reat help to thee. Appointed to
offices connected with profit and other important matters they always
bring about great prosperity. Moved by a feeling of healthy rivalry, they
discharge all duties connected with profit, holding consultations with
one another when necessary. Thou shouldst fear thy kinsmen as thou
shouldst death itself. A kinsman can never bear a kinsman's prosperity
even as a feudatory chief cannot bear to see the prosperity of his
overlord. None but a kinsman can feel joy at the destruction of a kinsman
adorned with sincerity, mildness, liberality, modesty, and truthfulness
of speech. They, again, that have no kinsmen, cannot be happy. No men can
be more contemptible than they that are destitute of kinsmen. A person
that has no kinsmen is easily overridden by foes. Kinsmen constitute the
refuge of one that is afflicted by other men, for kinsmen can never bear
to see a kinsman afflicted by other people. When a kinsman is persecuted
by even his friends, every kinsman of the persecuted regards the injury
to be inflicted upon himself. In kinsmen, therefore, there are both
merits and faults. A person destitute of kinsmen never shows favours to
any one nor humbles himself to any one. In kinsmen, therefore both merit
and demerit may be marked. One should, for this reason, always honour and
worship his kinsmen in words and acts, and do them agreeable offices
without injuring them at any time. Mistrusting them at heart, one should
behave towards them as if he trusted them completely. Reflecting upon
their nature, it seems that they have neither faults nor merits. A person
who heedfully conducts himself in this way finds his very foes disarmed
of hostility and converted into friends. One who always conducts himself
in this way amid kinsmen and relatives and bears himself thus towards
friends and foes, succeeds in winning everlasting fame."'"

SECTION LXXXI

"'Yudhishthira said, "If one does not succeed in winning over one's
kinsmen and relatives (by this course), they that are intended for
becoming friends become foes. How should one, then, conduct one's self so
that the hearts of both friends and foes may be won?"

"'Bhishma said, "In this connection is cited the old history of a
discourse between Vasudeva and the celestial sage Narada. On a certain
occasion Vasudeva said, 'Neither an illiterate and foolish friend, nor a
learned friend of fickle soul, deserves, O Narada, to know one's secret
counsels. Rely