'"
"Sanjaya continued, 'Govinda then said, "Fie, fie," unto Partha and once
more continued to say, "I now know, O Partha, that thou hast not waited
upon the old, since, O tiger among men, thou hast yielded to wrath at a
time when thou shouldst not have done so. No one that is acquainted with
the distinctions of morality would act in the way, O Dhananjaya, in which
thou, O son of Pandu, that art unacquainted with them, art acting today!
He, O Partha, is the worst of men who committeth acts that should not be
done and doeth acts that are apparently proper but condemned by the
scriptures. Thou knowest not the decisions of those learned men who,
waited upon by pupils, declare their opinions, following the dictates of
morality. The man that is not acquainted with those rulings becomes
confounded and stupefied, O Partha, even as thou hast been stupefied, in
discriminating between what should be done and what should not. What
should be done and what should not cannot be ascertained easily.
Everything can be ascertained by the aid of the scriptures. Thou,
however, art not acquainted with the scriptures. Since (believing
thyself) conversant with morality, thou art desirous of observing
morality (in this way, it seems) thou art actuated by ignorance. Thou
believest thyself to be conversant with virtue, but thou dost not know, O
Partha, that the slaughter of living creatures is a sin. Abstention from
injury to animals is, I think, the highest virtue. One may even speak an
untruth, but one should never kill.
Pages:
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344