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LECTURE XIV.
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67
my husband depart. Why should I, being left alone, not follow them ?" (36)
When the queen had heard that the Purðhita with his wife and sons had entered the order, abandoning pleasures and all his large property, she spoke to the king: (37)
"A man who returns, as it were, to the vomit, is not praised; but you want to confiscate the property left by the Brâhmana. (38)
'If the whole world and all treasures were yours, you would still not be satisfied, nor would all this be able to save you. (39)
Whenever you die, O king, and leave all pleasant things behind, the Law alone, and nothing else in this world, will save you, O monarch. (40)
* As a bird dislikes the cage, so do I (dislike the world). I shall live as a nun, without offspring, poor, upright, without desire, without love of gain, and without hatred. (41)
'As when by a conflagration of a forest animals are burned, other beasts greatly rejoice, being under the influence of love and hate; even so we, fools that we are, being attached to pleasure, do not perceive that the world is consumed by the fire of love and hatred. (42, 43)
'Those who have enjoyed pleasures, and have renounced them, move about like the wind, and go wherever they please, like the birds unchecked in their flight. (44)
When they? are caught, and held by my hand,
! It was considered a privilege of the king to confiscate the property of a man who had no heir; compare Gautama XXVIII, 42, Vasishtha XVII, 83-86, &c. --
2 This apparently refers to the birds mentioned in the last verse.
F2
