CLXXXIX. Desire insatiable.
Mahābhārata xii. 6713; comp. xii. 514–522.
When men grow rich, for something else they pine,
They would be kings;* were kingly rank attained,
They fain would gods become; were godship gained,
They'd long to rule o'er all the race divine.
But shouldst thou wealth and royal power acquire,
And soaring higher yet, become a god,
Yea rule all Svargat by thy sovereign nod,
Ev'n then unsated, thou wouldst more desire.
Mahābhārata i. 3174 and 3513; iii. 80 ff., 6715; xii. 513 ff. xii. 6609 ff.; xii. 9925.
Renewed enjoyment never tames,
But rather more excites desire.
The more by oil or wood a fire
Is fed, the more it fiercely flames.
Fools find it hard to quell this pest,
This plague, which lasts out all man's days,
Which grows not old as he decays :-
Who cures it, he alone is blest.
*Compare the Phoenissæ of Euripides, 503 ff., where Eteocles. says: "For I, o mother, will declare, concealing nothing; would go to the place where the stars, and the sun rise, and beneath the earth,—if I were able to do these things,—in order to possess regal power, the greatest of the deities."-Compare Mbh. v. 4567 (see below in the story of "Sanjaya and Vidulā.”) †The Hindu paradise, the abode of Indra.
Rule, then, thyself; desire abate:
Earth, all the gems her caverns hold,
With women, cattle, stores of gold,—
All fails one greedy man to sate.
CXCI. Ebils of wealth: praise of contentment.
As fire consumes the wood from which it springs, So inborn greed to mortals ruin brings.
The rich in constant dread of rulers live,
Of water, fire, thieves, kinsmen crying "Give."
Ev'n wealth itself to some men proves a bane;
Who dotes on it, no lasting bliss can gain.
As flesh by denizens of earth, sea, air,-
Beasts, fishes, birds, is seized as dainty fare,
So too the rich are preyed on everywhere.
Increasing wealth to greed and folly leads,
And meanness, pride, and fear, and sorrow breeds.
In getting, keeping, losing wealth, what pain.
Do men endure! They others kill for gain.
The vain desires of mortals never rest;
Contentment only makes them truly blest.
Life, beauty, youth, gold, power, we cannot keep;
The loss of those we love we soon must weep.
On such-like things, from which he soon must part,
The thoughtful man will never set his heart.
In hoarding gold no more thy days expend;
Or else endure the ills that wealth attend.
Ev'n men who wealth for pious uses win,
Would better act, if none they sought to gain:
"Tis wiser not with mud to soil the skin,
Then first to soil, and then wash off the stain.
CXCII. A man's aims vary with his time of life.
Mahabharata x. 115.
In youth a man is led away
By other thoughts, ideas, aims,
Than those his middle life which sway:
In age yet other schemes he frames.
CXCIII. Health and poverty.
Mahabharata xii. 213, ff.
Amassing wealth with care and pains,
A man the means of action gains.
From wealth a stream of virtuous deeds,-
As copious rills from hills,-proceeds.
But action halts when affluence fails,
As brooks dry up when drought prevails.
Wealth every earthly good procures,
And heavenly bliss itself insures.
For rich men gold, with hand profuse,
Can spend for every pious use.
The wealthy man has troops of friends;
A flattering crowd before him bends;
With ardour men his kinship claim;
With honour all pronounce his name ;
They call him noble, learned, wise,
And all his words as maxims prize.
Men in the lap of affluence nurst
Look down upon the poor as curst.
The world deems want a crime; like bad
And guilty men, the poor are sad.
There is nothing in the original corresponding to these two lines; but I assume that their substance is intimated in what precedes; and this is confirmed by what is afterwards said of the poor man.
A needy man is viewed with scorn,
As base and vile, though nobly born;
On earth his lot is joyless, hard,
To him the gates of heaven are barred;
The rites which open wide that gate,
The needy cannot celebrate.
He merits most the name of lean
Who cattle lacks, whose garb is mean,
On whom no crowd of servants waits,
Whose food no hungry strangers sates:-
That hapless man is truly lean,
Not he whose frame is spare and thin.
CXCIV. Wealth often injurious.
Mahabharata xii. 6575.
The unthinking man with whom, too kind,
The goddess Fortune ever dwells,
Becomes the victim of her spells;
As autumn's clouds the wind impels,
She sweeps away his better mind.
Pride, born of viewing stores of gold,
Conceit of beauty, birth, invade
His empty soul; he is not made,
He deems, like men of vulgar mould.
He knits his brows, his lip he bites,
At poorer men he looks askance,
With proud contempt and angry glance,
With threatening words their souls affrights.
* Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se
Quam quod ridiculos homines facit.
"For unhappy poverty has in it nothing harder than this,
than that it makes men the objects of ridicule."
How, how could any mortal brook
On such a hateful wretch to look,
Even though he owned the godlike power
On men all envied boons to shower?
CXCV. The same.
Sahityadarpana, 322.
A wealthy man not drunk with pride,
A youth who fickle folly flees,
A ruler scorning careless ease,
Among the great enrolled abide.
CXCVI. What will not men do to get wealth?
Sarngadhara's Paddhati, Dhanaprasamśā 12.
For gold what will not mortals dare?
What efforts, struggles, labours spare?
The hostile warrior's sword they brave,
And plunge beneath the ocean wave.
Mahabharata iii. 15398.
On seas, in forests wild, the bold
Will risk their precious lives for gold.
CXCVIII. The rich hath many friends.
Mahabharata xii. 12131.
A rich man's kinsfolk, while he thrives,
The part of kinsmen gladly play :
The poor man's kindred die away
Long e'er his day of death arrives.
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