“The son said, ‘Death is that by which the world is assailed. Decrepitude encompasses it. Those irresistible things that come and go away are the nights (that are continually lessening the period of human life). When I know that Death tarries for none (but approaches steadily towards every creature), how can I pass my time without covering myself with the garb of knowledge?[514] When each succeeding night, passing away lessens the allotted period of one’s existence, the man of wisdom should regard the day to be fruitless. (When death is approaching steadily) who is there that would, like a fish in a shallow water, feel happy? Death comes to a man before his desires have been gratified.
Death snatches away a person when he is engaged in plucking flowers and when his heart is otherwise set, like a tigress bearing away a ram. Do thou, this very day, accomplish that which is for thy good. Let not this Death come to thee. Death drags its victims before their acts are accomplished. The acts of tomorrow should be done today, those of the afternoon in the forenoon. Death does not wait to see whether the acts of its victim have all been accomplished or not. Who knows that Death will not come to him even today? In prime of age one should betake oneself to the practice of virtue. Life is transitory. If virtue be practised, fame here and felicity hereafter will be the consequences. Overwhelmed by ignorance, one is ready to exert oneself for sons and wives. Achieving virtuous or vicious acts, one brings them up and aggrandises them. Like a tiger bearing away a sleeping deer, Death snatches away the man addicted to the gratification of desire and engaged in the enjoyment of sons and animals.
Before he has been able to pluck the flowers upon which he has set his heart, before he has been gratified by the acquisition of the objects of his desire, Death bears him away like a tiger bearing away its prey. Death overpowers a man while the latter is stilt in the midst of the happiness that accrues from the gratification of desire, and while, still thinking, ‘This has been done; this is to be done; this has been half-done.’ Death bears away the man, however designated according to his profession, attached to his field, his shop, or his home, before he has obtained the fruit of his acts. Death bears away the weak, the strong, the brave, the timid, the idiotic, and the learned, before any of these obtains the fruits of his acts. When death, decrepitude, disease, and sorrow arising from diverse causes, are all residing in thy body, how is it that thou livest as if thou art perfectly hale? As soon as a creature is born, Decrepitude and Death pursue him for (effecting) his destruction. All existent things, mobile and immobile, are affected by these two. The attachment which one feels for dwelling in villages and towns (in the midst of fellowmen) is said to be the very mouth of Death. The forest, on the other hand, is regarded as the fold within which the senses may be penned. This is declared by the Srutis.[515] The attachment a person feels for dwelling in a village or town (in the midst of men) is like a cord that binds him effectually. They that are good break that cord and attain to emancipation, while they that are wicked do not succeed in breaking them.
He who never injures living creatures by thought, word, or deed, is never injured by such agencies as are destructive of life and property.[516] Nothing can resist the messengers (Disease and Decrepitude) of Death when they advance except Truth which devours Untruth. In Truth is immortality.[517] For these reasons one should practise the vow of Truth; one should devote oneself to a union with Truth; one should accept Truth for one’s Veda; and restraining one’s senses, one should vanquish the Destroyer by Truth. Both Immortality and Death are planted in the body. One comes to Death through ignorance and loss of judgment; while Immortality is achieved through Truth. I shall, therefore, abstain from injury and seek to achieve Truth, and transgressing the sway of desire and wrath, regard pleasure and pain with an equal eye, and attaining tranquillity, avoid Death like an immortal. Upon the advent of that season when the sun will progress towards the north, I shall restraining my senses, set to the performance of the Santi-sacrifice, the Brahma-sacrifice, the Mind-sacrifice, and the Work-sacrifice.[518] How can one like me worship his Maker in animal-sacrifices involving cruelty, or sacrifices of the body, such as Pisachas only can perform and such as produce fruits that are transitory?[519]
That person whose words, thoughts, penances, renunciation, and yoga meditation, all rest on Brahma, succeeds in earning the highest good. There is no eye which is equal to (the eye of) Knowledge. There is no penance like (that involved in) Truth. There is no sorrow equal to (that involved in) attachment. There is no happiness (that which is obtainable from) renunciation. I have sprung from Brahma through Brahma. I shall devote myself to Brahma, though I am childless. I shall return to Brahma. I do not require a son for rescuing me. A Brahmana can have no wealth like to the state of being alone, the state in consequence of which he is capable of regarding everything with an equal eye, the practice of truthfulness, good behaviour, patience, abstention from injury, simplicity, and avoidance of all rites and visible sacrifices. What use hast thou, O Brahmana, of wealth or kinsmen and relatives, of wives, when thou shalt have to die? Seek thy Self which is concealed in a cave. Where are thy grandsires and where thy sire?'[520]
“Bhishma continued, ‘Do thou also, O monarch, conduct thyself in that way in which the sire (in this story), conducts himself, devoted to the religion of Truth, after having listened to the speech of his son.’
