32. Chapter 32 - The Causes of Carelessness

1With attentive mind hear me explain for your benefit the deliverance from the beginningless time, together with its causes[1], and from all misery: a truly wholesome subject. (1)

2By the teaching of true[2] knowledge, by the avoidance of ignorance and delusion, and by the destruction of love and hatred, one arrives at final deliverance which is nothing but bliss. (2)

3This is the road to it: to serve the Gurus and the old (teachers), to avoid throughout foolish people, to apply oneself earnestly to study, and to ponder zealously on the meaning of the Sūtras. (3)

4A Śramaṇa engaged in austerities, who longs for righteousness[3], should eat the proper quantity of allowed food, should select a companion of right understanding, and should live in a place suited to seclusion. (4)

5If he does not meet with a clever companion who surpasses or equals him in virtue, he should live by himself, abstaining from sins and not devoted to pleasures. (5)

6As the crane[4] is produced from an egg, and the egg is produced from a crane, so they call desire[5] the origin of delusion, and delusion the origin of desire. (6)

7Love and hatred are caused by Karman, and they say that Karman has its origin in delusion; Karman is the root of birth and death, and birth and death they call misery. (7)

8Misery ceases on the absence of delusion, delusion ceases on the absence of desire, desire ceases on the absence of greed, greed ceases on the absence of property. (8)

9I shall explain in due order the means which must be adopted by him who wants to thoroughly uproot love, hatred, and delusion. (9)

10Pleasant food[6] should not be enjoyed with preference, for it generally makes men over-strong[7]; and desires rush upon the strong, like birds upon a tree with sweet fruits. (10) As in a forest, full of fuel, a fire fanned by the wind cannot be extinguished, so the fire (as it were) of the senses of him who eats as he lists; it does not benefit any chaste man. (11)

11The mind of those who always live in unfrequented lodgings, who eat low food, and who subdue their senses, will not be attacked by the foe, Love, who is vanquished as disease is by medicine. (12)

12As it is not safe for mice to live near the dwelling of a cat, so a chaste (monk) cannot stay in a house inhabited by women. (13)

13A Śramaṇa, engaged in penance, should not allow himself to watch the shape, beauty, coquetry, laughter, prattle, gestures, and glances of women, nor retain a recollection of them in his mind. (14)

14Not to look at, nor to long for, not to think of, nor to praise, womankind: this is becoming the meditation of the noble ones, and it is always wholesome to those who delight in chastity. (15)

15Though those who possess the three Guptis, cannot be disturbed even by well-adorned goddesses, still it is recommended to monks to live by themselves, as this is wholesome in every way. (16)

16To a man who longs for liberation, who is afraid of the Saṃsāra, and lives according to the Law, nothing in the world offers so many difficulties[8] as women who delight the mind of the ignorant. (17)

17To those who have overcome the attachment (to women), all others will offer no difficulties[9]; even as to those who have crossed the great ocean, no river, though big like the Ganges, (will offer any difficulty). (18) From desire of pleasure arises the misery of the whole world, the gods included; whatever misery of body and mind there is, the dispassionate will put an end to it. (19)

18As the fruit of the Kimpāka[10] is beautiful in taste and colour, when eaten; but destroys the life when digested, (being) poison; similar in their effect are pleasures. (20)

19A Śramaṇa, engaged in austerities, who longs for righteousness[11], should not fix his thoughts on the pleasant objects of the senses, nor turn his mind from them, if they be unpleasant. (21)

20‘Colour’ attracts the eye; it is the pleasant cause of Love, but the unpleasant cause of Hatred[12]; he who is indifferent to them (viz. colours), is called dispassionate. (22)

21The eye perceives ‘colour,’ and ‘colour’ attracts the eye; the cause of Love is pleasant, and the cause of Hatred is unpleasant. (23)

22He who is passionately fond of ‘colours,’ will come to untimely ruin; just as an impassioned moth which is attracted by the light rushes into death. (24)

23He who passionately hates (a colour), will at the same moment suffer pain. It is the fault of an undisciplined man that he is annoyed (by a colour); it is not the ‘colour’ itself that annoys him. (25) He who is very fond of a lovely ‘colour,’ hates all others; hence a fool will suffer misery, but a dispassionate sage is not affected by it. (26)

24He who has a passion for ‘colours[13],’ will kill many movable and immovable beings; a passionate fool, intent on his personal interest, pains and torments those beings in many ways. (27)

25How can a man who passionately desires ‘colours[14],’ be happy while he gets, keeps, uses, loses, and misses (those things). Even when he enjoys them, he is never satisfied. (28)

26When he is not satisfied with those ‘colours,’ and his craving for them grows stronger and stronger, he will become discontented, and unhappy by dint of his discontent; misled by greed he will take another’s property. (29)

27When he is overcome by violent desire, takes another’s property, and is not satisfied with those ‘colours’ and their possession, then his deceit and falsehood increase on account of his greed; yet he will not get rid of his misery. (30)

28After and before he has lied[15], and when he is on the point of lying, he feels infinitely unhappy. Thus when he takes another’s property, and is (after all) not satisfied by the ‘colours’ (he has obtained), he becomes unhappy, and nobody will protect him[16]. (31)

29How, then, can a man who is devoted to ‘colours,’ ever derive any happiness from anything? He suffers pain at the time of their enjoyment to procure which he had suffered misery. (32)

30In the same way he who hates ‘colours,’ incurs a long succession of pains; when his mind is filled with hatred, he accumulates Karman which in the end again produces misery. (33)

31But a man who is indifferent to ‘colours,’ is free from sorrows; though still in the Saṃsāra, he is not affected by that long succession of pains, just as the leaf of the Lotus (is not moistened) by water. (34)

32Verses 35-47 treat of sounds; ‘sound’ is to be substituted for ‘colour,’ ‘ear’ for ‘eye.’

