on a journey to foreign parts.  Nor should one ever proceed alone to any place at night.  Before evening comes, one should come back to one’s house and remain within it.  One should always obey the commands of one’s mother and father and preceptor, without at all judging whether those commands are beneficial or otherwise.  One should, O king, attend with great care to the Vedas and the science of arms.  Do then, O king, carefully attend to the practice of riding an elephant, a steed, and a war-chariot.  The man who attends to these with care succeeds in attaining to happiness.  Such a king succeeds in becoming unconquerable by foes, and sway his servants and kinsmen without any of them being able to get the better of him.  The king that attains to such a position and that carefully attends to the duty of protecting his subjects, has never to incur any loss.  Thou shouldst acquire, O king, the science of reasoning, as also the science of words, the science of the Gandharvas, and the four and sixty branches of knowledge known by the name of Kala.  One should every day hear the Puranas and the Itihasas and all the other narratives that exist, as also the life-stories of all high-souled personages.  When one’s spouse passes through functional period, one should never have congress with her, nor even summon her for conversation.  The man endued with wisdom may accept her companionship on the fourth day after the bath of purification.  If one indulges in congress on the fifth day from the first appearance of the functional operation, one gets a daughter.  By indulging in congress on the sixth day, one happens to have a son.  The man of wisdom should in the matter of congress, attend to this rule (about odd and even days).  Kinsmen and relatives by marriage and friends should all be treated with respect.  One should, according to the best of one’s power, adore the deities in sacrifices, giving away diverse kinds of articles as sacrificial Dakshina.  After the period ordained for the domestic mode of life has been passed, one should, O king, enter the life of a forest recluse.  I have thus told thee all the indications, in brief, of persons who succeed in living long.[484] What remains untold by me should be heard by thee from the mouths of persons well-versed in the three Vedas, O Yudhishthira.  Thou shouldst know that conduct is the root of prosperity.  Conduct is the enhancer of fame.  It is conduct that prolongs life.  It is conduct that destroys all calamities and evils.  Conduct has been said to be superior to all the branches of knowledge.  It is conduct that begets righteousness, and it is righteousness that prolongs life.  Conduct is productive of fame, of long life, and of heaven.  Conduct is the most efficacious rite of propitiating the deities (for bringing about auspiciousness of every kind).  The Self-born Brahman himself has said that one should show compassion unto all orders of men.’"[485]

SECTION CV