THE SATAKAS 
 
 OF BHARTRIHARI 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY J. M. KENNEDY 
 
MAR M 1920 J 
 
 Divisiott V V\ 3' I : i ! 
 
 Section .B 2.153 
 
THE SATAKAS 
 
 OR 
 
 WISE SAYING: 
 
 N- 
 
 Fi'i'N 
 
 / 
 
 OF 
 
 MAR IS 
 
 BHARTRIHARI A 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE SANSKRIT 
 
 With Notes, and an Introductory Preface on 
 Indian Philosophy 
 
 By 
 
 J. M. KENNEDY 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 ‘‘THE RELIGIONS AND PHILOSOPHIES OF THE EAST,” ETC. 
 
 JOHN W. LUCE & COMPANY, 
 
 INCORPORATED 
 
 143, FEDERAL STREET 
 BOSTON 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chat. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY PREFACE ON INDIAN 
 PHILOSOPHY 
 
 I. THE NITI SATAKA ...... 
 
 II. THE VAIRAGYA SATAKA - . . . 
 
 III. THE SRINGA SATAKA , . . . 
 
 1 
 
 55 
 
 9i 
 
 138 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/satakasorwisesayOObhar 
 
THE - 
 
 SATAKAS OF BHARTRIHARI 
 
 INTRODUCTORY PREFACE 
 ON INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 This new series of translations from 
 Oriental works begins with the Satakas of 
 Bhartrihari, and the object of this Intro- 
 duction is not so much to set forth the very 
 little we know about him and his place in 
 Indian philosophic literature as to give the 
 English reader some conception, however 
 imperfect it must necessarily be, of what 
 Indian philosophy actually is. It is true 
 that Professor Max Muller — probably, in 
 England at any rate, the best-known writer 
 on Oriental philosophy and literature — has 
 classified for us the six main systems of 
 Indian philosophy ; but his volume, which 
 is one of the very few thoroughly trustworthy 
 
 I A 
 
2 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 guides in English, is so ill-constructed and 
 over-laden with detail that the average reader 
 will obtain from it but a very cloudy notion 
 of the type of thought to be included in the 
 term “ Indian Philosophy.” 
 
 It seems to me, indeed, that properly cut 
 and dried classifications are in this case 
 very nearly useless to Europeans. When 
 we speak of philosophy in Europe, however 
 vaguely w r e may use the expression, we 
 mean something which is not necessarily 
 connected with any religion, and something 
 indeed which may be entirely independent 
 of religion, or even anti-religious. In India, 
 however, the religion and the philosophy of 
 the people are commingled to such a degree 
 that it is very difficult and decidedly 
 inadvisable to consider them separately. 
 Furthermore, the Indian is much more 
 logical than the European in that the 
 theories he holds are his practical ideals of 
 life. Very few Europeans, for example, 
 have ever tried to put into practice the 
 essential principles of the Christian religion 
 which most of them profess to hold. The 
 Indian, on the other hand, is not merely 
 familiar with the chief tenets of his faith, 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 3 
 
 but be endeavours according to his lights to 
 carry them out in his daily life. Again, the 
 organisation of the entire Indian social order 
 is based on philosophical and religious prin- 
 ciples, those principles which are expressed 
 perhaps with the greatest clearness in the 
 collection of writings known to us as the 
 Laws of Manu. But in modern Europe our 
 sociological and economic order has not 
 necessarily anything to do with religion at 
 all, and, in fact, in country after country 
 we have witnessed the separation of Church 
 and State; as if the two things, far from 
 being bound up one with another, were 
 reciprocally hostile. Political philosophers, 
 such as Hobbes, Locke, Bentham, Rousseau 
 and Bluntschli, when dealing with the 
 theoretical or practical organisation of the 
 State, either despise religion, or neglect it, or 
 treat it merely as an incidental factor, of 
 subsidiary importance to the State itself. 
 We Europeans do not think it a matter for 
 astonishment if we find economics based on 
 one “ philosophy,” such as the Liberal 
 philosophy of Bentham, or the collectivist 
 philosophy of Henry George, or the Con- 
 servative philosophy of, say, Edmund 
 
4 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 Burke; or again, if we are confronted with a 
 different type of philosophy independent of 
 religion, such as that of Schopenhauer or 
 Kant. We are not surprised when we find 
 political economists like Adam Smith and 
 Ricardo dealing soullessly with problems of 
 taxation, and no doubt we should question 
 their sanity, or at any rate their wisdom, if 
 we found them suggesting that there was 
 any necessary connection between property, 
 religion, taxation, and the social status of 
 the different classes of society. 
 
 In India, however, it may be laid down as 
 a general axiom that all these things are 
 intermingled. Certain principles of Western 
 philosophies and certain features of Western 
 civilisation have no doubt penetrated into 
 India, as the visitor would readily perceive 
 from the slums and low women of large coast 
 towns like Bombay and Calcutta, as well as 
 the hideous factories which are springing up 
 all too rapidly. But, as any friend of India, 
 of culture, and of faith, will be glad to 
 think, these phenomena of the Western 
 world are still confined, with one or two 
 exceptions, to the coast line, and the journey 
 into the interior of the Continent will enable 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 5 
 
 any interested visitor to perceive for himself 
 that the characteristics which distinguished 
 Indian philosophy, Indian religion, and 
 the Indian social order thousands of years 
 ago still exist with scarcely any noteworthy 
 variation. 
 
 The distinctions between the Indian and 
 the European are naturally very many, and 
 it will be sufficient here to refer to a number 
 of the more important. What is bound to 
 strike the European visitor above all is the 
 caste system, the vigour and efficacy of 
 which have in no wise diminished. The 
 caste system in India withstood the terrific 
 spiritual onslaught of Buddhism, the com- 
 bined spiritual and physical onslaught of 
 the Moslems, and the English occupation. 
 An interval of hundreds of years separated 
 each of these strong attacks, and yet the 
 caste system to-day is as powerful in theory 
 and even in practice as we can imagine it to 
 have been six thousand or seven thousand 
 years ago. A system which has endured 
 so long, a system which is so old and 
 yet always youthful, must surely be of 
 unique interest. It is entirely contrary to 
 the spirit of Western Europe. Christianity, 
 
6 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 which in politics is represented by the 
 democratic principle, has decreed that we 
 are all equal. Vague meanings have no 
 doubt been attached to this word equality, 
 and its signification differs according as we 
 find it in the works of Rousseau or in a 
 Papal Encyclical. The fact nevertheless 
 remains that neither Christianity nor 
 Democracy can recognise class distinctions ; 
 and, where class distinctions do exist, 
 democrats never cease to preach against 
 them. We have lived under this religion or 
 philosophy — call it what you will — for close 
 on two thousand years, and if the time has 
 not yet arrived it is certainly approaching 
 very rapidly when all class distinctions, in 
 theory at any rate, will cease to be recog- 
 nised. It is still remarkable, as I am ready 
 to admit, to find how many classes have 
 remained unaffected by this theory of 
 equality which has been propagated for so 
 long. In Russia and Poland, and — though 
 to a much less extent — in Germany, Italy, 
 France, and Spain, there are still very 
 perceptible distinctions between the various 
 classes of society. These distinctions, 
 however, are not recognised by the religious 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 7 
 
 philosophy preached in Europe, and 
 assuming even the maintenance, if not 
 necessarily the increase of the authority of 
 this religious philosophy, such distinctions 
 are in time bound to disappear. 
 
 Now, in India there are not merely 
 distinctions between the various classes in 
 the social order, but these distinctions are 
 definitely fixed in the religion, the philos- 
 ophy, and the law codes of the people. Equal 
 rights and privileges for all do not merely 
 not exist : they are unheard of, and would 
 with difficulty be understood by the people. 
 We shall better understand how this system 
 works when we come to know the four great 
 castes into which Indian society has been 
 divided for untold ages. First of all comes 
 the priestly caste, the Brahmins. Although 
 we refer to the Brahmins as the priestly 
 caste, we must here make the word 
 priestly ’ ’ include not merely priests as 
 the word is used in Europe, but philosophers, 
 learned men, and ascetics. Second in order 
 comes the Kshattriya caste, the Kshattriyas 
 of old including those now better known 
 perhaps as the Rajputs, i.e. the kings, 
 administrators, statesmen, warriors, and 
 
8 THE SATAKAS 
 
 fighting men generally. It must be 
 recollected that the kings and statesmen, 
 however powerful they might be, could not 
 and cannot exercise complete and entire 
 authority in India. They have always been 
 subject to the spiritual authority of the caste 
 above them. Thirdly come the Vaishyas, 
 this caste including all merchants, business 
 men, bankers, shopkeepers, farmers, and so 
 forth. Lastly we have the Sudra caste, and 
 this is a caste which it is difficult to define 
 exactly. We cannot call them the working 
 classes, because there are no people in India 
 corresponding exactly to those indicated by 
 the Western use of the term. To describe 
 the Sudras as casual labourers would be to 
 convey but an approximate idea of a small 
 section of the caste. It is perhaps best to 
 say that the Sudras are composed of the 
 lowest classes in Indian society, but they are 
 nevertheless a caste by themselves, and as 
 such have certain privileges, however few 
 and unimportant, of which they cannot be 
 deprived. 
 
 Each caste is naturally still further sub- 
 divided, and there are distinctions more or 
 less minute, with which it is hardly necessary 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 9 
 
 to trouble the European reader. But it 
 should be added that the variety of Indian 
 society, like the variety of Indian scenery, 
 climate and soil, is inexhaustible. There 
 is a passage in Mr Meredith Townsend’s 
 book “ Asia and Europe ” which well sums 
 up this variety : — 
 
 Indian society is not a democracy. Amidst all 
 the peasants and officials stand hundreds, or rather 
 thousands, of families as distinct from the masses 
 as the Percys from English labourers, three 
 hundred of them ruling States large or small — 
 one is bigger than the British Isles; one only two 
 miles square— three thousand of them perhaps who 
 on the Continent would be accounted nobles, 
 some with pedigrees like those of the Massimi 
 or the Zichy’s, some only of yesterday; but all as 
 utterly separated from the people as a hill from 
 the river at its base. And behind them stand 
 other thousands of squires, each with his own 
 family traditions, each with hereditary tenantry, 
 each with some position and character and 
 speciality which, within fifty miles of his home, 
 are as well known as those of the Egertons in 
 Cheshire, or the Luttrells in West Somerset. 
 And behind them again are millions — literally 
 millions — of families, country and urban, with 
 modest means, and little wish for advancement, 
 yet freeholders to a man, with histories often 
 which trace back further than those of the Lords, 
 with a pride of their own which is immovable. 
 
id (THE 1 SATAKAS 
 
 and with characters that for five miles are known 
 and reckoned on, and, so to speak, expected, as 
 regularly and as accurately as if they were 
 Hohenzollerns in Brandenburg. Ask the settle- 
 ment officers — who alone among Indian officials, 
 except sometimes the highest, really know the 
 people — and they will tell you that, above the very 
 lowest, no two Indian families are alike in rank 
 or character or reputation, or even, though that 
 seems so impossible, in means. 
 
 These features represent a trait of 
 character which has been called, more 
 particularly since Nietzsche’s time, aristo- 
 cratic. When we use the words democratic 
 and aristocratic in this respect, however, we 
 must take care to distinguish between their 
 philosophical and their political signification. 
 When we speak of an aristocratic society in 
 this connection, we now generally mean by 
 the expression what Nietzsche himself meant 
 by it — a society that believes in a long scale 
 of gradations of rank and differences of worth 
 amongst human beings and a society 
 likewise which is based on some form of 
 slavey. A democratic society is of course 
 the opposite of this, a society that does not 
 believe in gradations of rank and seeks to 
 level all classes. The types of mind 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 ii 
 
 produced in each form of society naturally 
 vary : the aristocratic thinker, as Nietzsche 
 expresses it, will be constantly looking down 
 on the lower class as his subordinates and 
 instruments, whom he will command in 
 accordance with his wishes and keep at a 
 respectful distance from him, and this in its 
 turn will give rise to the longing for a 
 continually new widening of distance within 
 the soul itself and ‘ ‘ the formation of ever 
 higher, rarer, further, more extended, more 
 comprehensive states,” i.e. the “ self- 
 surmounting of man.” The aristocratic 
 sage, thus thrown as it were on his own 
 philosophical resources, is bound to develop 
 his individuality, his own peculiar form of 
 expression, or, to sum it up in one word, 
 his individuum, to a much greater extent 
 than the democratic thinker can do. For 
 refined egotism is not permitted to the latter, 
 who must necessarily be altruistic and keep 
 his fellow-creatures in mind as well as his 
 own development. 
 
 When this philosophical distinction be- 
 tween two words which are now more often 
 employed in a political than in a philosophical 
 signification is thoroughly grasped, it will 
 
12 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 be seen what an enormous influence on the 
 development of thought was exercised by the 
 primitive Indian organisation of society. It 
 is easy for us at the present day, with the 
 works of a long line of philosophers from the 
 early Indians to Aristotle, and from 
 Aristotle down to Kant and Bergson, at 
 our command, to talk glibly about the 
 differences between aristocratic and demo- 
 cratic philosophy and the numerous sub- 
 divisions in each. We have within reach the 
 works of both types of men, and there is 
 always the possibility of our being convinced 
 by one or the other, and having our opinions 
 and ideas influenced accordingly. But it 
 was a different matter in the case of the men 
 whose works it is hoped to publish from time 
 to time in this series. We may not know the 
 names of the writers of the Vedas and the 
 Upanishads, but we do nevertheless possess 
 these works, which stand at the head of the 
 long line of Indian philosophical writings. 
 These works, with innumerable others, were 
 handed down in what Max Muller has 
 happily called mnemonic literature ; for in 
 ancient India the memory was developed to 
 an extent which we in our day and country 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 i3 
 
 would consider almost incredible. It is safe 
 to say that the Vedas can be traced back for 
 at least seven thousand years, and I think 
 that most scholars and students of Orientalia 
 now agree in believing this to be a 
 conservative estimate. But long before a 
 line of the Vedas was committed to memory 
 the clans which were as yet forming their 
 philosophy only subconsciously were fight- 
 ing their way into Northern India over the 
 Pamir plateau. The exact date of this vast 
 incursion will now probably never be known, 
 and even its approximate era is still a matter 
 of more or less haphazard speculation. On 
 the basis of the most recent geological, ethno- 
 logical, and philological data, most of us who 
 are interested in these matters assume the 
 Aryan invasion to have taken place not less 
 than five hundred centuries ago. Yet even 
 then there was a certain hierarchy among 
 the invaders. They were divided — I will 
 not say into two castes, because caste is 
 often a misleading word — but rather into 
 two sociological groups : the warriors and 
 powerful men of the different tribes, and the 
 herdsmen and agriculturalists who followed 
 their leadership. 
 
14 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 I have said that during this period of 
 invasion a philosophy was being sub- 
 consciously formed ; but it did not actually 
 mature until the aborigines in Northern 
 India had been subdued and turned into 
 slaves, and until the Aryans had definitely 
 seized on certain lands and settled there, and 
 given up their wandering habits. This 
 would naturally lead to the almost 
 simultaneous development of the two supple- 
 mentary castes or classes. The definite 
 possession of land would naturally tend to 
 distinguish the farmers or Vaishya caste 
 from the fighting or Kshattriya caste. The 
 lowest caste, or Sudras, were naturally 
 looked upon as being on an infinitely lower 
 level than the two higher classes, because 
 primarily and above all there was a difference 
 of blood between them and their conquerors, 
 exactly as there was a difference of blood, 
 though not nearly to the same extent, between 
 the Kshattriyas and the Vaishyas. Simultan- 
 eously with the formation of the Sudra caste, 
 however, and the sharper distinction be- 
 tween the Kshattriyas and the Vaishyas, the 
 need for a higher caste was felt, owing to 
 the necessity for better guidance. This 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 15 
 
 necessity followed as a matter of course. 
 We know how relatively easy it is to support 
 Life in most parts of agricultural India at 
 the present day, and with a much smaller 
 population and a fresher soil life thousands 
 of years ago in the great sub-continent must 
 have been practically self-supporting. The 
 warriors, once the aborigines had been 
 definitely conquered, found little necessity 
 for continuous fighting until in later ages 
 they began to fight among themselves. Two 
 important factors, therefore, contributed to 
 the development of the spiritual Brahmin 
 caste. The first and less important was the 
 fact that although physical fighting was less 
 necessary intellectual combats in the form 
 of administration were about to be fought, 
 for the lower classes of the State had to be 
 kept in order by the higher, and something 
 more than mere brute force is always 
 essential for this. The second factor, which 
 was by far the more important, was that 
 natural impulse in the soul of man that 
 makes him look instinctively to some higher 
 power; the impulse that leads to animism, 
 totemism, fetichism, or any of the other 
 numerous primitive forms of spiritual ex- 
 
i6 
 
 THE 1 SATAKAS 
 
 pression. It thus came about that we find in 
 one of the early Upanishads the question set 
 forth almost in the same words as it appears 
 in the writings of the Greek philosophers or 
 the Chinese philosophers and the philoso- 
 phers of modern Europe; questions which 
 must have been asked for thousands of years 
 before they were at length written down in a 
 permanent form : Whence are we born ? 
 How do we live ? Whither are we going ? 
 
