All acts are
undertaken from selfish motives. Unselfish acts or motives are very rare.
Those kings whose hearts are restless and unquiet cannot acquire a true
knowledge of men. Only one in a hundred can be found who is either able
or fearless. The prosperity of men, as also their fall, comes of itself.
Prosperity and adversity, and greatness, all proceed from weakness of
understanding."[344]
"Bhishma continued, 'Having said these conciliatory words fraught with
virtue, pleasure, and profit, and having gratified the king, the jackal
retired to the forest. Without listening to the entreaties of the king of
beasts, the intelligent jackal cast off his body by sitting in praya and
proceeded to heaven (as the reward of his good deeds on earth).'"
SECTION CXII
"Yudhishthira said, 'What acts should be done by a king, and what are
those acts by doing which a king may become happy? Tell me this in
detail, O thou that art the foremost of all persons acquainted with
duties.'
"Bhishma said, 'I shall tell thee what thou wishest to know. Listen to
the settled truth about what should be done in this world by a king and
what those acts are by doing which a king may become happy. A king should
not behave after the manner disclosed in the high history of a camel of
which we have heard. Listen to that history then, O Yudhishthira! There
was, in the Krita age, a huge camel who had recollection of all the acts
of his former life. Observing the most rigid vows, that camel practised
very severe austerities in the forest.
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