Chapter 160

“Yudhishthira said, ‘O grandsire, O thou of virtuous soul, what, indeed,is said to be productive of great merit[458] for a person attentivelyengaged in the study of the Vedas and desirous of acquiring virtue? Thatwhich is regarded in this world as productive of high merit is of diversekinds as set forth in the scriptures. Tell me, O grandsire, about thatwhich is regarded as such both here and hereafter. The path of duty islong and has innumerable branches, O Bharata! Amongst those duties whatare those few that should, according to thee, be preferred to all othersfor observance? Tell me, O king, in detail, about that which is socomprehensive and which is so many-branched.’

“Bhishma said, ‘I shall speak to thee of that by which thou mayst attainto high merit. Possessed as thou art of wisdom, thou shalt be gratifiedwith the knowledge. I will impart to thee, like a person gratified withhaving quaffed nectar. The rules of duty that have been uttered by thegreat Rishis, each relying upon his own wisdom, are many. The highestamong them all is self-restraint. Those amongst the ancients that wereacquainted with truth said that self-restraint leads to the highestmerit. As regards the Brahmana in particular, self-restraint is hiseternal duty. It is from self-restraint that he obtains the due fruitionof his acts. Self-restraint, in his case, surpasses (in merit) charityand sacrifice and study of the Vedas. Self-restraint enhances (his)energy. Self-restraint is highly sacred. Through self-restraint a manbecomes cleansed of all his sins and endued with energy, and as aconsequence, attains to the highest blessedness. We have not heard thatthere is any other duty in all the worlds that can equal self-restraint.Self-restraint, according to all virtuous persons, is the highest ofvirtues in this world. Through self-restraint, O foremost of men, aperson acquires the highest happiness both here and hereafter. Enduedwith self-restraint, one acquires great virtue. The self-restrained mansleeps in felicity and awakes in felicity, and moves through the world infelicity. His mind is always cheerful. The man who is withoutself-restraint always suffers misery. Such a man brings upon himself manycalamities all born of his own faults. It has been said that in all thefour modes of life self-restraint is the best of vows. I shall now tellthee those indications whose sum total is called self-restraint.Forgiveness, patience, abstention from injury, impartiality, truth,sincerity, conquest of the senses, cleverness, mildness, modesty,steadiness, liberality, freedom from wrath, contentment, sweetness ofspeech, benevolence, freedom from malice,–the union of all these isself-restraint. It also consists, O son of Kuru, of veneration for thepreceptor and universal compassion. The self-restrained man avoids bothadulation and slander. Depravity, infamy, false speech, lust,covetousness, pride, arrogance, self-glorification, fear, envy anddisrespect, ale all avoided by the self-restrained man. He never incursobloquy. He is free from envy. He is never gratified with smallacquisitions (in the form of earthly happiness of any kind.) He is evenlike the ocean which can never be filled.[459] The man of self-restraintis never bound by the attachments that arise from earthly connectionslike to those involved in sentiments like these, ‘I am thine, Thou artthine, They are in me, and I am in them.’ Such a man, who adopts thepractices of either cities or the woods, and who never indulges inslander or adulation, attains to emancipation. Practising universalfriendliness, and possessed of virtuous behaviour, of cheerful soul andendued with knowledge of soul, and liberated from the diverse attachmentsof the earth, great is the reward that such a person obtains in the worldto me. Of excellent conduct and observant of duties, of cheerful soul andpossessed of learning and knowledge of self, such a man wins esteem whilehere and attains to a high end hereafter. All acts that are regarded asgood on earth, all those acts that are practised by the righteous,constitute the path of the ascetic possessed of knowledge. A person thatis good never deviates from that path. Retiring from the world andbetaking himself to a life in the woods, that learned person having acomplete control over the senses who treads in that path, in quietexpectation of his decease, is sure to attain to the state of Brahma. Hewho has no fear of any creature and of whom no creature is afraid, has,after the dissolution of his body, no fear to encounter.[460] He whoexhausts his merits (by actual enjoyment) without seeking to store themup, who casts an equal eye upon all creatures and practises a course ofuniversal friendliness, attains to Brahma. As the track of birds alongthe sky or of fowl over the surface of water cannot be discerned, even sothe track of such a person (on earth) does not attract notice. For him, Oking, who abandoning home adopts the religion of emancipation, manybright worlds wait to be enjoyed for eternity. If, abandoning all acts,abandoning penances in due course, abandoning the diverse branches ofstudy, in fact, abandoning all things (upon which worldly men set theirhearts), one becomes pure in his desires, liberated from allrestraints,[461] of cheerful soul, conversant with self, and of pureheart, one then wins esteem in this world and at last attains to heaven.That eternal region of the Grandsire which springs from Vedic penances,and which is concealed in a cave, can be won by only self-restraint.[462]He who takes pleasure in true knowledge, who has become enlightened, andwho never injures any creature, has no fear of coming back to this world,far less, any fear in respect of the others.[463] There is only one faultin self-control. No second fault is noticeable in it. A person who hasself-control is regarded by men as weak and imbecile. O thou of greatwisdom, this attribute has only one fault. Its merits are many. Byforgiveness (which is only another form of self-control), the man ofself-control may easily acquire innumerable worlds. What need has a manof self-control for a forest? Similarly, O Bharata, of what use is theforest to him that has no self-control? That is a forest where the man ofself-control dwells, and that is even a sacred asylum.’

“Vaisampayana continued, ‘Hearing these words of Bhishma, Yudhishthirabecame highly gratified as if he had quaffed nectar. Again the king askedthat foremost of virtuous men. That perpetuator of Kuru’s race(questioned by his grandson) once more began to discourse cheerfully (onthe topic raised).'”