 Now, all the evidence we have goes to show 
 that the first men of profound spiritual 
 insight who set themselves to solve these 
 problems as best they might sprang from the 
 most aristocratic of the warrior clans. In the 
 course of time they and their wives and 
 families formed an entirely separate caste. 
 They naturally intermarried and thus cut 
 themselves off even by blood from what 
 had formerly been the highest caste in the 
 social order. Their aristocratic upbringing 
 naturally accompanied them and influenced 
 them, whence it followed that the earliest 
 Indian philosophy, thousands of years before 
 a single one of its tenets was committed to 
 paper, and even generations before any part 
 of it was committed to memory, assumed 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 17 
 
 a distinctly aristocratic trend. These early 
 thinkers had no means at their disposal such 
 as we have : they were not surrounded by 
 the works of learned men, and the first 
 generation of them could not be said even to 
 have possessed the society of learned men. 
 Instinctively faithful to the true Indian ideal, 
 they quietly renounced what they looked 
 upon as the delusive pleasures of this world, 
 gave themselves up to a solitary existence 
 in forests or in mountain-caves, and spent 
 their time in meditation. And from such 
 beginnings sprang the most wonderful 
 philosophical fabric ever reared. 
 
 One feature of the rise of the Brahmins 
 may be mentioned here, although it did not 
 take place until long after the period which 
 has just been referred to. When the 
 numbers of the Brahmins had considerably 
 increased and they alone had the privilege 
 of interpreting religious beliefs, philo- 
 sophical tenets, and the law codes to the 
 other castes, they wished to arrogate to 
 themselves the supreme power in the State, 
 not merely in fact, but also in name. This 
 pretension was almost at once disputed by 
 the warrior caste, and Indian society would 
 
 B 
 
i8 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 appear to have been shaken to its very depths 
 by fierce battles fought with physical rather 
 than intellectual weapons between the 
 warriors who wished to be priests and the 
 priests who showed that on occasion they 
 could act as warriors. More remarkable still 
 perhaps is the fact that the warrior caste 
 seems to have been utterly defeated and in 
 fact all but annihilated by the Brahmins. 
 Just before it was too late, however, the 
 •priests perceived the error of which they 
 had very nearly been guilty. Intellectual 
 life is impossible if the thinker is brought 
 into daily touch with the coarser side of 
 existence, with the details of administration, 
 with the mob and the ways of the mob. An 
 intelligent executive is nevertheless neces- 
 sary, and it must be interposed between 
 those who think and the vast crowd of the 
 common people. This intelligent executive 
 had been supplied in India by the statesmen 
 and warrior caste. If this caste had been 
 completely ruined, its place would have had 
 to be taken by the Brahmins themselves, 
 and it is obvious that administrative functions 
 would have left neither time nor opportunity 
 for the progress of culture or the development 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 J 9 
 
 of thought. Before it was too late, there- 
 fore, the Brahmins gathered together the 
 fragments, as it were, of the warrior caste, 
 definitely imposed certain functions upon it, 
 and then went back to their forests and their 
 caves. This is a unique event, and is worthy 
 of more than a mere passing glance. It is 
 no doubt true that culture and philosophy 
 have existed in Europe, to take an example 
 with which we should be fairly familiar, for 
 more than twenty centuries. But even those 
 among us who do not profess to be very 
 ardent students of the classics will be the 
 first to admit that we have not developed in 
 a cultural or philosophical sense beyond 
 where the ancient Greeks left off : we have, 
 it is true, made great strides in purely 
 material things, but in spiritual affairs we 
 are little wiser than Plato, Herakleitus, or 
 Pythagoras. And in England, above all, 
 spiritual knowledge has been on a low level 
 since the days of Elizabeth, not because 
 high-minded men were lacking among us, 
 but because their energies were overpowered 
 by men who from the standpoint of the soul 
 were on a lower level than themselves, and 
 driven into paths for which they were not 
 
20 
 
 tTHE SATAKAS 
 
 precisely fitted — first of all, the capture and 
 colonising of distant lands, and consequently 
 the administration of the lands thus acquired. 
 There is in every country a certain proportion 
 of intellect. In India, Greece, and France, 
 to name three instances, a proper proportion 
 of this intellect was directed in suitable and 
 adequate cultural channels ; but the limited 
 supply of this intellectual force in England 
 has long been diverted to administrative 
 functions, with the result that practically 
 none of it is left to carry on our cultural 
 traditions. 
 
 This mistake, as we have seen, the 
 Brahmins avoided just in time. They 
 thoughtj which is a difficult task ; and they 
 left it to the intelligent classes immediately 
 below them to act, which is a less difficult 
 task. Hence there is from the very begin- 
 ning of Indian thought down practically to 
 the present day a steady spiritual progress. 
 There is one definite traditional line; for 
 without tradition there can be neither art 
 nor philosophy nor literature. Occasionally 
 there were Indian philosophers who shot off 
 at a tangent', just as there were others whose 
 footsteps often stumbled and hesitated as 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 21 
 
 they advanced, but in general this line was 
 followed by all Indian thinkers. It is a 
 somewhat difficult matter to explain to the 
 European precisely what this traditional 
 line of Indian thought is ; yet it must be 
 explained as adequately as possible before 
 the various aspects of Indian philosophy can 
 be properly grasped. Let the following serve 
 as an attempt to condense the essential 
 principle of Hindu religious philosophy into 
 a fairly intelligible form : 
 
 Matter follows the spirit, and consequently 
 the spirit, or as we Europeans would perhaps 
 say the soul, being the spiritual part of the 
 body, is more important, infinitely more 
 important, than the mere physical body. 
 This unimportant physical body of ours may 
 date, if we like to say so, from the moment 
 if its birth, but the only important part of 
 us, that is, the soul, does not date from the 
 birth of the mere body, but from all eternity. 
 Our body is born and dies, but we are 
 reincarnated time after time by the only 
 sensory part of us, viz. the soul, which is 
 transmigrated or reincarnated from body to 
 body. 
 
 Our soul cannot be looked upon as a 
 
22 fTHE 1 SATAKAS 
 
 created thing, for if it were created, it would 
 be liable to perish and decay, whereas it 
 is really permanent. Not being a creation, 
 therefore, our soul must be properly de- 
 scribed as an emanation. From what then 
 does our soul emanate ? From Infinity — 
 not precisely from that which in the Christian 
 Scriptures is called Chaos. This infinity, 
 or rather this state of infinity, is known to 
 Hindu philosophers by the neuter word 
 Brahman — a very different thing, it must 
 be recollected, from the God we afterwards 
 come to know as Brahma. This infinity, or 
 Brahman, is the origin — in so far as the 
 subtle metaphysics of Indian philosoph}?- will 
 allow us to speak of an origin at all — of all 
 things. Brahman is even the origin of God 
 — the most remarkable philosophic principle 
 ever conceived, and one that takes a stride 
 further back into the primitive development 
 of mankind than any other religion. 
 
 Whether or not God is endowed with the 
 function of creating does not matter when 
 we wish to consider the soul, because the 
 soul, like God himself, is an emanation from 
 Brahman. The soul is thus self-existent, 
 but being beyond the influence of matter, 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 23 
 
 and being likewise an emanation, it is 
 continually struggling to rid itself from 
 matter altogether — i.e. from the body — and 
 to get back to its source in order to 
 become again one with the Infinite. Only 
 when it has been thus absorbed by the 
 Infinite again does it attain to its full state 
 of bliss. 
 
 It may be held by Europeans that this is 
 in direct contradiction to the aristocratic 
 development of the Indian individuum, and 
 that the soul, by thus once again becoming 
 one with the Infinite, entirely loses its own 
 individuality. But there are innumerable 
 answers to this objection, and they may be 
 concisely summed up when we say that, 
 although the soul may experience a certain 
 amount of happiness in sharing the con- 
 sciousness of body after body, it must 
 necessarily experience infinitely more happi- 
 ness, incalculable happiness in fact, when it 
 is in a position to share the consciousness of 
 the entire universe. 
 
 This happiness may eventually be attained 
 by the soul, but owing to the evil actions of 
 men on earth it naturally follows that they 
 — i.e. the spiritual part of them, their souls 
 
24 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 — cannot attain to this universal happiness 
 all at once. In some cases hundreds of 
 thousands of generations must elapse and in 
 other cases hundreds of thousands of years. 
 Hence the calmness with which the Hindu 
 will endure suffering and pain and cruelty, 
 and hence also the calmness with which he 
 will contemplate the pain and suffering of 
 his fellows, end the infliction of cruelty upon 
 them ; for sympathy, as we understand the 
 word and the thing in the West, is all 
 but unknown in the East. If a Hindu is 
 stricken with disease or is treated with the 
 grossest injustice, or is plunged into the 
 depths of misery and despair by the loss of 
 parents, wife, children, or property, he does 
 not utter mournful complaints about the 
 injustice of fate. He realises that one of two 
 things is happening to him, or possibly even 
 both at once : he is being punished, and 
 justly punished, no doubt, for his evil actions 
 in a former existence, although his memory 
 does not extend so far back as this previous 
 incarnation, and he has forgotten his 
 wickedness ; or else he is being punished in 
 order that he may acquire merit, and so live 
 a better life when his soul leaves its present 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 25 
 
 abode and passes into some other earthly 
 habitation. 
 
 This emanation of the soul from the 
 Infinite, and its continual reincarnation in 
 body after body until it has acquired sufficient 
 merit to return to the Infinite again, is the 
 traditional principle of Hindu religion and 
 philosophy, and I have tried to explain it 
 as clearly as possible. One question, how- 
 ever, will instantly suggest itself to the 
 reader, viz. what process must the soul 
 go through in order that it may acquire 
 sufficient merit, to use the well-known 
 expression, to make itself again one with the 
 Infinite ? 
 
 Obviously the first step to be taken towards 
 unity with the Infinite is to free oneself 
 as far as possible from this world. Suicide 
 is useless as a means to this end, because the 
 soul would in that case merely leave one 
 bodily habitation for another — it would be 
 merely a temporary physical relief, and not 
 a permanent spiritual one. For the soul to 
 be reunited with the universe we must quit 
 this world, not only bodily, but, what is 
 all-important, spiritually as well; and we 
 can do this only by crushing down and 
 
26 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 overcoming all the desires that attach us, so 
 to speak, to this world. Among these desires 
 or attractions are of course power, wealth, 
 good food and drink, fine clothes, and the 
 pleasures of sex. These things we must 
 all renounce. Hence we find Bhartrihari 
 deprecating the world and the pleasures to 
 be found in it — pleasures which he refers to 
 as illusions — and telling us instead that the 
 proper example to follow is that of the ascetic 
 who lives in a mountain-cave or in the forest, 
 and is content with little, whether garments, 
 food, or drink. His book is by no means a 
 long one, but nevertheless this principle is 
 impressed upon us over and over again. 
 Practically the whole of the Vairagya Sataka 
 is one long glorification of the life of the 
 ascetic, and an appeal to us — at times almost 
 pathetic in its intensity — to give up the 
 pleasures of the world for something better 
 and more lasting. By meditation we become 
 pure, and the more we concentrate our mind 
 on Brahma the less we shall feel the 
 attractions of the world, the more merit we 
 shall acquire, and all the sooner consequently 
 shall we fit ourselves for the supreme bliss. 
 
 Nothing is ever carried out to its logical 
 
27 
 
 INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 conclusion. It is obvious that if every unit 
 in Indian society bad become an ascetic, the 
 magnificent hierarchy in the social order 
 would have become a chaos, there would have 
 been no one to attend to the fields or the herds, 
 and there would have been no one even to 
 supply the begging ascetic with the few alms 
 he required. There did, indeed, come a time 
 in the later history of Brahminism when 
 there was a superabundance of ascetics, 
 but human nature soon restored the normal 
 balance. One effect, however, these religious 
 principles did have, and that was to develop 
 a contemplative mind in practically every 
 Hindu, developing at the same time a 
 peculiar calmness, accompanied nevertheless 
 by a strong will power ; a joint phenomenon 
 which has always puzzled Westerners unac- 
 quainted with the bases of Indian thought. 
 It is hardly necessary to say, however, that 
 very different meanings may be attached to 
 meditation, and what may be good meditative 
 qualities in one mind may not be so in 
 another. The question having been posed, 
 How can “we become one wjth the Infinite ? ’ ’ 
 the answers were not long in being given. 
 What, perhaps, will strike the European as 
 
'28 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 significant is the exceedingly minute manner 
 in which all the processes of the mind have 
 been analysed in India, together with all the 
 effects produced on the mind by external 
 things. Hardly any intellectual process has 
 been left unaccounted for, and every possible 
 shade of subtle meaning has been covered by 
 a word. There is one expression to indicate 
 the relationship existing between water and 
 ice, and another to indicate the relationship 
 existing between cloth as cloth and the same 
 cloth made up into garments. These 
 distinctions have perhaps been carried to 
 their greatest extreme in that system of 
 Indian philosophy known as the Nyaya, 
 which has often been called the Hindu system 
 of logic. 
 
 This Nyaya system of philosophy which 
 has just been referred to is one of the so- 
 called six orthodox systems — orthodox, not 
 in that they agree on the nature or even the 
 existence of God, but in the sense that they 
 acknowledge more or less implicitly the 
 authority of the Vedic writings. I have said 
 elsewhere 1 that wherever we find a religious 
 
 1 “ The Religions and Philosophies of the East.” 
 (T. Werner Laurie.) 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 29 
 
 system well developed and capable of in- 
 fluencing almost every branch of even the 
 everyday life of a nation, we find that as 
 a general rule there is comparatively little 
 room or necessity for a supplementary system 
 of philosophy. It is approximately correct 
 to say that the principles of Hindu religion 
 are laid down in the sacred writings known 
 as the Vedas, and that the six orthodox 
 systems of Indian philosophy really amount 
 in the end to little more than commentaries 
 on the Vedas. Three of these “ systems ” 
 indeed so closely resemble the other three that 
 they may be described in pairs : (1) Mimamsa 
 and Vedanta, (2) Sankhya and Yoga, and 
 (3) Nyaya and Vaisehika. 
 
 It is true there are critics who hold that 
 the Mimamsa is not, strictly speaking, a 
 philosophjr at all ; but if we are going to omit 
 the Mimamsa system from this list, we may 
 as well leave out the other five systems also. 
 Mimamsa — or rather Purva-Mimamsa, i.e. 
 preliminary inquiry — is an attempt to 
 systematise the principles which should be 
 applied to the interpretation of Scripture, 
 i.e. to the interpretation of the Vedas. We 
 know this in Europe by the shorter title of 
 
3 o THE SATAKAS 
 
 exegesis. Apparently the Mimamsa philos- 
 ophy dates from the second or third century 
 of our era, and its reputed founder was one 
 Jaimini, a sort of Indian Thomas Aquinas. 
 The name of the second system, Vedanta, 
 means “ end of the Veda,” and the 
 alternative name for it of Uttara-Mimamsa, 
 meaning “ later inquiry,” serves to describe 
 it concisely. It sets forth at considerable 
 length the process by which all things arose 
 from Brahman, to which the soul is later on 
 destined to return. 
 
 The third, or Sankhya system, is ascribed 
 to Kapila, and represents what may, for the 
 sake of convenience, be called the materi- 
 alistic side of Indian philosophy. Sankhy- 
 aists ascribe the origin of the earth to a 
 material first cause devoid of intelligence, 
 from which the universe has been developed 
 by a process of unconscious evolution. It 
 will thus be seen that this third system of 
 Indian philosophy has something in common 
 with the older school of English evolutionists. 
 
 To the twenty-four principles laid down 
 by the Sankhyaists, the adherents of the 
 fourth or Yoga system add a twenty-fifth : 
 “ Nirguna purusha,” i.e. the man, or 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 3i 
 
 rather the self, without attributeis.^ This 
 principle presupposes evolution based on 
 some theistic principle, and on this account 
 the Yoga is occasionally referred to as the 
 theistic or Sesvara Sankhya. 
 
 The fifth and sixth systems differ essen- 
 tially from one another in so few points 
 that they are usually studied together. 
 Nyaya, which literally translated means 
 method or rule, is chiefly noteworthy for 
 its complicated dialectics. The Vaisehika 
 system is so called from its main principle, 
 viz. that each separate atom (visesha) 
 possesses its own individuality, and that the 
 cosmos has been formed from an agglomera- 
 tion of these atoms. This last system is a 
 late development — it probably dates from 
 the fifth century of our era — and it is 
 interesting, but perhaps not very profitable, 
 to compare the Indian atomic system as set 
 forth in it with the atomic theory enunciated 
 by Lucretius. 
 
 But no account of Indian philosophy, 
 however elementary, would be complete 
 without mention of one of the most 
 remarkable books in literature, philosophy or 
 religion, the Bhagavad-Gita.” This work. 
 
