Page:The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (1884).djvu/311

Rh desire of performing good acts, have been so great that none can measure them.'

Vaisampayana continued, "After this, Ashtaka, impelled by curiosity, again asked his maternal grand-father resembling Indra himself, saying, 'O king, I would ask thee, tell me truly, whence thou art, who thou art, and whose son? Is there any other Brahmana or Kshatria who hath done what thou didst on Earth?' Yayati answered, 'I tell thee truly, I am Yayati, the son of Nahusha and the father of Puru. I was lord of all the Earth. Ye are my relatives: I tell thee truly, I am the maternal grand-father of ye all. Having conquered the whole Earth, I gave clothes to Brahmanas and also a hundred handsome horses fit for sacrificial offering. For such acts of virtue the gods become propitious to those that perform them. I also gave to Brahmanas this whole Earth with her horses and elephants and kine, and gold and all kinds of wealth, along with an hundred Arbudas of excellent milch cows. Both the Earth and the firmament exist owing to my truth and virtue. Never hath word spoken by me been untrue. It is for this that the wise adore truth. O Ashtaka, all I have told thee, Pratarddana, and Vasumana, is the truth itself. I know it for certain that the gods and the Rishis and all the mansions of the blest are adorable only because of Truth that characterises them all. He that shall without malice duly read to good Brahmanas this account of our ascension to heaven shall himself attain to the same worlds with us.

Vaisampayana continued, "It was thus that the illustrious king Yayati of high achievements, rescued by his collateral descendants, ascended to heaven leaving this earth and covering the three worlds by the fame of his deeds."

And so ends the ninety-third Section in the Sambhava of the Adi Parva.