Mokshadharma Parva — The same subject

Bhishma said By being attached to objects of the senses which are always imbued with evil, living creatures become helpless. Those great persons, however, who are not attached to them, acquire the greatest end.

Seeing the world beset with the evils formed by birth, death, decrepitude, sorrow, disease, and anxieties, the man of intelligence should try for the attainment of Liberation.

He should be pure in words, thought and body; he should be shorn of pride. Of tranquil soul and endued with knowledge, he should live like a mendicant, and pursue happiness without being attached to any wordły object.

Again, if his mind is filled with attachment for mercy to creatures, he should, seeing that the universe is the result of acts, one should show indifference even to mercy itself.

Whatever good acts are done, or whatever sin is committed, the actor reaps the points thereof. Hence, one should, in words, thought, and deed, do only good acts.

He enjoys happiness who practises abstention from injuring (others), truthfulness of speech, honesty towards all creatures, and forgiveness, and who is never careless.

Hence one, exercising his intelligence, should fix his mind, after training it, on peace towards all creatures.

That man who considers the practice of the virtues mentioned above as the greatest duty as securing the happiness of all creatures, and as destroying all sorts of sorrow, is possessed of the greatest knowledge, and succeeds in acquiring happiness. Hence, one should, exercising his intelligence, fix his mind, after training it, on peace towards all creatures.

One should never think of committing evil to others, One should not covet what is far above his power to acquire. One should not fix his thoughts on objects which are not real. One should, on the other hand, direct mind towards knowledge by continued exertions.

With the help of the injunctions of the Shrutis and of continued efforts calculated to bring success, Knowledge is sure to originate. One who is desirous of saying good words or observing a religion which is purged off of all impurities, should speak only truth which is not fraught with any malice or censure. One who has got a sound heart should speak words which are not fraught with dishonesty, which are not harsh, which are not cruel, which are not evil, and which are not characterised by garrulity. The universe is bound in words. If a person disposed to renunciation he should proclaim, with a humble mind and a cleansed understanding, his own evil deeds. He who performs action, urged there to by propensities pervaded by the quality of Darkness, suffers much misery in this world and at last sinks into hell. One should, therefore, practise selfcontrol in body, words and mind.

Ignorant persons bearing the weight of the world are like robbers laden with their booty of straggling sheep. The latter always avoid roads which are not favourable to them,

Indeed, as robbers have to throw away their booty if they wish safety, so should a person cast off all acts induced by Darkness and Ignorance, if he is to acquire happiness.

Forsooth, a person who is shorn of desire, free from the fetters of the world, contented to live in solitude, abstemious in diet, devoted to penances, and with senses under restraint, who has consumed all his sorrows by knowledge, who finds pleasure in practising Yoga and who has a cleansed soul, succeeds, on account of his mind being withdrawn into itself, in attaining to Brahina or Liberation.

One endued with patience and a pure soul should, forsooth, control his understanding. With the understanding, one should next restrain mind, and then with the mind overpower the objects of the senses.

Upon the mind being thus restrained and the senses being all subdued, the senses will shine and gladly enter into Brahma.

When one's senses are withdrawn into the mind, the result becomes that Brahma becomes manifested in it. Indeed, when the senses are destroyed, and the soul returns to the quality of pure existence, it is regarded as being transformed into Brahma.

Then again, one should never show his Yoga power. On the other hand, one should always try to restrain his senses by practising the rules of Yoga. Indeed, one engaged in the practice of Yoga should do all those acts by which his conduct and nature may become pure.

One should rather live upon broken grains of corn, ripe beans, dry cakes of seeds from which the oil has been pressed out, potherbs, half-ripe barley, flour of fried pulses, fruits, and roots, secured by begging.

Reflecting upon the characteristics of time and place, one should according to his inclinations observe, after proper search, vows and rules about fasts.

One should not suspend a rite that has been begun. Like one slowly creating a fire, one should by and by perform an act that is prompted by knowledge. By so doing, Brahma by and by shines in one like the Sun.

The Ignorance which rests on Knowledge, extends its influence over all the three states. The knowledge, again, that follows the Understanding, is attacked by Ignorance.

The evil-hearted person cannot acquire a knowledge of the Self for his considering it as united with the three states although in reality it transcends them all. When, however, he perceives the limits under which the two, viz., union with the three states and separation from them are manifested, it is then that he becomes shorn of attachment and attains to Liberation.

When such an apprehension has been acquired, one transcends the effects of age, rises superior the consequences of decrepitude and death, and obtains Brahma which is eternal, deathless, immutable, and underetiorating. to