R.K. Narayan's
the Mahabharata
This week, I am continuing reading the Mahabharata, from R.K. Narayan's translation ("A shortened modern prose version of the Indian Epics).
(The God of Death)
Page 91: List of Answers to Yama's test (Yudhistira's father! (Yama= The God of Justice)
A Note on Yama: I have only ever encountered him from the Tibetan Bhuddism perspective, which is Yama the God of Death. He destroys humans, their lives, and eats them -- visually, he's terrifying. Seeing him in this new light is a whole new vantage point for me.
- Pride, if renounced, makes on agreeable; anger, if renounced, brings no regret; desire, if renounced, will make one rich; avarice, if renounced, brings one happiness. True tranquility is of the heart.... Mercy may be defined as wishing happiness to all creatures.... Ignorance is not knowing one's duties.... Wickedness consists in sopeaking ill of others."
- "Who is really happy?" "One who has scanty means but is free from debt; he is truly a happy man."
- "What is the greatest wonder?" "Day after day, and hour after hour, people die and corpses are carried along, yet the onlookers never realise that they are also to die one day, but think they will live for ever. This is the greatest wonder of the world."
- "What is the Path?" "The Path is what the great ones have trod. When one looks for it, one will not find it by study of scriptures or arguments, which are contradictory and conflicting."
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