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[Karika 8]
Devagama
11
Like those blind by birth who, without understanding the true nature of things, pursue their own harm and are never able to properly utilize an elephant for the work of an elephant, those who remain ignorant of the true nature of things pursue their own harm and are unable to properly utilize a substance without abandoning or disregarding their own beliefs. And if they do abandon or disregard their beliefs in order to properly utilize a substance, they end up contradicting their own principles. In both ways, they become their own enemies.
An example is provided to further clarify this:
A person observes a physician administering poison to a patient, and also hears the physician claim that the poison is life-giving, intoxicating, and enhancing vitality. The person also experiences the patient becoming healthy and robust after consuming the poison. From this, the person forms the firm belief that the poison is life-giving, intoxicating, and enhancing vitality. However, the person is unaware that the poison also has the quality of killing and destroying life, and its use cannot be generalized to all diseases and conditions. The person also does not know that the physician was aware of the poison's lethal quality and would administer it along with other medicines to suppress its harmful effects, or use it to eliminate the organisms harming the patient's vitality. Thus, the person, based on their one-sided belief, ends up administering the poison to many patients, driven by the urge to quickly cure them.