Maha·bhárata XII: Peace: “The Book of Liberation” (volume three of five)

Translated by Alexander Wynne

“The Book of Liberation” is perhaps the most enigmatic philosophical text from ancient India. Although presented as the teachings of Bhishma as he lays dying on the battlefield, after the epic war between the Pandavas and Kauravas, it was composed by unknown authors in the last few centuries BCE, during the early period of world-renunciation. During this age, peripatetic sages meditated under trees, holy men practised austerities in forest groves and wandering sophists debated in the towns and cities. There has been no time like it before or since: such freedom of thought and expression is unparalleled in the history of the world.

The freedom enjoyed by these ancient thinkers was not an end in itself. Above all this is an animated work, the record of philosophers seeking liberation (moksha) from a world they believed unsatisfactory. The speculation herein is but a means to an end, for its authors believed they could attain freedom from the world by knowing the truth.

The followers of yoga discipline themselves so that they become accomplished in meditation. These great seers are satiated by gnosis; their minds are established in nirvana. They do not return to this world again, Partha, but attain release from the evils of transmigration. Being firmly rooted in their true state, they bypass the evils of birth.

626 pp. | ISBN-13: 978-0-8147-9453-1 | ISBN-10: 0-8147-9453-x | Co-published by New York University Press and JJC Foundation

“The Dialogue between Bhrigu and Bharad·vaja”
Cantos 182–3 (pp. 91–103; 182.1–183.17)
(22 pp, 0.61mb)

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Download the title page and table of contents and one chapter of the book (in English and Sanskrit on facing pages), bundled together as a .pdf file. You can also download the CSL Front Matter (6pp, 1.3mb). It describes how we transliterate the Sanskrit text in the Roman alphabet and includes a guide to pronunciation. It also explains our system of representing phonetic fusion (sandhi).

You can set Adobe Acrobat Reader to display the Sanskrit text and translation in facing page view. Simply go to “View” in the toolbar, select “Page Layout” and click on “Facing.”

Top 50 Verbs

Rank	Unique Words	Number of Occurrences
1	Said	341
2	Like	127
3	Living	110
4	Attain	75
5	Know	72
6	Found	71
7	Say	63
8	Become	58
9	Means	58
10	Attains	57

11	See	53
12	Understand	50
13	Come	47
14	Go	46
15	Suffering	44
16	Find	43
17	Created	43
18	Conduct	42
19	Tell	41
20	Please	40

21	Perceive	37
22	Abides	36
23	Destroyed	35
24	Cause	32
25	Might	32
26	Becomes	31
27	Think	31
28	Follow	31
29	Blessed	31
30	Called	30

31	Follows	29
32	Sees	29
33	Arises	28
34	Abide	28
35	Give	27
36	Listen	26
37	Released	26
38	Touch	25
39	Speech	25
40	Perceives	25

41	Accept	25
42	Lament	24
43	Moves	23
44	Seen	23
45	Comes	21
46	Finds	21
47	Eat	21
48	Caused	20
49	Relate	20
50	Learned	19

Top 50 Nouns

Rank	Unique Words	Number of Occurrences
1	Person	298
2	Man(men)	282
3	World(s)	257
4	One	242
5	Body	162
6	Mind	160
7	Sense(s)	150
8	God(s)	149
9	Brahmin(s)	142
10	Time	141

11	Faculty(ies)	135
12	Object(s)	115
13	Fire	113
14	State	107
15	Thing(s)	104
16	Desire(s)	103
17	Bliss	91
18	Death	88
19	Earth	87
20	Wind	87

21	Water	86
22	People	85
23	Truth	83
24	Way	83
25	Intelligence	82
26	King	80
27	Lord	78
28	Five	77
29	Creatures	73
30	Soul	72

31	Pleasure	70
32	Bhishma	69
33	Religious	65
34	Brahman	62
35	Passion	62
36	Darkness	62
37	Consciousness	60
38	Shakra	60
39	Wealth	59
40	Asceticism	58

41	Karma	57
42	Brahma	57
43	Son	55
44	Experience(s)	55
45	Matter	54
46	Recitation	54
47	Reward	54
48	Faculty	54
49	Space	53
50	Two	52

Maha·bhárata XII: Peace: “The Book of Liberation” (volume three of five)

Excerpts

About the Translator

eCSL Word Frequency Counts

Top 50 Verbs

Top 50 Nouns