Mokshadharma Parva — Narada's instruction to Suka

Bhishma said "After Vyasa had left the spot, Narada, passing through the sky, came to Shuka engaged in studying the scriptures The celestial Rishi came for the object of asking Shuka the meaning of certain parts of the Vedas.

Seeing the celestial Rishi Narada arrived at his asylum, Shuka adored him by offering him the Arghya according to the rites laid down in the Vedas.

Pleased with the honours conferred upon him, Narada addressed Shuka, saying.-Tell me, O foremost of pious men, how, O dear child, may I acccomplished what is for your highest good.

Hearing these words of Narada, Shuka said to him, O Bharata, these words:-You should instruct me about what may be beneficial to me!

Narada said In days of yore the illustrious Sanatkumara had said these words to certain Rishis of purified souls who had gone to him for enquiring after the truth.

There is no eye like that of knowledge. There is no penance like the practice of truth. There is no sorrow like attachment. There is no happiness like renunciation.

Abstention from sinful deeds, steady practice of virtue, good conduct, the due observance of all religious duties,—these form the highest good.

Having acquired the status of humanity which is mixed with sorrow, he who becomes attached to it, becomes stupefied; such a man never succeeds in freeing himself from sorrow. Attachment is a mark of sorrow.

The understanding of a person who is attached to earthly object becomes more and more entangled in the net of stupefaction. The man who becomes entangled in the net of stupefaction comes by sorrow both in this world and in the next.

One should, by every means in his power, control both desire and anger if one tries to acquire what is for his good. Those two originate for only destroying his good.

One should always protect his penances from anger, and his prosperity from pride. One should always protect his knowledge from honour and dishonour, and his soul from error.

Mercy is the highest virtue. Forgiveness is the highest power. The knowledge of self is the highest knowledge. There is nothing higher than truth.

It is always meet to speak the truth. It is better again to speak what is wholesome than to speak what is true. I hold that that is truth which is filled with the greatest benefit to all creatures.

That man is said to be truly learned and truly endued with wisdom who renounces every act, who never indulges in hope, who is perfectly dissociated from all worldly surroundings, and who has renounced everything that belongs to the world.

That person who, without being attached thereto, enjoys all objects of sense with the help of senses which are completely under his control, who is endued with a tranquil soul, who is never moved by joy or sorrow, who is engaged in Yoga-meditation, who lives with the gods presiding over his senses and dissociated also from them, and who, though gifted with a body, never considers himself as identifiable with it, becomes liberated and very soon acquires what is his highest good.

One who never sees others, never touches others, never talks with others, soon, O ascetic, acquires what is for his highest good.

One should not injure any creature. On the other hand, one should treat with friendliness to all. Having acquired the status of humanity, one should never treat inimically to any one.

A perfect disregard for all (worldly) things, perfect contentment, abandonment of hope of every sort, and patience,-these form the highest good of one who has governed his senses and acquired a knowledge of self.

Renouncing all attachments, O child, do you master all your senses, and thereby acquire happiness both in this world and in the next.

They who are free from cupidity have never to suffer any sorrow. One should, therefore, renounce all cupidity from one's soul. By renouncing cupidity, O amiable and blessed one, you will be able to liberate yourself from sorrow and pain.

One who wishes to conquer that which is unconquerable should live giving himself up to penances, to self-control, to taciturnity, to a subjugation of the soul. Such a person should live in the midst of attachments without being attached thereto.

That Brahmana who lives in the midst of attachments without being attached to them and who always lives in seclusion, very soon acquires the highest happiness.

That man who lives alone in happiness in the midst of creatures who are seen to find pleasure in leading lives of sexual union, should be known to be a person whose thirst has been satisfied by knowledge. It is well known that that man whose thirst has been satisfied by knowledge has never to grieve.

One acquires the status of the god my means of good deeds; the status of humanity by means of acts which are good and bad; while by acts which are purely wicked, one helplessly falls down among the lower animals.

Always attacked by sorrow and decrepitude and death, a living creature is being cooked in this world. Do you not know it?

You generally consider 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 do you not form a correct apprehension of these?

Like a silkworm that covers itself in its own cocoon, you are continually covering yourself in a cocoon made of your own numberless deeds born of stupefaction and mistake. Alas, why do you not form a correct apprehension of your situation?

No need of attaching yourself to earthly objects. Attachment to earthly objects produces evil. The silk-worm that forms a cocoon round itself is at last destroyed by its own deed.

Those persons who become attached to sons and wives and relatives meet with destruction in the end, as wild elephants sunk in the mire of a lake are by and by weakened till overtaken by Death,

See, all creatures that allow themselves to be dragged by the net of affection become subject to great grief as fishes on land, dragged thereto by means of large nets.

