a weapon and slays an armed foe advancing against him, does not incur the sin of killing a foetus, for it is the wrath of the advancing foe that provokes the wrath of the slayer.  The inner soul of every creature is incapable of being slain.  When the soul is incapable of being slain, how then can one be slain by another?  As a person enters a new house, even so a creature enters successive bodies.  Abandoning forms that are worn out, a creature acquires new forms.  People capable of seeing the truth regard this transformation to be death.’”

SECTION XVI

Vaisampayana said, “After the conclusion of Arjuna’s speech, Bhimasena of great wrath and energy, mustering all his patience, said these words unto his eldest brother, ’Thou art, O monarch, conversant with all duties.  There is nothing unknown to thee.  We always wish to imitate thy conduct, but, alas, we cannot do it!—­“I will not say anything!  I will not say anything—!  Even this is what I had wished!  Impelled, however, by great grief I am constrained to say something.  Listen to these words of mine, O ruler of men!  Through the stupefaction of thy faculties, everything is endangered, and ourselves are being made cheerless and weak.  How is it that thou that art the ruler of the world, thou that art conversant with all branches of knowledge, sufferest thy understanding to be clouded, in consequence of cheerlessness, like a coward?  The righteous and unrighteous paths of the world are known to thee.  There is nothing belonging either to the future or the present that is also unknown to thee, O puissant one!  When such is the case, O monarch, I will indicate, O ruler of men, the reasons in favour of your assuming sovereignty.  Listen to me with undivided attention.  There are two kinds of diseases, viz., physical and mental.  Each springs from the other.  None of them can be seen existing independently.  Without doubt, mental diseases spring from physical ones.  Similarly physical diseases spring from mental ones.  This is the truth.  He that indulgeth in regrets on account of past physical or mental woes, reapeth woe from woe and suffereth double woe.  Cold, heat, and wind,—­these three are the attributes of the body.[41] Their existence in harmony is the sign of health.  If one of the three prevails over the rest, remedies have been laid down.  Cold is checked by heat, and heat is checked by cold.  Goodness, passion, and darkness are the three attributes of the mind.  The existence of these three in harmony is the sign of (mental) health.  If one of these prevails over the rest, remedies have been prescribed.  Grief is checked by joy, and joy is checked by grief.  One, living in the present enjoyment of this, wishes to recollect his past woes.  Another, living in the present suffering of woe, wishes to recollect his past bliss.  Thou, however, wert never sad in grief or glad in bliss.[42] Thou, shouldst not, therefore, use thy memory for becoming sad during