Though one beheve in the Law, he will rarely practise it; for people are engrossed by pleasures; Gautama, &c. (20) When your body grows old, and your hair turns white, the power of your ears decreases; Gautama, &c. (21) When your body grows old, and your hair turns white, the power of your eyes decreases; Gautama, &c. (22) When your body grows old, and your hair turns white, the power of your nose decreases. (23) W^hen your body grows old, and your hair turns white, the power of your tongue decreases. (24) When your body grows old, and your hair turns white, the power of your touch decreases. (25) When your body grows old, and your hair turns white, all your powers decrease. (26) Despondency, the king's evil, cholera, mortal diseases of many kinds befall you; your body wastes and decays; Gautama, &c. (27) Cast aside from you all attachments, as the (leaves of) a lotus let drop off the autumnal ^ water, exempt from every attachment, Gautama, be care- ful all the while! (28) Give up your wealth and your wife; you have entered the state of the houseless; do not, as it were, return to your vomit; Gautama, &c. {29) Leave your friends and relations, the large for- tune you have amassed; do not desire them a second time; Gautama, &c. (30) ^ This attribute is here given to ' water,' because in autumn the water becomes pure, and even the purest water has no hold upon the leaves of a lotus; thus a saint should give up even the best and dearest attachment.
LECTURE X. 45 There is now no Cina^ but there is a highly esteemed guide to show the way; now being on the right path, Gautama, be careful all the while! (31) Now you have entered on the path from which the thorns have been cleared, the great path; walk in the right path; Gautama, &c. (32) Do not get into an uneven road like a weak burden-bearer; for you will repent of it afterwards; Gautama, &c. (33) You have crossed the great ocean; why do you halt so near the shore? make haste to get on the other side; Gautama, &c. (34) Going through the same religious practices as perfected saints 2, you will reach the world of per- fection, Gautama, where there is safety and perfect happiness; Gautama, &c. (35) The enlightened =^ and liberated monk should con- trol himself, whether he be in a village or a town, and he should preach to all* the road of peace; Gautama, &c. (36) Having heard the Buddha's^ well-delivered ^ As this assertion cannot be put in the mouth of Mahavira, this verse must be set down as a later addition — or perhaps as a blunder of the poet similar to that noted before, in IX, 42.
^ This seems, according to the commentary, to be the meaning of the phrase akalevarasewim usiya. Akalevarajr6«i is said to mean as much as kshapakajrewi.
^ Buddha.
^ Here the word buddha is used as a title; but its use is very restricted, scarcely going beyond that of a common epithet. This is just what we otherwise should have to assume in order to explain the use by the Bauddhas of that word to denote the founder of their sect. In the Sutrakr/tahga II, 6, 28 Buddha, in the plural, actually denotes the prophets of the Buddhists.
46 UTTARADHYAYANA.
46 UTTARADHYAYANA.
sermon, adorned by illustrations, Gautama cut off love and hatred and reached perfection. {2,7) Thus I say.
ELEVENTH LECTURE.
THE VERY LEARNED.
