12.009
Yudhishthira said:
For a moment, focus your mind and ear, hold your attention within, and after listening, may my words be pleasing to you.
I will never again take the well-traveled road for your sake; I will go that way, having left behind all worldly pleasures.
Ask me which is the safe path that can be traversed alone. Or, if you do not wish to ask, then even without asking, listen to me.
Having given up the ways of worldly pleasure, I will practice great austerity in the forest, living on fruits and roots, together with the deer.
He offered oblations to fire at the proper times, purified himself at both periods, was thin due to measured food, and wore skin, bark garments, and matted hair.
He endured cold, wind, and heat, was capable of bearing hunger, thirst, and fatigue, and by performing austerities as prescribed, he dried up his body.
He always delighted in hearing the various calls of joyful animals and birds living in the forests, which were pleasing to his mind and ears.
He smelled the pleasant scents of the blooming trees and creepers, and saw the various beautiful forms of the forest-dwellers in the forest.
Even householders should not do anything unpleasant to the forest-dwellers; how much more so to the village-dwellers.
He, being solitary and reflective, lived on both ripe and unripe food, and satisfied the ancestors and gods with offerings of forest produce, words, and water.
Thus, by observing the most severe rules of the forest scriptures, I shall wait for the end of this body.
Now, indeed, I shall live alone, spending each day in a different tree, wandering for alms, and as a shaven-headed sage, I shall gradually wear away my body.
Covered with dust, residing in an empty house or at the root of a tree, having renounced all attachments and aversions.
One who neither grieves nor rejoices, who is equal in blame and self-praise, who is free from expectation and possessiveness, who is established in freedom from dualities and acquisition.
He delights in his own Self, his mind is serene, and he appears as if dull, blind, and deaf. He never engages in any communication with anyone at any time.
One should not harm any moving or non-moving beings of all four kinds; all creatures, established in their own duties, should be equal towards all living beings.
He never laughed at anyone, nor did he ever frown; he was always cheerful and had complete control over all his senses.
He did not ask anyone about the path, and as he went, he did not particularly wish to go to any country or direction.
While going, he is indifferent, does not look back, proceeds straight and intent, avoiding both moving and unmoving beings.
But one's own nature proceeds forward; even foods arise; and all those pairs of opposites, disregarding them.
Whether the food is little or pleasant, or whatever is obtained previously, at any time; even while moving among others, in gain and loss, fulfilling the seven (obligations).
When there is no smoke, the pestle is set aside, the fire is out, people have eaten, the bowl is put away, and the mendicant has left.
I will wander this earth, seeking alms at one time in two or five houses, having freed myself from the bonds of desire.
He acted neither with the desire to live nor the wish to die; he neither rejoiced in life nor hated death.
He carved one arm for the fragrance, anointed the other with sandalwood, thinking neither of the inauspicious nor the auspicious in either case.
He abandoned all actions of prosperity that could be accomplished by living, and remained motionless even for the time of a wink.
Among them, always unattached, having renounced all actions of the senses, with all resolves well abandoned, and with the impurities of the self thoroughly cleansed.
Freed from all attachments and beyond all snares, not under anyone's control, he abides with the same nature as Mātariśvan, the Wind.
Living in this way, free from passion, I will attain everlasting contentment. Truly, it is because of desire that I have been made to commit great sin out of ignorance.
Some people, after performing good and bad deeds, carry those called their own relatives, who are bound together by cause and effect.
At the end of life, when this body is almost exhausted and abandoned, the doer receives the result of his actions, which is indeed his own sin.
Thus, in this wheel of saṃsāra, scattered like a chariot wheel, this group of beings comes together with other beings, driven by their actions.
Happiness comes to one who abandons this restless, unsubstantial worldly existence, which is afflicted by birth, death, old age, disease, and suffering.
Among those who fall from heaven, among the gods, from their places, and among the great sages, who indeed would truly be a seeker, a knower of the principle of cause?
Indeed, after performing various actions of different kinds, the king is bound by other kings even for small reasons.
Therefore, after a long time, this nectar of wisdom has come to me. Having attained that, I request the imperishable, eternal, and fixed abode.
By always following this way of conduct, behaving thus, I will establish my body without fear, having taken up the path.
