Yudhishthira said You have prescribed, O mighty one, that no confidence should be reposed in enemy. But how would the king maintain himself if he were not to confide in anybody?

O king, you have said, great danger arises to kings from confidence. But how, ) monarch, can a king, without trust on others, conquers his enemies.

Kindly dispel this doubt of mine. My mind is confused, O grandfather, at what I have heard you say on the subject of mistrust.

Bhishma said Hear, O king, what took place at the residence of Brahmadatta, viz., the conversation between Pujani and king Brahmadatta.

There was a bird named Pujani who lived for a considerable time with king Brahmadatta in the inner apartments of his palace at Kampilya.

Like the bird Jivajivaka, Pujani could imitate the cries of all animals. Though a bird by birth, she had acquired great knowledge and was conversant with every truth.

While residing there, she brought forth a highly effulgent young one. simultancously the king also beget on his queen a son.

Out of gratefulness for the shelter of the king's roof, Pujani used to go daily to the shores of the ocean and bring a couple of fruits for the nourishment of her own young one and the infant prince.

She gave one of those fruits to her own child and the other to the prince. The fruits she brought were sweet like ambrosia, and capable of increasing strength and energy. Every day she brought them and every day she distributed them in the same way. The infant prince gained great strength from the fruit which Pujani give him.

One day the infant prince, while carried by the nurse on her arms saw the little young one of Pujani. Going down from the nurse's arms, the child ran towards the bird, and out of childish impulse, began to sport with it, liking the same very much.

At length, raising the bird which was to the same age with himself with his hands, the prince pressed it to death and then returned to his nurse.

The bird, O king, who had as usual been out in her search of fruits, returning to the palace, and saw her young one lying on the ground, killed by the prince.

Seeing her son dead, Pujani, with tears trickling down her cheeks, and heart burning with grief, wept bitterly and said,-Alas nobody should live with a Kshatriya or contract friendship with him, or take pleasure in having any connection with him! When they have any object in view, they behave with courtesy. When that object is accomplished, they abandon the instrument.

The Kshatriyas do evil to all. They should never be trusted. Even after doing an injury they always try to solace and assure the injured for nothing.

I shall, forsooth, wreak vengeance, for this act of enmity upon this truthless and ungrateful betrayer of trust.

He has been guilty of three-fold sins taking the life of one that was born on the same day with him and that was being brought up with him in the same place, that used to eat with him, and that depended on him for protection.

Having said these words aside, Pujani, with her talons, pierced the eyes of the prince, and finding some comfort from that act of vengeance, once more said,-A sinful deed, committed with deliberation, assails the doer without any loss of time. They, however, who avenge an injury, never lose their merit.

If the fruits of a sinful act be not seen in the perpetrator himself, they would certainly be seen. O king, in his sons; or son's sons, ci daughter's sons!

Seeing his son blinded by Pujani, and considering the act to have been proper vengeance for what his son nad done, Brahmadatta said these words to Pujani.

An injury, was done by us to you. You have avenged it by doing an injury in return. The account is settled. Do not leave your present residence. On the other hand, continue to live here, O Pujani.

The learned never speak high of the conduct of a person, who having once injured another continues to live with that other. Under such circumstances it is always better for the injurer to quit his old place.

One should never trust the soothing assurances received from an injured party. The fool that trusts such assurances is soon ruined. Enmity is not quickly cooled.

The very sons and grandsons of persons, who have injured each other, meet with destruction. For such destruction of their children, they lose the next world also.

Amongst imn who have injured one another, distrust would yield happiness. One who has betrayed confidence should never be trusted in the least.

One, who is not worthy of confidence should not be trusted; nor should too much trust be reposed in a person worthy of trust. The danger originating from blind confidence engenders absolute destruction. One should try to sccure the confidence of others. One, however, should never place confidence in others.

The parents only are the best of friends. The wife is merely a soil for sowing seeds. The son is only one's seed. The brother is an enemy. The friend or companion wants to have his palms oiled if he is to continue so. One's own self enjoys or suffers one's happiness or misery.

Real peace cannot live amongst persons who have injured one another. No such necessity exists any longer for which I livea here.

The mind of a person who has once injured another, becomes naturally filled with want of confidence, if he sees the injured person adoring him with gifts and honours. Such conduct especially when shorn by the strong, always strikes the weak with fear.

An intelligent person should leave that place where he first meets with honour in order to meet next with dishonour and injury. Despite any subsequent honour that he might get from his enemy, he should act thus.

I have lived in your house for a long time, respected all along by you. a cause of eninity, however, has at last taken place. I should, therefore, quit this place without any hesitation.

Brahmadatta said One, who does return injury for an injury, is never considered as offending. Indeed, the avenger closes his account by such behaviour. Therefore, O Pujani, continue to live here without quitting this place!

Pujani said No friendship can again be formed between a person who has injured and him who has inflicted an injury in return. The hearts cannot forget what has taken place.

