Chapter 1435(107)
‘“The prince said, ‘O brahmana! I do not wish to live through fraud and deceit. I do not desire great riches, if they are not obtained through the use of dharma. O illustrious one! I said at the beginning that these should be avoided. I do not want anyone to doubt me and I desire my complete welfare. In this world, I desire to live through a dharma that does not cause injury. I am incapable of doing all this. It is not appropriate for me.’
‘“The sage replied, ‘O kshatriya! What you have spoken is deserving of you. O one who is wonderful in outlook! You are naturally intelligent. I will endeavour so that both of you attain your objectives. I will bring about an eternal alliance between the two of you. You have been born in a lineage like his. You are non-violent and extremely learned. You are accomplished in ensuring the welfare of a kingdom. Who will not make someone like you an adviser? You have confronted a supreme hardship and have abandoned your kingdom. O kshatriya! However, you wish to live through non-violent conduct. O son!936 The king of Videha is devoted to the truth and will come to my house. There is no doubt that he will do what I ask him to.’”
‘Bhishma said, “The sage summoned the king of Videha and spoke these words to him. ‘This one has been born in a lineage of kings and I know what is inside his mind. His soul is as pure as a mirror or the autumn moon. I have tested him in every way and do not see anything crooked in him. You should have an alliance with him. Trust him the way you trust me. O slayer of enemies! Without an adviser, you are incapable of ruling the kingdom. The adviser must be brave and full of intelligence. Both of these937 cause fear for a king. Look towards the ruling of the kingdom. In this world, a person with dharma in his soul is rare and there is no one like him. This prince is accomplished in his soul. He is established in the path of the virtuous. With dharma at the forefront, you will do well to have him on your side. He will serve you and seize large numbers of the enemy. If he wishes to fight back against you, he will resort to his own dharma of being a kshatriya and try to win back the kingdom of his father and grandfathers in a battle. If you are engaged in your vow of conquest, you will fight back against him. O lord of Videha! However, if you do not fight, he will follow my instructions and remain under your control. Glance towards dharma and cast aside the inappropriate adharma. For the sake of desire or hatred, you should not abandon your own dharma. O son!938 Victory is not permanent. Nor is defeat permanent. One must give food and objects of pleasure to an enemy who has been defeated. Think yourself to be like him, confronting victory and defeat. O son! Those who seek to exterminate all danger end up exterminating their own selves.’ He was thus addressed by that bull among brahmanas and replied in the following words, after having honoured and treated him well and taking the permission of the one who deserved worship. ‘O immensely wise one! It is exactly as you have said. O immensely learned one! It is exactly as you have said. As you have said, people desire what brings the most benefit. What you have said is the best for both of us. I will follow your words and act exactly in accordance with them. This is supremely beneficial. I do not need to reflect about this.’ The king of Videha summoned the one from Kosala and spoke these words to him. ‘I have defeated you through the use of dharma, policy and strength. O supreme among kings! However, you have conquered me through your qualities. Though you have been defeated, do not have a low opinion of yourself. I do not disrespect your intelligence. I do not disrespect your manliness. Though you have been defeated, do not think of yourself as having been defeated. O king! Come to my house. You will be honoured and then go to your own house.’ Having honoured the brahmana, the two of them trustingly went to the house. The lord of Videha made the lord of Kosala enter his house and honoured him with water for washing the feet, a gift and a mixture of honey.939 He was honoured back in return and gave him his own daughter, with many kinds of gems. This is the supreme dharma for kings. Both victory and defeat must be endured.”’
Chapter 1436(108)
‘Yudhishthira said, “O scorcher of enemies! You have described the dharma, the conduct, the subsistence, the means of subsistence and the fruits for brahmanas, kshatriyas, vaishyas and shudras, the conduct of kings, the treasury, the means of making the treasury great, the means of increasing the qualities of the advisers, the prosperity of ordinary people, the six qualities940 one must think of, the policy concerning the army, the means of knowing the wicked, the characteristics of the virtuous, the signs of those who are equal, inferior and superior, the means to satisfy neutral ones so that prosperity can be enhanced, the recommended means for sustaining those who have limited resources and about the method indicated in the texts against countries that are weaker. O descendant of the Bharata lineage! You have also described the conduct of someone who desires victory. O supreme among intelligent ones! I now wish to hear about the conduct towards ganas.941 O descendant of the Bharata lineage! How do ganas prosper? How can they be prevented from breaking up? How do they conquer the enemy and obtain well-wishers? What is the cause of dissension in ganas and how do they confront destruction? It is my view that their sorrow results from the fact that there are many and it is difficult to keep counsel a secret. O scorcher of enemies! I wish to hear everything about this in entirety. O king! Tell me everything about how they can be prevented from breaking up.”
