'
SECTION CLXXIV
(Mokshadharma Parva)
"YUDHISHTHIRA SAID, 'THOU hast, O grandsire, discoursed upon the
auspicious duties (of person in distress) connected with the duties of
kings. It behoveth thee now, O king, to tell me those foremost of duties
which belong to those who lead the (four) modes of life.'
"Bhishma said, 'Religion hath many doors. The observance of (the duties
prescribed by) religion can never be futile. Duties have been laid down
with respect to every mode of life. (The fruits of those duties are
invisible, being attainable in the next world.) The fruits, however, of
Penance directed towards the soul are obtainable in this world.[500]
Whatever be the object to which one devotes oneself, that object, O
Bharata, and nothing else, appears to one as the highest of acquisitions
fraught with the greatest of blessings. When one reflects properly (one's
heart being purified by such reflection), one comes to know that the
things of this world are as valueless as straw. Without doubt, one is
then freed from attachment in respect of those things. When the world, O
Yudhishthira, which is full of defects, is so constituted, every man of
intelligence should strive for the attainment of the emancipation of his
soul.'
"Yudhishthira said, 'Tell me, O grandsire, by what frame of soul should
one kill one's grief when one loses one's wealth, or when one's wife, or
son, or sire, dies.'
"Bhishma said, 'When one's wealth is lost, or one's wife or son or sire
is dead, one certainly says to oneself 'Alas, this is a great sorrow!'
But then one should, by the aid of reflection, seek to kill that sorrow.
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