32 THE SATAKAS 
 
 although written at an earlier date than the 
 treatises on some of the six philosophical 
 systems already mentioned, nevertheless 
 includes principles common to them all. It 
 is read by all creeds, castes, and classes of 
 Hindus, and is of great importance in that 
 it forms the basis of Hinduism as we know 
 it at the present day — modern Hinduism 
 may be summed up as a corrupt form of the 
 ancient Vedism, influenced to some extent, 
 although not very greatly, by the principles 
 of the Buddhists. Bhagavad-Gita means 
 ‘ ‘ the song of the adored one, ’ ’ or, as it has 
 perhaps been more accurately translated, 
 “ the divine lay.” The hero or god of the 
 book is Krishna, and the term Bhagavad- 
 Gita or “ adored one ” is applied to him 
 when he is identified with the Deity. We 
 thus get the expression Krishnaism, which 
 is often used to indicate the faith outlined in 
 the “ Bhagavad-Gita.” This book nominally 
 forms a part of the well-known Indian 
 epic poem, the “ Mahabharata ” ; but there 
 is little connection between it and the other 
 poems that go to make up that long epic — it 
 is as if a chapter from the New Testament 
 had unexpectedly found its way into the 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 33 
 
 Iliad. There is therefore some ground for 
 believing, as most modern critics do, that 
 the “ Bhagavad-Gita ” was simply added to 
 the “ Mahabharata ” at a later date to give 
 it the authority of antiquity and of divine 
 inspiration. Probably the book appeared 
 in a written form about the first century of 
 our era, and there are many resemblances 
 between it and the New Testament. It is 
 beyond the scope of this Introduction to say 
 which borrowed from the other, and I have 
 already referred to the matter elsewhere. 
 It will be sufficient for our purpose to say 
 that it is much more likely that the New 
 Testament writers borrowed from the 
 “ Bhagavad-Gita ” than vice versa. As an 
 instance of a resemblance between the two 
 scriptural works a quotation or two may be 
 given. Krishna says (ix. 27) “ whatever 
 thou doest ; whatever thou eatest ; whatever 
 thou sacrificest ; whatever thou givest away ; 
 whatever mortification thou mayest perform : 
 do all as if to me.” With this compare 
 (1 Cor. x. 31) “ whether therefore ye eat or 
 drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the 
 glory of God.” Krishna says again : “Be 
 not sorrowful ; from all thy sins I will deliver 
 
THE SATAKAS 
 
 34 
 
 thee ” : while in Matthew ix. 2 we read, 
 “Be of good cheer ; thy sins be forgiven 
 thee.” Let me add just one further dual 
 quotation, in which the resemblance 
 is, if possible, even more striking : in 
 
 describing Heaven Krishna says of it that it 
 is a place “ in which neither sun nor moon 
 need shine, for all the lustre it possesses is 
 mine.” The Heaven described in Revelation 
 xxi. 23 is a city which “ had no need of 
 the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, 
 for the glory of God did lighten it.” 
 
 The main theme of the “ Mahabharata ” 
 being the war between the Indian tribes of the 
 Kurus and the Pandus, the author of the 
 “ Bhagavad-Gita ” in order that his poem 
 might appear to form an integral part of the 
 gre epic, begins it with a description of the 
 battle-field and the warriors. Long collo- 
 quies take place among the leaders of both 
 sides in order that the reader may be made 
 familiar with the somewhat complicated 
 series of births, deaths, marriages, and inter- 
 marriages leading up to the main subject. 
 There is, we may note in passing, still 
 another analogy with the New Testament in 
 these preliminaries, for some Indian Herod 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 35 
 
 is described as having put to death all the 
 first-born in a certain district. After this 
 the two chief personages of the book are 
 introduced, viz. Krishna and his disciple, 
 Arjuna. Their subsequent dialogues develop 
 for us their conception of the Supreme Deity, 
 Krishna himself being, to describe him with 
 approximate correctness, the god turned man 
 who created the world. These dialogues may 
 be summarised thus : — ■ 
 
 Krishna is the Supreme God ; he is 
 superior to the other deities as well as 
 Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva : furthermore he 
 is “ the only existence, the only real sub- 
 stance of all things.” “ I am the Cause of 
 the production and destruction of the entire 
 universe.” “ Nothing superior to me 
 exists.” “ I am the origin of all gods, the 
 great lord of the world without beginning.” 
 The world is not a creation, but was 
 produced by Krishna from his own nature 
 (prakriti) . He says : ‘ ‘ All things exist in 
 me. Supported by my material essence, I 
 caused this entire system of existing things 
 to emanate again and again, without any 
 power of their own, by the power of this 
 material essence. When a devotee recognises 
 
THE SATAKAS 
 
 3 6 
 
 the individual essence of everything to be 
 comprehended in one, and to be only an 
 emanation from it, he then attains to the 
 supreme spirit. Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, 
 Ether, Heart, Intellect, and Egoism : into 
 these eight components is my nature 
 (prakriti) divided. This nature is an inferior 
 one ; but learn my superior nature, other 
 than this, of a vital kind, by means of which 
 this universe is sustained. Understand that 
 all things are produced from this latter or 
 higher nature.” When it is completely 
 developed, however, we find that the doctrine 
 in addition to the eight component parts 
 mentioned above includes fifteen others, the 
 inferior nature being designated as avyakta, 
 or non-developed matter, which is changed 
 into vyakta, or developed matter, by the 
 superior nature. 
 
 Man, again, is composed of an eternal, 
 immortal soul which is an emanation from 
 Krishna’s superior nature, and of a mortal 
 and perishable body derived from Krishna’s 
 inferior nature. The soul is subject to trans- 
 migration from body to body, until it is 
 finally absorbed into Krishna’s essence. 
 This principle of transmigration is common 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 37 
 
 both to Buddhism and to Brahminism, and 
 of course Krishna’s essence corresponds to 
 the Vedic Brahman or to the Buddhistic 
 Nirvana. As this latter word is by now fairly 
 well known to Western readers, I have not 
 scrupled to employ it occasionally in this 
 translation of Bhartrihari, where the text 
 would perhaps strictly call for some other 
 but equivalent expression. 
 
 Reverting to the ‘ ‘ Bhagavad-Gita ’ ’ we are 
 reminded that the only real existence is to 
 be found in the Spirit, which is eternal. 
 What we call matter does not exist at all. 
 Matter is merely the delusion of Maya, the 
 mystic power by which Krishna the supreme 
 god has created a transitory world, which 
 appears to be, but is not. “ Krishna ” is 
 indestructible ; “as a man abandons worn- 
 out clothes, and dons new ones, so the soul 
 leaves worn-out bodies, and enters other new 
 ones.” 
 
 Prakriti is composed of three qualities, 
 (gunas) goodness, passion, and ignorance, 
 (sattwa, rajas, and tamas), and the soul, being 
 one with nature, comes under their influence. 
 Hence the qualities referred to unite the soul 
 with illusion and bring about transmigration. 
 
THE SATAKAS 
 
 38 
 
 Krishna, again, is responsible for all our 
 actions, whether they are good or evil, for 
 “ all qualities (gunas), whether goodness 
 (sattwa), passion (rajas), or ignorance in 
 darkness (tamas), proceed from me.” 
 Krishna, we are likewise told, instituted the 
 four castes according to the proportion of 
 natural qualities and actions. The Brahmin 
 excels in goodness, the Kshattriya in good- 
 ness and passion ; the Vaishya in passion 
 and ignorance, and the Sudra in ignorance 
 alone. The “ actions ” of the first consist 
 in knowledge, praj^er, inspiration, and self- 
 control, of the second sovereignty and the 
 protection of the people, of the third 
 commerce and agriculture, and of the fourth 
 servitude. 
 
 I have previously referred to the fact that 
 at one stage in Indian society the wish of 
 everybody to become an ascetic almost upset 
 the balance of the social order for a time. 
 The exhortations in the “ Bhagavad-Gita ” 
 had no little influence in restoring the 
 balance, for “ Krishna ” emphasises the fact 
 that it is impossible for any man to live with- 
 out action of some sort, and he imposes upon 
 all the castes the obligation of performing the 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 39 
 
 duties laid down for them, while at the same 
 time renouncing the world as much as they 
 can. In order that this may be accomplished, 
 of course, the passions must be subdued, and 
 certain rules are given to show how this may 
 be done. “ A devotee should always exercise 
 himself, remaining in seclusion and solitude, 
 restraining his thoughts without indulging 
 hopes and without possessions, keeping a 
 couch for himself in an undefiled spot, not 
 too lofty or too low. Then, fixing his 
 heart on the Supreme Being, restraining his 
 thoughts, senses, and actions, he should 
 practise devotion for the purification of his 
 soul. Holding his body, head, and neck, all 
 even and immovable, firmly seated, regard- 
 ing only the tip of his nose and not looking 
 round in different directions, the devotee 
 should remain quiet with passionless soul, 
 free from anxiety and intent on me (Krishna) 
 . . . Hear my supreme words, most sacred 
 of all. Thou art very much beloved of me, 
 and therefore I will tell thee what is good. 
 Place thy affections on me, worship me, sacri- 
 fice to me, and reverence me. Seek me as thy 
 refuge, and I will deliver thee from all sin.” 
 As we might expect, Pantheism is an 
 
THE SATAKAS 
 
 40 
 
 essential doctrine of Krishnaism. All things 
 are emanations from God or Krishna, and, 
 therefore, no matter what things may be 
 worshipped, he is worshipped in them. 
 
 When we have thus summarised the 
 “ Bhagavad-Gita,” we have also summar- 
 ised, as I have previously intimated, many 
 principles common to the ‘ ‘ Bhagavad-Gita ’ ’ 
 and the six orthodox philosophical systems 
 already mentioned. The distinctions and 
 further details need not concern us long. 
 
 In the investigation of truth the Indian 
 philosopher works from within outwards : we 
 begin with the ego, and not with the non-ego ; 
 with the noumenon, and not with the phen- 
 omenon. The ego and the non-ego are, 
 however, related to one another, for it is 
 impossible to gain a complete knowledge of 
 the one without some knowledge of the other. 
 If we admit that there is an outer physical 
 world apart altogether from its cognition by 
 the ego, we must also admit that it is impos- 
 sible to prove the existence of this world until 
 the ego is illuminated. 
 
 The Yogis, who fall into a deep (sleep 
 (sushupti) or into a profound trance 
 (samadhi), will tell us that when they lose 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 r 4i 
 
 consciousness of the ego, they lose conscious- 
 ness of the world at the same time, and that 
 they do not begin to perceive the world again 
 until they are once more conscious of their 
 ego. The conclusion is thus arrived at that 
 the “ I ” is the more important : conscious- 
 ness of the “ I ” precedes the consciousness 
 of the outer world, and we must therefore 
 work from the ego outwards. The non-ego 
 does not exist as something which is entirely 
 independent of the ego, but is merely 
 another aspect of it. Hence the non-ego is 
 merged with the ego itself into “ atman,” 
 which word may be variously translated as 
 spirit, breath, or soul — i.e. the vital spark 
 that pervades every created thing. At other 
 times “ atman ” may mean the inmost 
 nature of man and things, when the word 
 becomes practically a synonym for idanta, 
 which corresponds in a great measure to the 
 mediaeval philosophic expression quiddity, 
 and might occasionally be translated self. 
 By a slight expansion of the meaning 
 atman ” came to be used to represent the 
 paramatman or the soul of the world. It is 
 necessary thus to speak at some little length 
 of “ atman ” because, next to the neuter 
 
42 
 
 THE 1 SATAKAS 
 
 Brahman, it is perhaps the most important 
 word connected with the Vedic religion. 
 
 It is the philosophical aspect of this 
 religion which we find exemplified in the 
 Vedic writings and in the commentaries 
 upon them. The Vedas (veda may be 
 roughly translated “knowledge”) are also 
 known as sruti, i.e. revelations — in other 
 words, the revelations of the universal 
 Brahman or “ atman ” to the rishis, or 
 priests. The collections (sanhitas) of the 
 sacred writings or “ mantras ” comprise : — 
 1 1 ) The Rig-Veda, (2) the Saman or 
 Samaveda, (3) the Yajush or Yaj.urveda, (4) 
 the Artharvan or Atharvaveda. To each of 
 these textbooks or manuals of religion is 
 attached a series of prose works (Brahmanas) 
 the aim of which is to explain the text- 
 books and the nature of the sacrificial rites 
 mentioned in them. In some cases further 
 commentaries are added, the Aranyakas and 
 the Upanishads. The Aranyakas do little 
 more than supplement the Brahmanas in a 
 few points of little interest to Europeans, but 
 the Upanishads are of greater value to us, 
 since in them we find the fruits of early 
 Indian speculation on the problems of the 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 43 
 
 universe. The Saman and the Yajush, 
 dealing mainly with matters of ritual, and 
 containing many quotations from the Rig- 
 Veda, are of small importance to all but 
 Hindu theologians. 
 
 It is largely on the Upanishads that the 
 six orthodox systems of Hindu philosophy 
 are based, and of these six systems it will, 
 I think, be generally agreed that the Vedanta 
 is in nearly every respect the most important. 
 Anyone, however, desirous of investigating 
 the Vedic Philosophy very thoroughly 
 may find the other ‘ ‘ systems ’ ’ of consider- 
 able value. Nyaya, the logical philosophy 
 already referred to, lays down sixteen padar- 
 thas, or “ topics,” into which knowledge is 
 divided. Through Nyaya the student learns 
 to reason syllogistically and to deal with 
 fallacies and false premises to an even better 
 degree, perhaps, than Gil Bias at Salamanca. 
 
 Kapila’s system of philosophy, i.e. the 
 Sankhya, is based on numbers and ascribes 
 considerable importance to evolution, while 
 the Yoga, or system of union, ascribed to 
 Patanjali, shows us how to reach the profound 
 state of trance known as Samadhi, how to 
 control the mind and the reason, and how to 
 
44 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 reach Kaivalya, or a state of bliss resembling 
 the Buddhistic nirvana, by separating 
 purusha (self) from prakriti (nature). 
 
 From this it will be observed that these 
 various philosophical systems, however great 
 may be their intrinsic value, are relatively 
 of minor importance when considered in 
 con junction with the Vedanta. I do not 
 propose in this place to go thoroughly into 
 this noteworthy system, for space would not 
 permit of it. It will, I think, be sufficient for 
 the reader’s purpose to know the main out- 
 lines of it, and these outlines have already 
 been set forth above; for the importance of 
 “ atman,” Brahman, and the transmigra- 
 tion has already been sufficiently emphasised, 
 and these are among the main principles of 
 the Vedanta philosophy. The complete 
 Vedanta doctrine for philosophical pur- 
 poses is summed up in two phrases used in 
 the Upanishads : “ Ekam Evadvitiyam,” 
 “ Verily one without a second,” and “ Tat 
 tvam asi “ Thou art that.” What is 
 meant by Tat here is understood to be 
 Brahman as the cause of the world, while 
 Tvam would appear to represent “ atman ” 
 in all its shades of meanings — in other words, 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 45 
 
 we come back to the proposition that the self 
 and the world are united, are one, that the 
 ego and the non-ego are indissolubly bound. 
 
 Max Muller points out that this solution 
 of the riddle of the world goes far beyond 
 European ideas, because the Vedanta concep- 
 tion of what was the supreme cause of the 
 universe went beyond their conception of 
 what was meant by God. “ Prajapati,” their 
 God in this sense, was, in their eyes, only 
 one manifestation of the supreme cause, that 
 is, of Brahma, but as Brahma was phenom- 
 enal, the cause of everything, of the all 
 in all, it followed that man was likewise 
 merely a phenomenon of Brahman. So far 
 as mere substance went, therefore, creature 
 and creator were equal, if not identical. 
 The Tat, however, was something superior 
 even to the creating deity ; it was some kind 
 of divine essence which is manifested, not 
 only in man, but also in gods. When, 
 however, Brahman ceases to be a neuter and 
 becomes a masculine deity under the name 
 of Brahma, he desires to know something 
 about the details of the universe, and for this 
 purpose he is assumed to divide himself 
 into many. When he has thus divided 
 
46 THE SATAKAS 
 
 himself, that part of the prakriti which con- 
 tains the ‘ ‘ atman ’ ’ is called avidta or nes j 
 cience and the other part of the prakriti, i.e. 
 the part forming the cosmos, is known as the 
 Maya. Maya is usually understood to mean 
 illusion, and this may be taken as its definite 
 secondary signification ; but primarily Maya 
 meant the power to create, and it was applied 
 especially to the magic powers that enabled 
 a god or a man to conceal his own personality 
 by creating asomatous beings, incorporeal 
 spirits which, although leading to no change 
 in his own identity, nevertheless resembled 
 him. At a late period in the development of 
 the Vedanta philosophy, the theory was put 
 forward that Brahma was a great magician 
 exercising an eternal force or shakti of magic. 
 By this force he was said to have created the 
 phenomenal universe, simply as an illusive 
 corpus of himself. To this later Vedantists 
 added the proposition that that which we call 
 the world of phenomena was not a tangible 
 form of something whose appearance was 
 illusory but it was itself a radical illusion. 
 Maya possesses two powers ; in the first place 
 it may cause the absolute self to appear 
 limited or it may conjure up, so to speak, 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 47 
 
 before the eyes of the self illusory visions of 
 the details of the universe as if they really 
 existed outside the self, and could be seen by 
 the self. No doubt we all remember Plato 
 and the shadows on the wall. 
 
 As for the details of the Vedanta teaching 
 to be found in the Upanishads I propose 
 to follow Professor Max Muller’s excellent 
 example by giving a few extracts from actual 
 works of the old philosophy. I have chosen 
 mine from a little book by Mr L. D. Barnett, 
 of the British Museum, entitled “ Some 
 sayings from the Upanishads,” not merely 
 because his own extracts are sufficiently 
 condensed, though ample for the purpose, 
 but because his translations are of a very 
 high order. 
 
 There was one Svetaketu, Sruni’s son. To him 
 his father spake saying, “ Svetaketu, go walk the 
 Brahma way. Truly there is none of our stock 
 beloved who is unlearned and a Brahmin by birth 
 only.” 
 
