companionship with Prosperity stupefies a person of weak judgment.  It drives off his judgment like the wind driving off the autumnal clouds.  Companionship with Prosperity induces him to think,—­I am possessed of beauty!  I am possessed of wealth!  I am high-born!  I meet with success in whatever I undertake!  I am not an ordinary human being!—­His heart becomes intoxicated in consequence of these three reasons.  With heart deeply attached to worldly possessions, he wastes the wealth hoarded by his sires.  Reduced to want, he then regards the appropriation of other people’s wealth as blameless.  At this stage, when he transgresses all barriers and beings to appropriate the possessions of others from every side, the rulers of men obstruct and afflict him like sportsmen afflicting with keen shafts a deer that is espied in the woods.  Such a man is then overwhelmed with many other afflictions of a similar kind that originate in fire and weapons.  Therefore, disregarding all worldly propensities (such as desire for children and wives) together with all fleeting unrealities (such as the body, etc.,) one should, aided by one’s intelligence, apply proper medicine for the cure of those painful afflictions.  Without Renunciation one can never attain to happiness.  Without Renunciation one can never obtain what is for one’s highest good.  Without Renunciation one can never sleep at case.  Therefore, renouncing everything, make happiness thy own.  All this was said to me in past times at Hastinapur by a Brahmana about what Sampaka had sung.  For this reason, I regard Renunciation to be the foremost of things.’”

SECTION CLXXVII

“Yudhishthira said, ’If any person, desiring to accomplish acts (of charity and sacrifices), fails to find (the necessary) wealth, and thirst of wealth overwhelms him, what is that which he must do for obtaining happiness?’

“Bhishma said, ’He that regards everything (viz., joy and sorrow, honour and insult, etc.,) with an equal eye, that never exerts himself (for gratifying his desire for earthly possessions), that practises truthfulness of speech, that is freed from all kinds of attachment, and that has no desire for action, is, O Bharata, a happy man.  These five, the ancients say, are the means for the acquisition of perfect tranquillity or emancipation.  These are called Heaven.  These are Religion.  These constitute the highest happiness.  In this connection is cited the old narrative of what Manki had sung, when freed from attachments, Listen to it, O Yudhishthira!  Desirous of wealth, Manki found that he was repeatedly doomed to disappointments.  At last with a little remnant of his property he purchased a couple of young bulls with a yoke for training them (to agricultural labour).  One day the two bulls properly tied to the yoke, were taken out for training (in the fields).  Shying at the sight of a camel that was lying down on the road, the animals suddenly ran towards the