The Lullaby of a King

But when she began to wake this son as she had woken the others, the king stopped her: What are you doing, foolish one? You are giving my sons the wrong understanding, as before, and it will be the end of my line. If you want to please me, set this son on the path of action. The path of rites must not be cut off, and the offering to the ancestors must not cease. The ancestors in heaven, and those born as animals, as men and among the spirits, hungry and thirsty, are all fed by a man who stays in the world of action, and so are the gods and the guests. Teach him what a warrior must do, with its fruit here and hereafter.

So Madālasā sang this lullaby to her son Alarka:

Grow, my son, and delight my husband's heart by your deeds, to help your friends and destroy those who wish you harm.

You are blessed, child, for you will guard the earth alone and long with no enemy left. From guarding it may you have joy, and from dharma you will win its fruit, the deathless state.

On the holy days satisfy the brahmins; fulfil what your kinsmen wish; think in your heart of the good of others; turn your mind away from other men's wives.

Please the gods ceaselessly with many sacrifices; please the brahmins and those who depend on you with wealth; please women long with pleasures beyond compare; and with battles, hero, you will satisfy your enemies.

As a child, delight the hearts of your kinsmen; as a boy, your teacher's, by doing what he bids; as a young man, the hearts of women, the ornaments of good families; as an old man, my child, in the forest, the hearts of those who live in the forest.

Ruling the kingdom, gladden your friends; protecting the good, my dear, worship with sacrifices; and striking down the wicked and your foes in the thick of battle, for the sake of cows and brahmins, my child, go to your death.

Lulled so by his mother day after day, Alarka grew in years and in understanding. When he had reached boyhood and received the sacred thread, the rite that begins a boy's life as a student, he bowed to her and said: Tell me everything I should do for happiness in this world and the next. I bow to you and ask.

Child, she said, a king anointed to his kingdom must first of all bring joy to his people, without going against his own dharma. Let him give up the vices that ruin him at the root, and guard himself from his enemies by never letting his counsel leak out. Let him first conquer himself, and then his ministers, then his servants, then the citizens, and only after that contend with his enemies. Desire, anger, greed, intoxication, pride and elation are six enemies that ruin kings. Remember those of old: Pāṇḍu, struck down when he gave way to desire, and Anuhrāda, whose son was slain through anger; and turn back from them. Great King Marutta conquered these six, and so conquered everything.

In the work of guarding the earth, a king should take on five forms: Indra's, the Sun's, Yama's, the Moon's and the Wind's. As Indra refreshes the earth for four months with rain, let him refresh his people with remissions of their dues. As the Sun draws up water with his rays for eight months, by a subtle means, let him take his tolls. As Yama restrains the dear and the hated alike when their time comes, let him be even toward the dear and the not dear, the wicked and the good. As a man is glad to see the full moon, so should his people be content with him; that is the vow of the Moon. And as the Wind moves hidden through all beings, let him move through his spies among citizens and ministers and kin.

The king whose mind is not dragged away, as other men's are, by greed or desire or wealth, my child, goes to heaven. So does the king who sets back on their own path the deluded who have strayed from it. In whose kingdom the duties of the classes and the stages of life do not sink, his happiness, here and hereafter, is lasting. By protecting beings alone a king has done what he must do.

Alarka asked her next about the duties of the classes and the stages of life, and she taught him those: the student, the householder, the forest-dweller and the renunciant, and the virtues common to all of them, truth and purity, harmlessness, freedom from envy, patience, kindness, generosity and contentment. She taught him how the householder sustains everyone, how a guest is to be honoured, how the rites for the dead are performed and the ancestors fed, and how a man should rise and wash, speak and dress and sleep. I have told you this, son, she said, because I wish you well. And she taught him what may be eaten and what may not, and how a man is made pure again.