Emancipation, which directly flows from renunciation, is not mine.

58. What is stated here is that if a man does an act that is bad, its
consequences he will have to endure in a human body. The same with regard
to rewards. By doing a meritorious act in one's human form, one will
enjoy its good consequences in one's human body. So acts done mentally
affect the mind and those done with the body affect the body.

It should be noted that the whole of the above translation is offered
tentatively. A verbal rendering has been attempted. The chain of
reasoning is not at all clear. The commentator has done much to elucidate
the sense, but the original obscurities have scarcely been removed.

59. The Bengal reading manah is incorrect. It should be punah.

60. Nripam pradakshinam chakru is the construction. Nivarana has
snanapanat understood after it.

61. Vikarshanam is emaciation of the body by abstention from all food.

62. The verb anvacat from root sas can govern two objectives. Here the
two objectives are purushan and krityani.

The Mahabharata

of

Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa

BOOK 16

Mausala-parva

Translated into English Prose from the Original Sanskrit Text

by

Kisari Mohan Ganguli

[1883-1896]

Scanned and Proofed by Mantra Caitanya. Additional proofing and
formatting at sacred-texts.com, by J. B. Hare, October 2003.

1

Om! Having bowed down unto Narayana, and to Nara, the foremost of men, as
also to the goddess Sarasvati, should the word "Jaya" be uttered.

"Vaishampayana said: 'When the thirty-sixth year (after the battle) was
reached, the delighter of the Kurus, Yudhishthira, beheld many unusual
portents. Winds, dry and strong, and showering gravels, blew from every
side. Birds began to wheel, making circles from right to left. The great
rivers ran in opposite directions. The horizon on every side seemed to be
always covered with fog. Meteors, showering (blazing) coals, fell on the
Earth from the sky. The Sun's disc, O king, seemed to be always covered
with dust. At its rise, the great luminary of day was shorn of splendour
and seemed to be crossed by headless trunks (of human beings). Fierce
circles of light were seen every day around both the Sun and the Moon.
These circles showed three hues. Their edges seemed to be black and rough
and ashy-red in colour. These and many other omens, foreshadowing fear
and danger, were seen, O king, and filled the hearts of men with