 Twelve years old was he when he went in; and 
 when he was four-and-twenty years old he had 
 read all the Vedas, and came home swollen of 
 soul, deeming himself learned, and haughty. To 
 him his father spake saying, “ Svetaketu, thou art 
 swollen of soul deeming thyself learned and 
 
THE SATAKAS 
 
 48 
 
 haughty; but, beloved, hast thou sought the lore 
 whereby that which is not heard is heard, that 
 which is not thought is thought, that which is 
 not understood is understood? ” 
 
 “ Nay, my lord,” said he, “ how may this lore 
 be? ” 
 
 “ As by one clod of clay, beloved, all things 
 that are of clay must be understood, their several 
 shapes being but an holdfast of speech, and their 
 name being in truth clay. As by one copper toy, 
 beloved, all things that are of copper may be 
 understood, their several shapes being but an 
 holdfast of speech, and their name being in truth 
 copper; as by one iron nail knife, beloved, all 
 things that are of iron may be understood, their 
 several shapes being but an holdfast of speech, 
 and their name being in truth iron; so is this lore, 
 beloved.” 
 
 “ Indeed, my lords knew not of this. Had they 
 known it how should they not have spoken to me 
 thereof? But now let my lord tell it to me.” 
 
 “ Be it so, beloved,” said he. 
 
 “ Being was This in the beginning, beloved. 
 One with naught beside. Now some say that Not- 
 Being was This in the beginning. One with naught 
 beside, and from this Not-Being was born Being. 
 But how in sooth may it be so, beloved? ” Thus 
 he spake. “ How from Not-Being may Being be 
 born. Nay, Being was This in the beginning, 
 beloved, one with naught beside. 
 
 “ It thought in itself ‘ I will be many, I will 
 beget offspring.’ It brought forth Heat, 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 49 
 
 “ The Heat thought in itself ‘ I will b'e many, I 
 will beget offspring.’ It brought forth Water. 
 Therefore whensoever a man sorrows or sweats 
 from heat ariseth thereupon water. 
 
 “ The Water thought in itself ‘ I will be many, 
 I will beget offspring.’ It brought forth food. 
 Therefore whensoever it raineth there is verv 
 much food. From water ariseth thereupon food 
 for eating. 
 
 “ Food eaten is sundered in three. The thickest 
 stock thereof becometh dung, the middling flesh, 
 the thinnest Mind. Water drunk is sundered in 
 three. The thickest stock thereof becometh the 
 body’s water, the middling blood, and the thinnest 
 Breath. Heat eaten is sundered in three. The 
 thickest stock thereof becometh bone, the middling 
 marrow, the thinnest Speech. 
 
 “ So Mind, beloved, is of Food, Breath is of 
 Water, Speech is of Heat.” 
 
 “ Let my lord teach me further.” 
 
 “ Be it so, beloved,” said he. 
 
 “ When milk is churned, beloved, the thinness 
 thereof riseth up; it becometh butter. So indeed 
 when food is eaten, beloved, the thinness thereof 
 riseth up; it becometh Mind. When water is 
 drunk, beloved, the thinness thereof riseth up, it 
 becometh Breath. When Heat is eaten, beloved, 
 the thinness thereof riseth up, it becometh Speech. 
 So Mind, beloved, is of Food, Breath is of Water, 
 Speech is of Heat. 
 
 “ Man is of sixteen sixteenth-deals, beloved. 
 For fifteen days eat not, but drink Water as 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 THE 1 SATAKAS 
 
 listeth thee. Breath is of water, once drunk it 
 may not be severed.” 
 
 For fifteen days he ate not, and then drew nigh 
 unto him saying, “ What shall I say, my lord? ” 
 
 “ The Rik-spells, beloved, the Yajus-spells, the 
 Sama-spells.” 
 
 “ Nay, my lord,” said he, “ they come not to 
 my mind.” 
 
 “ If of a great piled fire, beloved,” said he, 
 “ there should be left but one coal as big as a 
 glow-worm, it would not then burn much withal; 
 and so, beloved, of thy sixteen sixteenth-deals but 
 one-sixteenth deal can be left, and with that now 
 thou has not any thought of the Vedas. Eat thou. 
 Then shalt thou learn of me.” 
 
 He ate, and then drew near to him. Whatsoever 
 he asked him he answered all. And thus he spake 
 to him. “ If of a great piled fire, beloved, there 
 should be left one coal as big as a glow-worm, 
 and one should set it afire by laying grass upon it, 
 it would then bum much withal; and so, beloved, 
 of thy sixteen sixteenth-deals but one hath been 
 left, and it hath been set afire by laying food upon 
 it. With that now thou hast thought of the Vedas. 
 So Mind, beloved, is of Food, Breath is of Water, 
 Speech is of Heat.” 
 
 This of him he learned, yea, learned. 
 
 “ Bring from yonder a fig.” 
 
 “ Lo, my lord.” 
 
 “Break it.” 
 
 “ It is broken, my lord.” 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 5i 
 
 “ What seest thou in it? ” 
 
 “ Lo, little seeds, as one may say, my lord.” 
 
 “ Now break one of them.” 
 
 “ It is broken, my lord.” 
 
 “ What seest thou in it.” 
 
 “ Naught whatsoever my lord.” 
 
 Then he said, “ Of that thinness which thou 
 beholdest not, beloved, ariseth this fig-tree which 
 is so great. Have faith, beloved. In this thinness 
 hath this All its essence. It is the True. It is 
 the Self. Thou art it, Svetaketu.” 
 
 Brahma in sooth is this All. It hath therein its 
 beginning, end, and breath, so one should worship 
 it in stillness. 
 
 Now man in sooth is made of will. As is Man’s 
 will in this world, so doth he become on going 
 hence. Will shall he frame. 
 
 Made of Mind, bodied of breath, revealed in 
 radiance, true of purpose, ethereal of soul, all 
 working, all loving, all smelling, all tasting, 
 grasping this All, speaking naught, heeding 
 naught : this, my self, within my heart is tinier than 
 a rice corn or a barley corn or a mustard seed or a 
 canary seed or the pulp of a canary seed. This my 
 self within my heart is greater than earth, greater 
 than sky, greater than heaven, greater than these 
 worlds. 
 
 All working, all loving, all smelling, all tasting, 
 grasping this All, speaking naught, heeding 
 naught, this is my self within. 
 
 This is Brahma, to him shall I .win on going 
 
52 THE SATAKAS 
 
 hence. He that hath this thought hath indeed no 
 doubt. 
 
 I think that these selections, together with 
 the remarks I have previously made on the 
 Vedas, will give the reader an adequate con- 
 ception of the principles of Indian philosophy. 
 Some few difficulties may be encountered by 
 the apparent incoherence, or, as some people 
 may be inclined to say, the uselessness of 
 many of Bhartrihari’s aphorisms. They all, 
 however, have their use and their place in 
 this book, and even the most apparently 
 useless among them points out some definite 
 goal to some section, however small, of our 
 vast Indian population. 
 
 One or two more or less excellent transla- 
 tions of Bhartrihari have already appeared 
 in India, and more than twenty years ago the 
 Rev. B. Hale Wortham prepared an English 
 translation forTriibner’s “ Oriental Series.” 
 In nearly all these cases, however, the Sringa 
 Sataka was omitted. It is true that this 
 particular section of the book deals with 
 eroticism and many passages would not be 
 suitable for publication in English without 
 some modification. Still, it is unwise to omit 
 
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 53 
 
 one-third of the book, and I have according^ 
 included it here, merely drawing the 
 reader’s attention to the fact that there are 
 many passages in the Song of Solomon to 
 which as much objection may be taken as to 
 some of the aphorisms of Bhartrihari. 
 
 As for the author himself, particulars of 
 his life are very scanty. Beypnd saying 
 that he ‘ ‘ flourished ’ ’ about the eighth or 
 ninth century a.d. we cannot even assign 
 a date to him. Many authorities, however, 
 give plausible reasons for thinking that he 
 lived as early as the second centum . It may 
 be taken for granted that he was the son of 
 King Gandhavasen of Malwa. Bhartrihari, 
 the story goes, duly succeeded to the throne 
 and led for seven years an indolent and 
 licentious existence in spite of the warnings 
 and entreaties of his half-brother Vicrama. 
 We are told, however, that Bhartrihari one 
 day found out that he was being deceived 
 by his favourite wife, whereupon his life 
 suddenly changed and he sought relief in 
 devotion and meditation. The aphorisms, 
 according to the best authorities, sum up his 
 devotional life. This is the most probable 
 theory, although other authorities hold that 
 
54 
 
 (THE 1 SATAKAS 
 
 Bhartrihari merely collected many sayings 
 from the lips of wise men, sifted them, chose 
 the best, and handed them on for the use 
 of posterity. Each Sataka or “ century ” is 
 supposed to consist of one hundred aphorisms, 
 but the texts vary a little and a few supple- 
 mentary “ slokas,” or verses, ascribed to 
 Bhartrihari add to the number. Such as 
 they are, good and bad, they have been of 
 spiritual service to tens of thousands on their 
 way to join 
 
 “ The innumerable caravan, which moves 
 To that mysterious realm, where each shall 
 take 
 
 His chamber in the silent halls of death.” 
 
 J. M. KENNEDY. 
 
THE WISE SAYINGS OF 
 BHARTRIHARI 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE NITA SATAKA 1 
 
 1. Hail to the Almighty Power who 
 cannot be defined in terms of Time or 
 Space — who is Infinite : pure intellect in- 
 carnate; who is peace and glory, and whose 
 unique essence is self-knowledge. 
 
 2. I believed that one woman was devoted 
 to me, but she is now attracted by another 
 man, and another man takes pleasure in her, 
 while a second woman interests herself in 
 me. Curses on them both, and on the god 
 of love, and on the other woman, and on 
 myself. 
 
 3. The fundamentally ignorant man is 
 easily led, and the wise man still more 
 easily ; but not even the Almighty Himself 
 can exercise any influence on the smatterer. 
 
 1 N iti = moral principles, moral philosophy : ethics. 
 
 55 
 
56 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 4 . A man may tear the pearl from between 
 the teeth of the crocodile ; he may steer his 
 ship over the roughest seas ; he may twine 
 a serpent round his brow like a laurel ; but 
 he cannot convince a foolish and stubborn 
 opponent. 
 
 5 . A man may squeeze oil from sand ; he 
 may slake his thirst from the well in a 
 mirage ; he may even obtain possession of a 
 hare’s horn ; 1 but he cannot convince a 
 foolish and stubborn opponent. 
 
 6. To try to lead wicked men into vir- 
 tuous ways by the mere use of soft words 
 is as futile as tethering an elephant with 
 the fibre of a young lotus, as futile as the 
 attempt to cut a diamond with a piece of 
 wood, as futile as trying to sweeten the salt 
 sea with a drop of honey. 
 
 7. God has given to man a cloak whereby 
 he can conceal his ignorance; and in this 
 cloak he can enwrap himself at any moment, 
 for it always lies near his hand. This cloak 
 is Silence : an ornament peculiarly fitted for 
 an ignorant man in the company of wise 
 men. 
 
 1 A proverbial expression for something that does not 
 exist. 
 
57 
 
 THE NITI SATAKA 
 
 8. When I had acquired but a little 
 knowledge my pride in it made me as 
 blind as its passion does an elephant — my 
 head was swollen, and in my ignorance I 
 thought I knew everything. But I soon met 
 with wise men who were acquainted with 
 many different kinds of wisdom, and my 
 pride disappeared as if it had been only a 
 fever. 
 
 9. A dog will eat with delight the most 
 noisome and decaying bones, and will pay 
 no attention even if the ruler of the gods 
 stands before him — and in like manner a 
 mean man takes no heed of the worthlessness 
 of his belongings. 
 
 10. The River Ganges descends from on 
 high upon the head of Siva, from the head of 
 Siva to the mountain, and from the summit 
 of the mountain to the earth. Its fall is 
 always lower and lower, and in this way it 
 resembles the fall of any man in whose mind 
 judgment no longer finds a place. 
 
 11. Water will put out fire ; a parasol will 
 ward off the sun’s rays : a sharp prong will 
 guide the wild elephant, or a stick the ox and 
 ass : yea, sickness can be cured by the 
 physicians ; and there are antidotes even for 
 
THE SATAKAS 
 
 58 
 
 poisons. The shastras prescribe remedies for 
 everything, but there is none for curing the 
 fool. 
 
 1 2 . The man who cannot appreciate music 
 and literature is exactly like the lower 
 animals, even though he may not possess 
 horns and a tail : though he eat not grass he 
 yet lives a life precisely like that of the kine. 
 
 13. Those who possess not wisdom, con- 
 trition, generosity, knowledge, good temper, 
 virtue, or uprightness, may take the shape of 
 men while they live among us, but they 
 travel through life nevertheless like beasts 
 that encumber the ground. 
 
 14. It is better to roam among the moun- 
 tains with the wild beasts than to live in 
 palaces with the fool. 
 
 In Praise of Wisdom 
 
 15. When it happens that sages, whose 
 words are enriched with beautiful thoughts 
 from the shastras, and who convey their 
 sacred learning to their pupils, are compelled 
 to dwell in poverty, then the princes of whom 
 they are subjects must be accused of foolish- 
 ness, and these sages, however poor they may 
 be, are the real rulers of the country. If those 
 
THE NITI SATAKA 59 
 
 whose business it is to examine jewels are so 
 careless in their methods as to lower the 
 value of the stones, should we not be right in 
 condemning them ? 
 
 16. O princes, cast away your pride in the 
 presence of those who are rich in the inward 
 treasury of wisdom : they cannot be robbed 
 by thieves, but their treasure, which is 
 continually increasing, becomes even larger 
 when they share it with the needy, and it will 
 not perish even at the end of the world ! 
 Who can compare with the wise ? 
 
 17. Despise not the wise men who have 
 reached a knowledge of the Truth. They 
 cannot be influenced by money, for wealth 
 to them is but as grass. An elephant blind 
 with passion cannot be bound by the stalk of 
 a water-lily. 
 
 18. Brahma in his anger may prevent the 
 swan from gratifying its natural instincts in 
 the lotus-bed where it lives, but he cannot 
 remove its faculty of separating milk from 
 water. 1 
 
 19. Bracelets do not set off a man’s 
 appearance, nor do strings of pearls as 
 
 > 1 A faculty attributed to the swan in ancient Indian 
 literature. 
 
6o 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 pure and clear as the moon ; nor yet bath- 
 ing, perfumes, flowers, and carefully dressed 
 hair. Nothing adorns a man but perfect 
 eloquence. Jewels may perish, but the 
 adornment of eloquence lasts for ever. 
 
 20. Wisdom is truly the most beautiful 
 ornament that a man can possess. It is a 
 thing of value, and must be carefully 
 watched, for it brings with it food, fame, 
 and blessings. It is the lord of lords. 
 Wisdom is like a friend to the man who 
 travels in distant countries. It is honoured 
 by kings even more than riches, and the man 
 who lacks wisdom is but an animal. 
 
 21. If a man have patience, why should 
 he need armour? But if he have anger in 
 his heart, what other enemy need he fear? 
 If he have knowledge, why should he need 
 fire to consume evil ? If he live among 
 evil-disposed people, why need he be afraid 
 of serpents ? If he possess perfect wisdom, 
 why should he strive for wealth ? If he be 
 modest, why should he require ornaments ? 
 If the muses are his friends, why should he 
 need a kingdom ? 
 
 22. Show yourself well-disposed towards 
 relatives and liberal to your inferiors. Hate 
 
THE NITI SATAKA 
 
 61 
 
 all things evil ; love the good ; be obedient to 
 the king ; honour the wise. Be firm with 
 3 r our enemies and respectful to old men ; be 
 shrewd in your dealings with women. These 
 are qualities that will enable the man who 
 acts upon them to prosper in the world. 
 
 23. Social intercourse with the wise takes 
 away all dullness of mind, exalts the intel- 
 lect, and imbues our words with the spirit of 
 truth. What indeed will it not do for men ? 
 
 24. Honour and glory to those sages who 
 are scholarly and skilful poets ! They need 
 not fear that their fame will wither away 
 or perish. 
 
 25. A virtuous son, a loving wife, a kind 
 master, a devoted friend, an affectionate 
 kinsman, a mind free from care, a handsome 
 figure, lasting riches, lips that speak wis- 
 dom — such are the gifts that Hari, the giver 
 of bounties, bestows .upon the man who has 
 found favour in his sight. 
 
 26. Refrain from taking the life or 
 coveting the wealth of another. Telling the 
 truth, moderate liberality in proportion to 
 one s wealth, abstinence from pleasure- 
 seeking among other men’s wives, crushing 
 the spirit of covetousness, reverence for the 
 
62 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 priesthood, and compassion towards all — 
 these are the ways of happiness, ways that 
 break no defined rules, and that are taught 
 in all the shastras. 
 
 27. The man whose mind is of a low order 
 does not take the slightest trouble to pursue 
 wisdom owing to his fear of the difficulties 
 with which he may meet ; and, if he does 
 make any attempt, he stops as soon as he 
 encounters an obstacle. On the other hand, 
 the man of superior mind never ceases to 
 pursue when once he has begun, no matter 
 what hindrances he may meet with on 
 the way. 
 
 28. Righteousness must be loved, and 
 evil avoided, even on pain of death. There 
 must be no intercourse with wicked men, and 
 a poor man ; however friendly, must not be 
 asked for an alms. Dignity must be retained, 
 even in adversity, and the doctrines incul- 
 cated by good and great men must be adhered 
 to, even though the attempt to do so is as 
 difficult as trying to stand on the edge of a 
 sword. 
 
 In Praise of Firmness 
 
 29. The lion may be overpowered by 
 hunger, and his strong frame weakened by 
 
THE NITI SATAKA 63 
 
 old age ; lie may lie in a state of misery and 
 at the point of death; his majestic appear- 
 ance may have departed from him, and his 
 life may be slowly ebbing away ; yet his one 
 desire is to swallow at a mouthful the brow 
 of the noble elephant that he has crushed in 
 pieces. How could he, the mightiest of all 
 living things, feed merely upon the withered 
 grass ! 
 
