SECTION CCXIV
"Bhishma said, 'I shall now tell thee what the means are (for conquering
the senses) as seen with the eye of the scriptures. A person, O king,
will attain to the highest end by the help of such knowledge and by
framing his conduct accordingly. Amongst all living creatures man is said
to be the foremost.
Among men, those that are regenerate have been called the foremost; and
amongst the regenerate, they that are conversant with the Vedas. These
last are regarded as the souls of all living creatures. Indeed, those
Brahmanas that are conversant with the Vedas are regarded as all-seeing
and omniscient. They are persons who have become conversant with Brahma.
As a blind man, without a guide, encounters many difficulties on a road,
so has a person destitute of knowledge to encounter many obstacles in the
world. For this reason, those that are possessed of knowledge are
regarded as superior to the rest. Those that are desirous of acquiring
virtue practise diverse kinds of rites according to the dictates of the
scriptures. They do not, however, succeed in attaining to Emancipation,
all that they gain being those good qualities of which I shall presently
speak.[748] Purity of speech, of body, and of mind, forgiveness, truth,
steadiness, and intelligence,--these good qualities are displayed by
righteous persons observant of both kinds of religion. That which is
called Brahmacharya (religion of abstention or yoga) is regarded as the
means of attaining to Brahma. That is the foremost of all religions. It
is by the practice of that religion that one obtains the highest end
(viz., Emancipation). Brahmacharya is divested of all connection with the
five vital breaths, mind, understanding, the five senses of perception,
and the five senses of action. It is on that account free from all the
perceptions that the senses give. It is heard only as a word, and its
form, without being seen, can only be conceived. It is a state of
existence depending only on the mind. It is free from all connection with
the senses. That sinless state should be attained to by the understanding
alone. He that practises it duly attains to Brahma; he that practises it
half and half, attains to the condition of the gods; while he that
practises it indifferently, takes birth among Brahmanas and possessed of
learning attains to eminence. Brahmacharya is exceedingly difficult to
practise. Listen now to the means (by which one may practise it). That
regenerate person who betakes himself to it should subdue the quality of
Passion as soon as it begins to manifest itself or as soon as it begins
to be powerful. One that has betaken oneself to that vow should not speak
with women. He should never cast his eyes on an undressed woman. The
sight of women, under even indifferent circumstances, fills all
weak-minded men with Passion. If a person (while observing this vow)
feels a desire for woman rising in his heart, he should (as an expiation)
observe the vow called Krichcchra and also pass three days in water.[749]
If desire is entertained in course of a dream, one should, diving in
water, mentally repeat for three times the three Riks by
Aghamarshana.[750] That wise man who has betaken himself to the practice
of this vow should, with an extended and enlightened mind, burn the sins
in his mind which are all due to the quality of Passion. As the duct that
bears away the refuse of the body is very closely connected with the
body, even so the embodied Soul is very closely connected with the body
that confines it. The different kinds of juices, passing through the
network of arteries, nourish men's wind and bile and phlegm, blood and
skin and flesh, intestines and bones and marrow, and the whole body. Know
that there are ten principal ducts. These assist the functions of the
five senses. From those ten branch out thousands of other ducts that are
minuter in form. Like rivers filling the ocean at the proper season, all
these ducts, containing juices nourish the body. Leading to the heart
there is a duct called Manovaha. It draws from every part of the human
body the vital seed which is born of desire. Numerous other ducts
branching out from that principal one extend into every part of the body
and bearing the element of heat cause the sense of vision (and the rest).
As the butter that lies within milk is churned up by churning rods, even
so the desires that are generated in the mind (by the sight or thought of
women) draw together the vital seed that lies within the body. In the
midst of even our dreams passion having birth in imagination assails the
mind, with the result that the duct already named, viz., Manovaha, throws
out the vital seed born of desire. The great and divine Rishi Atri is
well-conversant with the subject of the generation of the vital seed. The
juices that are yielded by food, the duct called Manovaha, and the desire
that is born of imagination,--these three are the causes that originate
the vital seed which has Indra for its presiding deity. The passion that
aids in the emission of this fluid is, therefore, called Indriya. Those
persons who know that the course of vital seed is the cause of (that
sinful state of things called) intermixture of castes, are men of
restrained passions. Their sins are regarded to have been burnt off, and
they are never subjected to rebirth. He that betakes himself to action
simply for the purposes of sustaining his body, reducing with the aid of
the mind the (three) attributes (of Goodness, Passion, and Darkness) into
a state of uniformity, and brings at his last moments the vital breaths
to the duct called Manovaha, escapes the obligation of rebirth.[751] The
Mind is sure to gain Knowledge. It is the Mind that takes the form of all
things. The minds of all high-souled persons, attaining to success
through meditation, become freed from desire, eternal, and luminous.[752]
Therefore, for destroying the mind (as mind), one should do only sinless
deeds and freeing oneself from the attributes of Passion and Darkness,
one is sure to attain to an end that is very desirable.[753] Knowledge
(ordinarily) acquired in younger days becomes weakened with decrepitude.
A person, however, of ripe understanding succeeds, through the auspicious
effects of past lives, in destroying his desires.[754] Such a person, by
transcending the bonds of the body and the senses like a traveller
crossing a path full of obstacles, and transgressing all faults he sees,
succeeds in tasting the nectar (of Emancipation).'"