I shall explain, in due order, the right discipline of a houseless monk who has got rid of all worldly ties. Listen to me. (i) He who is ignorant of the truth, egoistical, greedy, without self-discipline, and who talks loosely, is called ill-behaved and void of learning. (2) There are five causes which render wholesome discipline impossible: egoism, delusion, carelessness, illness, and idleness: (3) For eight causes discipline is called virtue, viz.: not to be fond of mirth, to control one's self, not to speak evil of others, not to be without discipline, not to be of wrong discipline, not to be covetous, not to be choleric, to love the truth; for their influence discipline is called virtue. (4, 5) A monk who is liable to the following fourteen charges, is called ill-behaved, and does not reach Nirva/^a: (6) If he is frequently angry; if he perseveres in his wrath; if he spurns friendly advice; if he is proud of his learning; if he finds fault with others; if he is angry even with friends; if he speaks evil even of a good friend behind his back; if he is positive in his assertions; if he is malicious, egoistical, greedy, LECTURE XI. 47 without self-discipline; if he does not share with others; if he is always unkind: then he is called ill-behaved. (7-9) But for the following fifteen good qualities he is called well-behaved: if he is always humble, steady, free from deceit and curiosity; if he abuses nobody; if he does not persevere In his wrath; if he listens to friendly advice; if he is not proud of his learning; if he does not find fault with others; if he is not angry with friends; if he speaks well even of a bad friend behind his back; if he abstains from quarrels and rows; if he is enlightened, polite, decent, and quiet: then he is called well-behaved. (10-13) He who always acknowledges his allegiance to his teacher ^ who has religious zeal and ardour for study, who is kind in words and actions, deserves to be instructed. (14) As water put into a shell shines with a doubled brilliancy, so do the piety, fame, and knowledge of a very learned monk. (15) As a trained Kambo^a-steed, whom no noise frightens^, exceeds all other horses in speed, so a very learned monk is superior to all others ^ (16) As a valiant hero bestriding a trained horse, with heralds singing out to his right and left, (has no equal)*, neither has a very learned monk. (17) ^ Literally, who always remains in his teacher's kula.
2 Kanthaka. The horse of Buddha is called Kanthaka; our passage shows that the word is not a proper noun, but an ap- pellative.
' This is the burden of all verses down to verse 30.
* I have supplied these words here and in the following verses. The commentators try to do without them, and labour to point out quahties of the monk, which correspond to the attributes of the subject of the comparison.
48 UTTARADHYAYANA.
As a Strong and irresistible elephant of sixty years, surrounded by his females, (has no equal), neither has a very learned monk. (i8) As a sharp-horned, strong-necked bullock, the leader of the herd, is a fine sight, so is a very learned monk. (19) As a proud lion with sharp fangs, who brooks no assault, is superior to all animals, so is a very learned monk (superior to all men). (20) As Vasudeva, the god with the conch, discus, and club, who fights with an irresistible strength, (has no equal), neither has a very learned monk. (21) As a universal monarch with his fourfold army and great power, the possessor of the fourteen attributes of a king, (has no equal), neither has a very learned monk. (22) As Sakra. the thousand-eyed, the wielder of the thunderbolt, the fortress-destroyer, the king of gods, (has no equal), neither has a very learned monk. (23) As the rising sun, the dispeller of darkness, who burns as it were with light, (has no equal), neither has a very learned monk. (24) As the moon, the queen of the stars, surrounded by the asterisms, when she is full at full-moon, (has no equal), neither has a very learned monk. (25) As a well-guarded storehouse of merchants, which is filled with grain of many kinds, (has no equal), neither has a very learned monk. (26) As the best of 6^ambu ^ trees, called Sudar^ana, 1 Eugenia Jambu. According to the commentators the very tree is meant from which G^ambudvipa took its name. They make of the presiding {anad/nys.) deity, the god Anadr/ta. I am not prepared to say that there is such a god as Anadr/ta. The name looks suspicious. I think a«a^//iya is equal to a^/lasthita.
LECTURE XL 49 which is the abode of the presiding deity, (has no equal), neither has a very learned monk. (27) As the best of rivers, the ocean-flowingf stream Sita. ^ with its dark waters, (has no equal), neither has a very learned monk. (28) As the best of hills, high mount Mandara, on which various plants shed a bright lustre, (has no equal), neither has a very learned monk. (29) As the ocean of inexhaustible water, the delight of Svayambhu'-, which is full of precious things of many kinds, (has no equal), neither has a very learned monk. (30) Monks who equal the ocean in depth, who are difficult to overcome, are frightened by nobody (or nothing), and are not easily assailed, who are full of extensive learning and take care of themselves, will go to the highest place, after their Karman has been annihilated. (31) Therefore, seeker after the highest truth, study the sacred lore, in order to cause yourself and others to attain perfection. (32) Thus I say.
