that youthful beauty soon falls, destroyed by old age and death, fading and perishing!  This is the great distress!  What ignorance and delusion (he reflected) overshadow their minds:  “Surely they ought to consider old age, disease, and death, and day and night stir themselves up to exertion, whilst this sharp double-edged sword hangs over the neck.  What room for sport or laughter, beholding those monsters, old age, disease, and death?  A man who is unable to resort to this inward knowledge, what is he but a wooden or a plaster man, what heart-consideration in such a case!  Like the double tree that appears in the desert, with leaves and fruit all perfect and ripe, the first cut down and destroyed, the other unmoved by apprehension, so it is in the case of the mass of men:  they have no understanding either!”

At this time Udayi came to the place where the prince was, and observing his silent and thoughtful mien, unmoved by any desire for indulgence, he forthwith addressed the prince, and said, “The Maharaga, by his former appointment, has selected me to act as friend to his son; may I therefore speak some friendly words? an enlightened friendship is of three sorts:  that which removes things unprofitable, promotes that which is real gain, and stands by a friend in adversity.  I claim the name of ‘enlightened friend,’ and would renounce all that is magisterial, but yet not speak lightly or with indifference.  What then are the three sources of advantage? listen, and I will now utter true words, and prove myself a true and sincere adviser.  When the years are fresh and ripening, beauty and pleasing qualities in bloom, not to give proper weight to woman’s influence, this is a weak man’s policy.  It is right sometimes to be of a crafty mind, submitting to those little subterfuges which find a place in the heart’s undercurrents, and obeying what those thoughts suggest in way of pleasures to be got from dalliance:  this is no wrong in woman’s eye! even if now the heart has no desire, yet it is fair to follow such devices; agreement is the joy of woman’s heart, acquiescence is the substance (the full) of true adornment; but if a man reject these overtures, he’s like a tree deprived of leaves and fruits; why then ought you to yield and acquiesce? that you may share in all these things.  Because in taking, there’s an end of trouble—­no light and changeful thoughts then worry us—­for pleasure is the first and foremost thought of all, the gods themselves cannot dispense with it.  Lord Sakra was drawn by it to love the wife of Gautama the Rishi; so likewise the Rishi Agastya, through a long period of discipline, practising austerities, from hankering after a heavenly queen (Devi), lost all reward of his religious endeavors, the Rishi Brihaspati, and Kandradeva putra; the Rishi Parasara, and Kavangara (Kia-pin-ke-lo).  All these, out of many others, were overcome by woman’s love.  How much more then, in your case, should you partake in such pleasant joys; nor refuse, with wilful heart, to participate in the worldly delights, which your present station, possessed of such advantages, offers you, in the presence of these attendants.”