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7. YAŠASTILAKA AS AN ANTHOLOGY OF SANSKRIT VERSE
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deliberations in the council-chamber, proclaims the supremacy of fate', and recommends the policy of least resistance, free from warlike adventures, and aimed at the peaceful enjoyment of the fruits of prosperity and the cultivation of justice and virtue. The minister argues that man toils and suffers for nothing: what is written on the forehead will come about even if he remains inactive. Indra is the lord of heaven and the serpent Ananta the mainstay of the earth, not because of any personal exertion on their part, but because they are fated to be so:
एवमेव परं लोकः क्लिनात्यात्मानमात्मना । यदन लिखितं भाले तत् स्थितस्यापि जायते ॥
watafalcar tertegu ya: 1 ata Arora Artoi fala: 1 3. 37-8. As for warlike ventures, the very name of enemies is unpleasant, and their sight, too, hateful like that of serpents:
also f ui gazhat hatszyfa: 1 ** eleget safera: yrstaarata 3. 40. Fortifications and wise counsel are futile when fate decrees otherwise :
दुर्ग मन्दरकन्दराणि परिधिस्ते गोत्रधात्रीधराः खेयं सप्त पयोधयः स्वविषयः स्वर्गः सुराः सैनिकाः।
मन्त्री चास्य गुरुस्तथाप्ययमगात् प्रायः परेषां वशं दैवाइवपतिस्तदत्र नृप किं तत्रेण मन्त्रेण वा ॥ The Mandara caves are Indra's forts. The great mountain-ranges are his ramparts. The seven oceans are his moat. Heaven is his realm, the gods are his soldiers, and Bphaspati his minister. Yet, by the decree of fate, he was oftentimes subjugated by his foes. Sire, of what avail is then army or counsel on earth ? (3. 41).
The king should, therefore, enjoy his great fortune in peace without forgetting the claims of virtue. The speaker concludes by saying:
धनं धर्मविलोपेन परभोगाय भूपतेः । पापं त्वात्मनि जायेत हरेपिवधादिव ॥ The wealth earned by a king by violating the right is enjoyed by others; he acquires only the sin for himself: just as a lion acquires sin by killing an elephant, while the other beasts feed on the flesh (3. 44).
The views of Vidyāmahodadhi are attacked by another minister described as a materialist, who regards personal endeavour as the sole guarantee of success. As a follower of Cārvāka doctrines, he cannot, of course, accept any unseen agency like fate, but his views in this respect do not materially differ from those of the Yogavāsiştha, which, too, glorifies personal effort and denies the existence of fate, although a Cārvāka would certainly accept its theory that the so-called fate of popular imagination
1 The Sūtrakstānga 2. 1. 12 describes a heretical school which regards Fate as the
cause of everything. See also Jacobi: Jaina Sūtras II (S. B. E.), p. 35. 2 Very similar verses occur in Guņabhadra's Ātmānuśāsana and Bhartphari's Nitišataka. 3 Mumukṣuprakarana, chas, 6-9.
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