33The last line of verse 37, which corresponds to verse 24, runs thus:

34As an impassioned deer allured (by a song) rushes into death, without being satisfied with the sound.

35In the same way verses 48-60 apply to smells‘; substitute ’smell‘ and ’organ of smell.'

36Verses 61-73 apply to tastes; substitute ‘tastes’ and ‘tongue.’

37Verses 74-86 apply to touches; substitute touches‘ and ’body.'

38Verses 87-99 apply to feelings; substitute ‘feelings’ and ‘mind.’ The lines corresponding to the comparison in verse 24, run as follows:

39Just as an impassioned snake which is allured by the smell of a drug, when it comes out of its hole. (50)

40Just as an impassioned fish which is eager to swallow the bait, has its body transfixed by a hook. (63)

41Just as an impassioned buffalo who dives in cold water, is taken hold of by a crocodile and dies. (76)

42Just as an impassioned elephant who is inflamed by carnal desires, is turned from his way by a female elephant (and is captured and at last killed in battle). (89)]

43Thus the objects of the senses and of the mind cause pain to passionate men, but they never in the least cause any pain to the dispassionate. (100)

44Pleasant things (by themselves) do not cause indifference nor emotions (as anger, &c.); but by either hating or loving them, a man undergoes such a change through delusion. (101)

45Anger, pride, deceit, greed; disgust, aversion to self-control and delight in sensual things[17]; mirth, fear, sorrow, carnal desire for women, men, or both; all these manifold passions arise in him who is attached to pleasures; and so do other emotions produced by those (before mentioned) arise in him who is to be pitied, who (ought to be) ashamed of himself, and who is hateful. (102, 103) A monk should not desire a companion, not (even) one who is able to perform his religious duties; nor, if he regrets having taken the vows, (should he desire for) a worldly reward of his austerities[18]. Such emotions of an infinite variety arise in one who is the slave of his senses. (104)

46Desiring happiness and being submerged in the ocean of delusion, he forms many plans for warding off misery; and for their sake an impassioned man exerts himself. (105)

47But all kinds of objects of the senses, sounds, &c., will cause to the indifferent neither a pleasant nor an unpleasant feeling. (106)

48He who endeavours to recognise the vanity of all desires[19], will arrive at perfect indifference. When he ceases to desire the objects (of the senses), his desire for pleasures will become extinct. (107)

49The dispassionate man who has performed all duties will quickly remove the obstructions to right knowledge and to right faith, and whatever Karman produces obstruction (to righteousness). (108)

50Then he knows and sees all things, he is free from delusion and hindrances, his Āsravas have gone, and he is proficient in meditation and concentration of thoughts, and being pure he will arrive at beatitude when his life is spent. (109)

51He will get rid of all misery which always afflicts mankind; recovered from the long illness, as it were, and glorious, he becomes infinitely happy, and obtains the (final) aim. (110)

52We have taught the way how to become exempt from all misery which arises since time without beginning; those beings who follow it will in their time become infinitely happy. (111)

53By beginningless time the Saṃsāra is meant; its causes are the kaṣāyas or cardinal passions, and avirati.

54Saccassa = satyasya. This is a various reading; the received text has savvassa. The commentators give the following explanation: by the property of knowledge to make everything known--this indicates that knowledge is the cause of mokṣa.

55Samādhi; the Dīpikā explains it by jñānadarśanacāritralābha.

56Trichosanthes Palmata, or Cucumis Colocynthus.

57Love and Hatred must of course be understood in their widest meaning. The same remark applies to the term 'colour,' which according to Hindu terminology denotes everything that is perceived by the eye. The first three sentences are, in the original, dependent on verbs as vadanti, āhus. I have, here and elsewhere, dropped them in the translation.

58Rūvāṇugāsāṇuga = rūpa-anuga-āśā-anuga. This division of the compound looks artificial; I should prefer to divide rūva-aṇugāsa-aṇuga = rūpa-anukarsha-anuga; literally, possessed of attraction by colours.

59Rūvaṇuvāeṇa pariggaheṇa. Parigraha is explained as the desire to possess them.

60Instead of 'lying,' we can also adopt the rendering 'stealing,' as the word in the original mosa may stand either for mṛṣā, or for moṣa.

61Aṇissa = aniśra. Niśrā does not occur in common Sanskrit; it is rendered avaṣṭambha by the commentators.

62Arati and rati. Compare note on XXI, 21, where I have adopted another translation suited to the context. The first four numbers contain the cardinal passions; the rest the emotions which are called no-kaṣāya.

63My translation follows the interpretation of the commentators. The original runs thus: Kappaṃ na icchijja sahāyalicchū pacchāṇutāveṇa tavappabhāvaṃ. The meaning they have made out is very unsatisfactory. There is a remarkable various reading in MS. C not noticed by the scholiasts: sahāyalacchiṃ = svabhāvalakṣmīṃ. If this was the original reading, the meaning of the line, in which however I must leave the word kappam untranslated, would come to this: a monk who regrets having taken the vows should not desire personal power as the reward for his penance. Kalpa, according to the commentators, is one who is able to perform his religious duties; a kalpa is contrasted with a śiṣya, novice.

64Saṃkalpavikalpanāsu upasthitasya.