 30. The dog finds the dirty little fleshless 
 bone of some ox, and over this he will rejoice, 
 even though it may not satisfy his hunger ; 
 but the lion scornfully passes by the jackal, 
 and rushes upon the elephant. In like 
 manner, the man of firm mind, no matter 
 what a condition of distress he may be in, 
 seeks that which is most in accordance with 
 his natural disposition. 
 
 31. The dog falls prostrate at the feet of 
 anyone who gives him food, wagging his tail 
 and opening wide his mouth ; but the elephant 
 remains unmoved in such circumstances, and 
 will not eat until he is coaxed with flattering 
 words. 
 
 32. What man is not born again when he 
 passes from one earth to another by trans- 
 migration ? But we must hold that the only 
 
64 THE SATAKAS 
 
 man who is truly born is he by whose birth 
 his family attains to dignity. 
 
 33. There are but two uses for a bouquet 
 of flowers and for a wise man : they may be 
 exalted [on the head], or left to wither in 
 the forest. 
 
 34. Although we think a great deal of the 
 half-dozen planets of which Vrihaspati is the 
 head, nevertheless Rahu, whose power and 
 strength are great, does not attack them. 
 The god of the demons, though thtere is 
 nothing of him left but the head, devours in 
 his course only the lords of the day and of 
 the night. 1 
 
 35. Shesha supports all the worlds on the 
 flat surface of his serpent-like head, and he 
 himself is borne on the back of the King of 
 Tortoises, who is kept without difficulty in 
 his dwelling-place at the bottom of the sea. 
 Ah ! with what ease are these great marvels 
 performed by the mighty. 
 
 36. The son of Himalaya would have 
 acted with much greater nobleness if he had 
 
 1 The immortal Rahu having offended the gods, 
 Vishnu cut off his head. Rahu was then placed among 
 the stars, and when an eclipse occurred he was said to 
 have swallowed the sun and moon. 
 
THE NITI SATAKA 65 
 
 allowed the angry Indra to cut off his wings 
 with the flaming thunderbolt, instead of 
 seeking a refuge by throwing himself into 
 the sea, when his father was suffering in 
 misfortune. 1 
 
 37. The sun-stone, though not sensitive, 
 kindles into light when the rays of the sun 
 fall upon it : and how then can we expect a 
 powerful man to tolerate an injury inflicted 
 by another? 
 
 38. A lion, however young, will rush 
 upon the infuriated elephant ; but the energy 
 of the man of noble mind arises from his 
 natural temperament, and not merely from 
 his youth. 
 
 In Praise of Riches 
 
 39. Our nobility of birth may pass away ; 
 our virtues may fall into decay : our moral 
 character may perish as if thrown over a 
 precipice : 2 our family may be burnt to 
 ashes, and a thunderbolt may dash away our 
 power like an enemy : let us keep a firm grip 
 on our money, for without this the whole 
 assembly of virtues are but as blades of grass. 
 
 1 This refers to a fable in the Ramayana, v. 8. 
 
 2 A play on a word meaning “stone” and another 
 very like it meaning “character,” “disposition.” 
 
 E 
 
66 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 40. We may behold a man’s senses and 
 observe them to be unchanged ; we may see 
 precisely the same gestures and an unim- 
 paired intellect, together with the same voice. 
 Let a man remain exactly as he was in all 
 other respects, he nevertheless becomes quite 
 a different person when the warmth that 
 wealth has afforded him is taken away. This 
 is truly wonderful ! 
 
 41. Let a man be wealthy, and he shall be 
 quite wise, learned in the sacred writings 
 and of good birth; virtuous, handsome and 
 eloquent. Gold attracts all the virtues to 
 itself. 
 
 42. A king is brought to ruin by evil 
 counsellors ; an ascetic by moving in society : 
 a child by being spoilt : a priest by not 
 studying the sacred writings : a family by 
 the wicked behaviour of. children : good 
 manners by bad habits : modesty by strong 
 drink : agriculture by neglect : affection by 
 absence from one’s household : friendship 
 by want of love : possessions by careless 
 management, and money by waste and 
 prodigality. 
 
 43. Giving, spending, and losing are three 
 ways by which the amount of one’s wealth is 
 
THE NITI SATAKA 67 
 
 lessened, and the man who neither gives nor 
 spends may yet be ruined by the third way 
 open to him. 
 
 44. A jewel is cut away by the stone when 
 it is polished ; a victor in warfare is killed by 
 arms : the elephant is weakened by passion : 
 the islands in a river become arid in the 
 autumn : the moon wanes, and young women 
 become languid through sexual passion, 
 though their beauty does not deteriorate : and 
 in like manner noble men who have got 
 rid of a certain proportion of their wealth 
 by bestowing it on the needy still remain 
 illustrious. 
 
 45. When a man is starving with hunger, 
 he longs for a few grains of rice, but when his 
 appetite has been satiated, he regards the 
 whole earth as but a handful of grass. 
 Similarly do objects appear great or small 
 according to the condition of their owners : 
 it is only the change in the fortune of 
 men that makes things seem greater or 
 smaller. 
 
 46. If, O King, you would then enjoy this 
 earth, which is as fruitful as a cow, tend it as 
 carefully as you would a calf. The earth, 
 like a bounteous tree, will bring forth fruits 
 
68 THE 1 SATAKAS 
 
 year by year if it is constantly and carefully 
 cultivated . 1 
 
 47. The behaviour of a king is uncertain 
 as the behaviour of a courtesan. At one time 
 it is false and at another true ; uow harsh and 
 now agreeable : now cruel and now merciful : 
 sometimes generous and sometimes greedy : 
 either squandering money recklessly, or 
 piling it up like a miser. 
 
 48. Authority, renown, the care of the 
 Brahmins, generosity, feasting and the 
 guarding of friends : what profit comes to 
 them who serve kings if these six blessings 
 have not fallen to their lot ? 
 
 49. Whatsoever destiny has prescribed for 
 every man, that shall be his portion, whether 
 wealth or poverty. He may be poor in the 
 desert, but he shall be no better off even if he 
 live on Mount Meru. 2 Let your nature be 
 constant, and become not miserable by envy- 
 ing the rich. The pitcher holds the same 
 quantity of water, whether it be filled from 
 the well or the depths of the ocean. 
 
 50. “Who does not know that thou, O 
 
 1 In Indian literature the earth is often compared to a 
 cow. 
 
 2 The Indian Olympus: also applied to any wealthy 
 place or district. 
 
THE NITI SATAKA 
 
 69 
 
 cloud, art the only support of the chataka, 1 
 and why, O most bountiful cloud, dost thou 
 wait for our cry of distress ? ’ ’ 
 
 51. “ Ah, my dearest chataka, hearken 
 
 attentively to my words. There are many 
 clouds in the heavens, but they do not all 
 resemble one another : some pour their 
 
 waters on the earth, while others thunder and 
 give forth no rain.” 
 
 Do not demean yourself by asking favours 
 of any chance person with whom you may 
 meet. 
 
 Of Evil Men 
 
 52. Cruelty; senseless quarrelling; the 
 desire for the money or the wife of another : 
 envy of the good and of one’s own relatives : 
 these are the characteristics of wicked men. 
 
 53. Even when the wicked man is learned, 
 he should be avoided. Should we fear a 
 snake the less if it were ornamented with 
 jewels ? 
 
 54. In many ways we find that evil- 
 disposed persons misrepresent the virtues of 
 the good. The virtue of the moderate man is 
 called dullness : the rigid ascetic is looked 
 upon as arrogant : the pure-minded man is 
 
 A bird which is supposed to live only on raindrops. 
 
THE SATAKAS 
 
 70 
 
 said to be deceitful : the hero is termed 
 pitiless and the wise man contemptible. The 
 polite man is looked upon as servile and the 
 noble man as proud. The eloquent man is 
 referred to as a chatterer, and freedom from 
 amorous passion is described as weakness. 
 
 55. If a man be covetous, what worse vice 
 can he have ? What sin is worse than 
 slandering ? Why should the cheerful man 
 stand in need of penances ? Why should the 
 pure-minded man require a sacred bathing- 
 place ? What virtue is higher than generos- 
 ity ? If a man possess greatness of mind, 
 what further adornment should he require ? 
 If a man be learned, why should he stand in 
 need of the company of others ? And if a 
 man is overtaken by disgrace, why need he 
 be afraid of death ? 
 
 56. There are seven thorns in my side : 
 the moon cast into obscurity by daylight : a 
 woman who has grown old : a pond without 
 water-lilies : a handsome man who talks 
 foolishly : a prince who gives himself up 
 entirely to money : a good man who is always 
 in distress, and an evil man who is admitted 
 to the king’s Court. 
 
 57. A wrathful king has 110 friends. If 
 
THE NITI SATAKA 
 
 7i 
 
 the priest who offers up the sacrifice touches 
 the sacred fire, then he will he burnt by it. 
 
 58. The laws regulating behaviour are 
 indeed difficult to learn, and can hardly be 
 mastered, even by the ascetic. The man 
 who wishes to be respectfully silent is liable 
 to be looked upon as dumb : the man who 
 talks agreeably may be thought too forward. 
 If a man stands near at hand, he may be 
 regarded as troublesome, and if he stand far 
 off, people may call him cold-hearted. The 
 patient man may be branded as timid, and 
 the impetuous man is looked upon as ill- 
 bred. 
 
 59. How is it possible to delight in the 
 company of a low and abandoned man whose 
 evil ways are all too obvious : whose wicked 
 deeds are the consequence of former births : 
 who dislikes virtue, and lives only by 
 chance ? 
 
 60. The friendships which are formed 
 between good and evil men differ in kind. 
 The friendship of the good man may at the 
 beginning be as faint and dim as the first 
 appearance of the morning light, but it 
 continually increases, while the friendship 
 of the evil man is as great at the beginning 
 
THE SATAKAS 
 
 7 2 
 
 as the light of the noonday sun, but it soon 
 dies away like the twilight of the evening. 
 
 61. Deer, fish and men of virtue, who 
 have need only of grass, water and p pQp e 
 in this world, are deliberately pursued by 
 huntsmen, fishermen and envious people. 
 
 Of the Character of the Good 
 
 62. A desire for the society of the good : 
 love for the virtues of others : reverence for 
 priests and teachers : diligence in acquiring 
 wisdom : love for their wives : fear of the 
 world’s reproaches : reverence for Siva : 
 self-control and no acquaintance with evil 
 men — wherever we find men with virtues 
 like these, they are invariably held in high 
 esteem. 
 
 63. Firmness in adversity; self-control 
 in prosperity : eloquence in debate : valour 
 in war : desire for glory : knowledge of the 
 sacred writings : such are the characteris- 
 tics of the virtuous. 
 
 64. Private generosity; ungrudged hospi- 
 tality to strangers : abstinence from speak- 
 ing in public about one’s good deeds : 
 openly proclaiming the benefits received 
 from others : humility in prosperity, and 
 
THE NITI SATAKA 
 
 73 
 
 respect for one’s fellows — this is a sacred 
 doctrine taught by the good, though 
 adherence to it may be as difficult as the 
 attempt to stand on the edge of a sword. 
 
 65. There are sufficient inward adorn- 
 ments adequate for the man of noble mind 
 without the necessity for a more evident 
 display — liberality for his hand ; reverence 
 towards the priesthood for his head ; true 
 speech for his mouth : power for his arms ; 
 happiness for his heart ; and the holy Vedas, 
 properly understood, for his ears. 
 
 66. In prosperity the heart of the wise 
 man is as soft and pliable as the lotus ; but 
 in adversity it is as firm as the imperishable 
 mountain rock. 
 
 67. Though water will not remain on a 
 hot iron, it shines with the beauty of a pearl 
 if it lies on a lotus leaf : yea, let a drop of 
 water fall under a favourable star into an 
 oyster on the ocean bed, and it forthwith 
 becomes a pearl. So also is the nature of 
 men, good, tolerable or bad, according to 
 the society in which they live and move. 
 
 68. Three things are the reward of virtue 
 — the son who pleases his father by his good 
 deeds; the wife whose sole concern is her 
 
74 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 husband’s good, and the friend who remains 
 unchanged in prosperity and in adversity. 
 
 69. Who cannot but respect and rever- 
 
 ence those whose admirable behaviour is 
 exhibited in many different ways ; as for 
 example in those who are ennobled by 
 humility ; those who exhibit their own 
 virtues by speaking only of the virtues of 
 others : those who even in their own 
 
 business always bear in mind the interests 
 of others : and those who hate the evil 
 Speaker, or the lips that continually utter 
 harsh and impatient words. 
 
 Of Liberality 
 
 70. Trees when laden with fruit are 
 bowed down, and the clouds when pregnant 
 with fresh rain hang near the earth : and 
 in like manner good men are not unduly 
 exalted by prosperity. This is the natural 
 disposition of the liberal man. 
 
 71. The ears of men like these are 
 ornamented by hearing the revelation of 
 divine wisdom, and not with ear-rings ; their 
 hands are adorned by liberality rather than 
 by bracelets and rings : and their bodies 
 shine by the doing of good unto others, and 
 
THE NITI SATAKA 
 
 75 
 
 not by being anointed with the oil of 
 sandal-wood. 
 
 72. A good man flees from evil and 
 pursues the good : he does not utter that 
 which ought to be kept secret : he does not 
 conceal his virtues : he does not neglect his 
 friends in adversity : and he gives according 
 to his means. And these, the wise men tell 
 us, are the characteristics of a good friend. 
 
 73. The sun opens up the lotuses; the 
 moon brightens the beds of the water-lilies : 
 and the cloud pours down its rain unasked. 
 And in like manner those people who are 
 naturally liberal are continually occupied 
 in bestowing benefits on their fellow- 
 creatures. 
 
 74. Good men devote their attention to 
 benefiting others without thinking of 
 themselves. Ordinary men benefit others, 
 but they do not at the same time forget 
 their own interests. Those men are demons 
 who destroy the good of another for their 
 own profit. But what can we call those 
 who wilfully destroy the possessions of 
 another ? 
 
 75. Milk which has been mixed with 
 water conveys to the water its own natural 
 
THE SATAKAS 
 
 76 
 
 qualities. The water sees the milk becoming 
 hot, and immediately offers itself up as its 
 sacrifice in the fire. The milk also wished 
 to boil over into the fire, but, having 
 observed its friend’s distress, it remains 
 mingled with the water and rushes into the 
 fire with it. To this we may compare the 
 friendship of the good. 
 
 76. The ocean bears the sleep of Vishnu, 
 and the mountains also take refuge in the 
 ocean after their flight from the demons ; 
 and, in addition to this, a great submarine 
 fire continually devours the ocean’s depths. 
 What cannot the ocean endure ! 
 
 77. How do the good behave : they curb 
 their amorous desires ; are patient in all 
 circumstances ; are not deceived by illusion ; 
 do not long for what is evil ; speak the truth ; 
 hold fast that which is good ; seek the 
 company of virtuous men ; honour the wise ; 
 become reconciled even with their enemies ; 
 conceal their own virtues ; take care of their 
 good name ; and show themselves merciful 
 to those in adversity. 
 
 78. How few noble spirits there are whose 
 thoughts, speech, and actions are, so to 
 speak, impregnated with nectar, by whom 
 
THE NITI SATAKA 
 
 77 
 
 countless blessings are bestowed upon the 
 three worlds : who exalt even the slightest 
 virtues of another to the height of a 
 mountain, and whose hearts are continually 
 overflowing ! 
 
 79. What profit or advantage is there in 
 Meru, the mountain of gold, or the hill of 
 silver, where the trees grow up like their 
 companions, and undergo no change? We 
 reverence the hills of Malaya, for after 
 coming into contact with them, the bitter 
 nimba, the karaj^a, and the trophis aspera, 
 become themselves like the sandal-tree. 
 
 In Praise of Constancy 
 
 80. Men of firm mind never rest until 
 they have carried out to the end the task 
 they have set themselves to do, just as the 
 gods did not rest until they had gained 
 possession of the nectar : for they were not 
 turned aside from their search by pearls of 
 great price, or by fear of dreadful poison. 
 
 81. At one time a man may lie on the hard 
 earth, and at another he may sleep on a 
 couch : at one time he may make his meals 
 of herbs, and at another of boiled rice ; at 
 one time he may wear the meanest rags, and 
 
THE SATAKAS 
 
 78 
 
 at another the most magnificent robes. But 
 the man of firm mind, who is thinking only 
 of the task he has undertaken, does not look 
 upon either state as one of pleasure or pain. 
 
 82. A man’s natural disposition, from 
 which his virtues arise, is his most precious 
 ornament — courtesy of a noble man ; gentle- 
 ness of speech of a hero ; calmness of 
 knowledge, and reverence of sacred learning. 
 The highest ornament of wealth is liberality 
 towards worthy objects : the highest orna- 
 ment of the ascetic is abstinence from wrath : 
 the highest ornament of princes is mercy : 
 and the highest ornament of justice freedom 
 from corruption. 
 
 83. Those who are skilful in reading 
 character may be inclined to praise or to 
 blame the constant man ; fortune may be 
 kind to him or may neglect him ; and he 
 may die to-morrow or not for ten thousand 
 years. But in spite of all this, nothing can 
 make him turn aside from the path of 
 righteousness. 
 
 The Power of Fate 
 
 84. One night a rat fell into the jaws of 
 a serpent whose body had been forced into a 
 basket, and who was half-dead with hunger. 
 
