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9. THE ENERGETIG AND SELF-POSSESSED
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98) A self-respecting person would either lie on the protuberent and full bosom of his beloved embracing her, or on the dreadful cemetery full of human skulls and skeletons.
99) Self-respecting persons will either dine with their beloveds in cups, dishes and bowls or in a clean skull in a desolate cemetery, after having collected the food in the course of a begging round.
100) Even if lordship over the three worlds is obtained by bowing down at the feet of the wicked, what does it avail ? But even a blade of grass which is obtained in an honourable way conduces to one's supreme happiness.
101) Thrice blessed and great are those self-respecting men of steady endeavour-our homage to them--who do not beseech others even when they are oppressed by grave calamities.
102) The mind of a self-respecting (magnanimous) person: remains lofty (exalted, noble) even in the last stages of his life. For do we not see that the rays of the sun, even when he is on the point of setting, always shoot only upwards?
103) The mount Meru is lofty (insurmountable), the ocean (the abode of sharks and dolphins) is difficult to cross and the course of tasks undertaken is full of difficulties, only so long as men of fortitude and determination do not set about them (in right earnest).
104) The sky is immensely vast, the oceans are extremely deep and the principal mountains of the world are great (unscaleable) only so long as they are not compared with (or challenged by) men of fortitude and determination.
105) In the case of men possessed of the spirit of adventure, even the mount Meru is like a straw (i.e. insignificant like a straw), even heaven is like the court-yard (of their house), even the surface of the sky is within the reach of their hands and even the oceans are petty streamlets.
106) A man of fortitude and determination disregards fate and accomplishes what he has undertaken, no matter whether it has been already perfectly planned or is being perfectly planned... whether it has been already started or is being started, whether it has been already spoiled or is being spoiled.
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