57. Rise and accept an antidote to ward off your old age and death; and it is knowledge of this prescription, that all wealth and property are for our evils, and all pleasures and enjoyments, tend only to sicken and enervate our frames. 58. Know your difficulty to be your prosperity, and your disrespect to be your great gain. Conduct yourself according to the purport of the sástras, as they are supported by good usage. 59. Acts done according to the sástras and good usage also, are productive of the best fruits of immortality. 60. He who acts well according to good usage, and considers everything by good reasons, and is indifferent to the pains and pleasures of the world; such a one flourishes like an arbor in the spring, with the fruits and flowers of long life and fame, virtues and good qualities and prosperity. CHAPTER XXXIII. CONSIDERATION OF EGOISM. Argument. Of good attempts, good company and good studies; also of liberation by Renunciation of Egoism and Worldly Bondage. Vasishtha continued:—Seeing the complete success of every undertaking, depending on your own exertion at all times and places, you should never be slack in your energy at all. 2. See how Nandi gratified the wishes of all his friends and relations by his own exertions, and how he became victorious over death itself, by his adoration of Mahádeva by the side of a lake. 3. See also, how the Dánavas too got the better of the gods, who were fraught with every perfection, by their greater wealth and prowess, as the elephants destroy a lake of lotuses. 4. See, how Marutta the King of demons, created another world like that of Brahmá, by means of his sacrifice through the great sage Samvarta (the law giver). 5. See, how Viswámitra (the military chief) obtained the dignity of Bráhmanhood by his great energy and continued exertions. He obtained by his austerities what is impossible to be gained by another. 6. See, how the poor and unfortunate Upamanyu, obtained his nectarious food of the cake and curdled milk, by his worship of Siva, from the milky ocean in days of yore. 7. See how the god Vishnu devoured (destroyed), like a wild fire the demons of the triple world, likening the tender filaments of lotuses; and how the sage Sweta became victorious over death by means of his firm faith in Siva (as it is described in the Linga Purána). 8. Remember, how the chaste Sávitrí, brought back her spouse Satyavána from the realm of death, by her prevailing on stern Yama with the suavity of her discourse. 9. There is no great exertion of any kind that goes unrewarded in this world; all impossibility is thought possible by ardent pursuit after it (or to the ardent pursuer, as it is said: Fortune is found by the swiftest pursuer).