pressers of oil-seeds, for assailing all creatures
in consequence of their attachments. These press
them like oil-seeds in the oil-making machine represented
by the round of rebirths (to which they are subject).
Man, for the sake of his wife (and others), commits
numerous evil acts, but suffers singly diverse kinds
of misery both in this and the next world. All
men, attached to children and wives and kinsmen and
relatives, sink in the miry sea of grief like wild
elephants, when destitute of strength, sinking in a
miry slough. Indeed. O lord, upon loss of
wealth or son or kinsmen or relatives, man suffers
great distress, which resembles as regards its power
of burning, a forest conflagration. All this,
viz., joy and grief, existence and non-existence,
is dependent upon destiny. One having friends
as one destitute of friends, one having foes as one
destitute of foes, one having wisdom as one destitute
of wisdom, each and every one amongst these, obtains
happiness through destiny. Friends are not the
cause of one’s happiness. Foes are not the
cause of one’s misery. Wisdom is not competent
to bring an accession of wealth; nor is wealth competent
to bring an accession of happiness. Intelligence
is not the cause of wealth, nor is stupidity the cause
of penury. He only that is possessed of wisdom,
and none else, understands the order of the world.
Amongst the intelligent, the heroic, the foolish,
the cowardly, the idiotic, the learned, the weak,
or the strong, happiness comes to him for whom it is
ordained. Among the calf, the cowherd that owns
her, and the thief, the cow indeed belongs to him
who drinks her milk.[503] They whose understanding
is absolutely dormant, and they who have attained to
that state of the mind which lies beyond the sphere
of the intellect, succeed in enjoying happiness.
Only they that are between the two classes, suffer
misery.[504] They that are possessed of wisdom delight
in the two extremes but not in the states that are
intermediate. The sages have said that the attainment
of any of these two extremes constitutes happiness.
Misery consists in the states that are intermediate
between the two.[505] They who have succeeded in attaining
to real felicity (which samadhi can bring), and who
have become free from the pleasures and pains of this
world, and who are destitute of envy, are never agitated
by either the accession of wealth or its loss.
They who have not succeeded in acquiring that intelligence
which leads to real felicity, but who have transcended
folly and ignorance (by the help of a knowledge of
the scriptures), give way to excessive joy and excessive
misery. Men destitute of all notions of right
or wrong, insensate with pride and with success over
others, yield to transports of delight like the gods
in heaven.[506] Happiness must end in misery.
Idleness is misery; while cleverness (in action) is
the cause of happiness. Affluence and prosperity
dwell in one possessed of cleverness, but not in one