nd religious merit. A person without wealth is
more dead than alive. Wealth for the performance of sacrifices should be
acquired by every means. The demerit that attaches to an act done in a
season of distress is not equal to that which attaches to the same act if
done at other times, O Bharata! The acquisition of wealth and its
abandonment cannot both be possibly seen in the same person, O king! I do
not see a rich man in the forest. With respect to every wealth that is
seen in this world, every one contends with every one else, saying, 'This
shall be mine,' 'This shall be mine!' This is nothing, O scorcher of
foes, that is so meritorious for a king as the possession of a kingdom.
It is sinful for a king to oppress his subjects with heavy impositions at
ordinary times. In a season, however, of distress, it is quite different.
Some acquire wealth by gifts and sacrifices; some who have a liking for
penances acquire wealth by penances; some acquire it by the aid of their
intelligence and cleverness. A person without wealth is said to be weak,
while he that has wealth becomes powerful. A man of wealth may acquire
everything. A king that has well-filled treasury succeeds in
accomplishing everything. By his treasury a king may earn religious
merit, gratify his desire for pleasure, obtain the next world, and this
also. The treasury, however, should be filled by the aid of righteousness
and never by unrighteous practices, such, that is, as pass for righteous
in times of distress."'"

SECTION CXXXI

(Apaddharmanusasana Parva)

"'Yudhishthira said, "What, besides this, should be done by a king that is
weak and procrastinating, that does not engage in battle from anxiety for
the lives of his friends, that is always under the influence of fear, and
that cannot keep his counsels secret? What, indeed, should that king do
whose cities and kingdom have been partitioned and appropriated by foes,
who is divested of wealth, who is incapable (through such poverty) of
honouring his friends and attaching them to himself, whose ministers are
disunited or bought over by his enemies, who is obliged to stand in the
face of foes, whose army has dwindled away, and whose heart has been
agitated by some strong enemy?"

"'Bhishma said, "If the invading enemy be of pure heart and if he be
conversant with both morality and profit, a king of the kind you have
indicated should, with no loss of time, make peace with the invader and
bring about th