The Sanskrit Epics

by Delphi Classics

  9. Then the Best of Speakers Who knew the course of things, recognising that Nanda had become a vessel fit for salvation through His exhortation, explained the process of the highest good: —

  10. ‘From now onwards, my friend, do you, fortified by the faculty of faith, take heed still further to govern your conduct so as to reach the state where death is not.

  11. So act that the employment of your body and speech, being purified, may be candid, open, guarded and without defect, 12. Candid from giving expression to the feelings, open from not concealing anything, guarded from concentration on self-government and without defect from sinlessness.

  13. You should sanctify the conduct of your livelihood in the purification of your body and speech and in the sevenfold work, 14. By not giving way to the five faults, hypocrisy etc., and by abandoning the four destroyers of good conduct, astrology and the rest, 15. By refusing what is to be avoided, living beings, rice, wealth etc and by accepting the authorised rules of mendicancy with their definite limits.

  16. Contented, upright, pleasing in voice and pure in livelihood, you should practise the remedy for suffering till you reach emancipation.

  17. For this livelihood is explained by Me separately from the physical actions, namely those of body and voice, because it is so difficult to purify.

  18. For it is difficult for the householder attached to many varied doctrines to attain purity of doctrine and for the mendicant whose means of existence are dependent on others to obtain purity of livelihood.

  19. This much is said to be discipline. To put it briefly, it is good behaviour; in its absence there can be no proper life either as a mendicant or as a householder.

  20. Therefore live the holy life, endowed with good conduct, firmly attached to your vows and recognising the danger of even the smallest faults.

  21. For by taking your stand on discipline all actions take place in the sphere of the supreme good, just as standing and other actions of the body are performed by taking your stand on the earth.

  22. My friend, comprehend that salvation is based on freedom from passion, freedom from passion on right understanding’, and right understanding on the apprehension of knowledge.

  23. Realise that knowledge is based on mental concentration and mental concentration on bliss of body and mind.

  24. Bliss of body and mind is based on supreme buoyancy, and know too that buoyancy is based on ecstasy.

  25. Similarly ecstasy is deemed to be based on pre-eminent cheerfulness and cheerfulness on freedom from remorse over misdeeds and omissions.

  26. But the freedom of the mind from remorse is based on purity of discipline. Therefore purify your discipline, realising that discipline goes in front as the foremost.

  27. Discipline is so-called from its disciplining, disciplining comes from habitual repetition, habitual repetition from keen desire for a thing and keen desire from dependence on it.

  28. For discipline is the refuge, the guide as it were in the wilderness, the friend, the kinsman, the protector, wealth and strength.

  29. Since discipline is such, my friend, you ought to perfect it. Further those who practice Yoga take their stand on it in the other undertakings towards emancipation.

  30. Then you should hold back your senses from their objects by fixing your attention, since they are by nature restless.

  31. A man should not so fear an enemy, fire, a snake or a thunderbolt as he should his own senses; for the latter are ever aggressive.

  32. Rabid foes oppress some people sometimes or they may not do so, but everyone is always everywhere harassed by the senses.

  33. And a man does not go to Hell when killed by foes etc., but he is dragged there helplessly when beaten down by the restless senses.

  34. The man who is struck down by the former may or may not suffer in soul, but the man who is harried by the senses suffers in body and soul alike.

  35. For the arrows of the five senses are tipped with the poison of fancies, have anxieties for their feathers and pleasure for their target and fly in the air of the objects of the senses.

  36. They are discharged by Love the hunter and strike men the deer in the heart and, if they are not warded off, men fall pierced by them.

  37. They should be kept off as they fall by the strong man who stands on the battle-ground of self-control and is armed with the bow of steadfastness and the armour of attention.

  38. A man sleeps or sits anywhere at ease, free from worry, when the senses are pacified, as when enemies are suppressed.

  39. For like hungry dogs in their greed they can never have enough and strain after their objects in the world.

  40. The domain of the senses can no more be filled to satisfaction with their objects, though perpetually supplied with them, than can the ocean with the water ever flowing into it.

  41. Of necessity the senses must be active in this world, each in its own sphere, but they should not be allowed to grasp the general or secondary characteristic of any object.

  42. When you see any object with your eye, you should concentrate on the basic elements in it only and not form any conception of it as, say, a woman or a man.

  43. If in relation to any object some perception of a woman or a man does present itself, you must not look on their hair, teeth etc as beautiful.

  “. — Nothing should be subtracted from the object, nothing added to it; it is to be seen as it really is according to its nature and kind.

  45. If you thus regard persistently the reality in the sphere of the senses, you will give no foothold to desires to possess or avoid.

  46. The desire of possession destroys the passion-filled world by means of attractive forms, like an enemy with friendly face, having pleasant words on his lips and evil in his heart.

  47. But what is known as the desire of avoidance is repulsion with regard to any object; by giving way to it out of delusion a man is ruined in this world and hereafter.

  48. The man who is harassed by likes and dislikes, as by heat and cold, obtains neither peace nor the supreme good; hence the instability of men’s senses.

