worshipped with respect.  He has never to feel shame for any deficiency of his.  He is very attentive.  He is always engaged by others in accomplishing what is for their good.  He never divulges the secrets of others.  For this he is everywhere worshipped with respect.  He never yields to transports of joy on occasions of making even valuable acquisitions.  He is never pained at losses.  His understanding is firm and stable.  His soul is unattached to all things.  For this he is everywhere worshipped with respect.  Who, indeed, is there that will not love him who is thus possessed of every merit and accomplishment, who is clever in all things, who is pure in body and mind, who is entirely auspicious, who is well-versed with the course of time and its opportuneness for particular acts, and who is well-acquainted with all agreeable things?’”

SECTION CCXXXI

“Yudhishthira said, ’I desire, O thou of Kuru’s race, to know what the origin and what the end is of all creatures; what is the nature of their meditation and what are their acts; what are the divisions of time, and what the allotted periods of life in the respective epochs.  I desire also to know in full the truth about the genesis and the conduct of the world; the origin of creatures into the world and the manner of their going on.  Indeed, whence their creation and destruction?  O best of virtuous persons, if thou art minded to favour us, do tell us this about which I ask thee.  Having heard before this excellent discourse of Bhrigu unto the regenerate sage Bharadwaja which thou didst recite, my understanding, purged of ignorance, has become exceedingly attached to yoga, and withdrawn from worldly objects rests upon heavenly purity.  I ask thee about the subject, therefore, once more.  It behoves thee to discourse to me (more elaborately).’

“Bhishma said, ’In this connection I shall recite to thee an old narrative of what the divine Vyasa said unto his son Suka when the latter had questioned the former.  Having studied the illimitable Vedas with all their branches and the Upanishads, and desirous of leading a life of Brahmacharya in consequence of his having earned excellence of religious merit, Suka addressed these very questions, about which his doubts had been solved, to his father the island-born Rishi who had removed (by study and contemplation) all doubts connected with the topic of the true import of duties.’

“Suka said, ’It behoveth thee to tell me who the Creator is of all beings, as fixed by a knowledge of time,[871] and what the duties are that should be accomplished by a Brahmana.’

“Bhishma said, ’Unto his son who had questioned him, the sire, having a knowledge of both the past and future, conversant with all duties and endued with omniscience, thus discoursed on the subject.’