led) by those that
are righteous and not by those that are unrighteous. I ask you to swallow
it and to desist from war. Who would incline himself to wrath which leads
to sin? Forbearance would be more beneficial to you than love of
enjoyments where Bhishma would be slain, and Drona with his son, and
Kripa, and Somadatta's son, and Vikarna and Vivinsati, and Karna and
Duryodhana. Having slain all these, what bliss may that be, O Pritha's
son, which you will get? Tell me that! Even having won the entire
sea-girt earth, you will never be free from decrepitude and death,
pleasure and pain, bliss and misery. Knowing all this, do not be engaged
in war. If you are desirous of taking this course, because your
counsellors desire the same, then give up (everything) to them, and run
away. You should not fall away from this path which leads to the region
of the gods!'"

SECTION XXVIII

"Yudhishthira said, 'Without doubt, O Sanjaya, it is true that righteous
deeds are the foremost of all our acts, as thou sayest. Thou shouldst,
however, ensure me having first ascertained whether it is virtue or vice
that I practise. When vice assumes the aspects of virtue and virtue
itself wholly seems as vice, and virtue, again, appears in its native
form, they that are learned should discriminate it by means of their
reason. So, again, virtue and vice, which are both eternal and absolute,
exchange their aspects during seasons of distress. One should follow
without deviation the duties prescribed for the order to which he belongs
by birth. Know, O Sanjaya, that duties in seasons of distress are
otherwise. When his means of living are totally gone, the man, that is
destitute should certainly desire those other means by which he may be
able to discharge the sanctioned duties of his order. One that is not
destitute of his means of living, as also one that is in distress, are, O
Sanjaya, both to be blamed, if they act as if the state of each were
otherwise. When the Creator hath ordained expiation for those Brahmanas,
who, without wishing for self-destruction, betake themselves to acts not
sanctioned for them, this proves that people may, in season of distress,
betake to acts not ordained for the orders to which they belong. And, O
Sanjaya, thou shouldst regard them as worthy that adhere to the practices
of their own order in usual times as also those that do not adhere to
them in season of distress; thou shouldst censure them that act otherwise