  49. The senses, even though in activity, do not adhere to their objects, so long as imaginations about the latter are not conceived in the mind.

  50. As fire flames when wind and fuel are both present, so the fire of sin arises when the objects of the senses and imaginations about them are both present.

  51. For a man is chained by the false conception of an object, while by seeing the same object as it really is he is liberated.

  52. On seeing a certain form one man is attracted, another dislikes it and a third is indifferent, while yet another feels compassionate disgust for the same object.

  53. Hence an object of the senses is not of itself a determining cause either of bondage or of emancipation. Association with a special imagination may make it such or it may not.

  54. Therefore one should strive one’s hardest for the control of the senses; for unguarded senses lead to suffering and the continuance of existence.

  56. In all circumstances, therefore, you should be attentive to restraining these sin-causing enemies, namely, sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. In this matter do not be neglectful even for a moment.

  CANTO XIV. THE FIRST STEPS

  1. ‘THEN, CLOSING up the dam of the senses with the sluice-gate of attention, learn exact measure in the eating of food for the sake of mystic meditation and of freedom from disease.

  2. For food taken in excessive quantities impedes the intake and outflow of the breath, induces lassitude and drowsiness and destroys enterprise.

  3. And as too much food conduces to disaster, so eating too little leads to loss of capacity.

  4. Deficiency of food drains away the substance of the body with its brilliance, energy, activity and strength.

  5. As the scales fall with too heavy a weight, rise with too light a one and remain level with the proper one so is it with the body and its nourishment.

  6. Therefore you should eat, caref
ully considering your requirements, and should not measure out to yourself too much or too little under the influence of pride.

  7. For the fire of the body, if loaded with heavy food, dies down like a small fire covered all at once with a great load of fuel.

  8. Complete abstinence from food too is not recommended, for he who refrains from food is extinguished like a fire without fuel. o 9. Since no creature drawing breath can exist without food, therefore to take food is not wrong, but a choice of foods is prohibited, 10. Since living beings are not so much attached to any other single object as to superfine food. Know the reason for this teaching.

  11. As a wounded man applies a salve to his wound to heal it, so food is to be taken to destroy hunger by the man desirous of emancipation.

  12. And as the axle of a chariot is greased to enable it to bear a load, so the wise man employs food to enable his life to continue.

  13. As parents on a journey, grievous though they would find it, would eat the flesh of their children to enable them to cross the desert, 14. So food should be eaten with circumspection, not to obtain splendour or beauty of form or out of intoxication or wantonness.

  15. For food is intended for the support of the body, like a prop for the support of a weak dwelling that is falling down.

  16. As a man will construct a boat with great labour and even carry it, not because he loves it, but simply in order to cross a great flood, 17. So men of insight support the body by the usual means, not out of love for it, but simply to cross the flood of suffering.

  18. Just as a man who is being oppressed gives in grief to an enemy, not out of devotion to him or of desire for anything, but merely to preserve his life, 19. So the Yoga adept tenders food to his body merely to suppress hunger, not out of gluttony or devotion to it.

  20. After passing the day self-controlled in the restraint of your mind, you should shake off drowsiness and spend the night too in the practice of Yoga.

  21. And do not deem your consciousness to be then properly conscious, when during that consciousness drowsiness may make itself felt in your heart.

  22. When overcome by drowsiness, always apply to your mind the principles of energy and steadfastness, of strength and courage.

  23. You should repeat aloud those Scriptures you have studied, and you should teach them to others and reflect on them yourself.

  24. In order to keep always awake, wet your face with water, look round in all directions and fix your gaze on the stars.

  25. Walk about or sit down at night, keeping your mind from wandering and your senses directed inwards, steady and under control.

  26. Drowsiness has no hold on a roan affected by fear, love or grief. Therefore practice these three feelings when drowsiness assails you.

  27. You should foster fear of the approach of death, love in marriage with the Law and grief at the boundless sufferings from birth.

  28. This and the like, my friend, is the course to be followed to keep awake. For what wise man would let his life become unproductive by lying down to sleep?

  29. It is no more fitting for the wise man who desires to escape from the great danger to sleep in neglect of the snakes of the vices than for a man to sleep in neglect of snakes in his house.

  30. For since the world of the living is blazing with the fires of death, disease and old age, who would lie down in it without agitation any more than in a burning house?

  31. Therefore recognising sleep to be mental darkness, do not let it overtake you while the vices, like armed foes, are still unquelled.

  3:2. But after passing the first of the three night-watches in activity, you should lie down to rest your body in full control of yourself.

  33. Lie with tranquil mind on your right side, keeping present the idea of light and bearing watchfulness in your heart.

  34. Rise up in the third watch and, either walking or sitting, practise Yoga again in purity of mind with your senses under guard.

  35. Then fully conscious of all your actions, fix your attention on your sitting, moving, standing, looking, speaking and so on.