‘Bhishma replied, “O bull among the Bharata lineage! O lord of men! Greed and intolerance ignite enmity within ganas, families and royal lineages. Avarice begins to consume and intolerance comes after that. These two unite and reinforce each other, until everything is destroyed. They942 use spies, secret counsel, force, seizure, conciliation, gifts and dissension and other techniques of decay, destruction and fear to weaken each other. Large numbers of ganas that work together are broken apart through gifts. Having been broken, all of them are distressed in their minds and, because of their fear, are quickly subjugated. The ganas are destroyed because of their divisions and, having been shattered, have to bow down before the enemy. Therefore, the ganas must always try to work together. If they are united, their strength and manliness increases and so does their prosperity. When they act together in this way, outsiders seek their friendship. Those who are learned and aged praise a situation where they serve each other. Having not retreated from that object of unity, they obtain happiness in every way. The best of the ganas follow dharma in conduct, establish themselves in their sacred texts and, following these, become prosperous. They are always engaged in good policy and do not hesitate to punish sons and brothers. The best among ganas prosper because they accept those who are humble. O mighty-armed one! In every way, these ganas are always engaged in ensuring prosperity through spies, secret plans, following ordinances and enhancing the treasury. O king! The ganas are prosperous when they always revere the wise, the brave, those who are great archers and those who base themselves on manliness in all their tasks. When ganas face difficulties and are confused—those who are wealthy, those who are brave, those who are knowledgeable about weapons and those who are accomplished in the sacred texts save them. O supreme among the Bharata lineage! Anger, dissension, fear, punishment, affliction, imprisonment and death immediately lead to ganas becoming subjugated. O king! That is the reason the foremost members of the gana must be given importance. The progress of other people depends mostly on them. O afflicter of enemies! Secret counsels and information about spies must be restricted to the foremost members. O descendant of the Bharata lineage! The entire gana should not get to hear about secret plans. The foremost members of the gana must work together for the welfare of the gana. When members of a gana act separately, have differing views or are divided in some other way, its prosperity suffers and it faces a disaster. When they have broken away from each other and base themselves on individual strengths alone, it is the task of the learned and foremost ones to swiftly restrain them. O king! If there is a conflict within the family and the aged ones in the family ignore this, this ensures that the gotras943 break away from the gana. One must protect ag
ainst internal dangers. External dangers are easier to handle. If an internal danger is generated, it severs the roots. If there are sentiments of sudden rage, avarice and natural confusion, and they do not speak to each other, this is a sign of defeat. They944 are similar in birth. All of them are equally noble in lineage. But they are not equal in valour, intelligence, beauty and prosperity. If ganas suffer from the confusion of being disunited, they bow down before the enemy. That is the reason it is said that unity is the great refuge of ganas.”’
Chapter 1437(109)
‘Yudhishthira asked, “O descendant of the Bharata lineage! Great policy and the path of dharma have many branches. Is it your view that one element of dharma must be pursued the most? In your view, which is the task of dharma that is the most important, so that a man can obtain dharma in this world and after death?”
‘Bhishma replied, “It is my view that worship of the mother, the father and the preceptor is the most important. If a man is engaged in this, he obtains great fame and the worlds. O son! O Yudhishthira! If they recognize any task, irrespective of whether it is for dharma or against dharma, it is your duty to honour and implement it. Without their permission, one must not think of something else as dharma. It has been prescribed that their suggestions amount to dharma. They are the three worlds. They are the three ashramas.945 They are the three Vedas. They are the three fires. The father is said to be the garhapatya fire and the mother is the dakshina fire. The preceptor is the ahavaniya fire.946 These three fires are the most important. If you pay attention to these three, you will conquer the three worlds. By always serving the father one can cross this world, by serving the mother, the world beyond this, and by serving the preceptor, Brahma’s world. O descendant of the Bharata lineage! O fortunate one! If you conduct yourself well in the three worlds, you will obtain fame and dharma with extremely great fruits. One should not cross their policies. One should not eat before them. One should not censure them. One should always serve them. That is the supreme good deed. O lord of men! Through this, you will earn fame, merits, glory and the worlds. One who honours them is honoured in the three worlds. However, one who dishonours them is dishonoured and all his tasks become fruitless. O scorcher of enemies! A person who always disrespects these three seniors obtains neither this world nor the one hereafter. His fame is not radiant in the world hereafter. After that, nor does he obtain any great benefit. If I give everything away to them, it comes back to me, one hundred times and one thousand times more. O Yudhishthira! Therefore, the three worlds blaze before me. It is said that one good acharya947is superior to ten learned brahmanas, one upadhyaya is superior to ten acharyas and the father is superior to ten upadhyayas. However, a mother is superior to ten fathers and even to the entire earth. In her importance, there is no preceptor who is equal to a mother. However, it is my view that a preceptor is superior to a father and a mother.948 O descendant of the Bharata lineage! Both the mother and the father unite to give birth, but the father and the mother create the body alone. The birth that is instructed by the acharya is divine. It is without old age and without death. Even if they have caused an injury, the mother and the father must never be killed.949 If you act in this way, you will not be censured. Nor will they reprimand you. The gods and the rishis know about those who try to follow dharma. One who imparts comprehension, one who speaks about the truth in one’s ears and one who grants immortality950 should be thought of as a father and a mother. Knowing this, one should not act injuriously towards him. When a person has heard about knowledge from a preceptor but does not honour him in thought and deeds even when he is present, he must be corrected by other preceptors and those preceptors also deserve to be respected. Therefore, one who desires for the ancient dharma must make efforts to worship and honour all these seniors, giving them their shares. A person who pleases his father also pleases his grandfather. If he is affectionate towards his mother, he reveres the entire earth. If he is affectionate towards his upadhyaya, he worships Brahma. Therefore, if he worships his mother, his father and his preceptor, he pleases the rishis and the gods, together with the ancestors. In one’s conduct, one should never disrespect the preceptor, nor the mother and the father, because they are like the preceptor. They should not be censured and they will not reprimand you. The gods, together with the rishis, know that preceptors must be treated well. In thoughts and in deeds, one should not injure the upadhyaya, the father and the mother. A wicked person who does that commits a sin that is worse than killing a foetus. There is no one in the world as wicked as he. We have not heard of any salvation for four—one who harms a friend, one who is an ingrate, one who kills a woman and one who is slanderous. For the acts of men in this world, all this has been created as great instruction. This is most beneficial and there is nothing that is superior to this. Following all kinds of dharma, I have told you this.”’
