a marvel! How hath the dead come to life again?
Is it the power of his austere virtue by which he
hath revived again? We long to hear this, O Brahmana,
if, indeed, it can be divulged?” To them, he
replied, “Death, O lords of men, hath no power
over us! I shall tell ye the reason briefly and
intelligibly. We perform our own sacred duties;
therefore, have we no fear of death; we speak well
of
Brahmanas but never think any ill of them;
therefore hath death no terror for us. Entertaining
our guests with food and drink, and our dependants
with plenty of food, we ourselves (then) partake of
what is left; therefore we are not afraid of death.
We are peaceful and austere and charitable and forbearing
and fond of visiting sacred shrines, and we live in
sacred places; therefore we have no fear of death.
And we live in places inhabited by men who have great
spiritual power; therefore hath death no terror for
us. I have briefly told ye all! Return ye
now all together, cured of all worldly vanity.
Ye have no fear of sin!” Saying
amen,
O foremost scion of Bharata’s race, and saluting
the great
Muni, all those princes joyously
returned to their country.’”
“Markandeya continued, ’Do ye again hear
from me the glory of the Brahmanas! It
is said that a royal sage of the name of Vainya
was once engaged in performing the horse-sacrifice
and that Atri desired to go to him for alms.
But Atri subsequently gave up his desire of wealth,
from religious scruples. After much thought he,
of great power, became desirous of living in the woods,
and, calling his wife and sons together, addressed
them thus, “Let us attain the highly tranquil
and complete fruition of our desires. May it,
therefore, be agreeable to you to repair quickly to
the forest for a life of great merit.” His
wife, arguing from motives of virtue also then said
to him, “Hie thee to the illustrious prince
Vainya, and beg of him vast riches! Asked by thee,
that royal sage, engaged in sacrifice will give thee
wealth. Having gone there, O regenerate Rishi,
and received from him vast wealth, thou canst distribute
it among thy sons and servants and then thou canst
go whithersoever thou pleasest. This, indeed,
is the higher virtue as instanced by men conversant
with religion.” Atri replied, “I am
informed, O virtuous one, by the high-souled Gautama,
that Vainya is a pious prince, devoted to the cause
of truth; but there are Brahmanas (about his
persons) who are jealous of me; and as Gautama hath
told me this, I do not venture to go there, for (while)
there, if I were to advise what is good and calculated
to secure piety and the fulfilment of one’s
desires, they would contradict me with words unproductive
of any good. But I approve of any counsel and
will go there; Vainya will give me kine and hoards
of riches."’
Print
Word
PDF
