Who is happy in this world?
This is one of the questions by Yaksha to Yudhisthira and the reply was this,
pancamehāni sasthe vā śākam pacātī sve grhe
anunī cāpravāsī ca sa vāricara modate
At the end of the day, if a man takes only a little bread and nothing else, but has no debts and has not been forced to leave the land of his birth, then that man is happy. If anyone is in debt or cannot live in the place of his birth, then he is unhappy. This is an allegory, of course. The real meaning is this: We are atma. We are an eternally existing principle, saccidānanda. Therefore, if we have attachment to non-eternal things, that is known as “debt.” (Mahabharata, Vana-parva 313.115)
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pancamehāni sasthe vā śākam pacātī sve grhe
anunī cāpravāsī ca sa vāricara modate
At the end of the day, if a man takes only a little bread and nothing else, but has no debts and has not been forced to leave the land of his birth, then that man is happy. If anyone is in debt or cannot live in the place of his birth, then he is unhappy. This is an allegory, of course. The real meaning is this: We are atma. We are an eternally existing principle, saccidānanda. Therefore, if we have attachment to non-eternal things, that is known as “debt.” (Mahabharata, Vana-parva 313.115)
