Zend Avesta Part 01

SR No.: 007671
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Darmesteter
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1895
Total Pages: 2695
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 1981

126
BHAGAVADGITA.
O son of Pritha ! for the fruit. That courage is dark, O son of Prithà! by which an undiscerning man does not give up sleep, fear, sorrow, despondency, and folly. Now, O chief of the descendants of Bharata ! hear from me about the three sorts of happiness. That happiness is called good, in which one is pleased after repetition' (of enjoyment), and reaches the close of all misery, which is like poison first and comparable to nectar in the long run, and which is produced from a clear knowledge of the self. That happiness is called passionate, which (flows) from contact between the senses and their objects, and which is at first comparable to nectar and in the long run like poison. That happiness is described as dark, which arises from sleep, laziness, heedlessness, which deludes the self, both at first and in its consequences. There is no entity either on earth or in heaven among the gods, which is free from these three qualities born of nature. The duties of Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, and Vaisyas, and of Sûdras, too, O terror of your foes! are distinguished according to the qualities born of nature I. Tranquillity“, restraint of the senses, penance, purity, forgiveness, straightforwardness, also knowledge, experience, and belief (in a future world), this is the natural duty of Brahmanas. Valour, glory, courage,
the doer of it; the fruit' scil. of the action performed with an ere to the three things named.
· Not at once, as in the case of sensuous pleasures.
. Cf. p. 51. The original has also been rendered by tranquillity of one's own mind.'
· Cf. p. 59.
• I.e. resulting from control of the mind, purity here is both external and internal. And see p. 119.
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