27. I am ready to subdue my mind which is my greatest enemy in this world, for the purpose of mastering all the virtues, which the learned say depend upon it. My want of desires has made me averse to wealth and the gross pleasures it yields, which are as tints of clouds tainting the (clear disk of the) moon (of our mind). CHAPTER XVII. ON CUPIDITY. I see our vices like a flock of owls flying about in the region of our minds, under the darkness of our affections, and in the lonesome night of our avarice. 2. I am parched by my anxieties like the wet clay under solar rays, infusing an inward heat in it by extraction of its soft moisture. 3. My mind is like a vast and lonesome wilderness, covered under the mist of errors, and infested by the terrible fiend of desire is continually floundering about it. 4. My wailings and tears serve only to expand and mature my anxiety, as the dews of night open and ripen the blossoms of beans and give them a bright golden hue. 5. Avarice by raising expectations in men, serves only to whirl them about, as the vortex of the sea wallows the marine animals in it. 6. The stream of worldly avarice flows like a rapid current within the rock of my body, with precipitate force (in my actions), and loud resounding waves (of my speech). 7. Our minds are driven by foul avarice from one place to another, as the dusty dry hays are borne away by the winds, and as the _Chátakas_ are impelled by thirst to fly about (for drink). 8. It is avarice which destroys all the good qualities and grace which we adopted to ourselves in good faith, just as the mischievous mouse severs the wires (of a musical instrument). 9. We turn about upon the wheel of our cares, like withered leaves (floating) upon the water, and like dry grass uplifted by the wind, and as autumnal clouds (moving) in the sky. 10. Being over powered by avarice, we are disable to reach the goal (of perfection), as a bird entangled in the snare, is kept from its flight. 11. I am so greatly burnt by the flame of avarice, that I doubt whether this inflammation may be assuaged even by administration of nectar itself. 12. Avarice like a heated-mare takes me far and farther still from my place, and brings me back to it again and again. Thus it hurries me up and down and to and fro in all directions for ever. 13. We are pulled up and cast down again like a bucket in the well, by the string of avarice (tied about our necks). 14. Man is led about like a bullock of burthen by his avarice, which bends his heart as fast as the string does the beast, and which it is hard for him to break. 15. As the huntress spreads her net to catch birds in it, so does our affection for our friends, wives and children stretch these snares to entrap us every day. 16. Avarice like a dark night terrifies even the wise, blindfolds the keen-sighted, and depresses the spirit of the happiest of men.