It is necessary that an injurer and the avenger of the injury should be united. Mutual enmity upon such a union has been seen to cool down. Usually, no fresh injury occurs.

Enmity originating from mutual injuries can never die. The person injured should never trust his enemies, drinking-O I have been comforted with assurances of good will!-In this world, men frequently suffer destruction for (misplaced) confidence. Therefore, it is necessary that we should no longer meet each other.

Those, who cannot be subdued by force and Sharp weapons, can be conquered by insincere professions of love like (wild) elephants through a (tame) she-elephant.

For two persons living together, even if one indlicts upon the other deadly injury, fraternal love and mutual trist naturally raise between them, as in the case of the Chandala and the dog.

Amongst persons who have ir jured one another, living together blunts the sharpness of enmily. Indeed, that enmity does not last long, but disappears quickly like water poured upon the leaf of a louts.

Pujani said Emmity originates from five causes. Learned persons know it. Those five catises are woman, land, harsh words, natural disagreement, and injury.

When the person, with whom enmity takes place, happens to be a liberal man, he should never be killed, particularly by a Kshatriya, openly or by hidden means. In such a case, the man's fault should be duly considered.

When enmity has arisen with even a friend, no further trust should be placed in him. Feelings of enmity lie hidden like fire in forest.

Like the Aurvya fire within the waters of the ocean, the fire of enmity can never be put out by presents of riches, by display of prowess, by conciliation or by scriptural learning.

The fire of eninity, once lighted.-the result of an injury once inflicted,-is never extinguished, O king, without destroying the right one of the parties.

One, having injured a person, should never trust him again as his friend, even inough he might have (after the infliction of the injury) adored him with wealth and honours. Injury thus inflicted fills the injurer with fear,

I never injured you, You also did never do me an injury. Therefore. I lived in your house. All that is changed, ind at present I cannot trust you.

Brahmadatta said It is Time that does every work. There are various sorts all of which proceed form Time. Who, therefore, injures whom?

Birth and Death take place in the same way. Creatures act under the influence of Time, and it is in consequence also of Time that they cease to live.

Some are seen to die at once. Some die one at a time. Some are seen to live for a long time. Like fire consuming the fuel it gets, Time destroys all creatures.

O blessed lady, I am, therefore, not the cause of your sorrow, nor are you the cause of inine. It is time which always ordains the happiness and misery of embodied creatures.

Do you then continue to live here at your pleasure, with love for me and without fear of any injury from me. What you have done has been forgiven by me. Do you also forgive me, O Pujani.

If Time, as you say, be the cause of all acts, then, of course, nobody can entertain fevlings of enmity towards anybody on earth. I ask, however, why do friends and kinsmen, when friends and kinsmen are killed, try to avenge the latter.

Why also did the gods and the Asuras in days of old kill each other in battle? If it is Time that begets happiness and misery and birth and death, why do physicians then seek to administer medicines to the sick? If it is Time that is shaping the course of everything, what need is thereof medicines,

Why do people, deprived of their senses by grief, indulge in such lamentations? If Time, as you say, be the cause of all works, how can religious merit be acquired by persons performing religious acts?

Your son killed my child. I have injured him for that. I have by inat act, o king, become liable to be killed by you.

Moved by grief for my son, I have thus injured your son. Listen now to the reason why I should be killed by you.

Men wish either to kill birds for food or to keep them in cages for sport. There is no third reason except killing or caging for which men would seek birds.

Birds again, from fear of being either killed or put into cage by rnen, seek safety in flight.। Persons conversant with the Vedas have said। that death and imprisonment both painful.

Life is dear to all. All creatures are made miserable by grief and pain. All creatures wish for happiness.

Misery originates from various sources. Decrepitude, O Brahmadatta, is misery. The loss of wealth is misery. The nearness of anything disagreeable or evil is misery. Separation or dissociation from friends and beloved objects is misery.

Misery originates from death and imprisonment. Misery arises from women and from other natural causes. The misery that originates from the death of children changes and afflicts all creatures very greatly.

Some foolish persons say that there is no misery in seeing other's misery. Only he wno has not felt any misery himself can say so before men.

He, however, who has felt sorrow and misery, would never venture to say so. One, who has felt the pangs of all sorts of misery, sympathises with the misery of others.

What I have done to you, O king, and what you have done to me, cannot be washed away by even a century.

There cannot be a reconciliation after what we have done to each other. Whenever you will thirt of your son, .'our enmity towards me will become fresh.

If a person after avenging an injury, wishes to make peace with the injured, the parties cannot be properly reunited even like the pieces of an earthen vessel.

Men well read in scriptures have laid it down that trust never yields happiness. Ushanas himself sang two verses to Prahlada in days of yore.

He, who trust the words, true or false, of an enemy, meets with destruction like a seeker of honey, in a pit covered with dry grass.

Enmities outlive the enemies, for there is no want of persons who speak of the quarrels of deceased fathers before their surviving children.

Kings kill animosities by means of conciliation but, when the opportunity presents itself, they break their enemies tu pieces like earthen jars full of water dashed against stone.

