painful tasks!'

"The Brahmanas said, 'Let no anxiety, O king, in respect of our
maintenance, find a place in thy heart! Ourselves providing our own
food, we shall follow thee, and by meditation and saying our prayers we
shall compass thy welfare while by pleasant converse we shall entertain
thee and be cheered ourselves.'

"Yudhishthira said, 'Without doubt, it must be as ye say, for I am ever
pleased with the company of the regenerate ones! But my fallen condition
maketh me behold in myself an object of reproach! How shall I behold you
all, that do not deserve to bear trouble, out of love for me painfully
subsisting upon food procured by your own toil? Oh, fie upon the wicked
sons of Dhritarashtra!'"

Vaisampayana continued, "Saying this, the weeping king sat himself down
upon the ground. Then a learned Brahmana, Saunaka by name versed in
self-knowledge and skilled in the _Sankhya_ system of yoga, addressed
the king, saying, 'Causes of grief by thousands, and causes of fear by
hundreds, day after day, overwhelm the ignorant but not the wise.
Surely, sensible men like thee never suffer themselves to be deluded by
acts that are opposed to true knowledge, fraught with every kind of
evil, and destructive of salvation. O king, in thee dwelleth that
understanding furnished with the eight attributes which is said to be
capable of providing against all evils and which resulteth from a study
of the _Sruti (Vedas)_ and scriptures! And men like unto thee are never
stupefied, on the accession of poverty or an affliction overtaking their
friends, through bodily or mental uneasiness! Listen, I shall tell the
_slokas_ which were chanted of old by the illustrious Janaka touching
the subject of controlling the self! This world is afflicted with both