HOMENEW9

*YAKSHA PRASHNA – 4*

*Prashnotthari (Continued)*

Yudhishtira continues to answer all questions from Yaksha

*Yaksha :*
Who is a learned man?
Who is called an atheist?
Who is a stupid person?
What is called desire?
What is envy? (53)

*Yudhisthira :*
A man who is well-aware of his duties is called a learned man.
A stupid person ( a man of no knowledge of Truth) is an atheist.
Attachment to material objects is desire.
Envy is the product of a burning heart. (54)

************************
*Yaksha :*
What is conceit?
What is hypocrisy?
What is the grace of God?
What is wickedness? (55)

*Yudhisthira :*
Lack of knowledge in enormity gives birth to pride.
Setting up a religious standard is hypocrisy.
Grace of God is the fruit of our offerings to him.
Wickedness consists in denigration of other persons. (56)

*********************
*Yaksha:*
Righteousness, wealth and desire are opposed to one another. Then, how
can these ever -incongruous elements exist together? (57)

*Yudhisthira :*
As a virtuous man lives being associated with his wife affably,
righteousness, wealth and desire exist together in full agreement. (58)

********************
*Yaksha :*
O Bharatarùabha! Who is condemned to everlasting hell?
Tell me promptly. (59)

*Yudhisthira:*
A person who invites a Brahmin to offer gifts but thereafter
tells him that he has nothing to offer is condemned to everlasting hell. (60)

A person who vilifies the Vedas, the religious scriptures, the Brahmins,
the gods and the ancestral rites is destined to be in perpetual hell. (61)

A person despite being rich neither does not offer any gifts nor does he
enjoy himself owing to acquisitive habit (saying that he has no riches)
goes to endless hell. (62)

********************
*Yaksha:*
O King! What makes a man Brahmin – birth, occupation, study or learning?
Tell me with conviction. (63)

*Yudhisthira :*
O Yaksha! Not birth, nor study nor learning is the cause
of Brahmanahood. Doubtlessly, it is determined by his conduct. (64)

A man’s conduct should always be well-guarded, especially by a Brahmin.
He who maintains his conduct flawlessly is a man of stainless demeanor. (65)

Teachers and pupils – in fact, all who study the scriptures,
if addicted to wicked habits, are to be regarded as illiterate
wretches. Learned is the man who performs his religious duties. (66)

Even a person of unfair conduct who has studied the four Vedas
is regarded as a wicked person. He is no better than a Shudra.
A Brahmin is one who performs agnihotra sacrifice and
has his senses under control. (67)

***************
*Yaksha :*
What does a person who speaks agreeably gain?
What does a prudent man gain?
What does a man who has many friends gain?
What does a virtuous man gain? (68)

*Yudhisthira :*
A person who speaks agreeably is loved by all.
A prudent man gains much more by his action.
A man with many friends lives happily.
A virtuous man attains a happy state in the next world. (69)

**********************
*Yaksha :*
What is truth?
What is the surprise?
What is the right path?
Who is truly happy?
Answer these questions and then drink. (70)

*Yudhisthira:*
The world overshadowed with ignorance is like a cauldron. The sun is fire;
the days and nights are fuel; the seasons constitute the wooden ladle; Time
is the cook boiling all creatures in the cauldron (with these aids). This is the
vàrtà (Truth). (71)

Day after day countless creatures are going to the abode of Yama,
yet those that remain behind believe themselves to be immortal.
What can be more surprising than this? (72)

Argument leads to no certain conclusion; the srutis are different
from one another; there is not even one sage whose opinion is
accepted by all; the truth about religion and duty is hid in caves;
therefore, that alone is the path along which the great have walked. (73)

Oh ! amphibious creature! Happy is the man who lives on
vegetables cooked in his own house in the fifth or the
sixth part of the day, owes no debt to anybody and who
does not live in a foreign land. (74)


*To be continued….*