THE NITI SATAKA 
 
 79 
 
 Revived by his meal, the serpent managed 
 to struggle out, but, as a stronger animal 
 was close at hand, he perished by the same 
 fate as the rat. My friends, be content with 
 your lot ! The success or failure of men lies 
 in the hands of fate alone. 
 
 85. Though a ball fall to the ground, it 
 rises again when struck by the hand. So 
 too the misfortunes of good men are not often 
 lasting. 
 
 86. Mankind’s great enemy is idleness. 
 There is no friend like energy, and if you 
 cultivate that you will never fail. 
 
 87. When the tree is cut down, it may 
 grow again, and the moon that wanes, waxes 
 once more. Thus do wise men reflect; and, 
 though they may be distressed, they are not 
 overwhelmed by misfortune. 
 
 88. Though Indra was guided by Vrihas- 
 pati, and armed with the thunderbolt : 
 though the gods themselves were his soldiers, 
 and Vishnu his ally : though he had Svarga 
 as his citadel, and the elephant Airasvata as 
 his charger ; yet he was defeated. How irre- 
 sistible is the power of fate, and how vain 
 the efforts of mankind ! 
 
 89. Discernment is the consequence of 
 
8o 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 human actions, and is brought about by 
 deeds performed in another life. This must 
 be carefully taken into account by the sage 
 who gives heed to all things. 
 
 90. The bald-headed man was scorched 
 by the fierce rays of the sun, and when 
 he was looking for a shady place, fate 
 guided him to a palm-tree. While he was 
 resting there, the fruit of the tree fell on 
 his head with a loud crash, and broke it. 
 Wherever the unfortunate man goes he 
 usually meets with disaster. 
 
 91 . When I see the sun and moon delivered 
 up by the eclipse to the power of the demon : 
 when I perceive the bonds that fasten a 
 serpent or an elephant, or when I perceive 
 a wise man dwelling in poverty, the thought 
 forces itself on me — “ How mighty is the 
 power of fate ! ’ ’ 
 
 92. Fate first creates a good man — a 
 stronghold of virtue — and then in an instant 
 brings about his ruin. How unreasoning is 
 fate ! 
 
 93. It is not the fault of the springtime 
 that the leafless tree does not bring forth 
 leaves ; it is not the fault of the sun that the 
 owl cannot see by daylight ; and it is not the 
 
THE NITI SATAKA 
 
 81 
 
 fault of the cloud that its rain does not drop 
 into the mouth of the cuckoo. Who can 
 interfere with what fate has written on the 
 foreheads of us all ? 
 
 In Praise of Action 
 
 94. We worship the gods, hut are not they 
 too controlled by fate? Fate must be 
 worshipped, for it is the only giver of rewards 
 to mankind in accordance with the acts which 
 have been performed in the previous exist- 
 ence. But the fruit of those acts depends 
 upon the acts themselves, so why then should 
 we worship either the gods or fate ? Let us 
 rather worship those works which it is in the 
 power of fate to control. 
 
 95. Through fate Brahma was compelled 
 to work like some artificer in the interior of 
 his egg : through fate Vishnu had to pass 
 through ten extremely difficult reincarna- 
 tions : through fate Siva was constrained to 
 lead the life of a beggar, carrying a skull in 
 his hands as a pot : and through fate the sun 
 is forced to make his daily round in the 
 heavens. To works therefore let us give our 
 reverence. 
 
 F 
 
82 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 96. What will bring fruit to a man as to 
 a tree in its season ? Not beauty : not great- 
 ness of family : not strength of character : 
 not learning : not careful service ; but merit 
 alone : merit resulting from penances in a 
 former state. 
 
 97. Let a man wander in the forests : let 
 him take part in war, or let him be in the 
 midst of a fire or amongst enemies or in the 
 ocean or on top of a high mountain : let him 
 be asleep or mad or surrounded by diffi- 
 culties : the good actions he has performed 
 in a former life will nevertheless profit 
 him. 
 
 98. O wise man, make a regular practice 
 of cultivating divine virtue ; for that makes 
 wicked men good, foolish men wise : enemies 
 well-disposed, and invisible things visible. 
 Divine virtue will in an instant turn poison 
 into honey, and will bestow .upon you the 
 fruit of your actions. 
 
 O virtuous man, do not vainly spend 
 thy labour on painfully acquiring powerful 
 gifts ! 
 
 99. When the wise man begins his actions, 
 he looks carefully to the end of them, in 
 order that through them he may become freed 
 
THE NITI SATAKA 
 
 33 
 
 from successive births and reach Nirvana. 
 Actions carried out with too much haste are 
 like an arrow that pierces the heart. 
 
 100. The man who does not act circum- 
 spectly in the world of action and keep a 
 constant eye on his state in another life is 
 even as one who cooks the lees of sesame 
 over a sandal- wood fire in a pot of lapis lazuli, 
 or as one who uses a golden plough in 
 preparation for cultivating swallow- wort, or 
 as one who cuts down a camphor grove to 
 fence in a field of coarse grain. 
 
 101. A man may plunge into the deep 
 waters of the ocean : he may ascend to the 
 summit of Mount Meru : he may conquer 
 his enemies or devote himself to commerce : 
 he may plough the earth and devote himself 
 to all learning and all art ; and he mqy even 
 travel on the wings of a bird from one end 
 of the heavens to the other : but he shall 
 nevertheless suffer whatever fate may have 
 prescribed for him on earth. 
 
 102. All men worship the virtuous man 
 whose deeds in his former existence were 
 righteous : for him the terrible wood becomes 
 a magnificent city and the whole world is as 
 if filled with jewels. 
 
8 4 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 Miscellaneous Aphorisms 
 
 103. What is of the greatest advantage? 
 The companionship of the good. What is 
 the worst thing in the world ? The society 
 of wicked men. What is the greatest possible 
 loss ? Failure to perform one’s duty. 
 Where is the greatest peace to be found ? In 
 truth and righteousness. Who is the noblest 
 hero? The man who subdues his senses. 
 Who is best loved ? The faithful wife. 
 What is wealth ? Knowledge. What is the 
 most perfect happiness ? Staying at home. 
 What is royalty? The power to command. 
 
 104. The man with intelligence, like the 
 jasmine flower, has two alternatives to choose 
 from : he may blossom and flourish in the 
 sight of the world or wither away in the 
 desert. 
 
 105. The world is differently adorned in' 
 different places — by poor men whose words 
 are of little value : by rich men whose words 
 are treated with respect : by those husbands 
 who are satisfied with their own wives, and 
 by men who abstain from passing censure on 
 others. 
 
 106. The lighted end of a torch may be 
 
THE NITI SATAKA 85 
 
 turned towards the ground, but the flame 
 still points upwards : the constant man does 
 not lose his virtue in misfortune. 
 
 107. The arrows shot from the bow of love 
 cannot pierce the mind of the constant man, 
 neither is he consumed by the fire of anger, 
 nor snared by the net of greed : he is the 
 lord of the three worlds. 
 
 108. The mighty earth, when trodden on 
 by the feet of a single hero, is illuminated by 
 his glory as by the rays of the sun. 
 
 109. The constancy of the constant man 
 makes the savage things in nature turn into 
 the most gentle. By the power of constancy 
 fire becomes as water : the ocean as a rivulet : 
 Mount Meru as a small stone : a lion as 
 harmless as an antelope : a savage animal 
 as a bunch of flowers, and poison is even 
 changed into honey. 
 
 no. Honourable men may turn away from 
 life and happiness, but, as they are bent 
 upon truth, they do not cast off their truth- 
 fulness. Truthfulness, which is the origin 
 of modesty and of all the virtues, follows 
 them wherever the}" go : it makes them pure 
 in heart, and is as dear to them as their own 
 mother. 
 
86 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 hi. A sour heart; a face hardened with 
 inward pride and a nature as difficult to 
 penetrate as the narrowest of mountain passes 
 — these things are known to be characteristic 
 of women : their mind is known by the wise 
 to be as changeable as the drop of dew on 
 the lotus leaf. Faults develop in a woman 
 as she grows up, exactly as poisonous 
 branches sprout from the creeper. 
 
 1 12. It does not matter whether a brave 
 man who is killed in the thick of the fight 
 obtains heaven or victory : he will in any case 
 be held in the highest glory by both armies, 
 and this is the object of the man who desires 
 fame. 
 
 1 13. Of all the great marvels that I have 
 ever seen, the boar and Rahu are the great- 
 est. 1 The former supported the round earth 
 on his tusks which were dripping with water ; 
 and the other, who has only a head, swallows 
 his enemy and then lets him go free again. 
 
 1 14. The earth is bounded by the ocean, 
 and the ocean extends in length but a 
 thousand yojanas ; the sun again pursues a 
 
 1 The god Prajapati assumed the form of a boar 
 when lifting the earth out of the waters. Rahu : 
 v. note to aphorism 34. 
 
THE NITI SATAKA 
 
 87 
 
 certain definite path through the sky ; whence 
 it follows that all these things are bounded 
 by certain definite limits. Nothing exceeds 
 them in greatness but the intelligence of wise 
 men, for the intelligence of wise men has no 
 limits. 
 
 115. There is one god, Vishnu or Siva : 
 one friend, a king or an ascetic : one dwelling, 
 in a town or in the country ; and one wife, 
 handsome or ugly. 
 
 1 16. The earth shakes and trembles, even 
 though it is supported on the king serpent, 
 on the great mountains, or on the tortoise ; 
 but whatever has been promised by pure- 
 minded men never fails, even though ages 
 may have passed away. 
 
 1 1 7. If the tortoise is over-burdened by 
 the weight of the earth, why does he not cast 
 it off? If the sun becomes fatigued as he 
 pursues his journey, why does he not stand 
 still? When a noble man takes note of 
 these examples, he is ashamed to fail in his 
 promises, and faithfully keeps his word. In 
 this manner are vows adhered to in the 
 household of a good man. 
 
 1 18. If a man is satisfied with food, he 
 may be looked upon as subject to the world, 
 
88 
 
 THE 1 SATAKAS 
 
 even as a drum gives forth an agreeable 
 sound when its surface is covered with flour . 1 
 
 1 19. Men of low and mean minds take an 
 interest only in their own affairs ; but men of 
 noble mind take a particular interest in the 
 affairs of others. The great fire on the ocean 
 bed absorbs the waters of the sea to slake 
 its insatiable thirst, and the rain-cloud 
 replenishes itself from the, ocean, that it may 
 relieve the drought of the arid earth. 
 
 120. The Minister of State, like the poet, 
 is never free from trouble : he collects 
 revenue as the poet collects thoughts from 
 afar. He disregards false reports as the poet 
 disregards vulgar language ; both devote 
 themselves to pleasing the assemblies of the 
 good, and, with the expenditure of much toil 
 and labour, the statesman makes a name as 
 a poet makes a verse, by conforming to the 
 thoughts of the world. 
 
 1 2 1 . Whatever fate has prescribed for each 
 man in this life, that shall be his portion, 
 great or small. Rain pours from the cloud 
 day by day, filling all things, but only a 
 
 1 That is, a man praises his patron when supplied with 
 food, as a drum was heard better when flour was spread 
 over the leather that formed one side of \ 
 
THE NITI SATAKA 89 
 
 few tiny drops may fall into the mouth of 
 the chataka. 
 
 122. Wise men must be reverenced, even 
 when we may not think the advice they give 
 us suitable or desirable. The ordinary con- 
 versation of such men is like what we read 
 in the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 123. A good man may tumble, but if he 
 does, he comes to earth like a ball, and rises 
 again ; whereas the ignoble man falls like a 
 heavy lump of clay. 
 
 124. If fate decreed that the world were 
 ever to become deprived of lotuses, might we 
 expect to see the swan scratching in the dust- 
 heap like a cock ? 
 
 125. Elephants blind with passion or 
 heavy with sleep may stand at the gate : 
 horses decorated with golden ornaments may 
 gallop speedily backwards and forwards, and 
 their owner may be awakened by the sound 
 of drums, shells, cymbals, fifes and lutes ; 
 and all this state — a state like that of the 
 king of the gods — is the outward reward of 
 religious merit gained in a former existence. 
 
 126. Perfect indeed is the joy of those 
 men whose minds are awakened to the 
 happiness of contentment, but unceasing is 
 
9 o 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 the desire of those who cannot resist their 
 greed for riches. For whose sake did fate 
 create Mount Meru full of wealth ? Mount 
 Meru pleases me not, though it is filled with 
 abundance of gold and silver, because it is 
 satisfied with itself alone. 
 
 127. There are three qualities, each 
 perfect in its own sphere as the result of its 
 natural disposition : the red colour of the 
 lotus ; the consideration for others shown by 
 the good ; and the want of respect shown by 
 the wicked. 
 
 128. Fidelity in keeping promises is the 
 noblest quality among men ; leanness is the 
 best characteristic of a female elephant ; and 
 wisdom and patience are best suited to a 
 Brahmin. Every creature, in other words, 
 shows to best advantage when adorned with 
 its own particular ornament. 
 
 129. It is better to slip from the highest 
 summit of an elevated mountain and be 
 dashed to pieces on the rocks below — it is 
 better that our hand should be bitten by the 
 poisonous fangs of the most dreadful serpent 
 — it is better that we should fall into a 
 roaring fire, than that our piety should 
 fail us. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE VAIRAGYA SATAKA 1 
 Of Renunciation 
 
 1. Hail to the Almighty Power, who 
 cannot be defined in terms of time or 
 space — who is Infinite ; who is Peace and 
 Glory, and whose unique essence is self- 
 knowledge. 
 
 2. Wise men are consumed with jealousy, 
 the mighty are injured by pride, the minds 
 of some are led astray by ignorance, where- 
 fore it happens that the eloquent sayings of 
 the learned are left to fall into neglect. 
 
 3. When I cast my eyes upon the world, 
 I see no advantage in any action. The con- 
 sequences of good actions inspire me with 
 fear when I reflect upon them, for the 
 pleasures resulting from the long practice of 
 the highest virtues prevent men from attain- 
 
 1 Vairagya=lack of desire for the world; renunciation. 
 
 91 
 
92 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 ing to Nirvana, since they are afterwards 
 attracted by objects appealing to the senses. 
 
 4. I have dug up the earth in the search 
 for treasure : I have smelted ores : I have 
 travelled across the sea : I have with great 
 effort calmed the wrath of kings. I have 
 spent my nights in burial-grounds, and I 
 have striven hard to acquire knowledge of 
 religion ; but all my strivings have been 
 fruitless. Desire! wilt thou not leave me? 
 
 5. I have wandered over strange and 
 rugged lands, but without profit ; I have freed 
 myself from my pride of family : I have 
 carried out valueless tasks : I have put away 
 my self-respect, and have eaten like the crow 
 in the house of a stranger ; but yet, O Desire ! 
 thou becomest more and more powerful : 
 alwa3’S with evil inclinations and never 
 satisfied. 
 
 6. I have endured the abuse of wicked 
 men in the hope of gain ; I have smothered 
 1113" tears and forced myself to laugh, though 
 my heart was sad and weary : I have 
 controlled my feelings, and I have bowed 
 down before fools. O fond Desire, how much 
 further dost thou wish to lead me ? 
 
 7. Day b3 r da3 T a portion of our life glides 
 
THE V AIR AG Y A SATAKA 93 
 
 away from us with, the rising and setting of 
 the sun, and we think our business of so 
 much importance that we can pay no atten- 
 tion to flight of time. We perceive that 
 birth, pain, and old age end in death, and yet 
 we are not afraid. We are, so to speak, 
 intoxicated — intoxicated by the want of 
 infatuation . 
 
 8. Though a man might expect to be 
 refused, and might even stammer when 
 making his request, he would beg for alms 
 if he saw his wife perishing from hunger, 
 her garments worn and ragged, and her 
 children clinging to her crying, with pinched 
 unhappy faces ; but yet such a man would 
 not beg merely to satisfy his own wants. 
 
 9. Pleasure has no longer any attraction 
 for us ; the world no longer respects us : our 
 contemporaries have died away one by one ; 
 the friends whom we love as we love our- 
 selves will shortly follow : we hobble along 
 leaning on a stick, and our eyes gradually 
 become dim. Alas! these are signs that 
 our body has been subdued, and that it is 
 trembling at the approach of death. 
 
 10. It is the will of the Almighty that the 
 serpents shall gather their food from the air 
 
94 THE SATAKAS 
 
 without effort to themselves, and without 
 injury to others, while the cattle have been 
 created to eat blades of grass and to lie on the 
 ground . Precisely the same method of living 
 has been decreed for men who pass through 
 this World with subdued senses : men who 
 endeavour to live in this way continually 
 bring themselves nearer and nearer to 
 perfection. 
 
 11. We have not meditated on the 
 Almighty Being who at last puts an end to 
 all our reincarnations : we have not as the 
 result of our righteousness been able to open 
 for ourselves the gate leading to Svarga : 1 
 we have not gratified our sexual appetites 
 with a woman, even in imagination. If our 
 life has been spent in this way, we have but 
 destroyed the tree of youth that came to us 
 from our mother, even as if we had hewn it 
 down with an axe. 
 
 12. We have not gained any pleasure, 
 but pleasure has made us captive. We have 
 not endeavoured to practise penance, but on 
 the other hand we have suffered pain when 
 pursuing the joys of this world. Time never 
 grows old, but our own lives pass away. 
 
