Chapter 38

“Brahmana said, ‘I shall, after this discourse to you on that excellentquality which is the third (in the order of our enumeration). It isbeneficial to all creatures in the world, and unblamable, and constitutesthe conduct of those that are good. Joy, satisfaction, nobility,enlightenment, and happiness, absence of stinginess (or liberality),absence of fear, contentment, disposition for faith, forgiveness,courage, abstention from injuring any creature, equability, truth,straightforwardness, absence of wrath, absence of malice, purity,cleverness, prowess, (these appertain to the quality of Goodness). He whois devoted to the duty of Yoga, regarding knowledge to be vain, conductto be vain, service to be vain, and mode of life to be vain, attains towhat is highest in the world hereafter. Freedom from the idea of meum,freedom from egoism, freedom from expectations, looking on all with anequal eye, and freedom from desire,–these constitute the eternalreligion of the good. Confidence, modesty, forgiveness, renunciation,purity, absence of laziness, absence of cruelty, absence of delusion,compassion to all creatures, absence of the disposition to calumniate,exultation, satisfaction, rapture, humility, good behaviour, purity inall acts having for their object the attainment of tranquillity,righteous understanding, emancipation (from attachments), indifference,Brahmacharyya, complete renunciation, freedom from the idea of meum,freedom from expectations, unbroken observance of righteousness, beliefthat gifts are vain, sacrifices are vain, study is vain, vows are vain,acceptance of gifts is vain, observance of duties is vain, and penancesare vain–those Brahmanas in this world, whose conduct is marked by thesevirtues, who adhere to righteousness, who abide in the Vedas, are said tobe wise and possessed of correctness of vision. Casting off all sins andfreed from grief, those men possessed of wisdom attain to Heaven andcreate diverse bodies (for themselves). Attaining the power of governingeverything, self-restraint, minuteness, these high-souled ones make byoperations of their own mind, like the gods themselves dwelling inHeaven. Such men are said to have their courses directed upwards. Theyare veritable gods capable of modifying all things. Attaining to Heaven,they modify all things by their very nature. They get whatever objectsthey desire and enjoy them.[109] Thus have I, ye foremost of regenerateones, described to you what that conduct is which appertains to thequality of goodness. Understanding these duly, one acquires whateverobjects one desires. The qualities that appertain to goodness have beendeclared particularly. The conduct which those qualities constitute hasalso been properly set forth. That man who always understands thesequalities, succeeds in enjoying the qualities without being attached tothem.'”