'"
SECTION CXLII
"Yudhishthira said, 'If that which is so horrible and which like
falsehood should never be an object of regard, be cited (as duty), then
what act is there from which I should forbear? Why also should not
robbers then be respected? I am stupefied! My heart is pained! All the
ties that bind me to morality are loosened! I cannot tranquillise my mind
and venture to act in the way suggested by you.'
"Bhishma said, 'I do not instruct thee in respect of duty, taught by what
I have heard from the Vedas alone. What I have told thee is the result of
wisdom and experience. This is the honey that the learned have gathered.
Kings should gather wisdom from various sources. One cannot accomplish
his course through the world with the aid of a morality that is
one-sided. Duty must spring from the understanding; and the practices of
those that are good should always be ascertained, O son of Kuru! Attend
to these words of mine. Only kings that are possessed of superior
intelligence can rule, expecting victory. A king should provide for the
observance of morality by the aid of his understanding and guided by
knowledge derived from various sources. The duties of a king can never be
discharged by rules drawn from a morality that is one-sided. A
weak-minded king can never display wisdom (in the discharge of his
duties) in consequence of his not having drawn any wisdom from the
examples before him. Righteousness sometimes takes the shape of
unrighteousness.
Pages:
1600
1601
1602
1603
1604
1605
1606
1607
1608
1609
1610
1611
1612
1613
1614
1615
1616
1617
1618
1619
1620
1621
1622
1623
1624