 1 The paradise of sensual enjoyments. 
 
THE V AIR AG Y A SATAKA 95 
 
 13. We have pardoned the injuries done 
 unto us, not because we wish to show forgive- 
 ness, but because we are unable to avenge 
 them ; we have cast away the pleasures of 
 home, not because we were willing to aban- 
 don them, but because they were beyond 
 our reach ; we have had to suffer pain from 
 cold winds, but we have shrunk from doing 
 penance on account of the pain it would have 
 caused us ; we have meditated day and night 
 on the art of getting rich, but we have 
 never meditated on the Supreme Being ; 
 and although we have performed all the 
 acts recommended by wise men we have 
 derived no profit from them. 
 
 14. My face is wrinkled and my hair is 
 turning grey ; my limbs are weak, and only 
 desire is strong within me. 
 
 15. The same portion of the sky that forms 
 a circle round the moon by night also forms 
 a circle round the sun by day. How great 
 is the labour of both ! 
 
 16. The objects of the senses, no matter 
 how long they may be in our company, must 
 one day pass away from us, but there is a 
 difference between our separating ourselves 
 from them, and not giving them up. If they 
 
THE SATAKAS 
 
 96 
 
 leave us, we shall be smitten with pain and 
 grief difficult to parallel, but if we leave 
 them of our own free-will, our reward will 
 be enduring peace and happiness 
 
 The Power of Desire 
 
 17. All desire comes to an end in a man 
 when he gains self-control by discriminating 
 between what is wise and what is useless ; but 
 desire gradually becomes more and more 
 violent when one has got into contact with the 
 panoply of royalty — in consequence of this 
 even the mighty Indra himself, the lord of 
 the winds, is a prey to desire; for he is 
 wretched because of the desire he feds for 
 his position as a royal personage, a position 
 that age has made null and void. 
 
 18. A miserable, tailless dog, worn out, 
 lame, deaf, covered with sores, perishing 
 from hunger, and with a fragment of a 
 broken pot tied round his neck, still pursues 
 his mate. Even that which is already dead 
 is destroyed by love. 
 
 19. A man may get his food by begging, 
 and the tasteless scraps he receives may be 
 sufficient for only one meal ; his bed may be 
 the cold, hard ground : he may have no one 
 
THE VAIRAGYA SATAKA 97 
 
 to attend to him but himself, and age may 
 have worn his clothes away to rags which 
 are ready to fall to pieces. Alas ! even then 
 objects of the senses retain their hold on 
 him. 
 
 20. The beautiful features of a woman are 
 praised by the poets — her breasts are com- 
 pared to pots of gold : her face to the 
 shining moon, and her hips to the forehead 
 of an elephant : nevertheless the beauty of 
 a woman merits no praise. 
 
 21. Ignorance will lead the moth to fly 
 into the flame of the candle, and the fish may 
 nibble at a piece of meat fastened to a hook 
 without being aware of the bait prepared for 
 them ; but we men who know thoroughly the 
 many traps and snares that fortune has set 
 for us nevertheless refuse to give up our 
 desires. Ah, in what a forest of error do we 
 wander ! 
 
 22. The fibre of the lotus is sufficient food 
 for us. We want nothing to drink but water. 
 We may lie on the bare ground, and we may 
 be clothed in the meanest of garments. I do 
 not approve of the wicked behaviour of evil 
 men whose senses are led astray by the lust 
 of gold. 
 
 G 
 
9 8 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 23. In former times the created world was 
 ruled by wise men, and afterwards by others. 
 It was thrown aside like a bundle of straw 
 after they had conquered it, and even now 
 heroes rule the fourteen divisions of the 
 world. 1 To what, then, can we ascribe the 
 frenzied desire that some men possess for a 
 few cities ? 
 
 24. You are a king, and I belong to the 
 band of spiritual teachers whom the world 
 honours for their wisdom. Your riches are 
 celebrated, and my renown is celebrated by 
 the poets. So then, O bestower of blessings, 
 there is no very great interval between us. 
 Thou hast turned thy face away from me, 
 and nevertheless I desire not thy favour. 
 
 25. Innumerable rulers have quarrelled 
 with one another, and still continue to 
 quarrel, for the possession of worldly enjoy- 
 ments, and kings still retain a feeling of 
 pride for their dominions. The foolishness 
 of those who own the earth leads them 
 to manifest unmistakable delight in the 
 acquirement of the most minute particle, 
 while they ought, on the contrary, to exhibit 
 the most profound sorrow. 
 
 1 That is, the entire earth. 
 
THE VAIRAGYA SATAKA 99 
 
 26. What is the earth but a lump of clay 
 surrounded by the vast ocean ? Kings have 
 conquered it in battle after battle, and have 
 divided it among themselves. These evil, 
 contemptible men may or may not show 
 themselves generous — neither characteristic 
 on their part need surprise us. But shame 
 on those mean men who would beg alms 
 from them. 
 
 27. I am no actor; I am no courtesan; I 
 am no singer; I am no clown, and I am not 
 a beautiful woman : what then have I to do 
 with the palaces of kings ? 
 
 28. At one time men availed themselves of 
 wisdom to obtain relief for earthly pains and 
 troubles, and afterwards they used wisdom 
 as a means for the attainment of pleasure. 
 But now, alas, it is clear that men care 
 nothing for the sacred learning, and therefore 
 every day that passes sees them further 
 estranged from it. 
 
 29. That man alone is born truly great 
 whose white skull exalted on high is worn 
 as an ornament by Siva, the enemy of Kama. 
 The only true honours being those conferred 
 by Siva, what can be the meaning of this 
 pride and magnificence now displayed by 
 
IOO 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 kings who are so greatly worshipped by other 
 men, and think only of their own royal lives ? 
 
 30. Thou art the king of wealth, and I of 
 speech : thou art a hero in war, while my 
 talents are seen by the manner in which I 
 can conquer the haughty and arrogant by the 
 power of my eloquence ; men bow down to 
 thee, but they come and hearken unto my 
 words that their minds may become purified. 
 And if thou, O king, hast no desire for me, 
 my desire for thee is still less. 
 
 31. When the knowledge I possessed 
 amounted to but little, I was puffed up with 
 pride like an elephant blinded by passion, and 
 I thought there was nothing I did not know. 
 But when I learned many things from the 
 sages, my foolishness became evident to me, 
 and I was freed from my mad excitement. 
 [Cf. Niti Sataka, aphorism No. 8.] 
 
 Indifference 
 
 32. Time is passed by, whiled away with- 
 out difficulty in the agreeable society of 
 beautiful women ; our long wanderings in 
 incarnation after incarnation have fatigued 
 us and worn us out. We repose on the banks 
 
THE VAIRAGYA SATAKA ioi 
 
 of Siva’s river, and call to him with frenzied 
 cries, “ Siva ! Siva ! Siva ! ” 
 
 33. When our honour has departed and 
 our wealth is lost ; when our desires have left 
 us and we have profited nothing by them ; 
 when our relatives are dead and our friends 
 vanished away, and when our youth has 
 slipped from us bit by bit : there is then only 
 one thing left for a wise man — -a mountain 
 cave where he can dwell in peace and quiet, 
 a cave whose rocks are purified by the 
 waters of the Ganges. 
 
 34. Why, O my heart, dost thou try from 
 day to day to secure the good graces of others, 
 and yet all in vain ? If thou wert only 
 purified, surely all thy desires would be 
 gratified, and thou wouldst not seek the 
 favours of other men, since inwardly thou 
 wouldst be at rest. 
 
 35. In our periods of health we are 
 alarmed by the fear of disease ; in the pride 
 we take in our family by the fear of a sudden 
 fall ; in wealth by the fear of a grasping 
 ruler ; in honour, by the fear of degradation ; 
 in power by the fear of enemies ; in beauty 
 by the fear of old age ; in our knowledge of 
 the Scriptures by the fear of controversy ; in 
 
102 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 virtue by the fear of evil; and in our body 
 by the fear of death. Everything on earth 
 gives cause for fear, and the only freedom 
 from fear is to be found in the renunciation 
 of all desire. 
 
 36. These lives of ours are as unstable as 
 the drop of water on the lotus leaf, and yet 
 what do we not strive to do for their sake? 
 We sin even when we are brazenly boast- 
 ing of our own virtues in the presence of 
 those wealthy men whose minds have become 
 petrified by the intoxicating power of riches. 
 
 37. All hail to the power of Time ! The 
 pleasures of the town, the glories of the 
 monarch with his crowds of courtiers, his 
 ministers who stand respectfully before him, 
 his women with faces as beautiful as the 
 shining moon, the crowds of haughty noble- 
 men, the poets and the writers — all these 
 are carried away on the stream of time and 
 eventually become but a memory. 
 
 38. The previous generations who gave us 
 birth have long since passed away, and even 
 those with whom we grew up exist now only 
 as a memory, while by the approach of death 
 we ourselves are become like trees growing 
 on the sandy bank of a river. 
 
THE VAIRAGYA SATAKA 103 
 
 39. In the dwelling where there were once 
 many there is now only one , where there was 
 only one there were afterwards many, and 
 then again but one. In such a way are day 
 and night dashed hither and thither by Kala 
 and Kali, 1 as if they were pieces of dice, and 
 thus too do Kala and Kali play with men on 
 the chess-board of this world as if they were 
 chessmen. 
 
 40. Shall we abandon the world, dwell 
 beside the divine river, and lead a life of 
 penance ? Or shall we rather seek the 
 society of virtuous women ? Or shall we 
 study the multitudinous Scriptures, the 
 poetry of which is even as nectar ? We 
 cannot tell what we shall do, for the life of a 
 man endures but the twinkling of an eye. 
 
 41. Men, to their disgrace, are now living 
 on the sustenance they have obtained from 
 others. What then has happened ? Are 
 there no longer retreats among the Hima- 
 layas where the vidyadharas live among the 
 imperishable rocks cooled by the spray from 
 the water of the Ganges ? 
 
 42. When shall we lie at rest on the 
 
 1 The male and female incarnations of the destructive 
 principle. 
 
104 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 margin of the divine river whose banks of 
 sand shine with a dazzling whiteness under 
 the light of the moon ? And when shall we, 
 when the nights are calm and still, satiated 
 with the world, utter cries of “ Siva ! Siva ! 
 Siva ! ’ ’ while the tears flow from our eyes ? 
 
 43. Mahadeva is the god we worship, and 
 this river is the divine river ; those caves are 
 the abode of Hari. Kala too is our friend, 
 and the rules of life which we follow bring 
 us freedom from humiliation . So what more 
 need I say on this point ? 
 
 44. The same as aphorism No. 10 of the 
 Niti Sataka. 
 
 45. Desire resembles a river; its waters 
 are like men’s wishes, blown hither and 
 thither by the waves of passion . Love takes 
 the place of the crocodiles, and the birds that 
 soar over the surface of the stream are like 
 the doubts that beset men’s minds. The 
 tree of firmness that grows on the bank is 
 carried away by the flood ; the whirlpools of 
 error are difficult to navigate, and the steep 
 banks of the river are like unto the troubles 
 of our life. Thus ascetics who, with puri- 
 fied hearts, have succeeded in crossing the 
 river are possessed with unbounded joy. 
 
THE VAIRAGYA SATAKA 105 
 
 46. When we look upon the ceaseless 
 changing of the three worlds, the passion 
 concealed within us, violently attracted by 
 the objects of the senses, ceases to cross the 
 horizon of our eyes or to enter into the radius 
 of our ears ; for we have crushed down the 
 objects of the senses that bring about desire 
 in us, and we now have them, so to speak, 
 bound down by devotion, even as the ele- 
 phant, attracted by his mate, is kept from 
 her by being tethered to a post. 
 
 47. Once upon a time the days seemed 
 long to me when my heart was sorely 
 wounded through asking favours from the 
 rich, and yet again the days seemed all too 
 short for me when I sought to carry out all 
 my worldly desires and ends. But now as a 
 philosopher I sit on a hard stone in a cave 
 on the mountain-side, and time and again in 
 the course of my meditations I often laugh 
 when I think of my former life. 
 
 48. We have not acquired stainless 
 wisdom ; we have not obtained wealth ; we 
 have not treated our elders with the respect 
 due to them, and we have not even dreamed 
 of love. If we have lived a life of this kind, 
 then our existence has been like that of the 
 
106 THE SATAKAS 
 
 crow, which looks greedily on the food of 
 others. 
 
 49. Let all our wealth depart from us, and 
 then with tender hearts and recollecting how 
 activity in the world leads to deeds of evil, 
 we shall sit in some sacred grove with the 
 calm rays of the autumn moon shining upon 
 us, and there pass our nights at the foot of 
 Siva, occupied only in meditation. 
 
 50. I am satisfied with the meanest of 
 cloth ; thou delightest in thy splendour, and 
 yet my contentment is equal to yours. Poor 
 indeed is the man whose desires are bound- 
 less, but who that is satisfied with what he 
 possesses can be called either rich or poor? 
 
 51. Freedom from toil whenever we feel 
 inclined to be free from it ; food obtained 
 without a stain on our honour ; friendship 
 with men of noble spirits, and a mind un- 
 disturbed by contact with the outside world - 
 — all these things result from the noblest 
 vow of tranquillity. Although I have given 
 careful thought to this matter, I know not 
 by what strict penance this perfect state may 
 be reached. 
 
 52. Their hand serves them as a cup; 
 their food is obtained by begging ; the pure 
 
THE VAIRAGYA SATAKA 107 
 
 expanse of the heavens serves them for 
 a garment, and the earth is their couch. 
 Those who are no longer attracted by the 
 objects of the senses are fortunate if they 
 have reached this stage of perfection. Con- 
 tent in their own minds, they cast away all 
 action, casting away at the same time all 
 the innumerable forms of pain which are 
 inseparable from action. 
 
 53. Masters are hard to please ; the whims 
 of kings change from one thing to another 
 with the swiftness of rapid horses ; our 
 desires are violent, and in our minds we aim 
 high. But old age withers our bodies, and 
 death puts an end to our existence. O my 
 friends, for a wise man there can be no glory 
 in this world but that which he gains from 
 penance. 
 
 54. Amorous passion is like a flash of 
 lightning in the cloud. Life itself is like 
 the clouds which are torn in pieces by the 
 storm, and the ardent desires of young men 
 soon pass away. O wise men, ye who know 
 how uncertain are human affairs, gain wis- 
 dom by meditating on the Supreme Being, 
 for perfection soon results from continual 
 contemplation. 
 
108 THE SATAKAS 
 
 55. A hungry man who is gifted with 
 understanding will go from door to door 
 through a sacred village, and will beg for 
 alms where he sees the door-post blackened 
 by the smoke of the sacrifices offered up by 
 the priests who dwell there. He will bear 
 before him his pot covered with white cloth, 
 and he will not live in misery from day to 
 day among families as wretched as himself. 
 
 56. “Are you a chandal ? Are you a 
 Brahmin ? Are you a Sudra or an ascetic ? 
 Or a lord of devotion whose mind has been 
 developed by meditating on the truth?” 
 Ascetics, when loud-voiced men ask them 
 questions like these experience neither 
 pleasure nor irritation, but quietly pursue 
 their way. 
 
 57. O my friend, fortunate indeed are 
 they who have freed themselves from the 
 shackles of this world, and from whose 
 minds all desire for early objects, like 
 the poison of a serpent, has passed away. 
 People like these spend the night illumined 
 by the clear rays of the autumn moon on the 
 borders of the forest, thinking of nothing 
 but their own good fortune. 
 
 58. Wander no longer with weary foot- 
 
THE VAIRAGYA SATAKA 109 
 
 steps in the thickets of the senses. Rather 
 find out that better way, which in a single 
 instant will bring thee freedom from all 
 trouble. Join thyself to the Supreme Being 
 and abandon thy own state, which is as 
 unstable as the waves of the sea. Take 
 pleasure no more in transient earthly things. 
 O my heart, be calm ! 
 
 59. O my friend, nourish thyself on fruits 
 and nuts and lie on the bare ground : let ns 
 arise and enter the forest clothed in new soft 
 garments made from the bark of trees. 
 There in that retreat we shall no longer hear 
 the voices of those rich men whose minds are 
 dulled with ignorance and whose very voices 
 are troubled and unsteady as the result of the 
 confusion of their minds. 
 
 60. O my friend, let the delusion with 
 which thou wert beset be cleared away ; pay 
 thy devotions to the god of the moon-crest, 
 who frees man from delusions. Let thy 
 thought be fixed on the stream of the 
 heavenly river; for what certainty is there 
 in things earthly, in waves and bubbles or 
 in the flashes of lightning or in women or in 
 the tongues of flame or in serpents or in the 
 onrushing waters of the stream ? 
 
no 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 61. If there are songs in front of you, 
 skilful poets from the south on one side of 
 you and dancing girls with tinkling ankles 
 and pearls behind you ; then, my friend, 
 enjoy the pleasures of the senses which these 
 things may afford you. But O my mind, if 
 you have not these things, then plunge into 
 devout meditation, freeing thyself from all 
 thought. 
 
 62. O sages, pay no attention to women 
 who are only pleasing on account of their 
 beauty, and delight in whose society is but 
 transitory. Seek rather the company of 
 women who are merciful, agreeable and 
 intelligent, for the beautiful forms of women 
 ornamented with tinkling jewels will not 
 profit you in Naraka. 
 
 63. This aphorism is identical with No. 
 26 of the Niti Sataka. 
 
 64. O our Mother Lakshmi, vouchsafe 
 that I may not be filled with longing or the 
 desire for pleasure ! Now having purified 
 myself with the vessel of leaves joined 
 together, let me maintain my life by means 
 of the barleycorn that I have received as 
 alms. 
 