Relatives, sons, wives, the body itself, and all properties amassed with care, unsubstantial and of no use in the next world. Only acts, good and bad, that one does, follow him to the other world.

When it is certain that you shall have to go helplessly to the other world, leaving behind all these things, alas, why do you then allow yourself to be attached to such worthless unsubstantial things, without attending to what forms your real and durable wealth?

The path which you shall have to pass through is without resting places of any sort. There is no support along that way which one may catch for maintaining oneself. The country are through which it passes is unknown and undiscovered. It is, again, covered with thick darkness. Alas, how will you go along that way without being supplied with the necessary expenses?

When you shall go along that road, nobody will follow you. Only your deeds, good and bad, will follow you when you shall leave his world for the next.

One seeks the real object by means of learning, acts, purity and great knowledge. When that foremost of objects is acquired, one becomes liberated.

The desire that one feels for living in the midst of human dwellings is like a binding fetter. They that are of good deeds succeed in snapping that fetter and freeing themselves. Only men of wicked deeds do not succeed in breaking them.

The river of life is dreadful. Personal beauty or form forms is banks. The mind is the speed of its current. Touch forms its island. Taste forms its waters. That particular part of it which leads towards heaven is beset with great difficulties. Body is the boat by which one must cross that river. Forgiveness is the oar by which it is to be moved. Truth is the ballast that keeps that boat steady. The practice of virtue is the rope that is to be put to the mast for dragging that boat along difficult waters. Charity or gift forms the wind that moves the sails of that boat. Bifted with swift speed, it is with that boat that one must cross the river of life.

Renounce both virtue and vice, and truth and falsehood. Having renounced truth and falsehood, do you cast off that by which these are to be shaken off.

By casting off all purpose, do you renounce virtue; do you cast off sin also by renouncing all desire. With the help of the understanding, do you renounce truth and falsehood; and, at last, do you renounce the understanding itself by knowledge of the highest subject.

Do you renounce this body having bones for its pillars; sinews for its binding strings and cords; flesh and blood for its outer plaster; the skin for its outer case; full of urine and faeces and, therefore, sending forth a bad smell; exposed to the attacks of decrepitude and sorrow; forming the seat of disease and weakened by pain; predominated by the quality of Darkness; not permanent or durable, and which serves as the habitation of the indwelling creature.

This entire universe of matier, and that which is called Mahat or Buddhi, are formed of great elements. That which is called Mahat is due to the action of the Supreme.

The five senses, the three qualities of Tamas, Sattva, and Rajas,-these make up seventeen.

These seventeen, which are known by the name of the Unmanifest, with all those that are called Manifest, viz., the five objects of the five senses, with Consciousness and the Understanding, constitute the well-known twenty-four.

When endued with those twenty-four possessions, one comes to be called by the name of Jiva or Individual Soul. He who knows the three-fold objects as also happiness and sorrow and life and death, truly and in all their details, is said to know growth and decay All objects of knowledge, should be known by and by.

All objects that are perceived by the senses are called Manifest. Whatever objects are above the senses and are apprehended by means only of their marks are said to be Unimanifest.

By controlling the senses, one acquires great gratification, like a thirsty and parched traveller at a sweet shower of rain. Having restrained the senses one sees one's soul spread out for embracing all objects, and all objects in one's soul.

Having its roots in knowledge, the power is never lost of the man who (thus) sees the Supreme in his soul,-of the man, who always sees all creatures in all conditions.

He who, by the help of knowledge, gets over all sorts of pain begotten of mistake stupefaction, never catches any evil by coming into contact with all creatures.

Such a man, his understanding being fully shown, never finds fault with the course of conduct that prevails in the world. One conversant with Liberation says that the Supreme Soul is without beginning and without end; that it takes birth as all creatures; that it resides in the Individual Soul; that it is inactive, and without form. Only that man who meets with grief on account of his own misdeeds, kills numerous creatures for the purpose of preventing that grief. On account of such sacrifices, the performers have to go through re-births and have necessarily to perform numberless deeds on all sides.

Such a man, blinded by mistake, and considering that to be happiness which is really a source of grief, is continually rendered unhappy like a sick person who eats bad food.

Such a man is pressed and grinded by his deeds like any substance that is churned. Fettered by his deeds he obtains re-birth, the order of his life being determined by the character of his deeds.

Suffering many kinds of torture, he passes through a repeated round of re-births like a wheel that turns ceaselessly. You have, however, snapped asunder all your fetters. You abstain from all deeds.

Possessed of oinniscience and the master of all things, may you be successful, and do you become freed from all existent objects. Through subjugation of their senses and the power of their penances, many persons, having destroyed the fetters of action, acquired great success and uninterrupted happiness.