Chapter CX - Advice as to the non-rejectment of certain goods

Suta said:—He who rejects a certain good in quest of one which is uncertain and remote, loses both the certain and the prospective one. Like erudition in the dumb, like swords in the hands of cowards, a beauty wedded to a blind husband, loses the significance of her life. A good appetite with plenty to eat, a healthy sexual potency with a bevy of handsome wives, and opulence with a heart that unstintedly gives to the poor, are the effects of a prior-life Tapasya of no mean order. The high prerogative of reading the immutable Vedas (revelations) is the fruit of performing the Agnihotra sacrifices. Good both in this world and the one to come, is the fruit of one’s moral living in this existence. Offsprings and sexual pleasure are the fruits of marriage, and charity and enjoyment are the fruits of wealth. One should marry a girl of noble descent even bereft of personal attractions, in preference to a handsome one with spacious and well-formed hips but of low and obscure parentage.

Covet not the riches of the mighty who would meet such efforts with condign punishment. Who on earth will stretch out his hand to rob a cobra of the jewel which shines on its hood? Clarified butter may be taken even from a house of divine service, and good words may be considered, even if spoken by a child. Gold may be taken from a person of impure descent, and a good and virtuous wife, even from a family of questionable morals. Friendship with a king is an absurdity. Absurdity is a serpent without venom, and absurd is the lasting good name of a house in which female children are born. One should engage a devoted person in one’s own house, engage one’s sons in pursuit of knowledge, keep one’s enemies engaged with dangers, and engage one’s own Self in the pursuit of God. Servants and ornaments should be kept and worn in their proper places. No one puts on a head-gear around his ankle, nor a servant thinks that he is the master. Head is the natural place for fire, ocean, king and head jewels. They should never be touched with the foot even through inadvertance.

Even in their own homes, liberation awaits those free and foremost of men, who are true to their wives and the commandments of the scriptures, and live content with their honest gain, practising hospitality and self-control and dedicating themselves to the services of the God and the Brahmanas. Paradise on earth is the residence in a splendid mansion in the company of a pleasant, handsome, and gem-bedecked wife, which can result only from the dynamics of good deeds done by a man in his previous existence. Neither by gift alone, nor by simple respect, courtesy, nursing, chastisement, etc., nor with knowledge alone that a woman can be conquered. Gradually knowledge should be acquired. Little by little a fortune should be built up. By degrees a mountain should be climbed (difficulty should be surmounted). Little by little desires should be gratified, and litttle by little virtues should be acquired, graduated efforts being enjoined to be made in these five things.

For all eternity lasts the merit of divine service, while that of making a gift to a Brahmana endures for good. Eternal are the fruits of knowledge wedded to a noble nature; and eternal is the friendship which is roused up in a lofty soul. Pitiable are those human mammals in life who neglect their studies out of excessive fondness for play in their childhood; and fail to secure good friends, wives, and fortunes in their youth. They are but beasts in human shapes. Like the petals of a flower, only two alternatives are open to a man of true vigour, either to be placed on the heads of men, or to drop down Avithered and unnoticed in a lonely forest. A gem which is fit to be worn on the head, set in a fitting ornament of gold, shines none the less if it is tied around the ankle. But censurable is the man who puts it in such a low and wrong position. Great is the difference between a horse and an elephant, wood and iron, stone and sliver, and a man and a woman. The lofty aspirations and ennobling virtues of a truly great man who is vanquished, are not jeopardised in his disgrace; the tongues of a flame (fire), never cease to point upward even when held in an inverted position. A good horse brooks not the touch of a whip; nor a lion, the roar of an elephant; nor a true hero, the boastings of his rival. Seek not the service of the wicked, nor beg of the mean and the vulgar, even if thou chancest to be fallen on evil days. A lion, even under the pangs of hunger, eateth not grass but drinketh the hot blood of an elephant’s heart. A reunion with a friend who has once betrayed himself, is fatal to a person like conception to a she-mule. A wise man shall not spare the offsprings of his enemy, even if courteous and sweet-mouthed inasmuch as they can prove themselves fatal like cups of poison. One enemy should be got rid of through the help of another one by a favour, as a thorn, pricked into the sole of the foot, is extracted with the help of one taken hold of by the hand. No means is necessary to be devised for the fall of a person whose constant theme is the downfall of others, as he meets his own overthrow in the usual course of things, like a tree which grows on the bank of a treacherous river. The harmful appear as good and the good as harmful, when fortune frowns. A man, under the circumstance, is inevitably drawn on towards the evil which leads to his doom. Good propensities return with the smile of Fortune, and a man, perceiving the errors of his judgment and conduct, forthwith turns aside from the path of evil. No sense of false delicacy should be observed in matters of learning, pecuniary transaction and mutual dealing. Live not in a country which can not boast of these five factors, namely, a king, rich men, shrotriyas (scholars well-versed in Vedic lore), a river and a physician. Live not in a place, even for a single day where these five things, such as, prospect of earning a livelihood, sense of shame, dread of law, mercy, and charity, exist not. Live not in a place which is devoid of these five things, such as, an astrologer, a shrotriya, a king, a river, and a true anchorite. O shaunaka, perfect knowledge does not culminate in any particular individual, since every one knows not all, nor there can be found an omniscient being among men. None is omniscient in this world, nor is there one entirely devoid of knowledge. Wise men make such distinctions as Erudite, Idiot and Average Intellect, according to a relative standard of knowledge possessed by the individual members of a society. ⁸⁷