d plants and herbs to grow once
more. Viswamitra, however, having completed the rites in honour of the
gods and the Pitris and having gratified them duly, himself ate that
meat. Burning all his sins afterwards by his penances, the sage, after a
long time, acquired the most wonderful (ascetic) success. Even thus, when
the end in view is the preservation of life itself, should a high-souled
person possessed of learning and acquainted with means rescue his own
cheerless self, when fallen into distress, by all means in his power. By
having recourse to such understanding one should always preserve one's
life. A person, if alive, can win religious merit and enjoy happiness and
prosperity. For this reason, O son of Kunti, a person of cleansed soul
and possessed of learning should live and act in this world, relying upon
his own intelligence in discriminating between righteousness and its
reverse."'"

SECTION CXLII

"'Yudhishthira said, "If that which is so horrible and which like
falsehood should never be an object of regard, be cited (as duty), then
what act is there from which I should forbear? Why also should not
robbers then be respected? I am stupefied! My heart is pained! All the
ties that bind me to morality are loosened! I cannot tranquillise my mind
and venture to act in the way suggested by you."

"'Bhishma said, "I do not instruct thee in respect of duty, taught by what
I have heard from the Vedas alone. What I have told thee is the result of
wisdom and experience. This is the honey that the learned have gathered.
Kings should gather wisdom from various sources. One cannot accomplish
his course through the world with the aid of a morality that is
one-sided. Duty must spring from the understanding; and the practices of
those that are good should always be ascertained, O son of Kuru! Attend
to these words of mine. Only kings that are possessed of superior
intelligence can rule, expecting victory. A king should provide for the
observance of morality by the aid of his understanding and guided by
knowledge derived from various sources. The duties of a king can never be
discharged by rules drawn from a morality that is one-sided. A
weak-minded king can never display wisdom (in the discharge of his
duties) in consequence of his not having drawn any wisdom from the
examples before him. Righteousness sometimes takes the shape of
unrighteousness. The latter also sometimes takes the shape of the former.
He who does not