e or hereafter. Yet they cherish their
young ones with affection. Their children, growing up, never cherish them
in age. Yet are not they grieved when they do not behold their little
ones? Where, indeed, is affection to be seen in human beings that they
would own the influence of grief?[448] Where would you go leaving here
this child who is the perpetuator of his race? Do you shed tears for him
for some time, and do you look at him a little longer with affection?
Objects so dear are, indeed, difficult to abandon. It is friends and not
others that wait by the side of him that is weak, of him that is
prosecuted in a court of law, of him that is borne towards the
crematorium. Life-breaths are dear unto all, and all feel the influence
of affection. Behold the affection that is cherished by even those that
belong to the intermediate species![449] How, indeed, can you go away,
casting off this boy of eyes large as the petals of the lotus, and
handsome as a newly-married youth washed clean and adorned with floral
garlands?' Hearing these words of the jackal that had been indulging in
such expressions of touching grief, the men turned back for the sake of
the corpse.

"'"The vulture said, 'Alas, ye men destitute of strength of mind, why do ye
turn back at the bidding of a cruel and mean jackal of little
intelligence? Why do you mourn for that compound of five elements
deserted by their presiding deities, no longer tenanted (by the soul),
motionless, and stiff as a piece of wood? Why do you not grieve for your
own selves? Do you practise austere penances by which you will succeed in
cleansing yourselves from sin? Everything may be had by means of
penances. What will lamentations do? Ill-luck is born with the body.[450]
It is in consequence of that ill-luck that this boy has departed,
plunging you into infinite grief. Wealth, kine, gold, precious gems,
children, all have their root in penances. Penances again are the results
of yoga (union of the soul with Godhead). Amongst creatures, the measure
of weal or woe is dependent on the acts of a previous life. Indeed, every
creature comes into the world taking with him his own measure of weal and
woe. The son is not bound by the acts of the sire, or the sire by those
of the son. Bound by their own acts, good and bad, all have to travel by
this common road. Duly practise all the duties, and abstain from acts of
unrighteousness. Reverentially wait, according to the directions of the
scr