^ According to the cosmography of the G^ainas the Sitz is a river which takes its rise in the Nila range and falls into the Eastern ocean. The Nila is the fourth of the six parallel mountain-barriers, the southernmost of which is the Himalaya. (Trailokya Dipika, Umasvatis' Tattvarthadhigama Siatra, &c.)
^ This epithet apparently refers to Vishwu's sleeping on the ocean.
TWELFTH LECTURED HARIKE5A.
Harike^a-Bala was born in a family of ^vapakas (A'a^^^/alas); he became a monk and a sage, pos- sessed of the highest virtues, who had subdued his senses, (i) He observed the rules with regard to walking, begging, speaking, easing nature, and receiving and keeping (of things necessary for a monk) -, controlled himself, and was always attentive (to his duty). (2) He protected from sin his thoughts, speech, and body^, and subdued his senses.
* The commentators relate a legend of the principal figure in the following lecture. We may skip his former births and begin with his last. Near the Ganges lived Balak6sh//^a, chief of a KhidiXz. tribe, called Harike^a (the yellow-haired). With his wife Gauri he had a son Bala, who in the course of time became a Gaina monk and a great 7?2shi. On his wanderings he once stayed in the Tinduga-grove near Benares, the presiding deity of which, a Yaksha, became his most fervent follower. One day Bhadra, king Kausalika's daughter, came to the Yaksha's shrine and paid homage to the idol. But seeing the dirty monk, she did not conceal her aversion. The Yaksha, however, to punish her for her want of respect for the holy man, possessed her. As no physician or conjurer could cure her madness, the Yaksha, by whom she was possessed, said she would recover only if she were offered as bride to Bala, the monk. The king agreeing, Bhadra became sound as before and went to the monk to choose him for her husband. Bala of course refused her. She was then married by the king to his Purohita, Rudradeva, whose sacrifice-enclosure is the scene of the occurrences related in the Twelfth Lecture.
^ These are the five Samitis. Compare Bhandarkar, Report on the Search for Sanskrit Manuscripts for 1883-84, p. 98, note t.
^ These are the three Guptis. Compare Bhandarkar, loc. cit. p. 100, note *.
LECTURE XII. 51 Once on his begging tour, he approached the enclosure of a Brahmanical sacrifice. (3) When (the priests) saw him coming up, emaciated by austerities, in a miserable condition, and with the poorest outfit, they laughed at him, the ruf- fians. (4) Stuck up by pride of birth, those killers of animals, who did not subdue their senses, the unchaste sinners, made the following speech: (5) ' Who is that dandy coming there? he is swarthy, dreadful, with a turned-up nose, miserably clad, a very devil ^ of a dirty man, with a filthy cloth put on his neck? (6) ' Who are you, you monster? or for what purpose have you come here? you miserably clad devil of a dirty man! go, get away! why stand you there?' (7) At this turn the Yaksha, who lived in the Tinduka-tree, had compassion on the great sage, and making his own body invisible spoke the fol- lowing words: (8) " I am a chaste Sramana, controlling myself; I have no property, nothing belonging to me, and do not cook my food; I have come for food which is dressed for somebody else at the time when I call. {9) " You give away, eat, and consume plenty of food; know that I subsist by begging; let the mendicant get what is left of the rest." (lo) ' The dinner has been prepared for Brahma/zas, it has been got ready especially for ourselves and for ^ Pi J- a /I' a. A full description of a Visa^a. is given in the Uvasaga Dasao, § 94 of Hoernle's edition.
