Reading section 29

2. Again the lives of those whose minds are infected by the poison of worldly affairs, and who are incapable of judging for themselves, are (verily) but causes of their torment.

3. Those knowing the knowable, and resting in the all-pervading spirit, and acquiescing alike to their wants and gains, enjoy lives of perfect tranquility.

4. We that have certain belief of our being but limited beings, can have no enjoyment in our transient lives, which are but flashes of lightenings amidst the cloudy sky of the world.

5. It is as impossible to keep the winds in confinement, to tear asunder the sky to pieces, and wreathe the waves to a chaplet, as to place any reliance in our lives.

6. Fast as the fleeting clouds in autumn, and short as the light of an oilless lamp, our lives appear to pass away as evanescent as the rolling waves in the sea.

7. Rather attempt to lay hold on the shadow of the moon in the waves, the fleeting lightenings in the sky, and the ideal lotus blossoms in the ether, than ever place any reliance upon this unsteady life.

8. Men of restless minds, desiring to prolong their useless and toilsome lives, resemble the she-mule conceiving by a horse (which causes her destruction abortion or unfructification).

9. This world (Sansára) is as a whirlpool amidst the ocean of creation, and every individual body is as (evanescent) as a foam or froth or bubble, which can give me no relish in this life.

10. That is called true living, which gains what is worth gaining, which has no cause of sorrow or remorse, and which is a state of transcendental tranquility.

11. There is a vegetable life in plants, and an animal life in beasts, and birds: man leads a thinking life, but true life is above (the succession of) thoughts.

12. All those living beings are said to have lived well in this earth, who being once born herein have no more to return to it. The rest are no better than old asses (of burthen).

13. Knowledge is an encumbrance to the unthinking, and wisdom is cumbersome to the passionate; intellect—is a heavy load to the restless, and the body is a ponderous burden to one ignorant of his soul.

14. A goodly person possessed of life, mind, intellect and self-consciousness and its occupations, is of no avail to the unwise, but seem to be his over-loadings as those upon a porter.

15. The discontented mind is the great arena of all evils, and the nestling place of diseases which alight upon it like birds of the air: such a life is the abode of toil and misery.

16. As a house is slowly dilapidated by the mice continually burrowing under it, so is the body of the living gradually corroded by the (pernicious) teeth of time boring within it.

17. Deadly diseases bred within the body, feed upon our vital breath, as poisonous snakes born in caves of the woods consume the meadow air.

18. As the withered tree is perforated by minutest worms residing in them, so are our bodies continually wasted by many inborn diseases and noxious secretions.

19. Death is incessantly staring and growling at our face, as a cat looks and purrs at the mouse in order to devour it.

20. Old age wastes us as soon as a glutton digests his food; and it reduces one to weakness as an old harlot, by no other charm than her paint and perfumes.

21. Youth forsakes us as soon, as a good man abandons his wicked friend in disgust, after his foibles come to be known to him in a few days.

22. Death the lover of destruction, and friend of old age and ruin, likes the sensual man, as a lecher likes a beauty.

23. Thus there is nothing so worthless in the world as this life, which is devoid of every good quality and ever subject to death, unless it is attended by the permanent felicity of emancipation.

CHAPTER XV.

OBLOQUY ON EGOISM.

Ráma continued:—

Egoism springs from false conceit, and it is vanity (or vain glory) which fosters it; I am much afraid of this baneful egotism which is an enemy (to human kind).

2. It is under the influence of egotism that all men in this diversified world, and even the very poorest of them, fall into the dungeon of evils, and misdeeds.

3. All accidents, anxieties, troubles and wicked exertions proceed from egoism or self-confidence; hence I deem egoism as a disease.

4. Being subject to that everlasting arch-enemy—the cynic egoism, I have refrained from my food and drink. What other enjoyment is there for me to partake of?

5. This world resembles a long continuous night, in which our egoism like a hunter, spreads the snare of affections (to entrap us in it).

6. All our great and intolerable miseries, growing as rank as the thorny plants of the catechu, are but results of our egoism.

