Chapter XVI- Krishna. Fearlessness, singleness of soul, the will
- Always to strive for wisdom; opened hand
- And governed appetites; and piety,
- And love of lonely study; humbleness,
- Uprightness, heed to injure nought which lives,
- Truthfulness, slowness unto wrath, a mind
- That lightly letteth go what others prize;
- And equanimity, and charity
- Which spieth no man's faults; and tenderness
- Towards all that suffer; a contented heart,
- Fluttered by no desires; a bearing mild,
- Modest, and grave, with manhood nobly mixed,
- With patience, fortitude, and purity;
- An unrevengeful spirit, never given
- To rate itself too high;- such be the signs,
- O Indian Prince! of him whose feet are set
- On that fair path which leads to heavenly birth!
- Deceitfulness, and arrogance, and pride,
- Quickness to anger, harsh and evil speech,
- And ignorance, to its own darkness blind,-
- These be the signs, My Prince! of him whose birth
- Is fated for the regions of the vile.
- The Heavenly Birth brings to deliverance,
- So should'st thou know! The birth with Asuras
- Brings into bondage. Be thou joyous, Prince!
- Whose lot is set apart for heavenly Birth.
- Two stamps there are marked on all living men,
- Divine and Undivine; I spake to thee
- By what marks thou shouldst know the Heavenly Man,
- Hear from me now of the Unheavenly!
- They comprehend not, the Unheavenly,
- How Souls go forth from Me; nor how they come
- Back unto Me: nor is there Truth in these,
- Nor purity, nor rule of Life. "This world
- Hath not a Law, nor Order, nor a Lord,"
- So say they: "nor hath risen up by Cause
- Following on Cause, in perfect purposing,
- But is none other than a House of Lust."
- And, this thing thinking, all those ruined ones-
- Of little wit, dark-minded- give themselves
- To evil deeds, the curses of their kind.
- Surrendered to desires insatiable,
- Full of deceitfulness, folly, and pride,
- In blindness cleaving to their errors, caught
- Into the sinful course, they trust this lie
- As it were true- this lie which leads to death-
- Finding in Pleasure all the good which is,
- And crying "Here it finisheth!"
- Ensnared
- In nooses of a hundred idle hopes,
- Slaves to their passion and their wrath, they buy
- Wealth with base deeds, to glut hot appetites;
- "Thus much, to-day," they say, "we gained! thereby
- Such and such wish of heart shall have its fill;
- And this is ours! and th' other shall be ours!
- To-day we slew a foe, and we will slay
- Our other enemy to-morrow! Look!
- Are we not lords? Make we not goodly cheer?
- Is not our fortune famous, brave, and great?
- Rich are we, proudly born! What other men
- Live like to us? Kill, then, for sacrifice!
- Cast largesse, and be merry!" So they speak
- Darkened by ignorance; and so they fall-
- Tossed to and fro with projects, tricked, and bound
- In net of black delusion, lost in lusts-
- Down to foul Naraka. Conceited, fond,
- Stubborn and proud, dead-drunken with the wine
- Of wealth, and reckless, all their offerings
- Have but a show of reverence, being not made
- In piety of ancient faith. Thus vowed
- To self-hood, force, insolence, feasting, wrath,
- These My blasphemers, in the forms they wear
- And in the forms they breed, my foemen are,
- Hateful and hating; cruel, evil, vile,
- Lowest and least of men, whom I cast down
- Again, and yet again, at end of lives,
- Into some devilish womb, whence- birth by birth-
- The devilish wombs re-spawn them, all beguiled;
- And, till they find and worship Me, sweet Prince!
- Tread they that Nether Road.
- The Doors of Hell
- Are threefold, whereby men to ruin pass,-
- The door of Lust, the door of Wrath, the door
- Of Avarice. Let a man shun those three!
- He who shall turn aside from entering
- All those three gates of Narak, wendeth straight
- To find his peace, and comes to Swarga's gate.
HERE ENDETH Chapter XVI OF THE BHAGAVAD-GITA, Entitled "Daivasarasaupadwibhagayog," Or "The Book of the Separateness of the Divine and Undivine." |
