“What makes sun shine every day?
Yudhishthira replied: The power of Brahman.
What rescues a human in danger?
Courage is a human’s salvation in danger.
By the study of which science does a person become wise?
Not by studying any sastra does anyone become wise. It is by association with the great in wisdom that they get wisdom.
What is more nobly sustaining than the earth?
The mother who brings up the children she has borne is nobler and more sustaining that the earth.
What is higher that the sky?
The father.
What is fleeter than wind?
Mind.
What befriends a traveller?
Learning.
Who accompanies a person in death?
Dharma. That alone accompanies the soul in its solitary journey after death.
What is happiness?
Happiness is the result of good conduct.
What is that, abandoning which one becomes loved by all?
Pride – for abandoning that one will be loved by all.
What is the loss which yield joy and not sorrow?
Anger – giving it up, we will no longer be subject to sorrow.
What is that, by giving up which, one becomes rich?
Desire – getting rid of it, one becomes wealthy. “
Mahabharata