Endued with great skill, they are conversant with the most subtle relations of things. They are well-acquainted with the end of all things, and their thoughts are always employed upon the science of the soul. They are endued with the knowledge of the beginning, the middle, and the end of all things, and they are persons in whom doubts no longer exist in consequence of feeling certain of their knowledge. They are fully aware of the distinctions between what is superior and what is inferior. They it is who attain to the highest end. Freed from all attachments, cleansed of all sins, transcending all pairs of opposites (such as heat and cold, happiness and misery, etc.), they are unconnected with all worldly things. Deserving of every honour, they are always held in great esteem by persons endued with knowledge and high souls. They cast equal eyes on sandal-paste and filth or dirt, on what is food and what is not food. They see with an equal eye their brown vestments of coarse cloth and fabrics of silk and animal skins. They would live for many days together without eating any food, and dry up their limbs by such abstention from all sustenance. They devote themselves earnestly to the study of the Vedas, restraining their senses. They would make gods of those that are not gods, and not gods of those that are gods. Enraged, they can create other worlds and other Regents of the worlds than those that exist. Through the course of those high-souled ones, the ocean became so saline as to be undrinkable. The fire of their wrath yet burns in the forest of Dandaka, unquenched by time. They are the gods of the gods, and the cause of all cause. They are the authority of all authorities. What man of intelligence and wisdom is there that would seek to humiliate them? Amongst them the young and the old all deserve honours. They honour one another (not in consequence of distinctions of age but) in consequence of distinctions in respect of penances and knowledge.Mbh 13.151.2b · Mahabharata · ANUSASANA PARVA
Mbh 13.151.2b
Mahabharata · translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli
Themes in this passage
WisdomKarmaCreationNatureThe SoulAngerDoubtLeadership
Wisdom in other traditions
The same theme, as Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and Hellenism address it.
The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge.Proverbs 18:15 · Bible · Proverbs
Without knowledge there is no meditation, without meditation there is no knowledge: he who has knowledge and meditation is near unto Nirvana.Dhp 25.372 · Dhammapada · The Bhikshu (Mendicant)
He giveth wisdom unto whom He will, and he unto whom wisdom is given, he truly hath received abundant good. But none remember except men of understanding.Quran 2:269 · Quran · The Cow
Then Helen thus: “Whom your discerning eyes Have singled out, is Ithacus the wise; A barren island boasts his glorious birth; His fame for wisdom fills the spacious earth.”Iliad 3.22 · Iliad · 3
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