The
toil of an angry man becomes entirely fruitless. Ye foremost of
immortals, that person is said to be conversant with righteousness whose
four doors, viz., the organ of pleasure, the stomach, the two arms, and
speech, are well-restrained. That person who, always practising truth and
self-restraint and sincerity and compassion and patience and
renunciation, becomes devoted to the study of the Vedas, does not covet
what belongs to others, and pursues what is good with a singleness of
purpose, succeeds in attaining to heaven. Like a calf sucking all the
four teats of its dam's udders, one should devote oneself to the practice
of all these virtues. I do not know whether anything exists that is more
sacred than Truth. Having roved among both human beings and the deities,
I declare it that Truth is the only means for reaching heaven even as a
ship is the only means for crossing the ocean. A person becomes like
those with whom he dwells, and like those whom he reverences, and like to
what he wishes to be. If a person waits with reverence on him who is good
or him who is otherwise, if he waits with reverence on a sage possessed
of ascetic merit or on a thief, passes under his way and catches his hue
like a piece of cloth catching the dye in which it is steeped. The
deities always converse with those that are possessed of wisdom and
goodness. They, therefore, never entertain the wish for even seeing the
enjoyments in which men take pleasure. The person who knows that all
objects of enjoyment (which human beings cherish) are characterised by
vicissitudes, has few rivals, and is superior to the very Moon and the
Wind.
Pages:
2320
2321
2322
2323
2324
2325
2326
2327
2328
2329
2330
2331
2332
2333
2334
2335
2336
2337
2338
2339
2340
2341
2342
2343
2344