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६२
The Discourse Divine
[979
experiences at this moment from the hands of an enemy is sure enough the result of one's own evil-doing in the past. It is that evil which like the trangura has rebounded on oneself and is responsible for one's suffering. Surely, this is but justice, pure and simple. Where is, then, room for anger in this? The point is that in this world evil is caused by evil, what is experienced now as an evil, experience is sure enough the resultant of an evil act done by us in the past. The experiencer of evil is thus himself proved to be the doer of evil and the cause of his own suffering. Still it is necessary to punish the evil-doer, for otherwise it will be destructive of society and good order. The wise man should, however, so control himself that he should do his duty, but should not allow himself to be carried away by passion in its discharge. The judge, for instance, should so deport himself as to punish the prisoner who is proved to be guilty, but while doing so he should maintain his own serenity of mind and should not allow his decision to be influenced by anger. The result of anger is very harmful for the soul; it tends to undesirable conditions in the next rebirth. Hence, the judge who allows his mind to be swayed by passion will be incurring the liability for a painful hereafter. while the judge who merely discharges his duty and remains calm and collected and of an unruffled temperament will be avoiding that liability and will also be shortening his own bondage as the result of passionlessness.
रागद्वेषद्वयीदीर्घनेत्राकर्षणकर्मणा ।
अज्ञानात्सुचिरं जीवः, संसाराब्धौ भ्रमत्यसौ ॥११॥ Tied to the long rope intwined with [ the strands of attachments and aversions, the soul is whirled about in the ocean of samsdra (transmigratory existence) for immeasurable time, led by ignorance !
Note:-Love and hatred, or attachment and aversion, are the causes of bondage and transmigration. The series of births and deaths is unending, except in the case of him who acquires Self-knowledge. Hence the statement that souls wander about in transmigration for time beyond measure. Ignorance of the real nature of the soul and the non-soul, and of happiness and what is not happiness though it may appear to be so, is the producer of loves and hatreds of embodied life. Led by these the soul comes and remains under the sway of karmic forces that drag it about in different conditions and grades of existence in the different parts of the world.
विपद्भवपदावर्ते, पदिकेवातिवाह्यते ।
यावत्तावद्भवन्त्यन्याः, प्रचुरा विपदः पुरः ॥१२॥ The samsāra (transmigratory condition) is like a wheel at a well, where before one bucketful of distress is got over a large number of afflictions overtake the soul !
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