Yudhishthir Answers to Yaksh's Questions-1

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 1. What makes the Sun rise?
Brahmaa makes the Sun rise.

 2. Whom has he appointed as his companions?
Devtaa keep his company.

 3. Who is the cause of setting of the Sun?
Dharm causes him to set.

 4. In whom the Sun is established?
The Sun is established in Truth.

 5. What makes one learned?
The study of Shruti makes one learned.

 6. How a man can attain what is "great"?
Ascetic austerities help a man to achieve the great.

 7. How is it possible for a man to have a second companion?
Steady intelligence always serves a man as a helpful companion.

 8. This intelligence you speak of, how is it acquired?
Serving the old elderly people makes one rich in wisdom.

 9. How are Braahman ranked with Divine beings, and why?
They are regarded Divine because they study Ved.

10. What is it they practice which makes them pious?
Their asceticism makes them behave as they do, and so thy are pious.

11. The Braahman are ranked with Divine beings, how are then they different from them?
Braahman are mortal, while Divine beings are not. It is this liability which makes them not quite Divine.

12. What about Kshatriya? Wherein lies their Divinity?
It lies in their arrows and weapons.

13. What is it that they practice, which makes them pious?
Kshatriya perform sacrifices and that make them pious.

14, Liability of death makes Braahman less Divine, what about Kshatriya?
In their case the liability is to fear.

15. Tell me about sacrifice. What is meant by Saam in sacrifice? And Yaju? There is something which is the refuge of the sacrifice, what is it? What is essential for sacrifice?
Life is the Saam and and mind is the Yaju. Rig is the refuge of the sacrifice and it is Rig which is essential for sacrifice.

16. A person is found enjoying all the objects of the senses. He is intelligent. The world holds him in esteem and he is quite popular. And yet, though this man breathes, it is said that that he does not live. Why?
A man though he breathes, is considered not to be alive, if he does not do anything to gods, guests, servants, and his Pitar (dead elders).

17. What is heavier than the Earth?
The mother is heavier than the Earth.

18. What is higher than the Heaven?
The father is higher than the Heaven.

19. What moves faster than the wind?
Mind moves faster than the wind.

20. What is more in number than grass blades?
The thoughts that arise in the mind of a man are more in number than the grass blades.

21. What is the highest refuge of virtue?
Liberality is the highest refuge of virtue.

22. And what is the highest refuge of fame?
Gift is the highest refuge of virtue of fame.

23. What is the highest refuge of Heaven?
Truth is the highest refuge of Heaven.

24. And what about happiness?
Good behavior is the highest refuge of happiness.

25. What is the soul of man?
His son is the soul of man?

26. Who is the friend granted by gods to man?
The wife is the friend bestowed on man by gods.

27. What is the chief support of man?
The clouds.

28. What is his chief refuge?
Gift.

29. The best of all things that are praised, what is it?
The most praiseworthy thing is skill.

30. The most valuable of all possession?
Knowledge.

31. The best of all gains?
Health.

32. The best of all kinds of happiness?
Contentment.

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