Chapter 1438(110)
‘Yudhishthira asked, “O descendant of the Bharata lineage! If a man wishes to base himself on dharma, how should he conduct himself? O learned one! O bull among the Bharata lineage! I wish to know. Tell me. Both truth and falsehood pervade the world. O king! Therefore, if a man is determined to follow dharma, how should he act vis-à-vis these two? What is truth? What is falsehood? What is eternal dharma? When should one speak the truth? When should one utter a lie?”
‘Bhishma replied, “Truthful speech is virtuous. There is nothing superior to truth. O descendant of the Bharata lineage! In this world, this is an extremely difficult thing to understand and I will tell you the truth about this. When falsehood is truth and when truth is falsehood, one should not speak the truth and one should utter a lie. A juvenile person is confused about truth that is injurious. One who can discriminate between truth and falsehood knows about dharma. There may be an extremely terrible man who is ignoble and unaccomplished in his wisdom. However, even he can obtain extremely great merits, such as Balaka did when he killed a blind being.951 What is extraordinary in this? But there can be a person who desires dharma, but acts like one who does not know dharma. On the banks of the Ganga, Koushika perpetrated a great sin. What you have asked me is complicated when it becomes extremely difficult to state what dharma is. It is extremely difficult to enumerate it, even if one resorts to reasoning. The words of dharma were created for the prosperity of beings. It is certain that anything that does not cause injury is dharma. It is said that dharma is anything that holds up.952 Beings are held up through dharma. It is certain that anything that serves to hold up is dharma. There are some who say that dharma is that which is laid down in the shruti texts, but there are other people who do not agree. I cannot find fault with this, since everything is not laid down there. If someone asks, desiring the riches of others, one should not answer.953 It is certain that not telling them would have been dharma. If one can escape without speaking, one should not speak. However, if not speaking gives rise to suspicion, one must certainly speak. Having thought about it, in that situation, when one consorts with wicked people, uttering a lie is superior to speaking the truth, even if one has taken an oath. If it is possible, one must never give riches to the likes of those. If riches are given to wicked people, this makes the giver suffer. Even if this involves an injury to one’s body, it is better not to give them what they wish. However, there may be witnesses who have to speak to ascertain the nature of the truth. If they do not speak what must be spoken, they are liars.954 If life is at stake and at the time of a marriage, one should lie. So should one for the sake of preserving riches or for the sake of ensuring dharma for others. However, if he does this out of a desire to share in the dharma of others, he is begging for dharma and is inferior. If someone has promised to pay and later deviates from his duty, he must be compelled by force. If a person deviates from a pledge that has been taken in accordance with dharma, then he establishes himself in adharma. A deceitful person may deviate from his own dharma, but still pretend to live in accordance with it. He is evil and fraudulent in his life and must be restrained in every
possible way. All the wicked people in the world are certain to strive for riches. If one tolerates them or if one eats with them, one is wicked in conduct and is certain to fall down. Such a person will be dislodged from gods and men and it will be as if he is dead already. He will be miserable because his riches will be taken away and his remaining alive becomes pointless. One must make efforts to tell him, ‘This is the dharma that you should find agreeable.’ It is certain that there is no dharma for those who are wicked. If one kills a person who has reached such a state, one does not suffer from any sin. That person has already been slain because of his deeds and is only killing someone who has already been slain. Anyone who concludes an agreement with such a person, whose intelligence has been destroyed and whose life is wicked, behaves like a crow or a vulture.955 When they are freed from their bodies and rise upwards, they are reborn in those wombs. Whichever is the way in which a man behaves towards one’s own self, that is the conduct one should show towards him and this is dharma. Deceit should be used against those who are deceitful. Those who are virtuous must be repaid with virtuous conduct.”’
Mahabharata: Volume 8 Page 45
