Chapter 145
“Bhishma said, ‘Hearing those piteous lamentations of the pigeon on thetree, the she-pigeon seized by the fowler began to say to herself asfollows.’
“The she-pigeon said, ‘Whether I have any merit or not, verily there isno limit to any good fortune when my dear lord thus speaks of me. She isno wife with whom her lord is not content. In the case of women, if theirlords be gratified with them all the deities also become so. Since themarriage union takes place in the presence of fire, the husband is thewife’s highest deity. That wife with whom her husband is not pleasedbecomes consumed into ashes, even like a creeper adorned with bunches offlowers in a forest conflagration.’ Having reflected thus, theshe-pigeon, afflicted with woe, and immured by the fowler within hiscage, thus spoke unto her woe-stricken lord, ‘I shall say what is nowbeneficial for thee.’ Hearing me follow thou my counsel, O dear lord, bethou the rescuer of a suppliant. This fowler lies here by thy abode,afflicted with cold and hunger. Do him the duties of hospitality. The sinthat a person commits by slaying a Brahmana or that mother of the world,viz., a cow, is equal to that which one incurs by suffering a suppliantto perish (from want of help). Thou art possessed of knowledge of self.It ever behoves one like thee, therefore, to follow that course which hasbeen ordained for us as pigeons by the order of our birth.[434] It hasbeen heard by us that the householder who practises virtue according tothe measure of his abilities, wins hereafter inexhaustible regions ofbliss. Thou hast sons. Thou hast progeny. O bird, casting off allkindness for thy own body, therefore, and for winning virtue and profit,offer worship to this fowler so that his heart may be pleased. Do not, Obird, indulge in any grief on my account. (See, how unimportant I am!)Thou mayst continue to live, taking other wives!’ The amiable she-pigeon,overcome with sorrow, and casting her eyes upon her lord from thefowler’s cage within which she had been immured, said these words untohim.'”
