Sacred Concord

Mbh 12.224.3a

Mahabharata · translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli

"'"Vali said, 'Considering all this to be transitory,--due, indeed, to the course of time,--I do not, O Sakra, indulge in grief. These things have an end. These bodies that creatures have, O chief of celestials, are all transitory. For that reason, O Sakra, I do not grieve (for this asinine form of mine). Nor is this form due to any fault of mine. The animating principle and the body come into existence together, in consequence of their own nature. They grow together, and meet with destruction together. Having obtained this form of existence I have not been permanently enslaved by it. Since I know this, I have no cause for sorrow in consequence of that knowledge. As the final resting-place of all rivers is the ocean, even so the end of all embodied creatures is death. Those persons that know this well are never stupefied, O wielder of the thunderbolt! They, however, who are overwhelmed with Passion and loss of judgment, do not know this, they whose understanding is lost, sink under the weight of misfortune. A person who acquires a keen understanding succeeds in destroying all his sins. A sinless person acquires the attribute of Goodness, and having acquired it becomes cheerful. They, however, that deviate from the attribute of Goodness, and obtain repeated rebirths, are obliged to indulge in sorrow and grief, led on by desire and the objects of the senses. Success or the reverse, in respect of the attainment of all objects of desire, life or death, the fruits of action that are represented by pleasure or pain, I neither dislike nor like. When one slays another, one slays only that other's body. That man, who thinks that it is he who slays another, is himself slain. Indeed, both of them are ignorant of the truth, viz., he who slays and he who is slain.
Mbh 12.224.3a · Mahabharata · SANTI PARVA

Themes in this passage

GriefNatureDesireKarmaWisdomDeathJusticeSin

Grief in other traditions

The same theme, as Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism and Islam address it.

Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
James 4:9 · Bible · James
From pleasure comes grief, from pleasure comes fear; he who is free from pleasure knows neither grief nor fear.
Dhp 16.212 · Dhammapada · Pleasure
On occasions of festivity to be on the left hand is the prized position; on occasions of mourning, the right hand. The second in command of the army has his place on the left; the general commanding in chief has his on the right;--his place, that is, is assigned to him as in the rites of mourning. He who has killed multitudes of men should weep for them with the bitterest grief; and the victor in battle has his place (rightly) according to those rites.
Tao Te Ching 31.3 · Tao Te Ching
And he turned away from them and said: Alas, my grief for Joseph! And his eyes were whitened with the sorrow that he was suppressing.
Quran 12:84 · Quran · Joseph

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