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THE NALADIYAR.
SEPTEMBER, 1873.]
and your dying day also: theso are pains destructive of greatness. Run not vainly here and there. Covet not. Give alms, then eat. Hide not any of it when you possess wealth. 3. The wealth of him who in this birth wipes not away the tears of those who, trembling with poverty, betake themselves to him, by reason of his merit in a former birth, of not eating till he had given a portion to others, shall go on increasing while the time of increase lasts. But when the effect of these good deeds is exhausted, that wealth shall altogether leave him, let him hold it never so firmly. 4. Give what you are able, even though you have not the thousandth part of a measure of rice in the house, and then eat your meal; the wise call those in this birth wandering beggars whose chimneys smoke not in this earth, surrounded by the deep sea, who gave not alms in a former birth. 5. Let a man who regards both this world and the next, give what he can as he gets it; and if, through poverty, giving be impossible, to abstain from begging will be to give twice.
6. Those who give are like the female palm tree surrounded by the terrace in the midst of the village, they live beloved by many. Men who eat without giving to others, though their family be flourishing, are like the male palm in a burning-ground. 7. When the rain that should fall falls not, and when mankind omit to do the things they ought to do, O lord of the cool shore beaten by the waves where the Punnei-flower repels the noisome odour of the fish! in what way does the world get on! 8. Man's duty is to give to those who are unable to bear (their distresses), not driving them away, nor turning away from the extended hands. O lord of the cool shore of ocean, full of rivers! to give to those who will pay it back again-has the name of a loan at interest. 9. Not saying they have very little, not saying they have not anything, let them ever exercise fruitful charity to all. Like the pitcher of the mendicant who enters the house-door for alms, it will, in due course gradually become full. 10. Those who are ten miles distant can hear the sound of the wide drum beaten with the stick; those a yojana dis tant, can hear the hoarse thunder; but all who live in the three worlds piled up will hear the report that some of the excellent have given alms.
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CHAPTER 11.-The effect of actions done in a former birth.
1. As a young calf when let loose among a number of cows naturally seeks out and attaches itself to its own mother, so does the act of a former state of existence seek out and attach itself to him who has performed it. 2. The prosperity of him who knows that beauty, youth, glittering wealth, and honour remain not stable in one birth to any one, and yet in one birth performs not a single good deed-has the nature of thing that takes a body, remains for a time, and then utterly perishes. 3. There are none at all who are not anxious to acquire wealth. Each one's experience of happiness or misery is measured by the deeds of a former birth. None can make the wood-apple round, none can dye the Karlafruit black. 4. To avoid those things which are to happen, or to detain those who are to depart, is alike impossible even to saints, even as there is none who can give rain out of season, or prevent its falling in season.
5. Those who were once in dignity as tall as the Palmyra, live on, daily losing their greatness, and becoming small as a grain of millet, hide within them their glory. On enquiry it will appear that that which has happened is nothing but the effect of deeds done in a former birth. 6. If you wish to know how it is that those perish, who know the benefits accruing from the sciences which they have acquired by oral instruction, while the unlearned prosper : it is because Yama looks upon the unlearned as refuse cane, since they are destitute, as to their minds, of the sap of knowledge, and therefore he cares not to take them away. 7. Behold all those whose bosoms are goaded by distress and who wander forlorn through the long streets, know- lord of the cool shore of the billowy ocean where the playful swans tear in pieces the waterflowers!-that this proceeds from the acts of former births. 8. When those who, besides being not ignorant, have learned that which they ought to know and do that which is blameable, O king of the cool shore of the broad ocean, where the lotus flings its odours to the winds! this proceeds from the acts they have formerly done. 9. All who dwell in the world surrounded
by the surging ocean desire to be exempt from the afflictive effects of former evil deeds, and to experience the effect of former good deeds; but, whether men wish or do not wish, it is impossible
