Then freed from hard corporeal bonds, the soul
Enjoys immortal life, supremely blest.

This end pursuing, e'en the lowest men,

With women, reach that blissful state; much more Shall Brahmans, Kshatriyas, versed in sacred lore, Who Brahma seek, this good transcendent gain.

[This is said after a statement has been made in xiv. 532 ff. of the means by which final redemption, described in v. 543 as nirvāņa, may be obtained. The same promise is made by Krishna (who is also the speaker here), to the same classes of persons in the Bhagavad Gītā, ix. 32 f.; but it is there made dependent on their being devoted to him, the words mām hi Pārtha vyapāśritya standing there in place of dharmam imam samasthāya, the reading of v. 593 in the passage before us].

LXXXI. Honour due not to Class, but to Character.

Mahabharata xiii. 2610.

No well-born man respect deserves,

Whose life from virtue's canons swerves ;

While honour is that Sudra's due,

Who lives to duty ever true.

LXXXII. The nobility of manhood.

Mahabharata xii. 10931.

Though joyless, poor, and sad at heart,
Let no man seek with life to part;
For even the humblest, basest state
Of manhood yet is something great.

LXXXIII. Generous impartiality.

Mahabharata xii. 8752.

With equal eye the truly wise
View learned Brahmans, nobly born,
Cows, dogs, and outcast men forlorn,
Whom thoughtless fools as vile despise.

For both in objects fixed, and things
Which inward motive force impels,-
In all, the one great Spirit dwells,
From whom this frame of nature springs.

LXXXIV. Dirtue of more value than high birth.
Mahabharata v. 1492; iii. 12531.

The man of high or humble birth,
Whose life with virtue's laws accords,-
The righteous, modest man, is worth
A hundred merely high-born lords.

LXXXV. The true Brahman.

Mahabharata xii. 9667.

The man who Nature knows, with all
The changing growth that from her springs,
And all the fates of living things,-
That man the gods a Brahman call.

LXXXVI. The Same.

Mahabharata xii. 8925.

He whose sole presence fills a place,
Whose absence makes a void in halls
Where thousands throng the ample space,
That man the gods a Brahman call.

LXXXVII. What makes a man a Brahman.

Mahābhārata iii. 17392; xii. 2363; iii. 12470.

A spirit (Yaksha) asks:

What is it makes a Brahman? birth,
Deep study, sacred lore, or worth?

King Yudhishthira answers;

Nor study, sacred lore, nor birth
The Brahman makes; 'tis only worth.

All men-a Brahman most of all-
Should virtue guard with care and pains.
Who virtue rescues, all retains ;
But all is gone with virtue's fall.

The men in books who take delight,
Frequenters all of learning's schools,
Are nothing more than zealous fools;
The learn'd are those who act aright.
More vile than one of Śûdra race

That Brahman deem, whose learned store
Embraces all the Vedic lore,

If evil deeds his life disgrace.

That man deserves the Brahman's name
Who offerings throws on Agni's flame,
And knows his senses how to tame.

LXXXVIII. The true Brahman.

Mahabharata iii. 14075.

No better than a Śûdra deem
The Brahman wise in sin, the slave
Of low degrading vice, the knave
Who fain a holy man would seem.

But rank with men of priestly birth,
The Sûdra truthful, self-restrained,
By constant acts in virtue trained
A twice-born man is he by worth.

:

LXXXIX. Goodness essential to a Brahman.
Mahabharata xii. 2363.

The pious man who Soma* drinks,
From all base deeds with horror shrinks,
Calm, unaspiring, tender, mild,

Kind, patient, just, in guile a child,-
Deserves alone the Brahman's name,
Which no bad man can ever claim.

XC. The Same.

Mahabharata xiii. 1542 f.

KASYAPA says:

Nor vedic learning deep, nor store
Of legends, or of Sānkhya lore,
Nor stainless birth, avails to save
The priest who lives to vice a slave.

AGNI says:

The man who much has read, and deems
His brain with copious learning teems,
Who yet misusing what he knows,
On worthier men discredit throws,-
By such base arts shall surely miss
In future worlds enduring bliss.

*The juice of the Soma plant, as part of a religious rite.

XCI. Profession without Practice.
Mahābhārata xiii. 1550 f.

Some Brahmans roam the world around,
And loudly virtue's praises sound,

*

Yet fail to practise what they preach ;
Nay, vice by vicious living teach.
To honour such let no one think;

Who gives them gifts to hell shall sink.

XCII. Great lealth injurious to Brahmans.
Mahabharata xiii. 3082.

To own too ample stores of wealth
Destroys a Brahman's moral health.
The man who no misfortune knows,
Whose life in bliss unbroken flows,
And who, by Fortune long caressed,
Is deemed by all supremely blest,
Of such success the price must pay,—
By vain conceit be led astray.

But when the Brahmans, filled with pride,

No longer others wisely guide,

Abandoned by its guardians, then

Must virtue cease to govern men.

XCIII. Brahmans should shun honour.

Manu ii. 162 f.; Mahabharata xii. 8449 f.; 11017;
compare 9064.

A Brahman should from honour shrink,

As he would poison dread to drink;

* The original here has dharma, which may mean caste and ritual rules, and speaks of the conduct of the persons in question as leading to a confusion of castes, and so is written from a Brahmanical point of view.