XXXIII. "Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry."
Bhagavad Gita xvi. 1 ff. = Mahābhārata vi. 1403 ff.
On earth two classes live of men ;
And one is devilish, one divine;
In one all noble virtues shine,
In th' other evil passions reign.
From malice free, averse to strife,
Mild, bounteous, humble, calm, sincere,
Kind, holding other creatures dear,
The one are pure in heart and life.
The others differ far from these ;
Impure, deceitful, haughty, vain,
Harsh, cruel, causing others pain,
They only care themselves to please.
Such men enjoyment only prize,
And so, to sate impure desire,
By fraud and force they wealth acquire;
And often thus soliloquize :
"This gained to-day; I soon shall more
Acquire, on which my heart is set.
From this and that I hope to get
Yet further means to swell my store.
One foe I've smitten ;-all the rest
Shall undergo a like defeat.
A mighty lord am I, complete
In all that makes a mortal blest.
"I'm rich, can boast my noble birth; With me what other creature vies? I'll lavish gold, I'll sacrifice;
And lead a life of ease and mirth."
So these deluded wretches think,
On low and sensual pleasures bent;
But soon, their brief existence spent,-
They down to hell, condemned, shall sink.
XXXIV. final overthrow of the wicked.
Manu iv. 170 ff.
Not even here on earth are blest
Unrighteous men, who live by wrong
And guileful arts: who, bold and strong,
With cruel spite the weak molest.
Though goodness only bring distress,
Let none that hallowed path forsake:
Mark what reverses overtake
The wicked after brief success.
Not all at once the earth her fruits
Produces; so unrighteousness
But slowly works, yet not the less
At length the sinner clean uproots.
At first through wrong he grows in strength,
He sees good days, and overthrows,
In strife triumphant, all his foes;
But justice strikes him down at length.
Yes, retribution comes, though slow;
For if the man himself go free,
His sons shall then the victims be,
Or else his grandsons feel the blow.
XXXV. Good and bad seem to be equally favoured here: not so hereafter.
Both good and bad the patient earth sustains,
To cheer them both the sun impartial glows,
On both the balmy air refreshing blows,
On both the bounteous god, Parjanya, rains.
So is it here on earth, but not for ever
Shall bad and good be favoured thus alike;
A stern decree the bad and good shall sever,
And vengeance sure at last the wicked strike.
The righteous then in realms of light shall dwell,
Immortal, pure, in undecaying bliss;
The bad for long, long years shall pine in hell,
A place of woe, a dark and deep abyss.
XXXVI. "Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life."
Mahabharata xiv. 2784.
Heaven's narrow gate eludes the ken,
Bedimmed and dull, of foolish men.
Within that portal sternly barred,
To gain an entrance, O how hard!
What forms its bolts and bars? the sin
Of those who seek to enter in.
Men generous, pure, and self-controlled,
Alone that heavenly door behold;
To such 'tis ever opened wide;
They entering there, in bliss abide.
XXXVII. No second youth to man. (Compare Job xiv. 7.)
Kathasaritsagara lv. 110.
The empty beds of rivers fill again,
Trees, leafless now, renew their vernal bloom;
Returning moons their lustrous phase resume;
But man a second youth expects in vain.
XXXVIII. The lapse of time not practically noticed.
Subhashitārṇava 255.
Again the morn returns, again the night;
Again the sun, the moon, ascends the sky :
Our lives still waste away as seasons fly,
But who his final welfare keeps in sight?
XXXIX. "All men think all men mortal but themselves." (Young's "Night Thoughts.")
Mahabharata iii. 17041.
Is not those men's delusion strange,
Who, while they see that every day
So many sweeps from earth away,
Can long themselves t' elude all change?
XL. Who are the really blind, deaf, and dumb?
Dampatisiksha 26; Praśnottaramālā 15.
That man is blind whose inner eye
Can nought beyond this world descry;
And deaf the man on folly bent,
On whom advice is vainly spent.
The dumb are those who never seek
To others gracious words to speak.
XLI. Remember thy mortality.
Bhartriharis Santiśataka, 35.
Thou hear'st that from thy neighbour's stores
Some goods by theft have vanished; so,
That none of thine by stealth may go,
Thou sett'st a watch, and barr'st thy doors.
'Tis well but know'st thou never fear
When thou dost learn that every day
Stern death from many a dwelling near
A helpless victim tears away?
Deluded mortals, warning take,
From such insensate slumber wake!
XLII. Sin removed by Repentance.
Manu xi. 228; Mahābhārata iii. 13751 ff; xiii. 5534 ff.
Whenever men with inward pain
And self-reproach their sins confess,
And steadfast never more transgress,
Their souls are cleansed from every stain;
As serpents shed their worn-out skins,
These men are freed from cast-off sins.
XLIII. Never do what would distress thee on a sick-bed.
Mahabharata v. 1474 f; xii. 10559 f.
Such deeds as thou with fear and grief
Would'st, on a sick-bed laid, recall,
In youth and health eschew them all,
Remembering life is frail and brief.
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