Gandharavada

SR No.: 006739
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Esther A Solomon
Publisher: Gujarat Vidyasabha
Publication Year: 1966
Total Pages: 400
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

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we call sensuous pleasure is only such for the time being, as a remedy for longing, attachment etc., but results in pain, and so even the fruit of punya like sovereignty, etc. is of the nature of pain. As has been said:
"Naguaḥ preta ivavistah kvanantim upagrbya tam; gadhāyāsitasarvangaḥ sa sukhi ramate kila."
(A passionate man, becoming naked like a spirit of the dead, embraces a woman who is making a whining sound, and even when he experiences great fatigue all over his body, he enjoys feeling happy). An experienced king like Dusyanta says that kingship is an onerous task, though ordinary people think it something worth envying:
"Autsukyamatram avasadayati pratistha klisnati labdha-paripa lanavṛttir eva;
natiśramā pagamanaya yatha śramaya rajyam svahastagatadandam ivātapatram."
(-Abhijñāna-sakuntalam, 5.6).
(Kingship wherein one holds the sceptre of power and responsibility is not so much for the removal of fatigue as for its augmentation, like an umbrella one holds in one's own hand. The very installation in it eradicates whatever eagerness there was for it and the task of protecting what has been obtained is afflicting).
What a man ingrossed in the world regards as pleasure is in the view of a man of renunciation pain: Bhuktaḥ śriyah sakalakamadughas tataḥ kim samprinitaḥ pranayinah svadhanais tataḥ kin; dattam padam sirasi vidvişatăm tataḥ kim kalpam sthitam tanubhṛtām tanubhis tatah kim.
(What if one has enjoyed prosperity satisfying all desires? And of what use is it if near and dear ones have been pleased by giving them one's wealth? What if one has been able to tread on the head of enemies? And how will it help if the body of the embodied lasts even for a kalpa ?)