"'Narada said, By listening to such scriptures as are blessed, as bring
about tranquillity, as dispel grief, and as are productive of happiness,
one attains to (a pure) understanding, and having attained to it obtains
to high 'felicity. A thousand causes of sorrow, a hundred causes of fear,
from day to day, afflict one that is destitute of understanding, but not
one that is possessed of wisdom and learning. Do thou, therefore, listen
to some old narratives as I recite them to you, for the object of
dispelling thy griefs. If one can subjugate one's understanding, one is
sure to attain to happiness. By association of what is undesirable and
dissociation from what is agreeable, only men of little intelligence,
become subject to mental sorrow of every kind. When things have become
past, one should not grieve, thinking of their merits. He that thinks of
such past things with affection can never emancipate himself. One should
always seek to find out the faults of those things to which one begins to
become attached. One should always regard such things to be fraught with
much evil. By doing so, one should soon free oneself therefrom. The man
who grieves for what is past fails to acquire either wealth or religious
merit or fame. That which exists no longer cannot be obtained. When such
things pass away, they do not return (however keen the regret one may
indulge in for their sake). Creatures sometimes acquire and sometimes
lose worldly object. No man in this world can be grieved by all the
events that fall upon him. Dead or lost, he who grieves for what is past,
only gets sorrow for sorrow. Instead of one sorrow, he gets two.This verse is not at all difficult. The sense is that the man who transcends all attachments never comes to grief if brought into union with other creatures. The Burdwan translator gives a thoroughly unmeaning version of this couplet.
Those men who, beholding the course of life and death in the world with
the aid of their intelligence, do not shed tears, are said to behold
properly. Such persons have never to shed tears, (at anything that may
happen). When any such calamity comes, productive of either physical or
mental grief, as is incapable of being warded off by even one's best
efforts, one should cease to reflect on it with sorrow. This is the
medicine for sorrow, viz., not to think of it. By thinking of it, one can
never dispel it; on the other hand, by thinking upon sorrow, one only
enhances it. Mental griefs should be killed by wisdom; while physical
grief should be dispelled by medicines. This is the power of knowledge.
One should not, in such matters, behave like men of little
understandings. Youth, beauty, life, stored wealth, health, association
with those that are loved,—these all are exceedingly transitory. One
possessed of wisdom should never covet them. One should not lament
individually for a sorrowful occurrence that concerns an entire
community. Instead of indulgence in it when grief comes, one should seek
to avert it and apply a remedy as soon as one sees the opportunity for
doing it. There is no doubt that in this life the measure of misery is
much greater than that of happiness. There is no doubt in this that all
men show attachment for objects of the senses and that death is regarded
as disagreeable. That man who casts off both joy and sorrow, is said to
attain to Brahma. When such a man departs from this world, men of wisdom
never indulge in any sorrow on his account. In spending wealth there is
pain. In protecting it there is pain. In acquiring it there is pain.
Hence, when one's wealth meets with destruction, one should not indulge
in any sorrow for it. Men of little understanding, attaining to different
grades of wealth, fail to win contentment and at last perish in misery.
Men of wisdom, however, are always contented. All combinations are
destined to end in dissolution. All things that are high are destined to
fall down and become low. Union is sure to end in disunion anti life is
certain to end in death. Thirst is unquenchable. Contentment is the
highest happiness. Hence, persons of wisdom regard contentment to be the
most precious wealth. One's allotted period of life is running
continually. It stops not in its course for even a single moment. When
one's body itself is not durable, what other thing is there (in this
world) that one should reckon as durable? Those persons who, reflecting
on the nature of all creatures and concluding that it is beyond the grasp
of the mind, turn their attention to the highest path, and, setting out,
achieve a fair progress in it, have not to indulge in sorrow.The object of this verse is to show that men of knowledge do not perform sacrifices, in which, as a matter of course, a large number of creatures is slain. Men wedded to the religion of Pravriti perform sacrifices, Coming into the world in consequence of past acts, they seek happiness (by repairing to heaven) along the way of sacrifices and religious rites. A large number of creatures is slain, for besides the victims ostensibly offered, an infinite number of smaller and minuter creatures are killed in the sacrificial fires and in course of the other preparations that are made in sacrifices. Like
a tiger seizing and running away with its prey, Death seizes and runs
away with the man that is employed in such (unprofitable) occupation and
that is still unsatiated with objects of desire and enjoyment. One should
always seek to emancipate oneself from sorrow. One should seek to dispel
sorrow by beginning one's operations with cheerfulness, that is, without
indulging in sorrow the while, having freed oneself from a particular
sorrow, one should act in such a way as to keep sorrow at a distance by
abstaining from all faults of conduct.Sorrow increases by indulgence. The rich and the poor alike
find nothing in sound and touch and form and scent and taste, after the
immediate enjoyment thereof.This is a very doubtful verse. The commentator is silent. I follow the meaning as it lies on the surface. The object of the verse seems to be this: there are men that are employed in reflecting upon the nature of things: these should know that such occupation is useless, for truly the nature of things is beyond the grasp of the mind. The greatest philosopher is ignorant of all the virtues of a blade of grass, the purpose for which it exists, the changes that it undergoes every instant of time and from day to day. Those men, however, who have such unprofitable occupation for walking along the highest path (the path, that is, which leads to Brahma) free themselves from grief. Before union, creatures are never
subject to sorrow. Hence, one that has not fallen off from one's original
nature, never indulges in sorrow when that union comes to an end.I am not sure that I have understood this verse correctly.
One should restrain one's sexual appetite and the stomach with the aid of
patience. One should protect one's hands and feet with the aid of the
eye. One's eyes and ears and the other senses should be protected by the
mind. One's mind and speech should be ruled with the aid of wisdom.
Casting off love and affection for persons that are known as well as for
those that are unknown, one should conduct oneself with humility. Such a
person is said to be possessed of wisdom, and such a one surely finds
happiness. That man who is pleased with his own SoulWhat is intended to be said is that the gratification of the senses leaves nothing behind. The pleasure lasts as long as the contact continues of the objects with the senses. The Burdwan translator, not suspecting that the word used is adhana, gives a ridiculous version. who is devoted
to Yoga, who depends upon nothing out of self, who is without cupidity,
and who conducts himself without the assistance of anything but his self,
succeeds in attaining to felicity.'"