Even a horse, if
properly trained, succeeds in bearing, without falling down, a burden.
(What need then be said of thee that art a human being?) One incurs no
censure if only one's acts and words be proper, for success is said to
depend upon acts (and words). No person, be he a man virtuously following
the domestic mode of life, or be he a king, or be he a Brahmacharin, has
ever succeeded in conducting himself without tripping. It is better to do
an act which is good and in which there is small merit than to totally
abstain from all acts, for total abstention from acts is very sinful.
When a high-born and righteous person succeeds in obtaining affluence,
the king then succeeds in obtaining prosperity in all his affairs. A
virtuous king, having obtained a kingdom, should seek to subdue some by
gifts, some by force, and some by sweet words. There is no one more
virtuous than he upon whom high-born and learned persons rely from fear
of losing their means of sustenance and depending upon whom they live in
contentment.
"Yudhishthira said, 'What acts, O sire, are conductive to heaven? What is
the nature of the great felicity that is derived from them? What also is
the high prosperity that may be obtained thence? Tell me all this, if
thou knowest.,
"Bhishma said, 'That man from whom a person afflicted with fear obtains
relief even for a moment, is the most worthy of heaven amongst us. This
that I tell thee is very true. Be thou cheerfully the king of the Kurus,
O foremost one of Kuru's race, acquire heaven, protect the good and slay
the wicked.
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