Chapter 1511(183)
91 Happiness in heaven lasts only till one’s merits are not exhausted.
92 Kama is the god of love. Shiva burnt him down to ashes. Since he no longer possessed a body, Kama came to be known as Ananga.
93 Happiness.
Chapter 1512(184)
94 Brahma.
95 Brahmacharya.
96 Morning and evening, sandhya.
97 Morning, noon and evening.
98 The preceptor.
99 The student must not ask the preceptor for instruction, but wait for the instruction.
100 After studying in the preceptor’s household.
101 Offered by householders.
102 Of the householder.
103 This goes back to the duties of the householder.
104 There are grains left after a crop has been harvested, or after grain has been milled. If one subsists on these leftovers, that is known as unchhavritti.
Chapter 1513(185)
105 A variety of young deer.
106 Both kasha and kusha are kinds of grass.
107 Parivrajaka.
108 Alms.
109 Brahma performed austerities in Pushkara, in Rajasthan.
110 Bharadvaja.
Chapter 1514(186)
111 Relieving oneself.
112 The east in the morning and the west in the evening.
113 The mouth, the two hands and the two feet.
114 Because of a vow.
115 Useless flesh is defined as meat that has not been obtained from sacrifices to the gods and the ancestors.
116 The offering of water to deceased ancestors, with water thrown from the right hand.
117 Payasa is rice cooked in milk and sugar. Krisara is made out of wheat flour, rice and sesamum. The dessert must be particularly praised.
118 Tvam is used for juniors and equals. Seniors must be addressed as bhavan for males and bhavati for females.
Chapter 1515(187)
119 The spiritual, concerning the supreme spirit.
120 The brahman.
121 In the body.
122 Mana.
123 Buddhi.
124 The soul.
125 Sattva, rajas and tamas.
126 The qualities are confounded by the senses, the intelligence and the mind.
127 Intelligence.
128 Sattva, rajas and tamas.
129 Not influenced by the senses.
130 Instead, one should try to conquer it.
131 Intelligence.
132 The soul.
133 The atman.
134 Of the senses.
135 Of such men. The qualities mean sattva, rajas and tamas.
136 Everyone does not progress to the same extent.
137 By the senses.
138 Instant moksha and incremental advancements towards moksha.
Chapter 1516(188)
139 Dhyana yoga. The number four never becomes clear.
140 The senses.
141 Of the body.
142 The five senses having come earlier.
143 The wind is being used as a metaphor.
144 The translation doesn’t capture the nuance. The terms used in the text are respectively vichara, vitarka and viveka. All three are generally reasoning and judgement. However, in the progression of yoga, these are regarded as higher and higher levels of discernment, vichara being the lowest and viveka being the highest.
Chapter 1517(189)
145 Japa is the recitation of a mantra in a low tone. A japaka is a person who does this.
146 Since both sankhya and yoga have multiple meanings, this causes problems of translation and understanding. The following seems to be a reasonable interpretation. In sankhya, the use of no particular mantra is recommended, sankhya being equated with Vedanta. In yoga, there is the recitation of a particular mantra.
147 Sankhya and yoga.
148 This is a reference to resorting to sankhya, without any specific mantra in mind. However, there is an emphasis on rituals. In contrast, in the mode of abstention, there are no rituals, but one meditates on a specific mantra.
149 These shlokas are not very clear and are also difficult to translate. External probably means external rituals. Internal probably means internal rituals, japa with a specific mantra. However, meditation is also possible without any mantra at all.
150 The final stage of meditation, where one is completely immersed in the brahman.
151 Action.
152 The process of meditation.
Chapter 1518(190)
153 In this context, hell is being used in a slightly different sense, as anything that falls short of complete liberation.
154 These riches can also be interpreted as the special powers obtained through yoga.
155 That is, they are not freed.
Chapter 1519(191)
156 Yudhishthira was born from Dharma.
157 The agreeable and the disagreeable.
158 Sattva, rajas and tamas.
159 The five elements, the senses, mind and intelligence.
160 Distinctions between the knower, the object of knowing and the act of knowing.
161 Seeing, thinking, hearing, knowing and the reasons behind these.
162 Time is subservient to the required needs.
Chapter 1520(192)
163 The Vedangas.
164 The brahman.
165 As will become evident, this goddess is the personification of the gayatri or savitri mantra and his japa was based on reciting this.
166 The gayatri mantra.
167 Yama.
168 Yama.
169 Respectively, water for washing the feet and the gift given to a guest.
170 Studying, teaching, giving gifts, receiving gifts, performing sacrifices and officiating at the sacrifices of others.
171 To the fact that there have been some fruits.
172 Of accepting the fruits.
173 For accepting gifts. The text of the Critical edition says, vakye, translating as, in words. Non-Critical versions say balye, in childhood. Childhood fits better.
174 Virupa means deformed. Vikrita also means deformed. Vikrita donated a cow and then donated the fruits of this donation to Virupa.
175 Kapilas.
176 Give to Vikrita. Twice, because there are two cows now.
177 That of receiving.
178 These shlokas are not very clear. On the one hand, there is the dharma of accepting what the brahmana is offering. On the other hand, there is the dharma of kshatriyas not accepting. These two must be balanced and rendered equal.
179 Vikrita.
180 This is not true moksha.
181 The four characteristics are the four means of obtaining knowledge—the senses, inference, intuition and revelation. The six are hunger, thirst, sorrow, delusion, disease and death. The sixteen are the five organs of sense, the five organs of action, the five kinds of life breath and the mind.
