The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 3 (of 4), Part 2 (of 2)Valmiki
Religion
The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 3 (of 4), Part 2 (of 2)
Valmiki
Hinduism -- Doctrines -- Early works to 1800; Religious life -- Hinduism -- Early works to 1800
24. The unintelligent body and limbs, are actuated to perform and
display their several acts, by action of the vital breath; as the
vacillation of the insensible trees and leaves, is caused by the motion
of the breeze; and both of them cease to move, no sooner the current
airs cease to agitate them.
25. These dull bodies are as the boisterous waves of the sea, heaving
with huge shapes with tremendous noise; and appearing to sight as the
figures of drunken men, staggering with draughts of the luscious juice
of Vine.
26. These witless men resemble the rapid currents of rivers, which
without a jot of sense in them, keep up on their continual motion, to
no good to themselves or others.
27. It is from their want of wit, that they are reduced to utmost
meanness and misery; which make them groan and sigh like the blowing
bellows of the blacksmith.
28. Their continued motion is of no real good to themselves, but brings
on their quietus like the calm after the storm; they clash and clang
like the twang of the bowstring, without the dart to hit at the mark.
29. The life of the unintelligent man, is only for its extinction or
death; and its desire of fruition is as false, as the fruit of an
unfruitful tree in the woody forest.
30. Seeking friendliness in unintelligent men, is as wishing to rest or
sleep on a burning mountain; and the society of the unintellectual, is
as associating with the headless trunks of trees in a forest (The weak
headed man like the headless tree, can neither afford any sheltering
shade, nor nourishing fruit to the passenger. So the verse: It is vain
to expect any good or gain, from men of witless and shallow brain).
31. Doing any service to the ignorant and lack witted men goes for
nothing; and is as vain as beating the bush or empty air with a stick:
and any thing given to the senseless, is as something thrown into the
mud. (Or as casting pearls before the swine, or scattering grains in
the bushes).
32. Talking with the ignorant, is as calling the dogs from a distance
(which is neither heard nor heeded by them). Ignorance is the seat
of evils, which never betide the sensible and the wise. (So the
Hitopadesa--A hundred evils and thousand fears, daily befall to the
fool, and not to the heedful wise).
33. The wise pass over all errors in their course amidst the world;
but the ignorant are exposed to incessant troubles, in their ceaseless
ardour to thrive in the pleasures of life.
34. As the carriage wheel revolves incessantly, about the axle to which
it is fixed; so the body of man turns continually about the wealthy
family, to which the foolish mind is fixed for gain.
35. The ignorant fool can never get rid of his misery, so long as he is
fast bound to the belief of taking his body as his soul, and knowing no
spiritual soul besides.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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