Mokshadharma Parva — How Sukha was won over to Renunciation

Yudhishthira said How was Shuka the son of Vyasa, in days of yore, won over to Renunciation? I wish to hear you recite the story. My curiosity about it is irrepressible.

You should, O you of Kuru's race, describe to me on the conclusions about the Unmanifest, the Manifest, and of the Truth (or Brahma) that is in, but unattached to, them, as also of the acts of self-create Narayana, as they are known to you.

Bhishma said Seeing his son Shuka living fearlessly as ordinary men do in practices that are regarded innocent by them, Vyasa taught him the entire Vedas and then discoursed to him one day in following manner.

Vyasa said O son, becoming the master of your senses, do you conquer extreme cold and extreme heat, hunger and thirst, and the wind also, and having controlled them, do you practise virtue.

Do you duly observe truth and sincerity, and freedom from anger and malice, and selfcontrol and penances, and the duties of benevolence and mercy.

Rest you on truth, firmly devoted to virtue, renouncing all sorts of insincerity and deceit. Do you support your life on the remnants of food after feeding gods and guests.

Your body is as fickle as the froth on the surface of water. The Individual Soul is sitting unattached in it as a bird on a tree. The companionship of all agreeable objects is transitory. Why then, O son, do you sleep in such forgetfulness?

Your enemies are careful and awake and ever-ready (to assail you) and always watchful of their opportunity. Why are you so foolish as not to know this?

As the days are going one after another, and period of your life is being decreased. Indeed, when your life is being continually shortened, why do you not run to preceptors?

Only they who have no faith, set their hearts on worldly things that have the only effect of increasing flesh and blood. They do not care for the next world.

Those men who are stupefied by erroneous understandings show a hatred for virtue. The man who follows those misguided persons that have taken to devious and wrong paths is afflicted equally with them.

They, however, who are contented, devoted to the scriptures, gifted with high souls, and possessed of great might, follow the path of virtue. Do you wait upon them with respect and seek instruction from them.

Do you act according to the instructions received from those wise men whose eyes are set upon virtue. With understanding purified by such instructions and made superior, do you then control your heart which is ever ready to deviate from the right course.

They who always think about the present, who fearlessly consider the tomorrow as something quite remote,-they who do not observe any restrictions about food-are really senseless wights who fail to understand that this world is only a field of probation.

Going to the flight of steps formed by Virtue. Do you ascend those steps one after another. At present you are like a worm which weaves its cocoon round itself and thereby closes up all means of escape.

Do you shun unhesitatingly, the atheist who transgresses all restraints, who is situated like a house by the side of a dreadful and encroaching current, and who seems to stand like a bamboo with its head erect in pride.

Do you with the raft of Yoga cross the ocean of the world those whose five senses constitute its waters, having Desires and Anger and Death for its fierce monsters, and birth for its votex.

Do you cross, with the raft of Virtue, the world that is affected by Death and afflicted by Decrepitude, and upon which the thunder-bolts formed by days and nights and falling incessantly.

When Death is seeking you at every moment, it is certain that Death may get you for his victim at any time. Whence will you get your rescue.

Like the she-wolf snatching away a lamb, Death snatches away one who is still engaged in acquiring wealth and still unsatisfied in the enjoyment of pleasures.

When you are destined to enter into the dark, do you hold up the blazing lamp or righteous understanding and whose flame has been sufficiently kept.

Getting by various forms one after another in the world of men, a creature acquires the status of Brahmanhood with great difficulty. You have acquired that status. Do you then, O son, try to maintain it.

A Brahmana has not been born for the gratification of senses. On the other hand, his body, for being subjected to mortification and penances in this world so that he may enjoy peerless happiness in the next world.

The status of Brahmanhood is acquired by long-continued and austere penances. Having gained that status one should never waste his time in the gratification of his senses. Always engaged in penances and self-control and desirous of what is for your well being, do you live and act, devoted to peace and tranquillity.

The life, of every man, is like a horse. The nature of that horse unmanifest. The elements from its body. Its nature is highly subtile. Kshanas, and Trutis, and Nimeshas are the hair on its body. The twilight's form its shoulderjoints. The lighted and the dark fortnights form its two equally powerful eyes. Months are its other limbs. That horse is running incessantly.

If your eyes be not blind, seeing then that horse continually moving forward in its invisible course, do you set your heart on virtue, after hearing what your preceptors have 10 say about the next world.

They who deviate from virtue and who act carelessly, who always show malice towards others and take to evil ways, are obliged to take bodies in the regions of Yama and suffer various afflictions on account of their various sinful deeds.

That king who is given to virtue and who protects and punishes the good and the wicked with discrimination, acquires the regions of the men of righteous deeds. By doing various good acts, he acquires such happiness as is faultless and as is incapable of being attained to by going through even thousands of births.

