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The Discourse Divine
[2017
sources of pleasure. These, too, aggravate the heat and fever of lust, and depart sooner or later without producing anything like satisfaction, that is happiness and rest and peace. The acharya, therefore, points out that it is an act of folly to regard oneself as happy when enjoying material prosperity and the like, which, it is further pointed out, are acquired with a lot of trouble and exertion and which, involve a great deal of additional trouble in guarding and protecting, and which, notwithstanding all this worry and trouble, are ultimately bound to depart, being perishable by nature.
विपत्तिमात्मनो मूढः परेषामिव नेक्षते ।
दह्यमानमृगाकीर्णवनान्तरतरुस्थवत् ॥१४।। The fool is not warned by seeing distress overtake others, he acts like the man who, seated on the top of a tree in the midst of a burning forest, sees deer and other living things perish, but does not think that the same fate is soon to overtake him!
Note:-The acharya here gives us a true description of the individual blinded by the lusts of the world, who though surrounded by calamity and distress all round is still unable to check himself in time to turn to the true side of life, taking no warning by the fate of others
आयुर्वृद्धिक्षयोत्कर्षहेतुं कालस्य निर्गमम् ।
वांछतां धनिनामिष्टं जीवितात्सुतरां धनम् ॥१५॥ Time is the cause of the shortening of the duration of life as well as of the increase of wealth : the amassers of wealth (thus] love money more than their lives !
त्यागाय श्रेयसे वित्तमवित्तः संचिनोति यः ।
स्वशरीरं स पङ्केन स्नास्यामीति विलिम्पति ॥१६।। . The poor man who accumulates wealth so as to be able to acquire merit and the destruction of evil karmas by spending it in charity is like the man who covers himself with filth in the expectation that he is going to bathe his body thereafter.
Note:—The acquisition of wealth is accompanied by so much evildoing and evil-thinking that it itself implies a lot of sin accruing to the soul : what purpose can, then, be served by charity and good works thereafter. The man who enters a drain full of filth in the hope that he will have a good bath afterwards covers himself for a certain with filth. Whether he will be able to wash it off thereafter is an entirely different matter !
आरंभे तापकान्प्राप्तावऽतृप्तिप्रतिपादकान् ।
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