ÿþ<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html><head><title>The Sampradaya Sun - Independent Vaisnava News - Editorials - The Mahabharata - Book 13, Anusasana Parva - Part Two </title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7"> </head> <body bgcolor="white" width=800 link="#990000" alink="#990000" vlink="#000088"> <table width=750 border=1 bordercolor="#CC9933" bordercolordark="990000" bordercolorlight="CC9933" cellpadding=10 cellspacing=0 bgcolor="white"> <tr> <td valign=top><font face="verdana"><font size=2> <center><P> <img src="../../head1.gif" width=605 height=99 border=0 usemap="#nav1"></center> <center><table width=700 border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 bgcolor="white"> <tr> <td valign=top colspan=2><font face="verdana"><font size=2> <MAP NAME="nav1"> <AREA COORDS="23,17,110,82" SHAPE="rect" HREF="../../../index.htm"> <AREA COORDS="1,87,46,98" SHAPE="rect" HREF="../../../../media/mantra.wav" target="_blank"> <AREA COORDS="76,86,111,97" SHAPE="rect" HREF="../../../news/news.htm"> <AREA COORDS="121,86,189,97" SHAPE="rect" HREF="../../../editorials/editorials.htm"> <AREA COORDS="199,86,256,97" SHAPE="rect" HREF="../../../features/features.htm"> <AREA COORDS="266,86,329,97" SHAPE="rect" HREF="../../../sunblogs/sunblogs.htm"> <AREA COORDS="339,86,412,97" SHAPE="rect" HREF="../../../classifieds/classifieds.htm"> <AREA COORDS="421,86,466,97" SHAPE="rect" HREF="../../../events/events.htm"> <AREA COORDS="476,86,539,97" SHAPE="rect" HREF="../../../recipes/recipes.htm"> <AREA COORDS="549,86,796,604" SHAPE="rect" HREF="../../../podcasts/podcasts.htm"> </MAP> <P><BR> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width=700> <font face="verdana"><font size=2> <P> <blockquote> <FONT SIZE=+2>The Mahabharata</font> <P> BY: SUN STAFF <P> <center><img src="pix04.jpg" width=680 height=498 border=1> <P><font size=-2><b> Battlefield of Kurukshetra </b></font></center> <P><BR> <center><font size=+1>The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa</font><BR><B>Translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli (published between 1883 and 1896)</b></center> <P><BR> <center><font size=+2>ANUSASANA PARVA</font></center> <p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2><B>Nov 12, 2011, CANADA (SUN) &#151; Book 13 - Anusasana Parva, Part Two - Section 111, Part One</b> </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>Yudhishthira said, 'O grandsire, O thou that art possessed of great wisdom and conversant with all the scriptures. I desire to know those excellent ordinances in consequence of which mortal creatures have to travel through their rounds of rebirth. </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>What is that conduct by following which, O king, men succeed in attaining to high heaven, and what is that conduct by which one sinks in Hell? When, abandoning the dead body that is as inert as a piece of wood or clod of earth, people proceed to the other world, what are those that follow them thither?' </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>Bhishma said, 'Yonder comes the illustrious Vrihaspati of great intelligence! Do thou ask his blessed self. The subject is an eternal mystery. None else is capable of explaining the matter. There is no speaker like Vrihaspati.' </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>Vaisampayana said, 'While the son of Pritha and the son of Ganga were thus speaking with each other, there came to that spot from the firmament the illustrious Vrihaspati of cleansed soul. King Yudhishthira, and all others, with Dhritarashtra at their head, stood up and received Vrihaspati with proper honours. Verily, the worship they offered to the preceptor of the celestials was excellent. Then Dharma's royal son, Yudhishthira, approaching the illustrious Vrihaspati, asked him the question in proper form, desirous of knowing the truth.' </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>Yudhishthira said, 'O illustrious one, thou art conversant with all duties and all the scriptures. Do thou tell me, what is truly the friend of mortal creatures? Is the father, or mother, or son, or preceptor, or kinsmen, or relatives, or those called friends, that may be said to truly constitute the friend of a mortal creature? One goes to the next world, leaving one's dead body that is like a piece of wood or a clod of earth. Who is it that follows him thither?' </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>Vrihaspati said, 'One is born alone, O king, and one dies alone; one crosses alone the difficulties one meets with, and one alone encounters whatever misery falls to one's lot. One has really no companion in these acts. The father, the mother, the brother, the son, the preceptor, kinsmen, relatives, and friends, leaving the dead body as if it were a piece of wood