"I shall tell thee what constitutes the highest good of a human being.
That man who practises the religion of universal compassion achieves his
highest good. That man who keeps under control the three faults, viz.,
lust, wrath, and cupidity, by throwing them upon all creatures (and
practises the virtue of compassion), attains to success 1. He who, from
motives of his own happiness, slays other harmless creatures with the
rod of chastisement, never attains to happiness, in the next world. That
man who regards all creatures as his own self, and behaves towards them
as towards his own self, laying aside the rod of chastisement and
completely subjugating his wrath, succeeds in attaining to happiness.
The very deities, who are desirous of a fixed abode, become stupefied in
ascertaining the track of that person who constitutes himself the soul
of all creatures and looks upon them all as his own self, for such a
person leaves no track behind. 2 One should never do that to another
which one regards as injurious to one's own self. This, in brief, is the
rule of Righteousness. One by acting in a different way by yielding to
desire, becomes guilty of unrighteousness. In refusals and gifts, in
happiness and misery, in the agreeable, and the disagreeable, one should
judge of their effects by a reference to one's own self. 3 When One
injures another, the injured turns round and injures the injurer.
Similarly, when one cherishes another, that other cherishes the
cherisher. One should frame one's rule of conduct according to
this." (from Mahabharata)
That man who practises the religion of universal compassion achieves his
highest good. That man who keeps under control the three faults, viz.,
lust, wrath, and cupidity, by throwing them upon all creatures (and
practises the virtue of compassion), attains to success 1. He who, from
motives of his own happiness, slays other harmless creatures with the
rod of chastisement, never attains to happiness, in the next world. That
man who regards all creatures as his own self, and behaves towards them
as towards his own self, laying aside the rod of chastisement and
completely subjugating his wrath, succeeds in attaining to happiness.
The very deities, who are desirous of a fixed abode, become stupefied in
ascertaining the track of that person who constitutes himself the soul
of all creatures and looks upon them all as his own self, for such a
person leaves no track behind. 2 One should never do that to another
which one regards as injurious to one's own self. This, in brief, is the
rule of Righteousness. One by acting in a different way by yielding to
desire, becomes guilty of unrighteousness. In refusals and gifts, in
happiness and misery, in the agreeable, and the disagreeable, one should
judge of their effects by a reference to one's own self. 3 When One
injures another, the injured turns round and injures the injurer.
Similarly, when one cherishes another, that other cherishes the
cherisher. One should frame one's rule of conduct according to
this." (from Mahabharata)
