The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 2,886 pages of information about The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3.

The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 2,886 pages of information about The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3.
pressers of oil-seeds, for assailing all creatures in consequence of their attachments.  These press them like oil-seeds in the oil-making machine represented by the round of rebirths (to which they are subject).  Man, for the sake of his wife (and others), commits numerous evil acts, but suffers singly diverse kinds of misery both in this and the next world.  All men, attached to children and wives and kinsmen and relatives, sink in the miry sea of grief like wild elephants, when destitute of strength, sinking in a miry slough.  Indeed.  O lord, upon loss of wealth or son or kinsmen or relatives, man suffers great distress, which resembles as regards its power of burning, a forest conflagration.  All this, viz., joy and grief, existence and non-existence, is dependent upon destiny.  One having friends as one destitute of friends, one having foes as one destitute of foes, one having wisdom as one destitute of wisdom, each and every one amongst these, obtains happiness through destiny.  Friends are not the cause of one’s happiness.  Foes are not the cause of one’s misery.  Wisdom is not competent to bring an accession of wealth; nor is wealth competent to bring an accession of happiness.  Intelligence is not the cause of wealth, nor is stupidity the cause of penury.  He only that is possessed of wisdom, and none else, understands the order of the world.  Amongst the intelligent, the heroic, the foolish, the cowardly, the idiotic, the learned, the weak, or the strong, happiness comes to him for whom it is ordained.  Among the calf, the cowherd that owns her, and the thief, the cow indeed belongs to him who drinks her milk.[503] They whose understanding is absolutely dormant, and they who have attained to that state of the mind which lies beyond the sphere of the intellect, succeed in enjoying happiness.  Only they that are between the two classes, suffer misery.[504] They that are possessed of wisdom delight in the two extremes but not in the states that are intermediate.  The sages have said that the attainment of any of these two extremes constitutes happiness.  Misery consists in the states that are intermediate between the two.[505] They who have succeeded in attaining to real felicity (which samadhi can bring), and who have become free from the pleasures and pains of this world, and who are destitute of envy, are never agitated by either the accession of wealth or its loss.  They who have not succeeded in acquiring that intelligence which leads to real felicity, but who have transcended folly and ignorance (by the help of a knowledge of the scriptures), give way to excessive joy and excessive misery.  Men destitute of all notions of right or wrong, insensate with pride and with success over others, yield to transports of delight like the gods in heaven.[506] Happiness must end in misery.  Idleness is misery; while cleverness (in action) is the cause of happiness.  Affluence and prosperity dwell in one possessed of cleverness, but not in one
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The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.