or a clod of earth, after having mourned for only a moment, all turn away from it and proceed to their own concerns. Only Righteousness follows the body that is thus abandoned by them all. Hence, it is plain, that Righteousness is the only friend and that Righteousness only should be sought by all. One endued with righteousness would attain to that high end which is constituted by heaven. If endued with unrighteousness, he goes to Hell. Hence, the man of intelligence should always seek to acquire religious merit through wealth won by lawful means. Piety is the one only friend which creatures have in the world hereafter. Let by cupidity, or stupefaction, or compassion, or fear, one destitute of much knowledge is seen to do improper acts, for the sake of even another, his judgment thus stupefied by cupidity. Piety, wealth and pleasure,--these three constitute the fruit of life. One should acquire these three by means of being free from impropriety and sin.' </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>Yudhishthira, said, 'I have carefully heard the words spoken by thy illustrious self,--these words that are fraught with righteousness, and that are highly beneficial. I wish now to know of the existence of the body (after death). The dead body of man becomes subtil and unmanifest. It becomes invisible. How is it possible for piety to follow it?' </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>Vrihaspati said, 'Earth, Wind, Ether, Water, Light, Mind, Yama (the king of the dead), Understanding, the Soul, as also Day and Night, all together behold as witnesses the merits (and demerits) of all living creatures. With these, Righteousness follows the creature (when dead). 3 When the body becomes bereft of life, skin, bones, flesh, the vital seed, and blood, O thou of great intelligence, leave it at the same time. </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>Endued with merit (and demerit) Jiva (after the destruction of this body) attains to another. After the attainment by Jiva of that body, the presiding deities of the five elements once more behold as witnesses all his acts good and bad. What else dost thou wish to hear? If endued with righteousness, Jiva enjoys happiness. What other topic, belonging to this or the other world, shall I discourse upon?' </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>Yudhishthira said, 'Thy illustrious self has explained how Righteousness follows Jiva. I desire to know how the vital seed is originated.' </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>Vrihaspati said, 'The food that these deities, O king, who dwell in the body, viz., Earth, Wind, Ether, Water, Light, and Mind eat, gratifies them. When those five elements become gratified, O monarch, with Mind numbering as their sixth, their vital seed then becomes generated, O thou of cleansed soul! When an act of union takes place between male and female, the vital seed flows out and causes conception. I have thus explained to thee what thou hast asked. What else dost thou wish to hear?' </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>Yudhishthira said, 'Thou hast, O illustrious one, said how conception takes place. Do thou explain how the Jiva that takes birth grows (by becoming possessed of body).' </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>Vrihaspati said, 'As soon as Jiva enters the vital seed, he becomes overwhelmed by the elements already mentioned. When Jiva becomes disunited therewith, he is said to attain to the other end (viz., death). Endued as Jiva becomes with all those elements, he attains, in consequence thereof, a body. The deities, that preside over those elements behold as witnesses all his acts, good and bad. What else dost thou wish to hear?' </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>Yudhishthira said, 'Leaving off skin and bone and flesh, and becoming destitute of all those elements, in what does Jiva reside, O illustrious one, for enjoying and enduring happiness and misery?' </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>Vrihaspati said, 'Endued with all his acts, the Jiva quickly enters the vital seed, and utilizing the functional flow of women, takes birth in time, O Bharata. After birth, the Jiva receives woe and death from the messengers of Yama. Indeed, misery and a painful round of rebirth are his inheritance. Endued with life, O king, the Jiva in this world, from the moment of his birth, enjoys and endures his own (previous) acts, depending upon righteousness (and its reverse). If the Jiva, according to the best of his power, follows righteousness from the day of his birth, he then succeeds in enjoying, when reborn, happiness without interruption. If, on the other hand, without following righteousness without interruption, he acts sinfully, he reaps happiness at first as the reward of his