Page:The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (Volume 1).pdf/208

194 eyes red with anger. If, O father, I am really the daughter of a hired chanter of praises, of one that accepteth gifts. I must offer my adorations in the hope of obtaining her grace! Oh, of this I have already told her !'"

"Sukra replied, 'Thou art, O Devayani, no daughter of a bired adorer, of one that asketh for alms and accepteth gifts. Thou art the daughter of one that adores none, but of one that is adored by all! Vrishaparvan himself knoweth it, and Indra, and king Yayati too. That inconceivable Brahma, that unopposable Godhead, is my strength! The self-create, himself, gratified by me, hath said that I am for aye the lord of that which is in all things on Earth or in Heaven ! I tell thee truly that it is I who pour rain for the good of creatures and who nourish the annual plants that sustain all living things I "

Vaisampayana continued, "It was by such sweet words of excellent import that the father endeavoured to pacify his daughter afflicted with woe and oppressed by anger.'"

So ends the seventy-eighth section in the Sambhava Parva of the Adi Parva,

"Sukra continued,- Know, then, Devayani, that he that mindeth not the evil speeches of others, conquereth everything! The wise say that he is a true charioteer who without slackening holdeth tightly the reins of his horses. He, therefore, is the true man that subduech, without indulging, his rising wrath. Know thou, O Devayani, that by him is everything conquered, who calmly subdueth his rising anger. He is regarded as a man who by having recourse to forgiveness, shaketh off his rising anger like a snake casting off its slough. He that suppresseth his anger, he that regardeth not the evil speeches of others, he that becometh not angry, though there be cause, certainly acquireth the four objects for which we live (viz., virtue, profit, desire, and salvation). Between him that performeth without fatigue sacrifices every month for a hundred years, and him that never feeleth angry at anything, he that feeleth not wrath is certainly the higher. Boys and girls, unable to distinguish between right and wrong, quarrel with each other. The wise never imitate them.' Devayani, on hearing this speech of her father, said,

O father, I know, also what the difference is between anger and for giveness as regards the power of each. But when a disciple behaveth disrespectfully, he should never be forgiven by the preceptor if the latter is really desirous of benefiting the former. Therefore, I do not desire