Dhritarashtra said "O you of great wisdom, by grief has been removed by your excellent words. I wish you, however, to speak again.

How, indeed, do the wise free themselves from mental grief begotten by evil deeds and the bereavement of dear objects."

Vidura said He that is wise enjoys peace by subduing both grief and joy by means by which one may escape from grief and joy.

Every thing we are anxious for, O foremost of men, is ephemeral. The world is like a weak plantain tree.

Since the wise and the ignorant the rich and the poor, all, shorn of their anxieties, sleep on the crematorium, with bodies devoid of flesh and full of naked bones, and sinews, whom amongst them will the survivors regard as possessed of distinguishing marks by which the attributes of birth and beauty may be determined? Since every thing is equal in death why should men, whose understandings are always deceived covet one another's rank and position.

The learned say that the bodies of men are like house, which are destroyed in time. There is one being, however, that is eternal.

As a person casting off an old cloth puts on a fresh one, so is the case with the bodies of all embodied beings.

O son of Vichitravirja creatures reap happiness or misery, as the fruit of their own acts.

By their acts they secure heaven, O Bharata, or happiness, or misery. Whether competent or otherwise, they have to bear their burdens which are the result of their own acts.

As amongst earthen pots some break while still on the potter's wheel, some while partially shaped, some as soon as shaped, some after removal from the wheel, some while in course of being removed, some after removal, some while wet, some while dry, some while being burnt, some while being removed from the kiln, some after removal therefrom, and some while being used, so is the case with the bodics of embodied creatures.

Some are destroyed while in embryo, some after coming out of the womb, some on the day after, some after a fortnight or a month, some on after a year or two, some in youth, some in middle age, and some when old.

Creatures are born or destroyed according to their pristine acts. When such is the course of the world, why do you grieve?

As men, while swimming, sometimes dive and sometimes emerge, so, O king, creatures sink and emerge in life's stream. They that are of limited under standing suffer or meet with death as the result of their own acts.

They, however, that are wise, virtuous and desirous of doing good to all living creatures, who are acquainted with the real nature of beings in this world, attain at last to the highest end."