as can tread alone the
Yoga-path with ease and comfort. That man who, having betaken himself to
this path, ceases to go forward (but turns back after having made some
progress), is regarded as guilty of many faults. Men of cleansed souls, O
lord of Earth, can stay with ease upon Yoga-contemplation which is like
the sharp edge of a razor. Persons of uncleansed souls, however, cannot
stay on it. When Yoga-contemplation becomes disturbed or otherwise
obstructed, it can never lead the Yogin to an auspicious end even as a
vessel that is without a captain cannot take the passengers to the other
shore. That man, O son of Kunti, who practises Yoga-contemplation
according to due rites, succeeds in casting off both birth and death, and
happiness and sorrow. All this that I have told thee has been stated in
the diverse treatises bearing upon Yoga. The highest fruits of Yoga are
seen in persons of the regenerate order. That highest fruit is
identification with Brahma. The high-souled Yogin, possessed of
greatness, can enter into and come out of, at his will, Brahma himself
who is the lord of all deities, and the boon-giving Vishnu, and Bhava,
and Dharma, and the six-faced Kartikeya, and the (spiritual) sons of
Brahmana, the quality of Darkness that is productive of much pain, and
that of Passion, and that of Sattwa which is pure, and Prakriti which is
the highest, and the goddess Siddhi who is the spouse of Varuna, and all
kinds of energy, and all enduring patience, and the bright lord of stars
in the firmament with the stars twinkling all around, and the Viswas, and
the (great) snakes, and the Pitris, and all the mountains and hills, and
the great and terrible oceans, and all the rivers, and the rain-charged
clouds, and serpents, and trees, and Yakshas, and the cardinal and
subsidiary points of the compass, and the Gandharvas, and all male
persons and all female ones also. This discourse, O king, that is
connected with the Supreme Being of mighty energy should be regarded as
auspicious. The Yogin has Narayana for his soul. Prevailing over all
things (through his contemplation of the Supreme deity), the high-souled
Yogin is capable of creating all things."'"

The end of the Santi Parva [, Part two of three].

SECTION CCCII

"'Yudhishthira said, "O king thou hast duly propounded unto me, in the way
in which it should be, the path of Yoga which is approved by the wise,
after the manner of a loving preceptor unto his pup