SECTION CLXXVI
“Yudhishthira said, ‘Tell me, O grandsire, whence and how happiness and misery come to those that are rich, as also those that are poor, but who live in the observance of different practices and rites.'[521]
“Bhishma continued, ‘In this connection is cited the old narrative of what was sung by Sampaka who had obtained tranquillity and achieved emancipation for himself. In former times a certain Brahmana, rendered miserable by a bad wife, bad dress, and hunger, and living in the observance of the vow of renunciation, told me these verses,[522] ‘Diverse kinds of sorrow and happiness overtake, from the day of birth the person that is born on the earth. If he could ascribe either of them to the action of Destiny, he would not then feel glad when happiness came or miserable when sorrow overtook him. Though thy mind is divested of desire, thou bearest yet a heavy load. Thou dost not seek to achieve thy good (i.e., emancipation). Art thou not successful in controlling thy mind? If thou goest about, having renounced home and desirable possessions, thou shalt taste real happiness. A person divested of everything sleepeth in happiness, and awaketh in happiness. Complete poverty, in this world, is happiness.
It is a good regimen, it is the source of ‘blessings, it is freedom from danger. This foeless path is unattainable (by persons cherishing desire) and is easily attainable (by those that are freed from desire). Casting my eyes on every part of the three worlds, I do not behold the person who is equal to a poor man of pure conduct and without attachment (to worldly things). I weighed poverty and sovereignty in a balance. Poverty weighed heavier than sovereignty and seemed to possess greater merits. Between poverty and sovereignty there is this great distinction, viz., that the sovereign, possessed of affluence, is always agitated by anxiety and seems to be within the very jaws of death. As regards, however, the poor man, who in consequence of the divestment of all wealth has freed himself from hopes and emancipated himself, neither fire, nor foe, nor death, nor robbers, can get the better of him.
The very gods applaud such a man who wanders about according to his sweet will, who lies down on the bare ground with his arm for a pillow, and who is possessed of tranquillity. Affected by wrath and cupidity, the man of affluence is stained by a wicked heart. He casts oblique glances and makes dry speeches.–He becomes sinful, and his face is always darkened with frowns. Biting his lips, and excited with wrath, he utters harsh and cruel words. If such a man desires to even make a gift of the whole world, who is there that would like even to look at him? Constant companionship with Prosperity stupefies a person of weak judgment. It drives off his judgment like the wind driving off the autumnal clouds. Companionship with Prosperity induces him to think,–I am possessed of beauty! I am possessed of wealth! I am high-born! I meet with success in whatever I undertake! I am not an ordinary human being!–His heart becomes intoxicated in consequence of these three reasons. With heart deeply attached to worldly possessions, he wastes the wealth hoarded by his sires. Reduced to want, he then regards the appropriation of other people’s wealth as blameless.
At this stage, when he transgresses all barriers and beings to appropriate the possessions of others from every side, the rulers of men obstruct and afflict him like sportsmen afflicting with keen shafts a deer that is espied in the woods. Such a man is then overwhelmed with many other afflictions of a similar kind that originate in fire and weapons. Therefore, disregarding all worldly propensities (such as desire for children and wives) together with all fleeting unrealities (such as the body, etc.,) one should, aided by one’s intelligence, apply proper medicine for the cure of those painful afflictions. Without Renunciation one can never attain to happiness. Without Renunciation one can never obtain what is for one’s highest good. Without Renunciation one can never sleep at case. Therefore, renouncing everything, make happiness thy own. All this was said to me in past times at Hastinapur by a Brahmana about what Sampaka had sung. For this reason, I regard Renunciation to be the foremost of things.'”