Dreadful dogs, crows or iron beaks, flocks of ravens and vultures and other birds, and blood-sucking worms, attacks the man who disobeys the commands of his parents and preceptors when he goes to hell after death.

That sinful wretch who, on account of his carelessness, transgresses the ten boundaries that have been fixed by the Self-create himself, is obliged to pass his time in great inisery in the wild deserts situated in the dominions of Death.

That man who is sullied with cupidity, who is fond of falsehood, who always takes pleasure in deception and cheating, and who does injuries to others by practising hypocrisy and deception, has to go to deep hell and suffer great misery and afflictions for his acts of iniquity.

Such a man is compelled to bathe in the broad river called Vaitarani whose waters are scalding, to enter into a forest of trees whose leaves are as sharp as swords, and then to lie down on a bed of axes. He has thus to pass his days in dreadful hell in great misery.

You see only the regions of Brahman and other gods, but you cannot see what is the highest. Alas, you are ever blind also to what brings Death on its train.

Follow the path of Liberation. Why do you delay? A frightful terror, destructive of your happiness, is before you: Do you take prompt mcasures for acquiring Liberation.

Soon after death you are sure to be taken before Yama at his behest. For acquiring happiness in the next world, try to acquire virtue by the practice of difficult and austere vows.

The powerful Yama does not care for the sufferings of others, very soon takes the lives of all persons, that is, of yourself and your friends. there is none capable of resisting him.

Very soon the wind of Yama will blow before you. Very soon will you be taken alone to that fearful presence. Do you then achieve what will be for your behoof there.

Where now is that Death-wind which will blow before you very soon? Very soon will the points of the horizon, when that time arrives, begin to whirl before your eyes.

O son, soon will your Vedas disappear from you as you go helplessly into that dread presence. Do you, therefore, think of Yoga abstraction which is endued with great excellence.

Do you try to attain that one only treasure so that you may not have to grieve at the recollection of your pristine deeds good and bad all of which are marked by mistake.

Decrepitude very soon weakens your body and robs you of your strength and limbs and beauty. Do you, therefore, seek that one only treasure.

Very soon the Destroyer, having Disease as his charioteer, will with a strong hand, for taking your life, pierce and break your body. Do you, therefore, practise austere penances.

Very soon will those terrible wolves that live within your body, attack from all sides. Do you try, therefore, to achieve acts acts of righteousness.

Very soon will you, all alone, see a thick darkness, and very soon will you see golden trees on the top of the hill. Do you, therefore, hurry to achieve acts of righteousness.

Very soon will those evil companions and enemies of yours, (viz., the senses), dressed as friends swerve you from correct vision. Do you, then, O son, try to achieve that which is of the highest good.

Do you acquire that wealth which has no fear from either kings or thieves, and which one has not to renounce even at Death.

Acquired by one's own deeds, that wealth has never to be distributed among partners. Each enjoys that wealth which each has acquired for himself.

O son, give that to others by which they may be able to live in the next world. Do you also try to acquire that wealth which is indestructible and durable.

Do not think that you should first enjoy all sorts of pleasures and then try to acquire Liberation, for before; you are satiated with enjoyment you may meet with Death. Do you, in view of this, hasten to do acts of goodness.

Neither mother, nor son, nor relatives, nor dear friends even when begged with honours, accompany the man that dies. One alone has to go to the regions of Yama.

Only those deeds, good and bad, that one did before death follow the man who goes to the other world.

The gold and gems that one has acquired by good and bad means do not do any good to man after death.

There is no witness, of men who have gone to the next world, better than the soul, of all acts done and undone in life.

The Yogins when they enter the sky of their hearts, see by Yoga intelligence that the destruction of body sets in when Individual Soul enters into the witness-Chaitanya.

Even here, the god of Fire, the Sun, and the Wind,-these three live in the body. These, seeing as they do all the practices of one's life, become his witnesses.

Days and Nights,—the former marked by the virtue of showing all things and the latter marked by the virtue of conccaling all things.-are running continually and touching all things. Do you, therefore, satisfy the duties of your own order.

The road in the other world is full of many foes and of many repulsive and terrible insects and worms. Do you take care of your own acts, for only acts will accompany you along that road.

There one has not to share his deeds with others, but every one enjoys or suffers the fruits of those acts which every one has himself performed.

As Apsaras and great Rishis acquires fruits of great happiness, similarly men of righteous deeds, acquire in the other world cars of transcendent brightness that go everywhere at the will of the riders.

Men of pure deeds and purified souls and pure birth acquire in the next world fruits commensurate with their own righteous deeds in this life.

By walking along the high road formed by the duties of domesticity, men acquire happy ends by acquiring the region of Prajapati or Brihaspati or of him of a hundred sacrifices.

I can give you thousands and thousands of instructions. Know, however, that the powerful cleanser keeps all foolish persons in the Dark.

