Mokshadharma Parva — Narada preaches the importance of Yoga and knowledge of Self

Narada said By listening to such sacred scriptures, as bring about tranquillity, as remove grief, and as yield happiness, one acquired (a pure) understanding, and, having acquired it; obtains to great happiness.

A thousand causes of sorrow, a hundred causes of fear, from day to day, attack one who is shorn of understanding but not one who is endued with wisdom and learning.

Do you, therefore, listen to some old narratives as I recount them to you, for the object of removing your sorrow, If one can subjugate his understanding, he is sure to acquire happiness.

By accession of what is undesirable and dissociation from what is agreeable, only men of little intelligence yield to mental sorrow.

When things are passed, one should not grieve, thinking of their merits. He who thinks of such past things with affection can never liberate himself.

One should always try to find out the faults of those things to which one becomes attached, One should always consider such things to be fraught with much evil, By doing so, one should soon free him therefrom.

The man who grieves for what is past, cannot acquire either riches or religious merit or fame. What exists no longer cannot be acquired. When such things go away, they do not return.

Creatures sometimes acquire and sometimes lose earthly objects. No man in this world can be grieved by all the events that befall him.

Dead or lost, he who grieves for what is gone only gets sorrow for sorrow. Instead of one sorrow, he gets two.

Those men who, seeing the course of life and death in the world with the help of their intelligence, do not shed tears, are said to see properly. Such persons have never to shed tears.

When any such calamity comes, which creates either their physical or mental grief, as is incapable of being prevented by even his best endeavours, one should cease to think on it with sorrow.

Not to think of it is the panacea for sorrow. By thinking of it, one can never remove it; on the other hand, by thinking upon sorrow, one only increases it.

Mental sorrow should be destroyed by wisdom; while physical sorrow should be removed by medicines. This is the power of knowledge. One should not, in such matters, act like men of little understandings.

Youth, beauty, life, hoarded riches, health, association with those that are loved, these all are fickle. One endued with wisdom should never covet them.

One should not lament individually for a sorrowful incident that concerns an entire community. Instead of indulgence in grief when it comes, one should try to avert it and apply a remedy as soon as he finds the opportunity for doing it.

There is no doubt that in this life misery is much greater than that of happiness. There is no doubt in this that all men show attachment for objects of the senses and that death is considered as disagreeable.

That man who renounces both joy and sorrow, is said to attain to Brahma. When such a man dies, men of wisdom never indulge in any grief for him.

There is pain in spending wealth. There is pain in protecting it. There is pain in acquiring it. Hence, when one's wealth is lost, he should not grieve for it.

Men of little understandings, in their efforts to acquire different grades of wealth, lose their contentment and at last die broken-hearted. Wise men, however, are always contented.

All combinations are sure 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 can never be satiated. Contentment is the greatest happiness. Hence, wise men regard contentment as the most valuable wealth.

One's lease 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 which one should consider as durable?

Those persons who, meditating on the nature of all creatures and, concluding that it is beyond the grasp of the mind, direct their attention to the highest path, and, starting, acquire a fair progress in it, have not to indulge in sorrow.

Like a tiger seizing and running away with its prey, Death seizes and runs away with the man, who is engaged in such occupation and which is still not satiated with objects of desire and enjoyment.

One should always try to liberate himself from sorrow. One should try to remove sorrow by beginning his work with cheerfulness, that is without indulging, in sorrow, having freed himself from a particular sorrow, one should act in such a way as to keep sorrow at a distance by abstaining from all shortcomings of conduct.

The rich and the poor alike find nothing in sound and touch and form and scent and taste, after the immediate enjoyment thereof.

Before union, creatures never suffer sorrow. Hence, one who has not deviated from his original nature, never grieves when that union comes to an end.

One should control his sexual appetite and the stomach with the help of patience. One should protect his hands and feet with the help of the eye. One's eyes and ears and the other senses, should be protected by the mind. One's mind and speech should be governed with the help of wisdomn.

Renouncing love and affection for persons that are known as well as for those that are unknown, one should act with humility. Such a person is said to be endued with wisdom, and such a one surely finds happiness.

That man who is pleased with his own Soul, who is given to Yoga, who depends upon nothing out of self, who is without cupidity, and who acts without the help of anything but his self, succeeds in acquiring happiness.