p. 235

SECTION CXIII

"Yudhishthira said, 'Abstention from injury, the observance of the Vedic ritual, meditation, subjugation of the senses, penances, and obedient services rendered to the preceptors,--which amongst these is fraught with the greatest merit with respect to a person?'

"Vrihaspati said, All these six are fraught with merit. They are different doors of piety. I shall discourse upon them presently. Do thou listen to them, O chief of the Bharatas! I shall tell thee what constitutes the highest good of a human being. That man who practises the religion of universal compassion achieves his highest good. That man who keeps under control the three faults, viz., lust, wrath, and cupidity, by throwing them upon all creatures (and practises the virtue of compassion), attains to success 1. He who, from motives of his own happiness, slays other harmless creatures with the rod of chastisement, never attains to happiness, in the next world. That man who regards all creatures as his own self, and behaves towards them as towards his own self, laying aside the rod of chastisement and completely subjugating his wrath, succeeds in attaining to happiness. The very deities, who are desirous of a fixed abode, become stupefied in ascertaining the track of that person who constitutes himself the soul of all creatures and looks upon them all as his own self, for such a person leaves no track behind. 2 One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one's own self. This, in brief, is the rule of Righteousness. One by acting in a different way by yielding to desire, becomes guilty of unrighteousness. In refusals and gifts, in happiness and misery, in the agreeable, and the disagreeable, one should judge of their effects by a reference to one's own self. 3 When One injures another, the injured turns round and injures the injurer. Similarly, when one cherishes another, that other cherishes the cherisher. One should frame one's rule of conduct according to this. I have told thee what Righteousness is even by this subtile way.'

"Vaisampayana continued, 'The preceptor of the deities, possessed of great intelligence, having said this unto king Yudhishthira the just, ascended upwards for proceeding to Heaven, before our eyes.'"

Footnotes

235:1 Kama and krodha are mentioned: but the use of cha gives by implication cupidity. What is meant by nidhaya sarvabhuteshu is, dividing them into infinite small parts, to cast them off from oneself to others. It is painful to see how the Burdwan translators misunderstand verses 2 and 3. They read Hanti for Hanta and write ridiculous nonsense.

235:2 In the first line, after Sarvabhutani, atmatwena is understood. The sense of this verse seems to be this; such a man leaves no trace behind him, for he becomes identified with Brahma, He is, therefore, said to be apada. The deities on the other hand, are padaishinah, for they desire a fixed abode such as heaven or a spot fraught with felicity.

235:3 The sense is that when one refuses a solicitation one should think how one would feel if another were to refuse the solicitations one addressed to that other. So with regard to the rest.