UNRELIABLENESS OF WORLDLY THINGS.
Thus is my heart consumed by the wild-fire of those great worldly
evils, and there rises in me no desire of enjoying them, as there rises
no mirage from a lake.
2. My existence upon earth gets bitter day by day, and though I have
got some experience in it, yet its associations have made me as sour as
the Nimba plant by its immersion in water.
3. I see wickedness on the increase, and righteousness on the decline
in the mind of man, which like the sour _Karanja_ (crab) fruit, becomes
sourer every day.
4. I see honour is eaten up every day by mutual altercations of men,
using harsh words to each other as they crack the nuts under their
teeth.
5. Too much eagerness for royalty and worldly enjoyments, is equally
prejudicial to our welfare; as we loose our future prospects by the
former, and our present happiness by the latter.
6. I take no delight in my gardens nor have any pleasure in women; I
feel no joy at the prospect of riches, but enjoy my solace in my own
heart and mind.
7. Frail are the pleasures of the world, and avarice is altogether
intolerable; the bustle of business has broken down my heart, and (I
know not) where to have my tranquility.
8. Neither do I hail death nor am I in love with my life; but remain as
I do, devoid of all anxiety and care.
9. What have I to do with a kingdom and with all its enjoyments? Of
what avail are riches to me, and what is the end of all our exertions?
All these are but requirements of self-love, from which I am entirely
free.
10. The chain of (repeated) births is a bond that binds fast all men
by its strong knots of the senses; those striving to break loose from
this bondage for their liberation, are (said to be) the best of men.
11. These haughty damsels whom the god of love employs to ravage the
hearts of men, resemble a group of elephants subverting a lotus bed
under their feet.
12. The treatment of the mind with pure reason being neglected now (in
youth), it is hard to heal it afterwards (in age), when it admits of no
cure.
13. It is the worldliness of man that is his true poison, while real
poison is no poison to him. It is the poison of worldliness which
destroys his future life, while real poison is only locally injurious
to him (in his present state).
14. Neither pleasure nor pain, nor friends nor relatives, nor even life
and death, can enchain (affect) the mind that has received the light of
truth.
15. Teach me, Oh Bráhman! that art the best of the learned in the
mysteries of the past and future, teach me so that I may soon become
like one devoid of grief and fear and worldly troubles, and may have
the light of truth beaming upon me.
16. The forest of ignorance is laid over with the snare of desire,
it is full of the thorns of misery, and is the dreadful seat of
destruction and the danger (of repeated births and deaths).
17. I can rather suffer myself to be put under the jaws of death with
his rows of teeth like saws, but cannot bear the dreadly pains of
worldly cares and anxieties.
18. It is a gloomy error in this world to think that I have this and
have not the other; it serves to toss about our minds as a gust of wind
disperses the dust of the earth.
19. It is the thread of avarice that links together all living beings
like a chaplet of pearls; the mind serves to twirl about this chain,
but pure consciousness sits quiet to observe its rotation.
20. I who am devoid of desires, would like to break this ornamental
chain of worldliness, hanging about me as a deadly serpent, in the
same manner, as a lion breaks asunder the net (which is laid to ensnare
him).
21. Do you now, O most learned sage, scatter the mist which has
overspread the forest of my heart, and the darkness which has overcast
my mind, by the light of true knowledge.
22. There are no anxieties, O sage! which cannot be put to an end by
the society of good minded men; the darkness of night can be well
removed by moon-beams.
23. Life is as fickle as a drop of water pending on a mass of clouds
blown away by the winds. Our enjoyments are as unsteady as the
lightning that flickers in the midst of clouds. The pleasures of youth
are as slippery as water. With these reflections in my mind, I have
subdued them all under the province of peace and tranquility.