move on different directions.

Depending on earnest endeavour and equipped with proper aids, he who undertakes to accomplish his tasks never meets with failure.

As the rays of light never abandon the Sun, so prosperity never leaves him who has firm faith.

That act which a man of pure soul does with faith and earnestness, with the help of proper means, without pride, and with intelligence, becomes never lost.

A creature obtains from the very time of his residence in the mother's womb all his own acts good and bad that were acquired by him in his pristine lives. Death, which is irresistible, helped by Time which encompasses the destruction of life, takes all creatures to their end like wind scattering the dust of sawed timber.

Through acts good and bad done by himself in his pristine lives, man acquires gold and animals, and wives, and children, and honour of birth, and costly possessions, and his entire affluence.

Bhishma continued Thus addressed agreeably to the truth by the sage, Janaka, that foremost of pious men, O king, heard everything the Rishi said and acquired great happiness from it.