From: pharvey@quack.sac.ca.us (Paul Harvey)
Subject: Sample of Hindu Bible (Mahabharata)
Organization: The Duck Pond public unix: +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest'.
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 01:40:07 GMT

In a sense, the Mahabharata is the Hindu Bible, the Bhagavad-Gita is a
chapter. It is also THE epic of India and her continuing philosophical
struggle for the solution to unity and diversity. It was written in
Sanskrit somewhere between the second century BCE and the second century
CE and comes from oral folk tales going back to at least 1400 BCE.

Ref: Mahabharata,retold by W. Buck,1973,ISBN:0-520-04393-6
Yudhishthira talks to the lake of insatiable thirst, his brothers have
all died from drinking:

Yudhishthira: How have you died, with no footprint here but your own?
Who could do this? ... -but first, I will drink ...
Lake: Do not! This is my lake. I am a crane, living on a tiny fish. And
I have slain your brothers, for they would not answer my questions.
Y: Who are you to have done this? A bird could not do so.
L: I am what I am, Good fortune to you! Your brothers drank of my lake
without answering me, and they are dead. ... Bhima came and I spoke to
him. He heard me, but did not look up, and because he thought he would
have to fight against me, he first killed his thirst, and also himself.
Now you have come and I tell you the same: First answer my questions,
then drink however much you will. Yudhi thought he was under a spell,
but he listened to the deer and the bear among the trees, and to the
birds singing, and the rushes and canes swaying in the wind, and he knew
he was not. 
Y: ASK!
L: Who then is the friend given by the gods?
Y: It is the wife who is that friend and safe refuge. L: Who is heavier 
than the Earth? Y: A mother.  What is higher than heaven? A father.
What is swifter that the wind? The mind. What is more numerous than the 
blades of grass in a meadow? Our thoughts number more than that. What does 
not move afters its birth into the world? An egg does not move. What has no 
heart? A stone. What is the support of man? The clouds. Who is the friend 
of the sick? The physician. And the friend of the dying man? That friend
is charity. Who is the guest that all life is host to? Fire. What is all
the universe? It is but thin air and empty space. What forever travels
alone? The sun. What is reborn after it birth? The moon. What is the
best of all things that are praised? Skill. What is the most valuable
possession? Knowledge. What is not thought of until it departs? Health.
What is the best happiness? Contentment. What makes one wealthy if it is
cast away? Greed. And what is greed? It is poison. What covers all the
world? Darkness. What keeps a thing from discovering itself? That is
also darkness. What enemy cannot be overcome? That is anger. What is
honesty? That is to look, and to see every living creature as yourself,
bearing your own will to live, and your own fear of death. How may peace
be false? When it is tyranny. What is an incurable disease? A false
friend. Why are friends forsaken? For averice. What is envy? Grief of
the heart. And what is grief? It is ignorance. What causes desire for
possessions? Nothing else than possessions themselves. Who is in Hell,
though he lives on Earth? The wealthy man who neither enjoys himself nor
gives to others. What is it that men call good fortune? That is the
result of what they have done honestly. Who is dishonest? The
unmerciful. What is hypocrisy? The setting up of religious standards for
others is hypocrisy. Kindness, profit, and desire are each hostile to
the others, how may they be brought together? When a wife is kind, then
all three are in one. Who is truly happy? The man without any debts.
What is the greatest wonder of all? Every day Death takes lives beyond
counting, yet those who live think: Death can never come this day to me.
What is the rarest thing? To know when to stop. What is true wealth?
Love and kindness are better than gold; honor is more valuable than
rooms full of jewels, I don't know what you think of all this.
Lake: You answer well. I am your father Dharma (right livelyhood or
doing the right thing). I came to test your merit, and I have found it
true, and I return your brothers to life. ...
Arjuna picked up his bow and scattered arrows. I feel better than before
I died. When we reach our chariots, I will shoot a deer for each of us.
One deer will do, said Sahadeva. Why only one? Because at midnight
tomorrow, the thirteenth year (of exile) begins. ...
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