THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS LIBERATION.
Argument:—Of the different steps leading to Liberation, and
firstly of Indifference to the world and lastly of putting
reliance in the holy precepts.
Vasishtha continued:—Hear now the manner and the measures which the yogi
adopts to himself, in order to obtain his release from his cumbrous
burthen and troubles of the world.
2. As the germ of discrimination springs in the mind at first, by reason
of the disparagement of the world (for the multiplicity of its faults,
or from some cause or other).
3. All good people, resort under the wide stretching shade of this
(fullgrown) tree; as the weary and sunburnt traveller halts under the
cooling shade of trees on their way.
4. The wise man shuns the ignorant at a distance, as the wayfarer casts
aside the sacrificial wood; because the worshippers of the gods only
observe the ceremonious rites of holy ablutions and almsgivings,
austerities and offering of sacred oblations.
5. In his fair, just, polite and undissembling behaviour, and in his
placid and pleasing countenance, he resembles the fair moon with her
ambrosial beams.
6. He acts with sound wisdom and prudence, is polite and civil in his
manners, is prompt in serving and obliging others, is holy in his
conduct and humorous in his discourse.
7. He is as clear and cold, soft and pleasing as fresh butter, and his
company is delightsome to people even at his very first appearance.
8. The deeds of wise men are as pure and grateful to mankind, as the
dews of moon-beams, are refreshing and refrigerating of whole nature.
9. No one sleeps so delighted on a bed of flowers, and in a flower
garden devoid of fears; as he rests secure in the society of reasonable
and pious men.
10. The society of holy and wisemen, like the pure waters of the
heavenly river, serve to cleanse the sins and purify the minds of the
sinful.
11. The society of the holy recluse and liberated men, is as cooling as
a refrigeratory or ice house.
12. The great and high delight, which the holy sage feels in his heart,
is not to be enjoyed in the company of fairies among the gods,
gandharvas and human kind.
13. It is by continued performance of proper acts, that the pious
devotee attains his knowledge and clearness of understanding; when the
significance of the sástras, is reflected as clearly in the tablet of
his mind, as the reflections of objects are seen in a reflector.
14. A good understanding moistened by instruction of the sástras,
thrives in the mind of a holy man, as a plantain tree grows in the
forest.
15. The mind which is cleared by good judgment, retains the clear
impression of everything in it, as a mirror reflects the images of
objects on its surface.
16. The wise man whose soul is purified by the association with
holymen, and whose mind is cleansed with the lavation of scriptural
instruction, is as a sheet of linen cloth flaming with fire.
17. The holy saint shines with the effulgence of his person, as the sun
does with his golden beams, diffusing a pure light all around the world.
18. The wise man follows the conduct of holy sages, and the precepts of
the sástras in such a manner; as to imitate and practice them himself.
19. Thus the tyro becomes by degrees, as good as the good and great
objects of his imitation, and as full of knowledge as the sástras
themselves; and having then put down all the enjoyments of life under
him, he appears to come out of a prison, by breaking down his chains and
fetters.
20. He who is practiced in reducing his appetites and enjoyments day by
day, resembles the crescent moon daily increasing in brightness, and
enlightening his family, as the moon throws her lustre over the stars
about her.
21. The penurious miser (who amass their wealth without enjoying it), is
always as sulky as the face of eclipsed moon, and never as smiling as
the countenance of the liberal, which is as bright as the face of the
moon when freed from eclipse.
22. The liberal man spurns the world as mere straw, and becomes renowned
among the great for his munificence; he resembles the kalpa plant of
paradise, which yields the desired fruit to every body.
23. Though one may feel some compunction in his mind, at the wilful
abdication of his possessions; yet the wise man is glad at his having no
property at all. (It is better to have no property, than to regret at
its loss or resignation).
24. Any one may laugh at his prior acts, if he will come to know what he
was and he is; as a low _chandal_ by being _játismara_, laughs in
disgust in making comparison of his past birth with that of the present.
25. Even the siddhas or holy saints, repair with wonder to see the yogi
for their esteem of him; and look upon him as the moon risen on earth,
with their delighted eyes.
26. The yogi who is ever accustomed to despise all enjoyment, and has
attained his right judgement, does not hold in estimation any of the
enjoyables in life, though it presents itself to him in the proper
manner.
27. The holy man whose soul is raised and enlightened (in time), feels his
former enjoyments to become as dull and insipid to him, as a luxuriant
tree becomes dry and withered in autumn.
