y on
occasions of making even valuable acquisitions. He is never pained at
losses. His understanding is firm and stable. His soul is unattached to
all things. For this he is everywhere worshipped with respect. Who,
indeed, is there that will not love him who is thus possessed of every
merit and accomplishment, who is clever in all things, who is pure in
body and mind, who is entirely auspicious, who is well-versed with the
course of time and its opportuneness for particular acts, and who is
well-acquainted with all agreeable things?'"'"

SECTION CCXXXI

"'Yudhishthira said, "I desire, O thou of Kuru's race, to know what the
origin and what the end is of all creatures; what is the nature of their
meditation and what are their acts; what are the divisions of time, and
what the allotted periods of life in the respective epochs. I desire also
to know in full the truth about the genesis and the conduct of the world;
the origin of creatures into the world and the manner of their going on.
Indeed, whence their creation and destruction? O best of virtuous
persons, if thou art minded to favour us, do tell us this about which I
ask thee. Having heard before this excellent discourse of Bhrigu unto the
regenerate sage Bharadwaja which thou didst recite, my understanding,
purged of ignorance, has become exceedingly attached to yoga, and
withdrawn from worldly objects rests upon heavenly purity. I ask thee
about the subject, therefore, once more. It behoves thee to discourse to
me (more elaborately)."

"'Bhishma said, "In this connection I shall recite to thee an old
narrative of what the divine Vyasa said unto his son Suka when the latter
had questioned the former. Having studied the illimitable Vedas with all
their branches and the Upanishads, and desirous of leading a life of
Brahmacharya in consequence of his having earned excellence of religious
merit, Suka addressed these very questions, about which his doubts had
been solved, to his father the island-born Rishi who had removed (by
study and contemplation) all doubts connected with the topic of the true
import of duties.

"'"Suka said, 'It behoveth thee to tell me who the Creator is of all
beings, as fixed by a knowledge of time,[871] and what the duties are
that should be accomplished by a Brahmana.'"

"'Bhishma said, "Unto his son who had questioned him, the sire, having a
knowledge of both the past and future, conversant with all duties and
endued with omniscience,