US exclusively; we shall not give you such food and drink; why stand you there? ' (i i) " The husbandmen throw the corn on high ground and on low ground ^ hoping (for a return). For the like motive give unto me; I may be the field which may produce merit (as the return for your benevolence)." (12) * All the world knows that we are (as it were) the field on which gifts sown grow up as merit; Brahma;2as of pure birth and knowledge are the blessed fields.' (13) *' Those who are full of anger and pride, who kill, lie, steal, and own property, are Brahma;^as without pure birth and knowledge; they are very bad fields. (14) " You are only the bearer of words as it were, you do not understand their meaning, though you have learned the Vedas. The saints call at high and lowly (houses); they are the blessed fields." (15) ' Detractor of the learned doctors, how dare you speak thus in our presence! This food and drink should rather rot, than we should give it you, Nirgrantha^' (16) "If you do not give me what I ask for, I who observe the Samitis, who am protected by the Guptis ^ who subdue my senses, what benefit, then, will you gain by your sacrifices? " (17) ' Are here no Kshattriyas, no priests who tend the fire, no teachers with their disciples, who will ^ This reminds one of the biblical parable of the sower.
" The word Nirgrantha has here, besides its common meaning, Gaina monk, another derived from its etymological meaning, ' without any tie, without restraint,' i.e. shameless.
^ For Samiti and Gupti see notes 2 and 3 on p. 50.
LECTURE XII. 53 beat him with a stick, or pelt him with a nut, take him by the neck, and drive him off?' (i8) On these words of the teachers, many young fellows rushed forward, and they all beat the sage with sticks, canes, and whips. (19) At that turn king Kausalika's daughter, Bhadra, of faultless body, saw that the monk was beaten, and appeased the angry youngsters. (20) ' He is the very man to whom the king, impelled by the devil (who possessed me), had given me, but who would not think of me; he is the sage whom princes and gods adore, who has refused me. (21) ' He is that austere ascetic, of noble nature, who subdues his senses and controls himself; the chaste man, who would not accept me when my own father, king Kausalika, gave me to him. (22) 'He is the man of great fame and might, of awful piety and power; do not injure him who cannot be injured, lest he consume you all by the fire (of his virtue).' (23) When the Yakshas heard these well-spoken words of (the Purohita's) wife Bhadra, they came to the assistance of the sage, and kept the young men off (24) Appearing in the air with hideous shapes, the Asuras beat the people. When Bhadra saw them with rent bodies spitting blood, she spoke again thus: (25) ' You may as well dig rocks with your nails, or eat iron with your teeth, or kick fire with your feet, as treat contemptuously a monk. (26) ' Like a poisonous snake is a great sage of severe austerities, of tremendous piety and power; like 54 UTTARADHYAYANA.
a swarm of moths you will rush into a fire, if you beat a monk on his begging tour. (27) ' Prostrate yourself before him for protection, you together with all of them, if you want to save your life and your property; for in his wrath he might reduce the world to ashes.' (28) When the Brahma;^a saw the disciples bowing their back and head, and holding out their hands, not minding their occupation; with streaming eyes, spitting blood, looking upw^ards, their eyes and tongues protruding, like as many logs of wood, he became heartbroken and dejected, and together with his wife he appeased the sage: ' Forgive us our injury and abuse, sir! (29, 30) ' Forgive, sir, these ignorant, stupid boys, that they injured you; sages are exceedingly gracious, nor are the saints inclined to wrath.' {31) " There is not the least hatred in me, neither now, nor before, nor in future. The Yakshas attend upon me, therefore they have beaten the boys." (32) * You know the truth and the Law; you are not angry, compassionate sage; we take refuge at your feet, we together with all of them. (33) * We worship you, mighty sir; there is nothing in you that we do not worship; eat this dish of boiled rice seasoned with many condiments. (34) ' I have got plenty of food; eat it to do us a favour! ' The noble (monk) said * yes,' and took food and drink after having fasted a whole month. (35) At that moment the gods caused a rain of per- fumed water and flowers, and showered down heavenly treasures; they struck the drums, and in the air they praised the gift. (36) ' The value of penance has become visible, birth LECTURE XII. 55 appears of no value! Look at the holy Harike^a, the son of a 5vapaka, whose power is so great.' (37) " O Brahma;^as, why do you tend the fire, and seek external purity by water? The clever ones say that external purity which you seek for, is not the right thing. (38) " You (use) Ku^a-grass, sacrificial poles, straw and wood, you touch water in the evening and in the morning; thereby you injure living beings, and in your ignorance you commit sins again and again." (39) ' How should we sacrifice, O monk, and how avoid sinful actions? Tell us, ascetic, whom the Yakshas hold in honour, what do the clever ones declare to be the right method of sacrificing? ' {40) " Doing no injury to living beings of the six orders, abstaining from lying and from taking what is not freely given, renouncing property, women, pride, and deceit, men should live under self- restraint. (41) "He who is well protected by the five Sa;;^varas ^ and is not attached to this life, who abandons his body 2, who is pure and does not care for his body, wins the great victory, the best of offerings." (42) 'Where is your fire, your fireplace, your sacri- ficial ladle? where the dried cowdung (used as fuel)? Without these things, what kind of priests can the monks be? What oblations do you offer to the fire? ' (43) ^ Sazwvara is preventing, by means of the Samilis and Guptis, the asrava, or flowing in of the Karman upon the soul. Bhandarkar, loc. cit. p. 106.
