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SÚTRAKRITÂNGA..
(A man) may suffer for the sake of his parents; he will not easily obtain happiness after this life. A pious man should consider these causes of danger and cease to act. (3)
For in this world living beings suffer individually for their deeds; for the deed they have done themselves, they obtain (punishment), and will not get over it before they have felt it. (4)
Even gods, Gandharvas, Râkshasas, and Asuras; animals who live on earth, and snakes; kings, common people, merchants, and Brâhmanas: they all must leave their rank and suffer. (5)
Notwithstanding their pleasures and relations, all men must suffer in due time the fruit of their works; as a cocoa-nut detaching itself from its stalk (falls down), só (life) will end when its time is spent. (6)
Even a very learned or virtuous man, or a Brâhmana or an ascetic, will be severely punished for his deed when he is given to actions of deceit". (7)
See, those (heretics) who search for the knowledge of truth, but who do not cross the Samsara, talk only about the highest good (without reaching it).
How will you understand what is near you and what is beyond2 ? In the meanwhile you suffer for your deeds. (8)
He who walks about naked and lean, he who eats only once after a month, if he is filled with deceit, will be born an endless number of times. (9)
i Abhinûma.
? According to Silanka, this world and the next, or domestic life and monachism, or the Samsara and Móksha are meant by the expression what is near you and what is beyond.'
