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The Great Epic of the Bhārata dynasty 12.208.12

Mahābhārata 12.208.12

Language
Sanskrit

12.208.12

sa duḥkhaṃ prāpya loke'sminnarakāyopapadyate |
tasmānmanovākśarīrairācareddhairyamātmanaḥ || 12 ||

He who betakes himself to action, impelled thereto by propensities fraught with the attribute of Passion, obtains much misery in this world and at last sinks into hell. One should, therefore, practise self-restraint in body, speech, and mind. Ignorant persons bearing the burdens of the world are like robbers laden with their booty of straggling sheep (secreted from herds taken out for pasture). The latter are always regardful of roads that are unfavourable to them (owing to the presence of the king's watch). Indeed, as robbers have to throw away their spoil if they wish for safety, even so should a person cast off all acts dictated by Passion and Darkness if he is to obtain felicity. Without doubt, a person that is without desire, free from the bonds of the world, contented to live in solitude, abstemious in diet, devoted to penances and with senses under control, that has burnt all his sorrows by (the acquisition of) knowledge, that takes a pleasure in practising all the particulars of yoga discipline, and that has a cleansed soul, succeeds, in consequence of his mind being withdrawn into itself, in attaining to Brahma or Emancipation. One endued with patience and a cleansed soul, should, without doubt, control one's understanding. With the understanding (thus disciplined), one should next control one's mind, and then with the mind overpower the objects of the senses.

Kisari Mohan Ganguli 1883, The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa

Translations (1)

Other recensions (2)