7. It overcasts the equanimity of mind as an eclipse overshadows the moon; it destroys our virtues as a frost destroys the lotus flowers; it dispels the peace of men as the autumn drives away the clouds. I must therefore get rid of this egoistic feeling.

8. I am not Ráma the prince, I have no desire nor should I wish for affluence; but I wish to have the peace of my mind and remain as the self-satisfied old sage Jina.

9. All that I have eaten, done or offered in sacrifice under the influence of egoism, have gone for nothing; it is the absence of egoism which (I call) to be real good.

10. So long, O Bráhman! as there is (the feeling of) egoism in one, he is subject to sorrow at his difficulties; but being devoid of it, he becomes happy; hence it is better to be without it.

11. I am free from anxiety, O sage! ever since I have got the tranquility of my mind after giving up my (sense of) egoism; and known the transitoriness of all enjoyments.

12. As long, O Bráhman! as the cloud of egoism overspreads (the region of our minds), so long our desires expand themselves like the buds of _kurchi_ plants (in the rains).

13. But when the cloud of egoism is dispersed, the lightning of avarice vanishes away, just as the lamp being extinguished, its light immediately disappears.

14. The mind vaunts with egoism, like a furious elephant in the Vindhyan hills, when it hears the thunder-claps in the clouds.

15. Again egoism residing like a lion in the vast forest of all human bodies, ranges about at large throughout the whole extent of this earth.

16. The self-conceited are decorated with a string of pearls about their necks, of which avarice forms the thread, and repeated births—the pearls.

17. Our inveterate enemy of egoism, has (like a magician) spread about us the enchantments of our wives, friends and children, whose spells it is hard to break.

18. As soon as the (impression of the) word (_ego_) is effaced from the mind, all our anxieties and troubles are wiped out of it.

19. The cloud of egoism being dispelled from the sky of our minds, the mist of error which it spreads to destroy our peace, will be dispersed also.

20. I have given up my (sense of) egoism, yet is my mind stupified with sorrow by my ignorance. Tell me, O Bráhman! what thou thinkest right for me under these circumstances.

21. I have with much ado given up this egoism, and like no more to resort to this source of all evils and perturbation. It retains its seat in the breast for our annoyance only, and without benefiting us by any good quality of its own. Direct me now, you men of great understandings! (to what is right).

CHAPTER XVI.

THE UNGOVERNABLENESS OF THE MIND.

Our minds are infested by evil passions and faults, and fluctuate in their observance of duty and service to superiors, as the plumes of a peacock fluttering at the breeze.

2. They rove about at random with ardour and without rest from one place to another, like the poor village dog running afar and wide in quest of food.

3. It seldom finds any thing any where, and happening even to get a good store some where, it is as little content with it as a wicker vessel filled with water.

4. The vacant mind, Oh sage! is ever entrapped in its evil desires, and is never at rest with itself; but roves at large as a stray deer separated from its herd.

5. Human mind is of the nature of the unsteady wave, and as light as the minutest particle. It can therefore have no rest in spite of (the fickleness and levity of) its nature.

6. Disturbed by its thoughts, the mind is tossed in all directions, like the waters of the milk-white ocean when churned by the _Mandara_ mountain.

7. I can not curb my mind, resembling the vast ocean (in its course), and running with its huge surges (of the passions), with whirlpools (of error), and beset by the whales of delusion.

8. Our minds run afar, O Bráhman! after sensual enjoyments, like the deer running towards the tender blades of grass, and unmindful of falling into the pits (hid under them).

9. The mind can never get rid of its wavering state owing to the habitual fickleness of its nature, resembling the restlessness of the sea.

10. The mind with its natural fickleness and restless thoughts, finds no repose at any place, as a lion (has no rest) in his prison-house.

11. The mind seated in the car of delusion, absorbs the sweet, peaceful and undisturbed rest of the body, like the gander sucking up pure milk from amidst the water.

12. O chief of sages! I grieve much to find the faculties of the mind lying dormant upon the bed of imaginary delights, from which it is hard to waken them.