182 Purusha is probably to be understood as the creator and space (akasha) as the brahman.
Chapter 1521(193)
183 The brahmana.
184 Savitri.
185 The brahmana has given away his fruits of japa to the king. The king offers that the brahmana should retain these fruits of his japa and also take half of the king’s fruits.
186 To give me your fruits.
187 Narada and Parvata are sages. Vishvavasu is a gandharva and the Hahas and the Huhus are gandharvas.
188 The brahmana and the king.
189 Into the mass of energy.
190 Brahma’s.
191 Japakas and yogis.
192 The text uses the word smriti. The reference is thus to the original smriti texts and the ones that followed.
Chapter 1522(194)
193 Brihaspati was Manu’s student.
194 Behind creation.
195 We have translated agama as this, as opposed to shastra.
196 The brahman. This is false because Briha
spati worships something that he does not know.
197 Etymology in the Vedas.
198 Concerning rituals.
199 Concerning accurate pronunciation.
200 Sattva, rajas and tamas. Sattva action is driven by a desire for heaven, rajas by a desire for superiority and victory and tamas by a desire to harm others. The intentions are thus important.
201 Those born from wombs, eggs, sweat, plants and herbs and divinities.
Chapter 1523(195)
202 After destruction.
203 The soul is left implicit in the text. We have added this. Otherwise, the sentence is incomplete.
204 Because of lack of comprehension, knowledge is bound down.
205 The senses.
206 The atman.
Chapter 1524(196)
207 This is a difficult shloka to translate and we have taken some liberties.
208 The senses have to be destroyed before the atman can be comprehended.
209 As opposed to rising and setting.
210 Release from a body and entering another body.
211 At the time of an eclipse.
212 An eclipse is believed to be due to Rahu devouring the sun and the moon.
Chapter 1525(197)
213 This is a difficult shloka to translate and the interpretation is the following. In dreams, the manifest body is inactive and consciousness is active. After death, consciousness is separated from the senses and from knowledge. Knowledge remains and though the body is no longer existent, knowledge exists in that state of non-existence.
214 The five senses.
215 The atman.
216 Of the senses.
Chapter 1526(198)
217 Of action.
218 Of the senses.
219 The brahman.
220 Other than inside one’s own self.
221 Towards performing action.
222 Such as sexual intercourse between members of the same species.
223 Of rebirth.
Chapter 1527(199)
224 The five senses and their qualities.
225 The inferior kind of knowledge, tantamount to ignorance.
The ninth volume will complete Bhishma’s teachings in Shanti Parva, that is, it will complete the Moksha Dharma section. Bhishma’s teachings continue in Anushasana Parva, specifically, in Dana Dharma. This volume will have roughly half of Dana Dharma Parva.
The Mahabharata: Volume 9 will be published in April 2014.
Acknowledgements
Carving time out from one’s regular schedule and work engagements to embark on such a mammoth work of translation has been difficult. The past tense should not be used, since only 80 per cent of the road has yet been traversed. Sometimes, I wish I had been born in nineteenth-century Bengal, with a benefactor funding me for doing nothing but this. But alas, the days of gentlemen of leisure are long over. The time could not be carved out from professional engagements, barring of course assorted television channels, who must have wondered why I have been so reluctant to head for their studios in the evenings. It was ascribed to health, interpreted as adverse health. It was certainly health, but not in an adverse sense. Reading the Mahabharata is good for one’s mental health and is an activity to be recommended, without any statutory warnings. The time was stolen in the evenings and over weekends. The cost was therefore borne by one’s immediate family, and to a lesser extent by friends. Socializing was reduced, since every dinner meant one less chapter done. The family has first claim on the debt, though I am sure it also has claim on whatever merits are due. At least Suparna does, and these volumes are therefore dedicated to her. I suspect Sirius has no claim on the merits, though he has been remarkably patient at the times when he has been curled up near my feet and I have been translating away. There is some allegory there about a dog keeping company when the Mahabharata is being read and translated.
Most people have thought I was mad, even if they never quite said that. Among those who believed and thought it was worthwhile, beyond immediate family, are M. Veerappa Moily, Ashok Desai, Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Laveesh Bhandari. And my sons, Nihshanka and Vidroha. The various reviewers of the earlier volumes have also been extremely kind. Incidentally, I wouldn’t have been able to do it without Vaman Shivram Apte. When he compiled the student’s Sanskrit dictionary more than a hundred years ago in Pune, I am certain he had no idea that it would be used so comprehensively to translate the Mahabharata.
Penguin also believed. My initial hesitation about being able to deliver was brushed aside by R. Sivapriya, who pushed me after the series had been commissioned by V. Karthika. And then Sumitra Srinivasan became the editor, followed by Paloma Dutta. The enthusiasm of these ladies was so infectious that everything just snowballed and Paloma ensured that the final product of the eight volume was much more readable than what I had initially produced.
When I first embarked on what was also a personal voyage of sorts, the end was never in sight and seemed to stretch to infinity. Now that 80 per cent is over (and 10 per cent more is in the pipeline), the horizon can be seen. And all the people mentioned above have had a role to play in this journey.
THE BEGINNING
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First published by Penguin Books India 2013
Translation copyright © Bibek Debroy 2013
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ISBN: 978-0-143-10020-1
This digital edition published in 2013.
e-ISBN: 978-9-351-18567-3
Mahabharata: Volume 8 Page 81
