12.168
Yudhiṣṭhira said.
O king, the auspicious duties spoken by the grandsire, which are based on royal conduct, you are worthy to speak of the highest duty of those in the āśramas.
Bhīṣma said.
Duty is enjoined everywhere; it leads to heaven, and austerity bears the fruit of truth. For duty, which has many avenues, no action here is fruitless.
O best of the Bharatas, in whichever discipline a person attains certainty, he recognizes only that person, not another.
Just as one moves about in the unsubstantial worldly system, so too does dispassion arise here; there is no doubt about this.
O Yudhishthira, since this world is full of many faults, a wise person should strive for self-liberation.
Yudhiṣṭhira said.
O grandsire, tell me what understanding should be used to dispel grief when wealth, wife, son, or father is lost or dead.
Bhīṣma said.
If wealth, wife, son, or father is lost or dead, and one keeps thinking 'Alas, sorrow,' one only increases grief.
Here too, an ancient story is told: as a certain brāhmaṇa named Senajit once spoke these words.
Seeing the king, overwhelmed and tormented by grief for his son, his face dejected, the brāhmaṇa spoke these words.
Why, truly, are you deluded and pitiable? Why do you grieve? When even those who grieve for you, themselves pitiable, will also reach that same state.
You, I, and all others who serve you, O king, all of us shall go there from where we have indeed come.
Senajit said.
What is intellect? What is austerity, O Brāhmaṇa? What is concentration, O ascetic? What is knowledge? What is scripture, or what is it that, having attained, you do not grieve?
The brāhmaṇa said.
See how all beings are afflicted by suffering. Even this self is not mine, nor is all the earth mine.
With the understanding that others are just like me, I do not feel pain. Having gained this insight, I neither rejoice nor grieve.
Just as two logs of wood may come together in the vast ocean and, after meeting, drift apart, so too is the meeting of living beings.
Thus, one should not become attached to sons, grandsons, kinsmen, or relatives, for separation from them is inevitable.
He has fallen from the unseen and again has gone to the unseen. Neither does he know you, nor do you know him. So, being who, for whom do you grieve?
Suffering is born from the pain of desire, and happiness is born from the pain of suffering. From happiness, suffering arises; thus, this cycle repeats again and again. After happiness comes suffering, and after suffering comes happiness.
From happiness, you have come to suffering, and you will again attain happiness. Suffering is not always obtained, nor is happiness always obtained.
Friends alone are not enough for happiness, nor are enemies alone enough for sorrow. Wisdom alone does not guarantee wealth, nor does wealth alone guarantee happiness.
Intellect is not meant for gaining wealth, nor is dullness meant for lack of prosperity. It is the wise who understands the affairs and changes of the world, not others.
Happiness comes to the intelligent, the foolish, the brave, the timid, the dull, the wise, the weak, the strong, and the fortunate alike.
A cow may be claimed by the calf, the cowherd, the owner, or even a thief; but whoever actually drinks her milk, to him the cow truly belongs—such is the established rule.
Those who are the most deluded in the world and those who have transcended wisdom—these people are happy; but the person who is in between suffers.
The wise delighted in the final moments, not in the middle periods. They say the attainment of the end is happiness; the interval between the ends is sorrow.
But those who have attained the happiness of wisdom, who have gone beyond dualities and are free from envy, are never disturbed by either gain or loss at any time.
Now, those who have not attained understanding and have fallen into delusion, they rejoice excessively and also fall into distress.
Always delighted and deluded, like the hosts of gods in heaven, overpowered by great arrogance, they are devoid of understanding.
Happiness comes at the end of suffering; laziness brings suffering; skillfulness leads to happiness. Prosperity and fortune reside with the diligent, not with the lazy.
Whether happiness or sorrow, whether something hateful or dear is attained, one should accept whatever comes with an unconquered heart.
Every day, thousands of causes for sorrow and hundreds of causes for joy affect the deluded, but not the wise.
Sorrow does not affect a man who is intelligent, wise, eager to serve without envy, self-controlled, and master of his senses.
With this understanding, the wise person, keeping his mind guarded, should act; for truly, sorrow cannot touch one who knows the nature of rise and fall.
Whatever is the cause of sorrow, fear, pain, or exertion, one should abandon even the slightest part of that root cause.
Whatever desires a person gives up, that much happiness is attained. But a person who pursues desires is destroyed by them.
All the pleasures of desire in this world and even the greatest divine happiness are not equal to even a sixteenth part of the happiness that comes from the cessation of craving.
Whatever actions, good or bad, were performed in a previous body, a person—whether wise, foolish, or brave—experiences the results according to what was done.
In this way, both pleasant and unpleasant experiences, as well as sorrows and joys, continually revolve among living beings.
Thus, having established oneself in intellect, one endowed with virtues should live happily; one should shun all desires and keep attachments behind. This conduct, firmly rooted in the heart, is the death that is born of the mind.
When one withdraws all desires like a tortoise withdraws its limbs, then the self, whose light is its own, becomes peaceful in itself.
Whenever even a little is imagined as 'mine', then all of it turns into a cause of suffering.
When this person does not fear, and when others do not fear him; when he neither desires nor hates, then he attains Brahman.
When you have abandoned both truth and untruth, sorrow and joy, fear and fearlessness, and have completely let go of what is pleasant and unpleasant, you will become one whose mind is tranquil.
When a steadfast person refrains from evil towards all beings in action, thought, and speech, then he attains Brahman.
That craving, which is hard to abandon by the wicked-minded and does not decay even as the body decays, is a life-ending disease. Happiness belongs to the one who abandons that craving.
O king, here the verses sung by Piṅgalā are heard; as she, even in a time of distress, attained the eternal dharma.
At the rendezvous, Piṅgalā the courtesan was left by her beloved. Then, in her distress, she composed her mind and became calm.
Piṅgala said.
I, though mad, lived for a long time with my sane beloved; though my lover was near and present, I did not approach him in the past.
I will close the one-pillar, nine-gated house; for which woman, indeed, would consider this as her beloved when he comes here, calling him 'beloved'?
Those deceivers, though appearing in the form of men and desire, will not deceive me again, for I am awakened and alert.
Even what is meaningless may become meaningful by fate or by previous actions. Awakened, I am formless; today, I am not one whose senses are unconquered.
One who is without hope sleeps happily; hopelessness is the greatest happiness. Indeed, having destroyed hope, Piṅgalā sleeps happily.
Bhīṣma said.
With these and other reasoned words of the brāhmaṇa, King Senajit was restored and rejoiced in happiness.
