never becomes the subject of censure.  Withdrawn from all attachments, such a person can become happy in all respects by supporting life upon what little he may obtain as alms.  No one, however, can be happy by the acquisition of wealth.  In this connection certain verses relating to sacrifices are recited by persons conversant with ancient scriptures.  Wealth was created by the Creator for the sake of sacrifices, and man was created by him for protecting that wealth and performing sacrifices.  For this, all wealth should be applied to sacrifices.  It is not proper that it should be spent for the gratification of desire of enjoyment.  The Creator then confers wealth upon mortals for the sake of sacrifices.  Know this, O son of Kunti, thou that art the foremost of all wealthy persons!  It is for this that the wise think that wealth, without doubt, is nobody’s on earth.  One should perform sacrifices with it and give it away with a trustful heart.  One should spend (in gift) what one has acquired, and not waste or spend it in gratifying one’s desire of enjoyment.  What use is there in amassing wealth when such proper objects exist in which to spend it?  Those persons of little understanding that give away (wealth) unto men that have swerved from the duties of their order, have to subsist hereafter for a hundred years on ordure and dirt.  That men give unto the undeserving and refrain from giving unto the deserving is due to inability to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving.  For this reason the practice of even the virtue of charity is difficult.  These are the two faults connected with wealth even when acquired, viz., gift to an undeserving person and abstaining from giving unto him that is deserving.’”

SECTION XXVII

“Yudhishthira said, ’In consequence of the fall Abhimanyu of tender years, of the sons of Draupadi, of Dhrishtadyumna, of Virata, of king Drupada, of Vasusena conversant with every duty, of the royal Dhrishtaketu, and of diverse other kings hailing from diverse regions, in battle, grief does not forsake my wretched self that am a slayer of kinsmen.  Indeed, I am inordinately covetous of kingdom and am an exterminator of my own race.  He upon whose breast and limbs I used to roll in sport, alas, that Ganga’s son has been slain by me in battle through lust of sovereignty.  When I beheld that lion among men, viz., our grandsire, assailed by Sikhandin and trembling and reeling in consequence of Partha’s shafts that resembled thunder-bolts in energy, when I beheld his tall form pierced all over with blazing arrows and himself become weak like an aged lion, my heart was deeply pained.  When I beheld that afflictor of hostile cars reel like a mountain summit and fall down strengthless on the terrace of his own vehicle with his face turned towards the east, my senses were stupefied.  That scion of Kuru’s race who with bow and shaft in hand had contended