"^ This is the Kayotsarga, the posture of a man standing with all his limbs immovable, by which he fortifies himself against sins, &c.
56 UTTARADHYAYANA.
" Penance is my fire; life my fireplace; right exertion is my sacrificial ladle; the body the dried cowdung; Karman is my fuel; self-control, right exertion, and tranquillity are the oblations, praised by the sages, which I offer." (44) ' Where is your pond, and where the holy bathing- place? how do you make your ablutions or get rid of impurity? Tell us, O restrained monk whom the Yakshas hold in honour; we desire to learn it from you.' (45) " The Law is my pond, celibacy my holy bathing- place, which is not turbid, and throughout clear for the soul^; there I make ablutions; pure, clean, and thoroughly cooled I get rid of hatred ^ (or impurity). (46) " The clever ones have discovered such bathing, it is the great bath praised by the seers, in which the great seers bathe, and, pure and clean, they obtain the highest place." (47) Thus I say.
THIRTEENTH LECTURE.
^ITRA AND SAMBHUTA ^ Being contemptuously treated for the sake of his birth (as a A"a/;^ala) Sambhiita took, in Hastinapura, ^ Attapasannalesa = atmaprasannalcj-ya, 'in which the I Lejya is favourable for the soul.' The Lesya is comparable to the subtile body of the orthodox philosophy. The theory of the Lesya forms the subject of the Thirty-fourth Lecture.
^ Dosa, which means hatred (dvesha) and impurity (dosha).
^ The stories about A'itra and Sambhuta and the fate they LECTURE XIII. 57 the sinful resolution (to become a universal monarch in some later birth); descending from the heavenly- region Padmagulma, he was born of A'ulani in Kampilya as Brahmadatta; A'itra, however, was born in the town Purimatala in the great family of a merchant; when he had heard the Law, he entered the order. (1,2) In the town Kampilya, both SambhCita and A'itra (as they were called in a former birth) met again and told each other the reward they had realised for their good and bad actions. (3) The universal monarch Brahmadatta, the power- ful and glorious king, respectfully addressed the following words to him (who had been) his brother (in a former birth): (4) ' We were brothers once, kind to each other, loving each other, wishing well to each other, (5) * We were slaves in the country of the Da.sa.rmLS, then antelopes on mount Kala;7^ara, then geese on the shore of Mr/tagahga, and 6'vapakas in the land of Ka^i. (6) * And we were gods having great power, in the regions of the gods. This is our sixth birth, in which we are separated from each other.' (7) " Karman is produced by sinful thoughts, and you have entertained them, O king; it is by the influ- ence of this Karman that we were separated." (8) underwent in many births are common to Brahmans, Grainas, and Buddhists. The whole subject has been exhaustively dealt with by Prof. Leumann in two learned papers in the Wiener Zeitschrift fiir die Kunde des Morgenlandes, vol. v, pp. i flF., 1 1 1 ff., where an analysis of the various documents which relate this legend is given, and the Prakr/t text of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Lectures together with a German translation is published. For all details, therefore, the reader is referred to Prof. Leumann's papers.