28. He then resorts to the company of holymen, for his greatest and
lasting good; and becomes as sane and sound, as the sickman becomes
hale by his abstinence and recourse to physicians.
29. Being then exulted in his mind, he dives into the deep sense of the
sástras; as a big elephant plunges into a large lake of clear water.
30. It is the nature of virtuous men, to deliver their neighbours from
danger and calamity; and to lead them to their well being and
prosperity, as the sun leads people to light.
31. The reasonableman becomes from before, averse to receive anything
from another, and lives content with what is his own.
32. He hates to taste the delicacies of others, from his satiety with
the ambrosial draughts of contentment; and prepares himself for his
abandonment of what he is already possessed of himself.
33. He is accustomed to give away his gold and money to beggars, and beg
his vegetable food from others; and by habitual practice of giving away
whatever he has, he is even ready to part with the flesh of his body.
34. Verily the man of subdued mind and holy soul, gets over the hidden
traps of ignorance with as much ease, as a running man leaps over a
pitfall (goshpada).
35. The holyman being accustomed to despise the acceptance of wealth
from others, learns betimes to slight the possession of any wealth for
himself also.
36. Thus the aversion to the wealth and possessions of others, leads the
wise and holy man by degrees to be averse to the retaining of anything
for himself.
37. There is no such trouble in this earth, nor any great pain in the
torment of hell, as there is in the punishment of earning and
accumulation of wealth.
38. Ah! how little are the money making fools aware, of the cares and
troubles which they have to undergo in their restless days and nights,
in their servitude for money.
39. All wealth is but lengthening woe, and prosperity is the harbinger
of adversity; all enjoyments and aliments are but ailments, and thus
every earthly good turns to its reverse.
40. One cannot have a distaste to sensual enjoyments, as long he thinks
on the objects of sense; and so long as he has a craving for riches,
which are the spring of all evils and bane of human life.
41. He who has got a relish for his highest heavenly bliss, looks upon
the world as a heap of straw, and riches as the fire that kindles them
to a flame. Avoid this fire and be cool and quiet.
42. The meaning of wealth is known to be the source of all evils in the
world, and as the cause of all wants and disorders and even of diseases
and death. It is also the cause of oppression and plunder, of
incendiarism and the like, and their consequent poverty and famine.
43. In this mortal world of the death and diseases of living beings,
there is one elixir which confers perpetual health and life to man, and
this is his contentment only. (Hence called the ambrosia of life,
_santoshámritang_).
44. The vernal season is charming, and so are the garden of paradise,
the moon-beams and fairies, but all combine in contentment only, which
is alone capable of yielding all the delights.
45. The contented soul likens a lake in the rains, when it is full as it
is deep, and as clear and cooling as the nectarious beverage of the
gods.
46. The honest man is strengthened by his contentment and flourishes
with full glee, as a flower tree is decked with blooming blossoms in the
flowering season.
47. As the poor emmet is likely to be crushed under the foot of every
passer, in its ceaseless search and hoarding of food; so the greedy and
needy man is liable to be spurned, for his incessant wanderings after
paltry gains and lucre.
48. The deformed and disfigured beggar, is as a man plunged in a sea of
troubles, and buffeting in its waves without finding a support for rest,
or any prospect of ever reaching to the shore.
49. Prosperity like a beauty, is as frail and fickle as the unstable
waves of the ocean; what wiseman is there that can expect to find his
reliance in them, or have his rest under the shade of the hood of
hideous serpent? (This simile is borrowed in the Nyáya wherein world is
said _kupita phani phaná chháyeva_).
50. He who knowing the pains attending on the gaining, keeping and
losing of money, still persists to pursue in its search, is no better
than a brute, and deserves to be shunned by the wise as unsociable.
51. He who mows down at once the growing grass of his internal and
external appetites, from the field of his heart, by the means of the
scythe of _insouciance_, gets it prepared for reception of the seeds of
Divine knowledge.
52. Ignorant people take the world for a reality, and wise men also
conduct themselves under this supposition though they are well aware of
its unreality; and this owing to their neglect of practicing what they
are taught to believe. (The wise and foolish are in the same footing, by
equally unwise conduct in life).
53. The sum of the whole is that, it is the resignation of the world
which leads men to the society of sages and study of the scriptures; and
then by reliance in the holy precepts, one abandons his worldliness, and
at last his firm dislike of the temporal, leads him to seek his
spiritual bliss.