lves from all
worldly attachments, become freed from all anxieties. Gradually ascending
step by step, in the path of Yoga, they at last behold the stage of
highest felicity (viz., Emancipation).[1546] Endued with faith and
humility, always practising self-restraint, possessed of keen
intelligence, and abstaining from all acts, they attain to eternal
felicity. All classes of men, O king, by properly accomplishing acts that
are righteous, by speaking the truth, and by abstaining from
unrighteousness, in this world, ascend to heaven. In this there is no
doubt.'"'"

SECTION CCXCVIII

"'"Parasara said, 'The sires, the friends, the preceptor, and the spouses
of the preceptors of men that are destitute of devotion are unable to
give to those men the merits that attach to devotion. Only they that are
firmly devoted to such seniors, that speak what is agreeable to them,
that seek their welfare, and that are submissive to them in behaviour,
can obtain the merit of devotion. The sire is the highest of deities with
his children. It is said that the sire is superior to the mother. The
attainment of Knowledge is regarded as the highest acquisition. They that
have subjugated the objects of the senses (by attainment of Knowledge),
acquire what is highest (viz., Emancipation). That Kshatriya prince who,
repairing to the field of battle, receives wounds amid fiery shafts
flying in all directions and burns therewith, certainly repairs to
regions that are unattainable by the very deities and, arrived there,
enjoys the felicity of heaven in perfect contentment. A Kshatriya should
not, O king, strike one that is fatigued, or one that is frightened, or
one that has been disarmed, or one that is weeping, or one that is
unwilling to fight, or one that is unequipped with mail and cars and
horse and infantry, or one that has ceased to exert oneself in the fight,
or one that is ill, or one that cries for quarter, or one that is of
tender years, or one that is old. A Kshatriya should, in battle, fight
one of his order who is equipped with mail and cars and horse and
infantry, who is ready for exertion and who occupies a position of
equality. Death at the hands of one that is equal or of a superior is
laudable, but not that at the hands of one that is low, or of one that is
a coward, or of one that is a wretch. This is well-known. Death at the
hands of one that is sinful, or of one that is of low birth and wicked
conduct, O king, is inglorious