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VAJJĀLAGGAM
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(whatever is within their reach). They are therefore like ascetics, who too having mastered (read and comprehended) all (possible), works (dealing with spirituality), constantly think of how to achieve salvation, their minds wholly and solely fixed on this single objective and their hands engaged in carryirg the reggingbowl (hacsar = 29Test, skull used as a begging-bowl).
60. The Section on the Miser 579) They by themselves do not give money to any body; they prevent others from giving. Shall we chen say that riches residing with (in the possession of) misers are as it were sleeping. undisturbed ?
580) Misers bury their riches under the surface of the earth (as if) thinking "after all (after death) we have to go to the Pātāla (subterranean) region (i. e. we are doomed to hell) - let therefore our wealth go ahead of us.
581) In the case of an elephant, (only) pearls are discovered in his temporal region (kumbha), as soon as he is lacerated (torn) by the claws of a lion. But in the case of misers, hoarded treasures (whole storehouses of riches) come to light at their death (or after their death).
582) A miser always touches (caresses) his wealth with his hand and looks at it with his eyes. But he is not able to enjoy that wealth, any more than a person is able to enjoy a female drawn as a picture on a wall.
583) Even though questioned by their own servants (or relatives) they do not at all reveal that wealth : certainly very bold (audacious) are those men, who deny the existence of wealth, which actually exists.
584) Alarmed (panic-stricken!, they hold their wealth tightly (for fear that it may be robbed by somebody); they do not give it to anybody (for fear that it would be diminished); they worship all the invisible spirits (invoking their favour for the preservation of their wealth). (But they do not know that) wealth is diminished (or decays) as a result of the decay of one's religious merit and not as a result of charity or enjoyment.
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