ith grief arising from their
afflictions and on account of the distress of Draupadi and the loss of
our kingdom! Alas, as they are distressed, I cannot employ them in
painful tasks!'

"The Brahmanas said, 'Let no anxiety, O king, in respect of our
maintenance, find a place in thy heart! Ourselves providing our own food,
we shall follow thee, and by meditation and saying our prayers we shall
compass thy welfare while by pleasant converse we shall entertain thee
and be cheered ourselves.'

"Yudhishthira said, 'Without doubt, it must be as ye say, for I am ever
pleased with the company of the regenerate ones! But my fallen condition
maketh me behold in myself an object of reproach! How shall I behold you
all, that do not deserve to bear trouble, out of love for me painfully
subsisting upon food procured by your own toil? Oh, fie upon the wicked
sons of Dhritarashtra!'

"Vaisampayana continued. 'Saying this, the weeping king sat himself down
upon the ground. Then a learned Brahmana, Saunaka by name versed in
self-knowledge and skilled in the Sankhya system of yoga, addressed the
king, saying, 'Causes of grief by thousands, and causes of fear by
hundreds, day after day, overwhelm the ignorant but not the wise. Surely,
sensible men like thee never suffer themselves to be deluded by acts that
are opposed to true knowledge, fraught with every kind of evil, and
destructive of salvation. O king, in thee dwelleth that understanding
furnished with the eight attributes which is said to be capable of
providing against all evils and which resulteth from a study of the Sruti
(Vedas) and scriptures! And men like unto thee are never stupefied, on
the accession of poverty or an affliction overtaking their friends,
through bodily or mental uneasiness! Listen, I shall tell the slokas
which were chanted of old by the illustrious Janaka touching the subject
of controlling the self! This world is afflicted with both bodily and
mental suffering. Listen now to the means of allaying it as I indicate
them both briefly and in detail. Disease, contact with painful things,
toil and want of objects desired.--these are the four causes that induce
bodily suffering. And as regards disease, it may be allayed by the
application of medicine, while mental ailments are cured by seeking to
forget them yoga-meditation. For this reason, sensible physicians first
seek to allay the mental sufferings of their patients by agreeable
converse and the offer of desir