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AUGUST, 1873.]
CHAPTER 4.-The source of the power of virtue.
1. Those who, relying on penance done in a former birth, do not exercise penance now, will be greatly relicted, for they shall stand at the threshold, not being allowed to enter, and looking in will say, How flourishing is this family! i.e. they shall be homeless.
THE NALADIYAR.
2. Say not, foolish heart, While here let us pursue our interests and forget virtue; for although thou mayest live long and prosper, say, what wilt thou do when the days of thy life are past?
3. When the ignorant receives the fruit of former evil deeds, he sighs bitterly and grieves within himself. The wise, reflecting that it is the destined consequence of their sins, hasten to pass the limit of metempsychosis and to depart from it.
4. Having obtained a human body, so difficult of attainment, so act as to procure great merit by it, for in the next birth charity will profit thee as the juice of the sugarcane when pressed, while thy body will decay like the refuse cane.
5. Those who have pressed the cane and extracted the sugar will not be grieved when they see the flame arising from the refuse cane while burning; nor will they who have acquired the merit arising from the mortification of the body mourn when death approaches.
6. Think not whether it will be this day, or that day, or what day, bat, reflecting that death even now stands behind thee, eschew evil, and as far as possible practise the good prescribed to thee by the excellent.
7. Since upon inquiry it will be found that the benefits that arise from being born in human shape are great and various, it is proper to practise virtue in order to obtain heavenly bliss, and to walk circumspectly, avoiding evil desires.
8. The seed of the banyan tree, though exceedingly small, grows into a large tree and affords abundant shade; in like manner, however small may be the benefit of a virtuous act, it covers as it were the face of heaven.
9. Although they daily see the passing away of days, yet they think not of it, and daily rejoice over the present day, as if it would last for ever, for they do not consider the past day to be one day added to the portion of their life that has expired.
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10. Shall I put away the precious jewel of honour, and by the ignoble practice of mendicancy shall I live? I will do so if this body can endure permanently though fed by mean
ness.
CHAPTER 5.-The impure body.
1. Do they look on a perishable body, i. e. the wise? and are they loud in praise of woman's beauty? If only a piece of skin, small as the wing of a fly, be grazed on the body, a stick will be required to drive away the crows.
2. Since the beauty of the body consists in a covering which hides its inward filth, a covering of skin in which are many orifices, encourage not these sensual desires which are excited by this external covering of the body, which hides its filth. It is proper to look upon it as the inside of a (dirty) bag.
3. The ancients noticing that by the process of eating, the body always emits a stench, and on account of this bundle of dry and worthless sticks, (i. e. the body), chewed betel, crowned the head with many flowers, and adorned the body with meretricious ornaments. Is the inward filth thereby done away with?
4. Shall I forsake asceticism because the senseless crowd would excite me, saying, Woman's eye is like the lotus in clear water, the Gyal fish, and the battle-spear? I will conduct myself as one who sees that the nature of the eye is like a palmyra nut, from which the pulp has been taken and the water poured out.
5. Shall I forsake asceticism because foolish, vain, and despicable persons trouble me, saying foolish things about teeth white as pearls or the jessamine buds? No; I will conduct myself as if I saw the jawbone fallen from the head in the burning-ground, in the presence of all men.
6. Tell me what is the nature of the damsel adorned with cool garlands, who is composed of flesh and fat, which are placed in the skin with the sinews which bind together the bowels and marrow, the blood and the bones.
7. By reason of the beautiful skin causing it to appear lovely to the eye, and which is the external covering of the body, which is like a pot ejecting liquid fæces and seething filth abominable, from nine orifices which ooze out with excrementitious matter, the foolish will say of this body, Oh, thou who hast wide shoulders! Oh, thou who art adorned with bracelets! &c. &c.
8. Have they not seen the powerful valture,
