“Bhishma said, ‘Having saluted that foremost of Nagas in this way, the Brahmana (named Dharmaranya), firmly resolved to follow the Unccha mode of life, proceeded to the presence, O king, of Chyavana of Bhrigu’s race, from desire of being formally instructed and initiated in that vow.[1942] Chyavana performed the Samskara rites of the Brahmana and formally initiated him into the Unccha mode of life. The son of Bhrigu, O monarch, recited this history to king Janaka in his place. King Janaka, in his turn, narrated it to the celestial Rishi Narada of high soul. The celestial Rishi Narada too, of stainless acts, repairing on one occasion to the abode of Indra, the chief of the deities, gave to Indra this history upon being asked by him. The chief of the celestials, having obtained it thus from Narada, recited this blessed history to a conclave consisting of all the foremost Brahmanas, O monarch. On the occasion, again, of my dreadful encounter with Rama of Bhrigu’s race (on the field of Kurukshetra), the celestial Vasus, O king, recited this history to me.[1943] Asked by thee, O foremost of righteous men, I have recited this history that is excellent and sacred and fraught with great merit. Thou hadst asked me about that constitutes the highest duty, O king. This history is my answer to thy query. A brave man he was, O monarch, that betook himself to the practice of the Unccha vow in this way, without expectation of any fruit. Firmly resolved, that Brahmana, instructed, by the chief of Nagas in this way about his duty, betook himself to the practice of Yama and Niyama, and subsisting the while upon such food as was allowed by the Unccha vow, proceeded to another forest.'”
The end of Santi Parva.
FOOTNOTES
1. Literally, the period of impurity. The period of mourning is the period of impurity, according to the Hindu scriptures. By performing the Sraddha rite, one becomes pure again. Till then, one can perform no religious rites.
2. Literally, “shall not appear to thee by inward light.”
3. The meaning is this, “This weapon shall not dwell with thee up to thy
last moments. Thou shalt forget it or it shall not appear at thy bidding, when thy death becomes nigh, though at other times, thou mayst be master of it.”
4. The Kurus, our foes, having fallen in battle, have all gone to heaven, while grief has become our lot.
5. Sanjata Valaratnesu is the true reading.
6. The Bombay reading Jayaphalam is correct. The Bengal reading
Jammaphalam, however, is not unmeaning.
7. What Yudhishthira says here is this: all the warriors that have been slain in this battle have perished, they have not attained to heaven; if, indeed, heaven has been theirs, then the slayers too would obtain heaven, the scriptural ordinance having said so. It is impossible, however, too suppose that men of wrath who have done such wicked deeds should obtain such regions of bliss hereafter.
8. Pairs of opposites, such as heat and cold, joy and grief, etc. Comp. Gita.
9. Because wealth enables its possessor to practise the rites of religion.
10. The sense is that when I will not wrong the denizens of even the woods, there is little chance of my wronging men of the world.
11. There is a class of recluses who support life by gathering the fallen fruits of trees. Taking the tree for a living person, they walk under its shade and beg of it its fruits. Those fruits that fall down on such occasions are regarded as the alms granted by the tree to its mendicant guest.
12. All the possessions of a man depend upon the acts of a previous life. Wives, children and kinsmen, therefore, as agents of happiness or the reverse, depend upon one’s past acts. They are effects of pre-existing causes. Then again, they may be causes of effects to be manifested in the next life, for their acts also are supposed to affect the next life of him to whom they belong.
13. i.e., they for whom he acts do not take the consequences of his acts.
14. Bhagena is explained by Nilakantha as swargaisysaryena.
15. The sense is that as the Ordainer cannot be censured, therefore, that which He has ordained for the Kshatriyas cannot be deserving of censure.
16. The meaning is that they who perform sacrifice and partake of the sacrificial food after offering it unto gods and guests, acquire such religious merit that the like of it cannot be acquired by other men. Sacrifice, therefore, is the highest act in life and the most meritorious that man call do.
17. The iti after vadi is really eti, the absence of sandhi in the proper form is Arsha. Literally rendered, the line becomes,–According to the manner in which the person of firm conviction approaches the Soul, is the success that he gets here. As the Srutis declare, if one firmly regards oneself to be Siva, the success one attains here and hereafter is after the kind of that deity.
18. The brevity of such passages is the chief obstacle to their clear comprehension. Fortunately the allusions are very plain. What is meant is that those who die during the lighted fortnights of the summer solstice attain to solar regions of bliss. Those that die during the dark fortnights of the winter solstice, attain to lunar regions. These last have to return after passing their allotted periods of enjoyment and happiness. While those that are freed from attachments, whatever the time of their Death, go to Stellar regions which are equal to that of Brahma.
19. Without attaining to the companionship of the gods and Pitris, and without obtaining Brahma, they sink in the scale of being and become worms and vermin.
20. The sense is that the gods themselves have become so by action.
21. The first word is compounded of an and astika.
22. Deva-yana is the Yana or way along which the deities have gone, the strict observance of the Vedic rites.
23. Renouncer of his own self, because he dries up his very body by denying himself food.
24. Such a person also is not a true renouncer. For a Kshatriya, again, such a mode of life would be sinful.
25. Nilakantha thinks that the object of this verse is to show that even such a life properly appertains to a Brahmana and not to a Kshatriya. Therefore, if Yudhishthira would, without reigning, live quietly in the kingdom governed by some brother of his, he would then be equally sinning.
26. Acts done from vanity, i.e., with the bragging consciousness of one being himself the actor and the arranger of everything, Acts done from a spirit of renunciation, i.e., without hope of reaping their fruits.
27. The threefold aims, i.e., Religion, Pleasure and Profit.
28. Antarala is thus explained by Nilakantha.
29. Sariram is contra-distinguished from Vahyam. The first is explained as appertaining to or encased in Sarira, i.e., the mind.
30. What Sahadeva wishes to say is that everything proceeds from selfishness is productive of death, while everything proceeding from an opposite frame of mind leads to Brahma or immortality.