58 UTTARADHYAYANA.
58 UTTARADHYAYANA.
' I had done actions derived from truth and purity, and now I enjoy their effect; is this also true in your case, A'itra? ' (9) " Every good deed will bear its fruit to men; there is no escape from the effect of one's actions. Through riches and the highest pleasures my soul has got the reward for its virtues. (10) " Know, Sambhuta. that you have got the reward of your virtues in the shape of great wealth and prosperity; but know, O king, that is just so with A'itra; he also obtained prosperity and splen- dour. (11) "A song of deep meaning condensed in words has been repeated in the midst of a crowd of men, (having heard) which monks of piety and virtues exert themselves in this (religion): I have become a 6'rama;2a." (12) ' Renowned are my beautiful palaces UH-a, Udaya, Madhu, Karka, and Brahman: this house, full of treasures and containing the finest products of the Pa;H'alas, O /vitraS regard it as your own! (13) ' Surround yourself with women who dance, and sing, and make music; enjoy these pleasures, O monk; I deem renunciation a hard thing.' (14) As the virtuous A'itra, for old friendship's sake, loved the kino- who was attached to sensual pleasures, and as he had at heart his welfare, he spoke to him the following words: (15) " All singing is but prattle, all dancing is but ^ The commentator constructs ^itra with dhawappabhuya: full of manifold treasures; but Prof. Leumann is probably right in taking it as a vocative.
LECTURE XIII. 59 mocking, all ornaments are but a burden, all pleasures produce but pains. (i6) " O king, pleasures which the ignorant like, but which produce pains, do not delight pious monks who care not for pleasure, but are intent on the virtues of right conduct. (17) " Excellent king, the lowest caste of men is that of the ^vapakas, to which we twice belonged; as such we were loathed by all people, and we lived in the hamlets of ^'vapakas. (18) " In that miserable birth we lived in the hamlets of ^'vapakas, detested by all people; then we acquired the Karman (the fruit of which we now enjoy). (19) " You are now a king of great power and pros- perity, enjoying the reward of your good actions; put from you the transitory pleasures, and enter the order for the sake of the highest good ^! (20) "He who in this life has done no good actions and has not practised the Law, repents of it in the next world when he has become a prey to Death. (21) " As a lion takes hold of an antelope, so Death leads off a man in his last hour; neither mother, nor father, nor brother will, at that time, save a particle (of his life). (22) " Neither his kinsmen, nor his friends, nor his sons, nor his relations will share his suffering, he alone has to bear it; for the Karman follows the doer. (23) " Leaving behind bipeds and quadrupeds, his fields, his house, his wealth, his corn, and everything; Adana, explained ^aritradharma.
6o UTTARADHYAYANA.
against his will, and accompanied only by his KarmanS he enters a new existence, either a good or a bad one. (24) " When they have burned with fire on the funeral pile his forlorn, helpless corpse, his wife and sons and kinsfolk will choose another man to provide for them. (25) "Life drags on (towards death) continuously^; old age carries off the vigour of man. King of the Pa/^Mlas, mark my words: do no fearful actions," (26) ' I, too, know just as well as you, O saint, what you have told me in your speech: pleasures will get a hold on men and are not easily abandoned by such as we are, sir. (27) ' O A'itra, in Hastinapura=^ I saw the powerful king (Sanatkumara), and I took that sinful resolution in my desire for sensual pleasures. (28) ' And since I did not repent of it, this has come of it, that I still long for sensual pleasures, though I know the Law. (29) ' As an elephant, sinking down in a quagmire, ^ This might be translated, as Professor Leumann suggests: possessing Karman as the germ (of his future destiny); still I prefer the meaning vouched for by the commentators, because karmabi^a generally means the germ, i.e. cause of Karman, see below, Thirty-second Lecture, verse 7.
