Sage Vasishtha
They whom you regard here as radiant women decked with pearls and other jewels are but the creation of your own delusion: they are the ripples that arise in the ocean of lust. It is this delusion that sees attractiveness and seductive qualities in what is but a modification of flesh, fat, skin etc. and even makes them appear charming; and it is on account of such delusion that their breasts are described as golden pots and their lips as the source of nectar etc.
It is on account of delusion that one seeks wealth and prosperity which are sweet in the beginning (happiness and unhappiness, pleasure and pain, success and failure) in the middle and which come to an end very soon. From the pursuit of prosperity arise countless branches of pleasure and numberless branches of unhappiness.
This delusion flows like a river from beginningless time and it is muddied and darkened by useless actions and their reactions. It gives rise to repeated births and it swells more and more on account of the bitter reactions or the consequences of actions calculated to bring pleasure or happiness.
Such actions are like an ill-wind that raises a cloud of dust whose particles are physical and mental illness, old age and the various relationships. All these lead to death which has an insatiable and voracious appetite and which consumes all the worlds when they are ripe, as it were.
Youth is haunted by the goblins of worries and anxieties which dance when the wisdom-moon does not shine; and youth proceeds towards denser darkness of delusion. One's tongue is overworked in the service of the common and uncultured folk here and it grows debilitated.
In the meantime, poverty spreads its thousands of branches yielding the fruits of unhappiness and hard labor. Yet, greed, which is empty and insubstantial and which is destructive of one's own spiritual elevation, continues to proclaim victory in the darkness of delusion.
Stealthily the cat of senility catches the mouse of youth.
This creation is essenceless; yet, it gains a false reality. It even grows the fruits of dharma (righteous living) and artha (pursuit of prosperity). This world enveloped by the sky and endowed with the eyes of the sun and the moon is upheld by the delusion of its substantiality. In the lake of this world-appearance lilies known as bodies blossom and they are resorted to by the bees known as life-forces.
It is on account of delusion that one seeks wealth and prosperity which are sweet in the beginning (happiness and unhappiness, pleasure and pain, success and failure) in the middle and which come to an end very soon. From the pursuit of prosperity arise countless branches of pleasure and numberless branches of unhappiness.
This delusion flows like a river from beginningless time and it is muddied and darkened by useless actions and their reactions. It gives rise to repeated births and it swells more and more on account of the bitter reactions or the consequences of actions calculated to bring pleasure or happiness.
Such actions are like an ill-wind that raises a cloud of dust whose particles are physical and mental illness, old age and the various relationships. All these lead to death which has an insatiable and voracious appetite and which consumes all the worlds when they are ripe, as it were.
Youth is haunted by the goblins of worries and anxieties which dance when the wisdom-moon does not shine; and youth proceeds towards denser darkness of delusion. One's tongue is overworked in the service of the common and uncultured folk here and it grows debilitated.
In the meantime, poverty spreads its thousands of branches yielding the fruits of unhappiness and hard labor. Yet, greed, which is empty and insubstantial and which is destructive of one's own spiritual elevation, continues to proclaim victory in the darkness of delusion.
Stealthily the cat of senility catches the mouse of youth.
This creation is essenceless; yet, it gains a false reality. It even grows the fruits of dharma (righteous living) and artha (pursuit of prosperity). This world enveloped by the sky and endowed with the eyes of the sun and the moon is upheld by the delusion of its substantiality. In the lake of this world-appearance lilies known as bodies blossom and they are resorted to by the bees known as life-forces.
No comments:
Post a Comment