e constitute the
cause, it is meet, O Yudhishthira, that thou shouldst be tranquil!"'"[627]

SECTION CLXIV

"'Bhishma said, "If one does acts oneself that are good or causes others
to accomplish them, one should then expect to attain to the merits of
righteousness. Similarly, if one does acts oneself that are evil, and
causes others to accomplish them, one should never expect to attain to
the merits of righteousness.[628] At all times, it is Time that, entering
the understandings of all creatures, sets them to acts of righteousness
or unrighteousness, and then confer felicity or misery upon them. When a
person, beholding the fruits of Righteousness, understands Righteousness
to be superior, it is then that he inclines towards Righteousness and
puts faith in it. One, however, whose understanding is not firm, fails to
put faith in it. As regards faith in Righteousness, it is this (and
nothing else). To put faith in Righteousness is the indication of the
wisdom of all persons. One that is acquainted with both (i.e., what
should be done and what should not be done), with a view to
opportuneness, should, with care and devotion, achieve what is right.
Those Righteous men who have in this life been blessed with affluence,
acting of their own motion, take particular care of their souls so that
they may not, in their next lives, have to take birth as persons with the
attribute of Passion predominating in them. Time (which is the supreme
disposer of all things) can never make Righteousness the cause of misery.
One should, therefore, know that the soul which is righteous is certainly
pure (i.e., freed from the element of evil and misery). As regards
Unrighteousness, it may be said that, even when of large proportions, it
is incapable of even touching Righteousness which is always protected by
Time and which shines like a blazing fire. These are the two results
achieved by Righteousness, viz., the stainlessness of the soul and
unsusceptibility of being touched by Unrighteousness. Verily,
Righteousness is fraught with victory. Its effulgence is so great that it
illumines the three worlds. A man of wisdom cannot catch hold of a sinful
person and forcibly cause him to become righteous. When seriously urged
to act righteously, the sinful only act with hypocrisy, impelled by fear.
They that are righteous among the Sudras never betake themselves to such
hypocrisy under the plea that persons of the Sudra order are not
permitted to li