"In days of yore, there was a wealthy Brahmana in the Malava regions. He
earned money by the evil ways of the world, but did not spend any thing
on charity. In time the wealth was all gone. He repented and felt
disgust for wealth. He renounced the world and became a wandering
Bhikshu. He went to villages for alms. People called him all sorts of
names -- thief, hypocrite and so on. Some pelted him, others abused him,
others put him to chains and confined him.
"He bore all this with perfect calm. This is how he used to reason
within himself: --
"These men, the Devas, self, the planets, Karma and Kala (periodicity)
none of them is the cause of my happiness or misery. Mind is the one
cause, which causes the wheel of births to move. They make friends and
enemies, who do not conquer the mind. The connection with the body is
only an act of the mind. Deluded men however think, this is my body and
they go astray.
"One man can not be the cause of grief and joy to another. Atma in all
men is not the doer. All acts proceed from the gross and the subtle
body. If the tooth bites the tongue, who should you be angry at?
"If the Devas (the Adhidevas) be the cause of sorrow, it is not their
Atma that is so but their bodily transformations. And the Devas (who
guide the senses) are the same in all beings. If one limb causes pain to
another limb, who should be the object of anger?
"If self is the cause of joy and sorrow, then you have not to look to
the outside world. But every thing else besides Atma is only a seeming
existence. Therefore there is no real existence of any cause of joy or
grief and there is no joy or grief.
"If the planets by their position at birth bring about joys and sorrows,
then no body is to blame for that. And the planetary Purusha is separate
from the bodies of the planets. There is none to be angry at. Karma can
not be the cause of Joy and sorrow. Karma has its sphere in which there
is both a conscious and an unconscious element. The unconscious element
undergoes transformation and the conscious element in search for the
desired object leads to action. But the body is absolutely unconscious.
And Purusha (or Self) in man is absolutely conscious. There is no root
of Karma either in body or in Purusha.
"_Kala_ is part of Atma, for Kala is an aspect of Ishvara. Fire does not
destroy its spark, snow does not destroy its flakes.
"One who is awakened to his real self has fear from no one else. Purusha
has no connection with the pairs of opposites." (Cold and heat,
happiness and misery &c.)