Verse 1

¹Having instructed Indra in this way, the Bhagavan who brings the world into being, Hari, vanished on the spot while the unblinking ones looked on. ²So asked by the gods, the great sage, the son of Atharvan, was delighted and said this, almost laughing, Bharata. ³Do you not know, you fine ones, what is done to those who have bodies at their end: that violence which cannot be borne and takes away all sense? ⁴For living things that want to go on living, the self here is dearest and most wanted. Who could bear to hand it over, even to Visnu begging for it? ⁵And yet what is hard to give up, brahmin, for men who feel for other beings, for great ones like yourselves, whose deeds are worth the praise of him whose verses are holy?

⁶Surely the world, bent on its own gain, does not know another's trouble. If it knew, it would not ask; and if it can do the thing, it does not say no.