  36. The man, whose attention is directed towards the door (of his actions) like a doorkeeper towards his door, is not molested by the vices, any more than a guarded town is attacked by its foes.

  37. No sin is produced in him whose attention is fixed on his body. It guards his thoughts in all circumstances, as a nurse guards a child.

  38. But he who lacks the armour of attention is a target for the vices, as the unarmed man is a target on the battlefield for the enemy.

  39. The mind which is not guarded by attention is to be recognised as unprotected, like a sightless man walking over uneven ground without a guide.

  40. Loss of attention is the reason that men are attached to what is calamitous and averse from their proper aims and fail to take alarm in the presence of danger.

  41. And it is attention which, like a herdsman after his scattered cows, goes after all the virtues, discipline etc., where they are, each in its own domain.

  42. Lost is the everlasting good for him whose attention is distracted; it is within the grasp of him whose attention is directed to his body.

  43. Where is the noble plan for him who lacks attention? And he who has not the noble plan has lost the holy Path.

  “. — He who has lost the holy Path has lost the place where death is not; and he who has lost that place is not delivered from suffering.

  45. Therefore when moving, you should think ‘I am moving’, and when standing, ‘I am standing keeping your attention fixed on these and the like occasions.

  46. Thus, my friend, betake yourself to a seat or couch, suitable for Yoga, solitary and free from noise; for by first making the body solitary it is easy to attain discrimination of mind.

  47. For the man filled with passion, who has not attained tranquillity of the feelings and does not adopt the solitary method, fails to find the Path and is hurt like a man walking on very thorny ground.

  48. If an enquiring man has not visualised the truth and is surrounded by the varied manifestations of sensual objects, he cannot easily restrain his mind, just as a crop-eating bull is not easily to be kept out of a field of corn.

  49. But as the brightly shining fire, when not fanned by the wind, dies down, so the thoughts, when not subject to any stimulus, come to rest with little trouble in solitude.

  50. That man is to be considered successful who rejoices in solitude and avoids contact with others like a thorn, eating in any place whatever there is and wearing any clothes whatsoever, living anywhere sufficient to himself; for his mind is made up and he knows the taste of the bliss of tranquillity.

  51. If a man live, pure with tranquil heart and indifferent to the opposites, in a solitary place in the world which delights in the opposites and has its heart disturbed by sensual objects, then he drinks the draught of wisdom as if it were nectar, and with heart appeased he reaches discrimination and deplores the world which is subject to attachment and greedy for sensual objects.

  52. If he continually rejoices living alone in a deserted place, if he avoids intercourse with the sources of sin, as if they were enemies, and if living sufficient to himself he drinks the water of ecstasy, then he enjoys a happiness greater than the realm of the Lord of the thirty gods could give him.

  CANTO XV. EMPTYING THE MIND

  1. TAKING UP the best posture of meditation in some solitary place, setting your body upright and keeping your attention present, 2. You should make your wandering mind wholly intent on an object such as the tip of your nose or your forehead or the space between the brows.

  3. If that fever of the mind, namely, the thought of passion, should molest you, it must not be tolerated but must be shaken off like dust which has lodged on one’s clothes.

  4. Although you have cast off the passions through insight, you must destroy them by their opposite, as darkness by light.

  5. There remains a latent tendency towards them, like a fire covered up with ashes; it must be quenched
by meditation, my friend, like fire by water.

  6. For they become active again from that tendency, like shoots from a seed; by destroying it they would cease to exist, just as there are no shoots when the seed is destroyed.

  7. Realise therefore what sufferings are caused by the passions in their acquisition etc to those subject to them and cut them off, root and all, like enemies who style themselves friends.

  8. For the passions should be killed like poisonous snakes, being impermanent, of their nature subject to loss, empty of real value, the causes of calamity and shared by many others (who may deprive you of them).

  9. They lead to suffering in the quest for them, but not to tranquillity in their retention. They lead to great grief in the losing, but to no satisfaction in the consummation.

  10. He is lost who considers satisfaction to lie in great wealth, success to consist in reaching Paradise and pleasure to be born from the passions.

  11. Take heed not to fix your attention in this world on the passions, which are unstable, unreal, hollow and uncertain; the pleasure which they give is but a product of the imagination.

  12. Should your mind be troubled by malevolence or the desire to hurt, it should be made calm by their counteragent, as muddied water is made clear by a jewel.

  13. Know their counteragents to be benevolence and compassion; for there is ever an opposition between them as between light and darkness.

  14. He who has given up evil ways and yet in whom malevolence is active throws dirt over himself, as an elephant throws dirt over his body after his bath.

  15. For what religious man, instinct with compassion, would cause further suffering to mortals already suffering from disease, death, old age etc.?

  16. A man may or may not cause hurt to another by his malevolent mind in this world, but in either case the mind of the man of malevolent thoughts is forthwith burned up.

  17. Therefore you should cultivate thoughts of benevolence and compassion towards all beings, not of malevolence or the desire to hurt.

  18. For through habit a man’s thoughts become inclined to whatever he reflects on continually.