SECTION CCXII
"Bhishma said, 'Persons engaged in the practice of acts regard the
practice of acts highly. Similarly, those that are devoted to Knowledge
do not regard anything other than Knowledge. Persons fully conversant
with the Vedas and depending upon the utterances contained in them, are
rare. They that are more intelligent desire the path of abstention from
acts as the better of the two, viz., heaven and emancipation.[727]
Abstention from acts is observed by those that are possessed of great
wisdom. That conduct, therefore, is laudable. The intelligence which
urges to abstention from acts, is that by which one attains to
Emancipation. Possessed of body, a person, through folly, and endued with
wrath and cupidity and all the propensities born of Passion and Darkness,
becomes attached to all earthly objects. One, therefore, who desires to
destroy one's connection with the body, should never indulge in any
impure act. On the other hand, one should create by one's acts a path for
attaining to emancipation, without wishing for regions of felicity (in
the next world).[728] As gold, when united with iron, loses its purity
and fails to shine, even so Knowledge, when existing with attachment to
earthly objects and such other faults, fails to put forth its
splendour.[729] He who, influenced by cupidity and following the dictates
of desire and wrath, practises unrighteousness, transgressing the path of
righteousness, meets with complete destruction.[730] One who is desirous
of benefiting oneself should never follow, with excess of attachments,
earthly possessions represented by the objects of the senses. If one does
it, wrath and joy--and sorrow arise from one another (and make one
miserable). When every one's body is made up of the five original
elements as also of the three attributes of Goodness, Passion, and
Darkness, whom shall one adore and whom shall one blame with what words?
Only they that are fools become attached to the objects of the senses. In
consequence of folly they do not know that their bodies are only
modifications.[731]
As a house made of earth is plastered over with earth, even so this body
which is made of earth is kept from destruction by food which is only a
modification of earth. Honey and oil and milk and butter and meat and
salt and treacle and grain of all kinds and fruit and roots are all
modifications of earth and water. Recluses living in the wilderness,
giving up all longing (for rich and savoury food), take simple food, that
is again unsavoury, for only supporting the body. After the same manner,
a person that dwells in the wilderness of the world, should be ready for
labour and should take food for passing through life, like a patient
taking medicine.[732] A person of noble soul, examining all things of an
earthly nature that come upon him, by the aid of truth, purity, candour,
a spirit of renunciation, enlightenment, courage, forgiveness, fortitude,
intelligence, reflection, and austerities, and desirous of obtaining
tranquillity, should restrain his senses. All creatures, stupefied, in
consequence of Ignorance, by the attributes of Goodness and Passion and
Darkness, are continually revolving like a wheel. All faults, therefore,
that are born of Ignorance, should be closely examined and the idea of
Self which has its origin in Ignorance, and which is productive of
misery, should be avoided. The fivefold elements, the senses, the
attributes of Goodness, Passion, and Darkness, the three worlds with the
Supreme Being himself, and acts, all rest on Self-consciousness.[733] As
Time, under its own laws, always displays the phenomena of the seasons
one after another, even so one should know that Consciousness in all
creatures is the inducer of acts.[734] Tamas (from which proceeds
Consciousness) should be known as productive of delusions. It is like
Darkness and is born of Ignorance. To the three attributes of Goodness,
Passion, and Darkness are attached all the joys and sorrows (of
creatures). Listen now to those consequences that spring from the
attributes of Goodness, Passion, and Darkness. Contentment, the
satisfaction that arises from joy, certainty, intelligence, and
memory,--these are the consequences born of the attribute of Goodness. I
shall now mention the consequences of Passion and Darkness. Desire,
wrath, error, cupidity, stupefaction, fear, and fatigue, belong to the
attribute of Passion. Cheerlessness, grief, discontent, vanity, pride,
and wickedness, all belong to Darkness. Examining the gravity or
lightness of these and other faults that dwell in the Soul, one should
reflect upon each of them one after another (for ascertaining which of
them exist, which have become strong or weak, which have been driven off,
and which remain).'
"Yudhishthira said, 'What faults are abandoned by persons desirous of
Emancipation? What are those that are weakened by them? What are the
faults that come repeatedly (and are, therefore, incapable of being got
rid of)? What, again, are regarded as weak, through stupefaction (and,
therefore, as permissible)? What, indeed, are those faults upon whose
strength and weakness a wise man should reflect with the aid of
intelligence and of reasons? I have doubts upon these subjects. Discourse
to me on these, O grandsire!'
"Bhishma said, 'A person of pure Soul, by extracting all his faults by
their roots, succeeds in obtaining Emancipation. As an axe made of steel
cuts a steel chain (and accomplishing the act becomes broken itself),
after the same manner, a person of cleansed Soul, destroying all the
faults that spring from Darkness and that are born with the Soul (when it
is reborn), succeeds in dissolving his connection with the body (and
attaining Emancipation).[735] The qualities having their origin in
Passion, those that spring from Darkness, and those stainless one
characterised by purity (viz., those included under the quality of
Goodness), constitute as it were the seed from which all embodied
creatures have grown. Amongst these, the attribute of Goodness alone is
the cause through which persons of cleansed Souls succeed in attaining to
Emancipation. A person of cleansed soul, therefore, should abandon all
the qualities born of Passion and Darkness. Then again, when the quality
of Goodness becomes freed from those of Passion and Darkness, it becomes
more resplendent still. Some say that sacrifices and other acts performed
with the aid of mantras, and which certainly contribute to the
purification of the Soul, are evil or cruel acts. (This view is not
correct). On the other hand, those acts are the chief means for
dissociating the Soul from all worldly attachments, and for the
observance of the religion of tranquillity. Through the influence of the
qualities born of Passion, all unrighteous acts are performed, and all
acts fraught with earthly purposes as also all such acts as spring from
desire are accomplished. Through qualities born of Darkness, one does all
acts fraught with cupidity and springing from wrath. In consequence of
the attribute of Darkness, one embraces sleep and procrastination and
becomes addicted to all acts of cruelty and carnal pleasure. That person,
however, who, possessed of faith and scriptural knowledge, is observant
of the attribute of Goodness, attends only to all good things, and
becomes endued with (moral) beauty and soul free from every taint.'
