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348
SÛTRAKRITÂNGA.
himself: 'Here, indeed, some painful illness or disease might befall me, unwished for, unpleasant, disagreeable, nasty', painful and not at all pleasant. O ye dear pleasures, take upon you this painful illness or disease, unwished for, unpleasant, disagreeable, nasty, painful and not at all pleasant, that I may not suffer, grieve, blame myself, grow feeble, be afflicted, and undergo great pain ? Deliver me from this painful illness or disease, (&c., all as above).' But this desire of his has never yet been fulfilled. (37)
Here, in this life, pleasures and amusements are not able to help or to save one. Sometimes a man first forsakes pleasures and amusements, sometimes they first forsake him. Pleasures and amusements are one thing, and I am another. Why then should we be infatuated with pleasures and amusements which are alien (to our being)? Taking this into consideration, we shall give up pleasures and amusements. A wise man thinks them alien to himself. (38)
There are things more intimately connected with me, viz. my mother, father, brother, sister, wife, children, grandchildren, daughters-in-law, servants, friends, kinsmen, companions, and acquaintances. These my relations belong to me, and I belong to them. A wise man, previously, should think thus to himself: 'Here, indeed, some painful illness or disease might befall me, (&c., all as in § 37 down to the end, but substitute "relations” for “pleasures "). (39)
1 The original has six synonyms for disagreeable, which it is impossible to render adequately in English.
2 The same words occurred in § 31.