^ See Professor Leumann's remarks on this verse. I.e., p. 137 f.
* When Sunanda, wife of Sanatkumara, paid homage to Sam- bhfita, then a G^aina monk, and touched his feet with the curls of her soft hair, he was possessed by the desire to become a universal monarch in reward for his penances. This is the nidana of which the text speaks, and what I render in this connection by 'taking a resolution.' For the story itself, see my Ausgewahlte Erzalilungen in Maharash/ri, p. 5 f.
LECTURE XIV. 6 1 sees the raised ground but does not get to the shore, so do we who long for sensual pleasures, not follow the path of monks. (30) ' Time elapses and quickly pass the days; the pleasures of men are not permanent; they come to a man and leave him just as a bird leaves a tree void of fruit.' (31) " If you are unable to abandon pleasure, then do noble actions, O king; following the Law, have compassion on all creatures: then you will become a god on entering a new existence. (32) "If you have no intention of abandoning plea- sure, and still long for undertakings and property, my long talk has been to no purpose. I go, king, farewell." (^2>) And Brahmadatta, king of the Pa?^/^alas, did not act on the counsel of the saint; he enjoyed the highest pleasure, and (afterwards) sank into the deepest hell. (34) But A'itra the great sage, of excellent conduct and penance, was indifferent to pleasure; after he had practised the highest self-control, he reached the highest place of perfection. (35) Thus I say.
FOURTEENTH LECTURE.
ISHUKARA.
Having been gods in a former existence and lived in the same heavenly region, some were born (here below) in the ancient, wealthy, and famous 62 UTTARADHYAYANA.
town called Ishukara\ which is beautiful like heaven, (i) By a remnant of the merit they had acquired in their former life, they were born in noble families. DIso-usted with the world and afraid of the Samskra., they abandoned {pleasures, &c.) and took refuge in the path of the Cinas. (2) Two males remained bachelors, (the third became) the Purohita (Bhr/gu), (the fourth) his wife Ya^a, (the fifth) the widely-famed king Ishukara, and (the sixth) his wife Kamalavati. (3) Overcome by fear of birth, old age, and death, their mind intent on pilgrimage, and hoping to escape the Wheel of Births, they examined pleasures and abandoned them. (4) Both dear sons of the Brahmanical Purohita, who was intent on works, remembered their former birth, and the penance and self-control they had then practised. (5) Averse to human and heavenly pleasures, desiring liberation, and full of faith, they went to their father and spoke thus: (6) ' Seeing that the lot of man is transitory and precarious, and that his life lasts not long, we take no delight in domestic life; we bid you farewell: we shall turn monks.' (7) In order to dissuade them from a life of aus- terities, the father replied to those (would-be) monks: ' Those versed in the Vedas say that there will be no better world for men without sons. (8) ' My sons, after you have studied the Vedas, and fed the priests, after you have placed your own sons ' In Prakr/t Usuyara (or Isuyara). According to the Prakr/t legend given in the commentary it was in the Kuru country.
LECTURE XIV. 63 at the head of your house, and after you have enjoyed Hfe together with your wives, then you may depart to the woods as praiseworthy sages.' (9) The young men perceiving that the Purohita was wholly consumed, as it were, by the fire of grief, which was fed by his individual inclinations and blown into a huge flame by the wind of delusion; that he suffered much and talked a great deal in many ways; that he tried to persuade them by degrees, and that he would even bribe them with money and with objects of desire, (spoke) these words: (10, 11) " The study of the Vedas will not save you; the feeding of Brahma;^as will lead you from darkness to darkness, and the birth of sons will not save you. Who will assent to what you said? (12) " Pleasures bring only a moment's happiness, but suffering for a very long time, intense suffering, but slight happiness; they are an obstacle to the liberation from existence, and are a very mine of evils. (13)