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June, 1874.)
RELIGIOUS & MORAL SENTIMENTS, FROM MAHÅBHÅRATA. 163
Speech of Draupadi, in which she complains of rounds all crouted things, God ordains both the hard lot of the righteous Yudhishthira, good and ill fortune in this world. As a bird
and charges the Deity with injustice. bound by a string and confined is not its own “Righteousness, when protected, protects a master, a man must remain under the control king who guards it-30 I have heard from of God: he is neither the lord of others nor of men of noble character; but, I ween, it does himself. Like a gem strung on a thread, or a not protect thee. Thy unchanging resolution bull tied by a nose-string, a man follows the always pursues righteousness, as a man's own command of the Disposer, to whom he belongs, shadow follows him. Twu hast never con- and on whom he depends. Not subject to himtemned thine equals or thine inferiors, much self, this man obeys some conjuncture of time, like less thy superiors : and though thou hast & tree which has fallen from the river-bank and obtained the whole earth, thy horno has not has reached the middle of the current. A creature, risen higher. Thou constantly servest the | ignorant, and not master of his pleasures or twice-born, the deities, and the departed fathers sufferings, must go to heaven or hell, according with oblations and reverence. Brahmans, Yatis, as he is impelled by God (1145). As the tips seekers after final liberation, and householders of grass are subject to the blasts of a strong ar+ always satiated by thee with all the objects wind, 80 too all beings are subject to the of their desire. They eat from golden platters, Disposor. Impelling to noble actions, and again with me for their attendant; and thou bestow
to sinful deeds, God pervades all creatures, and est iron vessels on the dwellers in the forests." it is not perceived that he is there. This body, She then gives farther particulars of his charities called the field (kshetra) [of the soul), is but and sacrifices : and among the latter is men
the Disposer's instrument, whereby the Lord tioned the “Gosava," or sacrifice of a cow; t causes acts having good or evil fruits to be and proceeds (v. 1134): "Thou, a king, having performed. Behold how this force of illusion lost thy understanding, wast beaten in the (máyd) is exercised by God, who destroys unfortunate contest with dice, and didst lose creatures by (other] creatures, deceiving them thy kingdom, thy goods, thy weapons, thy by his own illusion! Differently are things perbrothers and me. How did that resolution | ceived by sages who behold the reality; differently [to gamble], arising from the vicious taste do they revolve like the blasts of the wind; for dice, arise in the mind of thee, who art differently do men regard such and such things; upright, mild, bountiful, modest, and truthful ? and differently does the Lord effect them and When one hears of this thy suffering, and of change them. Just as a man cleaves motionless, & cala:ity such as this, the mind is greatly lifeless things, wood by wood, stone by stone, or perplexed and afflicted. Here men relate this iron by iron, so does the Divine Being, the God, ancient legend about the manner in which the self-rxistent primeval Parent, destroy creapeople are subject to the control of God, not tures by (other) creatures, assuming a disguise, to their own. God (Îśâna), the Disposer, allots [chhadma kritvđ]. Acting according to his to creatures everything-happiness and suffer- pleasure, this Lord, associating them, or dissociating, that which is agreeable and that which ing them, plays with living beings as with a is disagreeable, darting radiance before him. I child's toys. The Disposer does not deal with his Just as the wooden figure of a woman, as it is creatures like a father or a mother, but acts adjusted (1140), moves its several limbs, so angrily, as any other being like ourselves. Seeing too do these creatures. As the ethe: sur- noble, virtuous, and modest men in straits for
• This word is here employed as denoting a feeling of self-importance or pride: see Böhtlingk and Roth, 8. v.
+ See Udyogap. v. 529 ff. quoted in vol. I. of my Sanskrit Texts, p. 312 f.
I Purastat sukram uchcharan. The phrase is diffi. cult. It occurs again in the Udyogaparvan, v. 917, where it is said: "The Deity (Dhatre) places under control the good man and the bad, the boy and the old m the weak man and the strong. God (dana) gives every thing to the child learning, and to the learned man child. ishness, darting radiance before him." The commentator in both places expounds the words differently. According
to him they mean that the Deity, in dispensing good and evil to particular persons, is developing the seeds of their works done in a former birth His words are in the one place, "ukram" prak-karmı bijam "uchcharan" ut. karshana anisaran ; and in the other, "suk ram" rij. bhatam prachinam karma "uchcharam" udipayan. The same phrase occurs again in a different connection, in reference to the sun, in the Udyogapurvan, v. 2751 : YathA. purastat Squito driyate sukran uchchiran, yotha cha paschad nirmukto dhruvam paryedi 1 miman. Here the commentator takes fukra in the sense of tejas, fervour or lustre.
