Mahābhārata

M. N. Dutt: Yudhisthira said You have said, O grand-father, that Liberation is to be acquired by means and not otherwise. I wish to hear duly what those means are.

M. N. Dutt: Bhishma said O you of great wisdom, this enquiry which you have made me and which is connected with a subtle topic, is really worthy of you, since you, O sinless one, always try to accomplish all your objects by the application of means.

M. N. Dutt: That state of mind which one feels when he makes an earthen jar for his use, disappears after the jar has been completed. Likewise, that cause which makes persons who regard virtue as the root of advancement and prosperity ceases to act with them who seek to acquire Liberation.

M. N. Dutt: That path which leads to the Eastern Ocean is not the path by which one can go to the Western Ocean. There is only one path which leads to Liberation. Listen to me as I describe it to you in detail.

M. N. Dutt: One should, by practising forgiveness, root out anger and by renouncing all purposes, root out desire. By practising the quality of goodness one should conquer sleep.

M. N. Dutt: By carefulness one should keep off fear, and by contemplation of the Soul one should conquer vital airs. One should remove by patience desire, hatred, and lust; and error, ignorance, and doubt, by study of truth. By pursuit of knowledge one should avoid inquiry after uninteresting things.

M. N. Dutt: By frugal and easily digestible food one should dispell all disorders and diseases. By contentment one should remove greed and stupefaction of judgement, and all earthly concerns should be avoided by a knowledge of the truth.

M. N. Dutt: By practising benevolence one should conquer sin, and by regard for all creatures one should gain virtue. One should avoid expectation by thinking that it is connected with the future; and one should renounce riches by abandoning desire itself.

M. N. Dutt: The intelligent man should cast off affection by thinking that everything is fickle. He should control hunger by practising Yoga. By practising benevolence one should keep off all ideas of ego, and remove all sorts of craving by adopting contentment.

M. N. Dutt: By exertion should subdue procrastination, by certainty all kinds of doubt, one by taciturnity, loquaciousness, and by courage every sort of fear.

M. N. Dutt: Speech and mind are to be controlled by the Understanding, and the Understanding, in its turn, by the eye of knowledge. Knowledge, again, is to be controlled by the knowledge of the Soul, and finally the Soul it to be controlled by the Soul.

M. N. Dutt: This last is acquired by those who are of pure acts and endued with tranquillity of soul, the means being the subjugation of those five obstacles of Yoga of which the learned speak.

M. N. Dutt: By renouncing desire, anger covetousness, fear and sleep, one should controlling speech, practise the observances favourable to Yoga, viz., contemplation, study, gift, truth, modesty, candour, forgiveness, purity of heart, purity of food, and the subjugation of the senses.

M. N. Dutt: By these one's energy is increased, sins are removed, wishes crowned with success, and knowledge gained.

M. N. Dutt: When one becomes purged of sins and possessed of energy and abstemious in diet and the master of his senses, one then, having conquered both desire and anger, seeks to attain to Brahma.

M. N. Dutt: The avoidance of ignorance, the absence of attachment, freedom from desire and anger, the power that is acquired by Yoga, the absence of pride and haughtiness, freedom from anxiety, absence of attachment to anything like home and family,—these forin the path of Liberation. That path is delightful, stainless, and pure. Likewise, the control of speech, of body, and of mind, when practised from the absence of desire, forms also the path of Liberation.