If the king injures any one, he should never trust him again. By trusting a person who has been injured, one suffers great misery.

No man can secure the fruitfulness of any object by distrusting others. By cherishing fear one always is compelleu to live as a dead person.

He whose feet have become sore, certainly meets with a fall if he seeks to move, however cautiously he may do it.

By opening his eyes against the wind, a man, who has got sore ejus, finds them greatly pained by the wind.

He, who, without knowing his own । strength, treads a wicked path and persists in wa'king along it, soon loses his very life as the result of it.

The man, who, shorn of exertion, tills his land, without taking care of the season of rain, never reaps a harvest.

He, who takes daily nutritive food, be it bitter or astringent or palatable or sweet, lives long.

He, on the other hand, who neglects wholesome food and takes injurious ones regardless of consequences, soon meets with death.

Destiny and Exertion depend upon each other. The high-minded perform good and grcat feats, while eunuchs only flatters Destiny.

Whether it is harsh or mild, a beneficial act should be done. The unfortunate man of inaction, however, is always assailed with all sorts of calamity.

Therefore casting of everything else, one should display his energy. Indeed, disregarding everything, men should do what does good to themselves.

Knowledge, courage, cleverness, strength and patience, are one's natural friends. The wise live in this world with the help of those five.

Houses, precious metals, land, wife, ar.J friends,-these are spoken by the learned as the secondary sources of good. A man may obtain them everywhere.

A wise man may be delighted everywhere. Such a mari shines everywhere. He never strikes anybody with fear. If tried to be frightened, he never yields to fear himself.

The wealth, however little, of an intelligent man is certain to increase. Such a man does every act cleverly. By self-restraint he acquires great fame.

Home-sick foolish wights have to put ur with shrew wives who eat up their flesh like the young ones of a crab eating up their mothers. There are men v ho through loss of understanding become very disspirited at the prospect of leaving home. They say,-These are our friends! This is our country! Alas, how shall we leave thesc?

One should, forsooth, leave his mothercountry if it be affected by plague or famine. One should live in one's own country, re.ipected of all, or go to a foreign country for living there.

I shall, therefore, repair to some other region. I do not venture to live any longer in this place, for I have greatly injured your child, O king.

One should from a distance renounce a bad wife, a bad son, a bad king, a bad friend, a bad allie and a bad country.

One should not confide in a bad son. One cannot find delight in a bad wife. There can be no happiness in a had kingdom. One cannot obtain a livelihood in a bad country.

There can be no permanent friendship with a bad friend whose attachinent is very uncertain. There is disgrace in a bad connection, when there is no necessity for it.

She, indeed, is a wife who speaks only what is pleasant. He is a son who makes the father happy. He is a friend whoin one can trust. That, indeed, is one's country where one acquires his living.

He is a strict king who does not oppress, who supports the indigent and in whose kingdom there is no fear.

One can have wife, country, friends, son, kinsmen, and relatives, if the king be accomplished and virtuous.

If the king happens to be sinful, his subjects, for his oppressions, meet with destruction. The king is the root of threefold objects, i.e., Virtue, Wealth, and Pleasure. He should protect his subject carefully.

Taking from his subjects a sixth part of their riches, he should protect them all. That king, who does not protect his subjects, is indeed, a thief.

That king, who, after holding out hopes of protection, does not, from rapacity satisfy them, that sinful king is visited by the sins of all his subjects and ultimately goes into hell.

On the other hand, that king, who, having given hopes of protection, fulfils them, is honoured as a universal benefactor in consequence of his protecting all his subjects.

The lord of all creatures, viz., Manu, has declared that the king has seven attributes : he is mother, father, preceptor, protector, fire, Vaishravana, and Yama.

The king by treating his people mercifully is called their father. The subject who plays him false, is born in his next life as an animal or a bird.

By doing good to them and by supporting the poor, the king becomes a mother to his people. By consuming the wicked he is regarded as fire, and by restraining the sinful he is called Yama.

By making presents of riches to his dear ones, the king is regarded as Kubera, the grantor of wishes. By delivering instructions of morality and virtue, he becomes a preceptor, and by exercising the duty of protection he becomes the preceptor.

That king who pleases the inhabitants of his cities and provinces by means of his virtues, is never divested of his kingdom for observing such a duty.

That king who knows how to honour his subjects, never suffers misery either in this world or in the next.

That king whose subjects are always stricken with anxiety or laden with taxes, and overwhelmed with all sorts of evils is defeated by his enemies.

That king, on the other hand, whose subjects grow like a large lotus in a lake, acquires every reward here and at last meets with łonour in the celestial region.

Enmity with a powerful person, O king, is never spoken highly of. That king who has incurred the hostility of one more powerful than himself, loses both kingdom and happiness.

O monarch, having said so to Brahmadatta, the bird, took the king's leave and went away of her pleasure.

I have thus recited to you, O foremost of kings, the conversation between Brahmadatta and Pujani. What else do you wish to hear.'