righteousness and endures misery after that. Endued with unrighteousness, the Jiva has to go to the dominions of Yama and suffering great misery there, he has to take birth in an intermediate order of being, </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>Listen to me as I tell thee what the different acts are by doing which the diva, stupefied by folly, has to take birth in different orders of being, as declared in the Vedas, the scriptures, and the (sacred) histories. Mortals have to go to the frightful regions of Yama. In those regions, O king, there are places that are fraught with every merit and that are worthy on that account of being the abodes of the very deities. There are, again, places in those regions that are worse than those which are inhabited by animals and birds. Indeed, there are spots of these kinds in the abode of Yama which (so far as its happier regions are concerned) is equal to the region of Brahman himself in merits. Creatures, bound by their acts, endure diverse kinds of misery. </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>I shall, after this, tell thee what those acts and dispositions are in consequence of which a person obtains to an end that is fraught with great misery and terror. If a regenerate person, having studied the four Vedas, becomes stupefied by folly and accepts a gift from a fallen man, he has then to take birth in the asinine order. He has to live as an ass for five and ten years. Casting off his asinine form, he has next to take birth as an ox, in which state he has to live for seven years. Casting off his bovine form, he has next to take birth as a Rakshasa of regenerate order. Living as Rakshasa of the regenerate order for three months, he then regains his status (in his next birth) of a Brahmana. </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>A Brahmana, by officiating at the sacrifice of a fallen person, has to take birth as a vile worm. In this form he has to live for five and ten years, O Bharata. Freed from the status of a worm, be next takes birth as an ass. As an ass he has to live for five years, and then a hog, in which state also he has to remain for as many years. After that, he takes birth as a cock, and living for five years in that form, he takes birth as a jackal and lives for as many years in that state. He has next to take birth as a dog, and living thus for a year he regains his status of humanity. That foolish disciple who offends his preceptor by doing any injury to him, has certainly to undergo three transformations in this world. </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>Such a person, O monarch, has in the first instance to become a dog. He has then to become a beast of prey, and then an ass. Living his asinine form, he has to wander for some time in great affliction as a spirit. After the expiration of that period, he has to take birth as a Brahmana. That sinful disciple who even in thought commits adultery with the wife of his preceptor, has in consequence of such a sinful heart, to undergo many fierce shapes in this world. First taking birth in the canine order he has to live for three years. Casting off the canine form when death comes, he takes birth as a worm or vile vermin. In this form he has to live for a year. Leaving that form he succeeds in regaining his status as a human being of the regenerate order. If the preceptor kills, without reason, his disciple who is even as a son to him, he has, in consequence of such a wilful act of sin on his part, to take birth as a beast of prey. </font></font><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>Thus ends Section 111, Part One of the Anusasana Parva, Part Two, Sri Mahabharata. </blockquote> <P><BR><P> <center><a href="../../../index.htm"><img src="../../../leftarrow.gif" width=20 height=15 border=0 alt="Homepage"></a></center> <P><BR> <!-- ========================STORY===================== --> <blockquote> <font face="verdana"><font size=-2><center> | <a href="../../../index.htm">The Sun</a> | <a href="../../../news/news.htm">News</a> | <a href="../../../editorials/editorials.htm">Editorials</a> | <a href="../../../features/features.htm">Features</a> | <a href="../../../sunblogs/sunblogs.htm">Sun Blogs</a> | <a href="../../../classifieds/classifieds.htm">Classifieds</a> | <a href="../../../events/events.htm">Events</a> | <a href="../../../recipes/recipes.htm">Recipes</a> | <a href="../../../podcasts/podcasts.htm">PodCasts</a> | <P> | <a href="../../../about.htm">About</a> | <a href="../../../submit.htm">Submit an Article</a> | <a href="mailto:sun@harekrsna.com">Contact Us</a> | <a href="../../../ads/advertise.htm">Advertise</a> | <a href="../../../../index.htm">HareKrsna.com</a> | </center> </blockquote> <P> <center><b>Copyright 2005,2010, HareKrsna.com. 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