You have passed twenty-four years. You are now full twenty-five years of age. Your years are passing away. Begin now to husband virtue.

The Destroyer that lives within error and carelessness will very soon deprive your senses of their respective powers. Do you, before that takes place, hasten to discharge your duties, relying on your body alone.

When it is your duty to go along that road in which your self only shall be in front and yourself only in the rear, what need then have you with either your body or your wife and children?

When men have to go alone and without companions to the region of Yama, it is clear that in view of such a situation of terror, you should try to acquire that one only treasure.

The powerful Yama, not caring for the sufferings of others, snatches away the friends and relatives of one's race by the very roots. There is no one who can resist him. Do you, therefore, seek to acquire virtue.

I impart to you these lessons, O son, that are all at one with the scriptures I follow. Do you, therefore, seek to acquire virtue.

He who maintains his body by performing the duties laid down for his own order, and who makes gifts for acquiring whatever fruits may attach to such acts, becomes freed from the consequences begotten by ignorance and errror.

The knowledge which a man of pious deeds acquires from Vedic sayings leads to omniscience. That omniscience is at on with the science of the highest object of human acquisition. Instructions, given to the grateful, become beneficial.

The pleasure that one takes in living amidst the dwellings of men is truly a fast-blinding cord. Snapping that cord, men of righteous deeds go to regions of great happiness. Wicked men, however, cannot break that fetter.

What use have you of riches, O son, or of relatives, or of children, since you have to die? Do you engage in seeking for your soul which is hidden in a cave. Where have all your grandfathers gone?

Do that today which you would keep for tomorrow. Do that in the forenoon which you would keep for the afternoon. Death does not wait for any one, to seen whether one has or has not done his task.

Following the body after one's death, one's relatives and kinsmen and friends return placing it on the funeral pyre. Do you unhesitatingly shun those who are men sceptics, who are destitute of mercy, and who are given to wicked ways, and do you try to seek, without listlessness or apathy, that which is for your greatest good.

When, therefore, the world is thus assailed by Death, do you, with your whole heart, achieve virtue, helped all the while by unswerving patience.

That man who is well conversant with the means of acquiring Liberation and who duly satisfies the duties of his order, certainly acquires great happiness in the next world.

There is no destruction for you who do not recognise death in the attainment of a different body and who do not deviate from the path of the pious. He who increases the stock of virtue is truly wise. He, on the other hand, who deviates from virtue is said to be fool.

One who is engaged to the accomplishment of good deeds, attains to heaven and other rewards as the fruits of those acts; but he who is addicted to wicked deeds has to sink in hell.

Having acquired the status of humanity, so difficult of getting, that is the stepping stone to heaven, one should fix his soul on Brahma so that he may not fall away once more.

That man whose understanding, directed to the path of heaven, does not deviate therefrom, is considered by the wise as truly a man of virtue and when he dies his friends should indulge in grief.

That man whose understanding is not firm and which is directed to Brahma and who has attained to heaven, becomes freed from a great fear.

That who are born in asylums of ascetics and who die there, do not acquire much mnerit by abstaining all their life from enjoyments and the indulgence of desire.

He, however, who though possessed of objects of enjoyment renounces them and practices penances, succeeds in acquiring everything. The fruits of the penances of such a inan are, I think, much greater.

Ever one had and will have in this world mothers and fathers and sons and wives, by hundreds and thousands. Who, however, were they and whose are we?

I am quite alone. I have no one whom I may call mine. Nor do I belong to any one else, I do not see that person whose I am, nor do I see him whom I may call mine.

They have nothing to do with you. You have nothing to do with them. All creatures take birth according to their pristine deeds. You also shall have to go hence determined by your own deeds.

It is seen in this world that the friends and followers of persons in affluence behaved towards them with devotion. The friends and followers, however, of the poor fall away during even the life-time of the poor.

Man commits numerous evil deeds for the sake of his wife. From those evil deeds he suffers much distress both in this world and in the next.

The wise man sees the world of life devastated by the deed performed by every living being. Do you, therefore, O son, act according to all the instructions I have delivered to you.

Seeing this world to be only a field of action, the man endued with true vision, should, from desire of happiness in the next world, do acts that are good.

Exerting his irresistible power, Time cooks all creatures, with the help of his ladle formed by months and seasons, the sun for his fire, and days and nights for his fuel, they being the witnesses of the fruits of every act done by every creature.

For what object is that wealth which is not given away and which is not enjoyed? For what purpose is that strength which is not used in resisting or subjugating one's enemies? For what purpose is that knowledge of the scriptures which does not move one to deeds of virtue? And for what purpose is that soul which does not control the senses and abstain from evil deeds?

Bhishma said-Having heard these wholesome words spoken by the Island-born (Vyasa), "Shuka, leaving his father, proceeded to seek a preceptor who could teach him the religion of Liberation.