CHAPTER CXXVII.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
39. It is neither the birth nor character, nor the good manners nor valour of a man, that ensures him his success in any undertaking, except it be by the merit of his acts in former births.
40. Why sit you so sad to think of the events of inscrutable and unavoidable fate, since there is no power nor that of God himself to efface what has been already written destined in the forehead (or luck) of anybody. (Fate overrules even Jove himself).
41. Where is the expounder of intellectual science, and where is the pupil that can comprehend it fully; what is this creeping plant of ignorance, and what is this inscrutable destiny, that joins two things together, are questions too difficult to be solved.
42. O Bharadwája! Let your reason assist you to overcome your illusion, and then you will no doubt gain an uncommon share of wisdom.
43. See how a high mettled hero overpowers on all his imminent dangers, and stretches his conquest far and wide; and behold on the other hand, how a mean spirited man is tried and grieves at the ordinary casualties of life.
44. A good understanding is the result of, and attendant upon the meritorious deeds of many lives; as it appears in the acts of wise men, and in the lives of all living liberated persons.
45. Know my son, that the same action is fraught both with your freedom as well as bondage, accordingly as it proves favourable or adverse to you. (As true faith is attended with salvation, but false faith or hypocrisy with damnation).
46. The righteous acts of virtuous men, serve to destroy the sins of their past lives; as the showers of rain water, extinguish the flame of a conflagration in the forest.
47. But my friend, I would advise you rather to avoid your religious acts, and attach your mind to the meditation of Brahma, if you want to avoid your falling into the deep eddy of this world. (Because all actions bind a man to the world over and over again).
48. So long as one is attached to the outer world, being led to it by his insatiable desires, or so long as one is led by the insatiable desires of his mind, to attach himself to the outer world; he is exposed to the contrary wind and waves of the sea, and has only to find his rest in the calm water of his loneliness.
49. Why do you lean so much upon your sorrow only to blind your understanding, rather support yourself on the strong staff of your good understanding, and it will never break under you.
50. Those who are reckoned in the number of the great men, never allow themselves to be altered and moved by their joy or grief; and to be carried away like straws by the current of the river.
51. Why do you sorrow, friend, for these people, who are swinging in the cradle of the circumstance of life in the dark night of this world, and playing their several parts with giddy amusement.
52. Look at the gamesome time, that sports joyously in this world, with the slaughter and production of endless beings by turns.
53. There is no body of any age or sex for his game in particular, he chases all in general like the all devouring dragon.
54. Why talk of mortal men and other animals, that live to die in a moment; even the whole body of gods (said to be immortals), are under the clutches of the remorseless and relentless death.
55. Why do you dance and make yourself merry in your amusement, when you are in danger of losing by degrees the powers of your body and limbs; sit but silently for a while, and see the drama of the course of this world (combining its comedy and tragedy together).
56. Seeing the ever varying scenes of this changeful theatre of the world, the wise spectator, O good Bharadwája, never shrinks nor shudders for a moment (knowing such to be its nature).
57. Shun your unwelcomed sorrow, and seek for the favourable amidst all that is unfavourable; nor sadden the clear and cheerful countenance of your soul, which is of the nature of the perfectly blissful intellect of God.
58. Bear always your reverence towards the gods, Bráhmans and your superiors; and be a friend even to irrational animals; in order to meet with the grace of God, according to the dicta of the vedas (that the grace is the leader to the light of truth, and thereby to the way of liberation).
59. Bharadwája rejoined:—I have known by your kindness all these and much more of such truths, and come to find that, there is not a greater friend to us than our indifference to the world, nor a greater enemy than this world itself to us.
60. I want to learn at present the substance of all the knowledge, which was imparted by the sage Vasishtha, in many works of great verbosity.
61. Válmíki answered:—Hear now, Bharadwája, of the highest knowledge (which is taught by that sage) for the salvation of mankind; and the hearing of which will save you from your drowning in the iniquities of the world.
62. First bow down to that supreme being, who is of the nature of the sole entity combined with intellect and felicity; (all which are his forms in the abstract), and who is ever existent with his attributes of creation, sustentation and destruction: (which are said to be so many states of himself).
63. I will tell you in short, and upon the authority of the sruti; how you may come to the knowledge of the first principle, and the manner in which it exhibits itself in the acts of creation, preservation and destruction of the universe.
64. But tell me first, how you have lost your remembrance of what I have told you on this subject; since it is possible by your reconsideration of all that from first to last, to know every thing from your own memory, as they have a survey of the earth from a small globe in their hand.
65. Now consider all this in your own mind, and you will get the truth which will prevent all your sorrows; associate moreover with the learned and study the best books, which with the help of your reasoning and resignation, may lead you to endless felicity.