righteous,
constitute the path of the ascetic possessed of knowledge. A person that
is good never deviates from that path. Retiring from the world and
betaking himself to a life in the woods, that learned person having a
complete control over the senses who treads in that path, in quiet
expectation of his decease, is sure to attain to the state of Brahma. He
who has no fear of any creature and of whom no creature is afraid, has,
after the dissolution of his body, no fear to encounter.[460] He who
exhausts his merits (by actual enjoyment) without seeking to store them
up, who casts an equal eye upon all creatures and practises a course of
universal friendliness, attains to Brahma. As the track of birds along
the sky or of fowl over the surface of water cannot be discerned, even so
the track of such a person (on earth) does not attract notice. For him, O
king, who abandoning home adopts the religion of emancipation, many
bright worlds wait to be enjoyed for eternity. If, abandoning all acts,
abandoning penances in due course, abandoning the diverse branches of
study, in fact, abandoning all things (upon which worldly men set their
hearts), one becomes pure in his desires, liberated from all
restraints,[461] of cheerful soul, conversant with self, and of pure
heart, one then wins esteem in this world and at last attains to heaven.
That eternal region of the Grandsire which springs from Vedic penances,
and which is concealed in a cave, can be won by only self-restraint.[462]
He who takes pleasure in true knowledge, who has become enlightened, and
who never injures any creature, has no fear of coming back to this world,
far less, any fear in respect of the others.[463] There is only one fault
in self-control. No second fault is noticeable in it. A person who has
self-control is regarded by men as weak and imbecile. O thou of great
wisdom, this attribute has only one fault. Its merits are many. By
forgiveness (which is only another form of self-control), the man of
self-control may easily acquire innumerable worlds. What need has a man
of self-control for a forest? Similarly, O Bharata, of what use is the
forest to him that has no self-control? That is a forest where the man of
self-control dwells, and that is even a sacred asylum."'

"Vaisampayana continued, 'Hearing these words of Bhishma, Yudhishthira
became highly gratified as if he had quaffed nectar. Again the king asked
that foremost of virtuous men. That perpetuator o