ancient_paztriot Posted May 5, 2004 Report Share Posted May 5, 2004 Talk about reality running up and hitting you in the face… it happened to Yudhisthira. I was looking for something else and came across this from Mahabharata (Yaksha-Prasna chapter)… Yudhisthira is playing "What's my Line?" to save his brothers… Q Whom has he for companion? A. His company is kept by the gods. Q. Who is the cause for the setting of the sun? A. Dharma causes him to set. Q. In whom is the sun established? A. The sun is established in Truth. Q. What makes one learned? A. The study of the Srutis make one learned. Q. How is man to attain what is great? A. Ascetic austerities help a man to achieve the great. Q. How is it possible for a man always to have a second companion? A. Steady intelligence serves man as a helpful companion always. Q. This intelligence you speak of, how is it to be acquired? A. Serving the old makes one rich in wisdom. Q. How are brahmins ranked with divine beings? Why? A. They are considered divine because they study the Vedas. Q. What is it they practise which makes them pious? A. Their asceticism makes them behave as they do and so they are pious. Q. The brahmins are ranked with divine beings. How are they then, different from divine beings? A. Brahmins are mortal and divine beings are not. It is this liability to die that makes them not quite divine. Q. What of kshatriyas? Wherein lies their divinity? A. It lie-, in arrows and weapons. Q. What is their practice which makes them pious? A. Kshatriyas perform sacrifices and that makes them pious. Q. Liability to death makes brahmins less divine. What of kshatriyas? A. In their case it is liability to fear. Q. Tell me about sacrifices. What is meant by the Sama in a sacrifice? And Yajus? There is something which is the refuge of sacrifice. What is it? What is essential for sacrifice? A. Life is the Sama and mind is the Yajus. Rik is the refuge of sacrifice and it is Rik which is essential for sacrifice. Q. There isfound a person who enjoys all the objects of the senses. He is intelligent. The world holds him in esteem and he is quite popular. And yet, though this man breathes, it is said that he does not live. Why? A. man, though he breathes, is considered to be not alive if he does not offer anything to the gods, guests, servants and the Pithris. Q. What is weightier than the earth itself? A. The mother has more weight than the earth. Q. What is higher than the heavens? A. The father. Q. What is fleeter than the wind? A. The mind is fleeter than the wind. Q. What is more numerous than grass? A. The thoughts that arise in the mind of man are more numerous. Q. What is the highest refuge of virtue? A. Liberality is the highest refuge of virtue. Q. Of fame? A. Gift is the highest refuge of fame. Q. Of heaven? A. Truth is the highest refuge of heaven. Q. Of happiness? A. Good behaviour is the highest refuge of happiness. Q. What is the soul of man? A. His son. Q. Who is the friend granted by gods to man? A. The wife is the friend best;cwed on man by the gods. Q. His chief support? A. The clouds. Q. His chief refuge? A. Gift. Q. The best of all things that are praised: what is it? A. The most praiseworthy thing is skill. Q. The most valuable of all possessions? A. Knowledge. Q. The best of all gains? A. Health. Q. The best of all kinds of happiness? A. Contentment. Q. What is the highest duty in the world? A. To abstain from injury is the highest of all duties. Q. What is it, controlling which will lead to no regret? A. The mind, if controlled, will never lead to regret. Q. What is that, which, when renounced, makes one agreeable? A. Pride, when renounced, makes one agreeable. Q. Renouncing what does one become wealthy? A. Desire, when renounced, makes one wealthy. Q. What is it, when renounced, leads to no regret? A. Wrath, when renounced, leads to no regret. Q. Renouncing what does make man happy? A. Avarice, when renounced, makes a man happy. Q. What is THE WAY? By whom is it constituted? A. Those that are good constitute THE WAY. Q. What is the sign of asceticism? A. Staying in one's own religion is asceticism. Q. True restraint? A. The restraint of the mind is true restraint. Q. What is the essential feature of forgiveness? A. Forgiveness consists in enduring enmity. Q. What is shame? A. Shame is withdrawing from all unworthy acts. Q. What is said to be knowledge? A. True knowledge is the knowledge of divinity. Q. What is tranquillity? A. True tranquillity is that of the heart. Q. What is mercy? A. Mercy means wishing happiness for all. Q. What is simplicity? A. Simplicity is equanimity of the heart. Q. Can you tell me what enemy is invincible? A. Anger. Q. What disease is incurable? A. Covetousness is an incurable disease. Which man is considered honest? He who desires the good of all creatures is honest. Q. Which man is dishonest? A. One who is not merciful is dishonest. Q. What is ignorance? A. True ignorance is not knowing one's duties. Q. And pride? A. Pride is a consciousness of one's being himself an actor or sufferer in life. Q. What is idleness? A. Not discharging one's duties is idleness. Q. Grief? What is grief? A. Ignorance is grief. Q. What is patience? A. Patience is subjugating the senses. Q. What is real ablution? A. A true bath consists in washing the mind clean of all impurities. Q. What is charity? A. Charity consists in protecting all creatures. Q. What is wickedness? A. Wickedness is speaking ill of others. Q. By what does one become a brahmin? Is it behaviour? Or birth? Or study? Or learning? A. Neither birth nor study nor even learning makes a brahmin. It is behaviour that makes a brahmin. If his behaviour is faultless the man is faultless too. Bad conduct damns a man for ever. Study of the Vedas is not enough if a man does not conduct himself properly. Q. What is the reward for one who always speaks agreeable words? A. Why, he becomes agreeable to all. Q. When he acts with judgement? A. He gets whatever he seeks. Q. When he has many friends? A. He lives happily. Q. If he is devoted to virtue? A. He obtains a happy state in the next world. Q. What is the most wonderful thing in this world? A. Day after day there enter into the Temple of Death, countless. lives. Looking on this spectacle, the rest of them, those who remain, believe themselves to be permanent, immortal. Can anything be more wonderful than this? What is THE PATH? Arguments lead to no certain conclusions. The Srutis are all different, one from the other. There is not even one rishi whose opinion can be accepted as infallible. The truth about religion and duty is hidden in the caves. Therefore, THAT alone is THE PATH along which the Great have trod. Q. What is THE NEWS? A. The world full of ignorance is like a pan. The sun is fire. The days and nights are the fuel. The months and the seasons constitute the wooden handle. TIME is the COOK that is cooking all creatures in that pan. That is THE NEWS. Q. Who is truly a MAN? A. The report of one's good actions reach heaven and it is spread over the earth. As long as that report lasts, so long is that person called a MAN., Q. Which is the man who is considered to possess every kind of wealth? A. The man to whom the agreeable and the disagreeable, weal and woe, the past and the future, are the same, is considered to possess every kind of wealth. (Of course, we know who the Yaksha was). .......................... I don't get this… Q. What is shame? A. Shame is withdrawing from all unworthy acts. Could it be a mistake? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 5, 2004 Report Share Posted May 5, 2004 I don't get this… Q. What is shame? A. Shame is withdrawing from all unworthy acts. Could it be a mistake? ------------- I think it means that when one feels ashamed, one withdraws from all unworthy acts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ancient_paztriot Posted May 5, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2004 That makes sense to me now. (I can see how I'd miss that). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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