 65. Gjce upon a time you resembled me 
 
THE V AIR AG Y A SATAKA hi 
 
 in all things, as I did you. But our feel- 
 ings towards one another have altered : 
 how has it now come about that we have 
 changed ? 
 
 66. O woman, why dost thou dart 
 beautiful glances at me from thy half- 
 opened eyes ? Stop ! stop ! Thy labour is 
 in vain ! I am no longer what I was ; my 
 youth has left me : I live in a forest, and 
 am no longer infatuated. To me now the 
 pleasures of this world are but as grass. 
 [Cf. Sringa Sataka, aphorism No. 93.] 
 
 67. The eyes of this woman have stolen 
 the beauty of the lotus, and with them she 
 continually glances in my direction. What 
 can she want ? My love has left me, and I 
 no longer feel the pangs of the cruel passion 
 that leads to warm blood and fever. [C/. 
 Sringa Sataka, aphorism No. 94.] 
 
 68. Is it not agreeable to dwell in a 
 palace; is it not pleasant to listen to songs, 
 and is not the company of friends whom we 
 love, as much as we love ourselves, delight- 
 ful ? Wise men nevertheless withdraw from 
 all these things, and take refuge in the 
 forest, looking upon them as the light of a 
 lamp that burns with a flickering flame 
 
112 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 through the draught caused by the wings of 
 a wandering moth. 
 
 69. Why do you throw aside your self- 
 respect and bow down to haughty men who 
 have with trouble amassed a small fortune 
 and look upon you with unutterable con- 
 tempt? Are there no more roots growing 
 in the caves ? Have the mountain torrents 
 now ceased to flow ? Do the trees no longer 
 bear fruit or has the bark out of which you 
 can make your clothing withered where it 
 grew ? 
 
 70. The same as aphorism No. 41 of the 
 Vairagya Sataka. 
 
 71. When the end of the present epoch 
 at length comes, and Meru the most mag- 
 nificent of mountains falls from its place ; 
 when the ocean, the abode of innumerable 
 monsters, is dried up, and wdien the earth 
 itself comes to an end : where shall we be 
 able to find any home for the body — this 
 body of ours, as unstable as a young 
 elephant’s ear? 
 
 72. O Siva ! when shall I, whose drink- 
 ing-cup is my hand, whose solitary garment 
 is the sky, and w r ho live a lonely and peaceful 
 life free from desire and action, when shall I 
 
THE VAIRAGYA SATAKA 113 
 
 at last attain to union with the Supreme 
 Spirit ? 
 
 73. You may have gained glory, and all 
 your desires may have been accomplished : 
 what further? Your feet may have been 
 placed on the necks of your enemies : what 
 further? You may have given all your 
 wealth away to your friends : what further ? 
 You may live thousands of years : what 
 further ? 
 
 74. You may have been clothed in rags : 
 what then ? You may have worn mag- 
 nificent silk garments : what then ? You 
 may have had only one wife : what then ? 
 You may have had innumerable horses, 
 elephants, and attendants : what then ? You 
 may have enjoyed good food : what then ? 
 Or you may have eaten wretched food 
 towards the end of the day : what then ? 
 What matters any one of these states, if you 
 do not know the glory of the Supreme Being 
 who destroys all evils ? 
 
 75. You have worshipped Siva; you have 
 lived in the fear of death and believed in 
 re-birth in another state; you have severed 
 yourself from the affection you bear to your 
 own family; you have not been influenced 
 
 H 
 
Ii4 
 
 fTHE ! SATAKAS 
 
 by love ; you bave lived in a forest far apart 
 from man, and you have not been soiled by 
 contact with the world. If you have spent 
 your life in this way, free from all attach- 
 ment to external things, then you possess 
 Vairagya. 
 
 76. Give yourself up to meditation on the 
 Supreme Being, who is eternal and who 
 grows not old, increasing his authority by 
 his own will. What profit can be drawn 
 from the delusions of this world ? If a man 
 is really bent upon being united with the 
 Supreme Spirit, all the power and pleasures 
 afforded by the earth seem to him to be fitted 
 only for men of narrow understanding. 
 
 77. O my mind, thou canst enter Patala, 
 thou canst fly across the heavens and the 
 earth in an instant of thought. How does it 
 come about that thou dost not even accident- 
 ally meditate at any time on the Supreme 
 Spirit, stainless, dwelling within himself? 
 For in this way thou mightest become 
 tranquil. 
 
 78. We are men lacking in intelligence, 
 and we take it for granted that day and night 
 go on indefinitely, consequently we take up 
 our task day by day, and continue it where 
 
THE VAIRAGYA SATAKA *15 
 
 we left off. Alas ! ought we not to be 
 ashamed of our folly? We put up with the 
 pains of this world, while we are entirely 
 given over to enjoying the same objects of 
 the senses over and over again. 
 
 79. The wise man, glad in his heart 
 because he has been freed from desire, lives 
 as happily and peacefully as if he were the 
 ruler of the universe. The earth to him is 
 an agreeable couch ; the arms of the creepers 
 are his pillow ; the pure sky is his canopy ; 
 the winds are his fan and the moon is his 
 glowing lamp. 
 
 80. Any man who has acquired great 
 power thinks even the overlordship of the 
 universe an insipid thing. Seek not pleasure 
 in the enjoyment arising from flattery, dress 
 or feasting. The only pleasure which is 
 supreme is eternal and continually increas- 
 ing. That is the pleasure which you should 
 endeavour to secure, for compared with its 
 sweetness there is no pleasure in all the 
 three worlds. 
 
 81. What profit can be drawn from the 
 vedas or the smriti 1 or from the reading of 
 the puranas or the tiresome shastras or even 
 
 1 That which has been handed down by tradition! 
 
n6 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 in the innumerable and bewildering multi- 
 tude of ceremonial actions that lead to a 
 resting-place in the heavenly tabernacles ? 
 In comparison with that final fire which is 
 to consume the creations of this wearying 
 burden of sorrow which we know as existence 
 — the fire that will in the end unite us with 
 the Supreme Spirit — all else is but the mere 
 bargaining of merchants. 
 
 82. Life is uncertain as the waves of the 
 sea ; the glory that envelopes our youth 
 remains with us for a short time : wealth 
 passes away like a flash of thought : all the 
 pleasure the world can afford endures no 
 longer than a gleam of lightning in the 
 heavens. The ardent passion of the mistress 
 you clasp in your arms will last but a short 
 time. Give all your thoughts, therefore, to 
 the Supreme Spirit; for you too must navi- 
 gate the sea of life with all its fears and 
 dangers. 
 
 83. Why should the wise man be anxious 
 over a small portion of this world ? Is the 
 mighty sea ever agitated by the movements 
 of the little fish ? 
 
 84. When the blinding effects of love had 
 filled me with ignorance the world seemed to 
 
THE VAIRAGYA SATAKA 117 
 
 contain nothing for me but women. But now 
 since my eyes have been anointed with the 
 oil of discrimination, I can see all things 
 clearly, and I look like the creator upon the 
 three worlds. 
 
 85. Delightful indeed are the rays of the 
 moon, delightful the grassy corners of the 
 forest, delightful the company of friends 
 whom we love, delightful too the writings of 
 the poets and delightful the face of our loved 
 one when shining through the tear-drops of 
 rage. But when we allow ourselves to reflect 
 on the uncertainty of these delights, who 
 can care any more for them ? 
 
 86. An ascetic is one who lives by begging, 
 far away from the busy haunts of men. He 
 is self-controlled and walks in the path of 
 indifference. It makes no difference to him 
 whether he receives or does not receive, 
 whether he gives or does not give. His only 
 garment is a torn cloak made up of rags cast 
 away by other men. He has no pride and 
 no self-consciousness : he is untroubled by 
 desire and his only pleasure is rest and 
 quietness. 
 
 87. O the Earth, my mother! O the 
 Wind, my father ! O Fire, my friend ! O 
 
n8 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 Water, my wife ! O Sky, my brother ! I 
 hail yon all with my hands clasped. I am 
 enveloped in glory through the merit I have 
 acquired by my union with you. O, may I 
 become part of the Supreme Spirit ! 
 
 88. So long as the temple of the body is 
 well and strong ; so long as old age is still 
 far in the distance ; so long as the senses 
 remain unimpaired, and so long as there is 
 no diminution of life : precisely so long must 
 the wise man make every effort to enter into 
 eternal glory. What does it avail to dig a 
 well when the house is on fire ? 
 
 89. Alas, our youth has passed away from 
 us unprofitably like a lamp set alight in an 
 empty house. The knowledge which puts an 
 end to the quarrels of disputants and which 
 it is desirable for the thoroughly cultured 
 man to have, has not been studied by us 
 during the period we have spent on earth ; 
 our fame has not been exalted to the heavens 
 by the sword-point that splits even the hard 
 brow of the elephant, and we have not tasted 
 the nectar on the low T er lip of the soft mouth 
 of our beloved one at the time of the rising 
 of the moon. 
 
 90. In good men knowledge casts out 
 
THE VAIRAGYA SATAKA £19 
 
 pride, but in others it leads to arrogance. 
 In the same way a lonely dwelling enables 
 ascetics to become freed from all attraction 
 to the objects of the senses, but it leads to 
 violent desire in those for whom it is 
 unsuitable. 
 
 91. Our passions have gradually become 
 weaker and weaker : our youth has turned 
 into old age, and even the virtues in our 
 own bodies have withered away because 
 they are no longer recognised to be virtues. 
 What remains for us to do? Omnipotent 
 time is hastening on, and death is approach- 
 ing to put an end to our lives. What is there 
 for us but to throw ourselves at the feet of 
 Siva? Other means of salvation there are 
 none. 
 
 92. When a man’s lips are parched he 
 drinks water and finds it sweet to the taste. 
 When hunger comes upon him he eats rice 
 and vegetables. But he is in error if he 
 thinks that the removal of the pain caused 
 by hunger and thirst is a pleasure. 
 
 93. I will immerse my body, O Lord, in 
 the waters of the Ganges ; I will sacrifice to 
 thee with unblemished fruits and flowers. 
 I will meditate upon thee : I will sit on a rock 
 
120 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 in a mountain cave and nourish myself on 
 fruits with a quiet mind. I will revere the 
 voice of my spiritual father. And when, O 
 enemy of love, when lying at thy feet, shall 
 I be freed from the pain of desire, and able 
 to walk alone on the path of meditation ? 
 
 94. Whom may we rightly call the over- 
 lords of the earth : those who pay homage 
 to any man ? Those who are content to lie 
 on a hard rock ; who live in caves ; who make 
 their clothes from the bark of trees ; whose 
 only companions are the antelopes; whose 
 food is the tender fruit ; whose drink is water 
 from the mountain stream and whose wife is 
 wisdom. 
 
 95. Consider women as they sit showing 
 every sign of extreme misery and of the pain 
 resulting from the fever of distress. But 
 what wise man would look at women in this 
 condition, unless he felt merciful towards 
 his unhappy family, so long as the Ganges 
 was near at hand, the holy river from whose 
 gleaming surface the sun’s rays kiss the 
 head of Siva, the river that furnishes us 
 with food and drink, and with clothing made 
 from the bark of the banyan-trees growing 
 on its banks. 
 
THE VAIRAGYA SATAKA 121 
 
 96. Alas, to what other towns can the 
 sages resort if they leave Benares ? For 
 in the beautiful gardens of Benares the 
 pleasures are innumerable, and penances of 
 great difficulty are practised; a little torn 
 piece of cloth is considered as a magnificent 
 garment and there is no limit to the quantity 
 of food that may be obtained by begging : 
 even death itself in that place is like a 
 festival. 
 
 97. “ Our master sleeps; this is the hour 
 when he takes his rest and you must not 
 enter, for if he awakened and saw you he 
 would be angry.” Thus speak the keepers 
 of the palace gates. But pass by them, and 
 enter the temple of that master who rules 
 the whole universe — that shrine that affords 
 us boundless blessing, full of love and 
 mercy, and where the coarse speech of the 
 gate-keepers cannot be heard. 
 
 98. O my friend, relentless fate, like an 
 omnipotent potter, puts the mind of man on 
 the wheel of care as if it were a lump of clay, 
 and makes it revolve — that wheel of care 
 which moves ceaselessly amid all the innu- 
 merable evils of existence, inflicting itself 
 upon men as if it were a scourge. 
 
122 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 99. I can see no difference between Siva 
 the master of the world and the slayer of 
 Janu, and Vishnu the soul of the entire 
 universe, consequently I worship the deity 
 with the moon-crest. 
 
 100. I am well content with that divine 
 voice which utters over my mind words that 
 are sweeter than nectar and richer that ghee. 1 
 I am satisfied also with alms and clothing 
 from the bark of trees, and I care nothing 
 for wealth gained by becoming a slave to 
 objects of the senses. 
 
 1 01. The ascetic may be clothed in ragged 
 garments ; he may beg his food ; he may 
 make his bed in the corner of a cemetery ; he 
 may no longer care for friend or foe ; his 
 dwelling may be lonely ; but in spite of all 
 these things he nevertheless lives in peace, 
 rejoicing because all the intoxication result- 
 ing from pride has disappeared. 
 
 102. The various pleasures which may 
 be met with in this world are every one 
 ephemeral, so why then, O men, do you 
 winder hither and thither, taking such 
 trouble to pursue them ? Let your soul free 
 
 1 Sweet clarified butter — the word is well known to 
 readers of Pilpay. 
 
THE VAIRAGYA SATAKA 123 
 
 itself from the innumerable shackles of 
 desire, and enter into the dwelling of peace 
 which shall be its portion if you believe what 
 I say unto you. 
 
 103. Blessed are they that live in a moun- 
 tain cave and meditate on the glory of the 
 Supreme Spirit. Th'e birds of the air will 
 come and perch fearlessly on their hands, 
 and drink the tears of joy that flow from 
 their eyes. As for us, however, our life 
 quickly slips away while we are enjoying 
 ourselves in the woods or by the river banks 
 and devoting ourselves to the pleasures of 
 this world. 
 
 104. Every living thing on earth is 
 destined to perish. Youth passes into old 
 age ; happiness is destroyed by greed ; peace 
 of mind by glances shot from the eyes of 
 beautiful women. Just men are slandered 
 by the envious ; serpents infest the forest, 
 and kings themselves come to grief through 
 their evil advisers. Not even the divine 
 virtues themselves are permanent, so that 
 everything in the world undergoes loss or 
 damage in some form. 
 
 105. The health of men suffers through 
 sickness, and when fortune has once left us, 
 
124 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 we are overwhelmed by distresses which 
 come in upon us as through an open door. 
 Death indeed rules all things, for fate has 
 decreed that nothing shall be permanent. 
 
 106. Alas ! when everything is brought 
 into the reckoning, what pleasure can be 
 found in this world ? Men have suffered 
 pain in the narrow womb of their mother, 
 and youth, when we have to separate from 
 our beloved, is full of grief, while old age, 
 since it exposes men to the contempt of 
 women, is a thing of evil. 
 
 107. The full span of man’s life is a 
 hundred years : half is spent in night, and 
 of the rest half is spent in childhood and old 
 age. Labour, grief, separation and illness 
 take up all that is left of us. What pleasure, 
 then, can we find in the life of man, which is 
 as unstable as the bubbles on the stream ? 
 
 108. Men of pure minds, who are able to 
 distinguish between the true and the false, 
 are able to carry out difficult tasks by their 
 communion with the Supreme Spirit, for 
 they are able to cast away from them entirely 
 the source of all pleasure, viz. worldly 
 wealth. Where we are concerned, neither 
 that which we formerly possessed nor that 
 
THE VAIRAGYA SATAKA 125 
 
 which we have now really lies within our 
 power. What we find it difficult to abandon 
 is that which we only wish for in our minds . 
 
 109. Old age threatens our body like a 
 tiger, and sickness finally carries it off. 
 Eife ebbs away like water from a cracked 
 jar, and nevertheless man is able to lead a 
 wicked existence in this world. And this is 
 indeed wonderful. 
 
 no. The Creator makes a man a jewel, 
 a man of virtue, an ornament to the whole 
 earth — and then in a single instant he 
 destroys him. Alas ! what a lack of knowl- 
 edge the Creator displays ! 
 
 in. What innumerable evils are attached 
 to old age ! The body becomes bent with 
 years ; the steps grow more and more hesitat- 
 ing ; the teeth fall out ; the eyes become dim ; 
 deafness is more and more evident; saliva 
 dribbles from the mouth ; servants no longer 
 obey orders ; one’s wife is not submissive, 
 and even one’s son becomes an enemy. 
 
 1 12. For a single instant one is a child, and 
 for a single instant again one is a passionate 
 youth. At one moment wealth lies about us 
 in abundance, and the next it is no longer to 
 be seen. A man reaches the end of his span 
 
126 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 of life, and then with his limbs worn out by 
 old age and covered with wrinkles, he enters 
 the abode of death as an actor at the close 
 of the play makes his exit behind the curtain . 
 
 1 13. It matters not whether a man wears 
 a snake or a string of pearls ; whether he 
 is in the company of powerful enemies or 
 powerful friends ; whether he owns sparkling 
 jewels, or is merely the possessor of a lump 
 of clay ; whether he reposes on flowers or on 
 a stone ; whether he is surrounded by fields 
 of grass or by hosts of pretty women : this 
 makes no difference to him at the time when, 
 as he dwells in a sacred grove, he calls upon 
 Siva. 
 
 1 14. What man finds the world filled with 
 delight ? Only he who has his passions 
 under control, who is calm and content, and 
 whose mind is never thrown off its balance. 
 
 1 15. Our final emancipation from the 
 world is drawing near in the form of death, 
 but yet we give no thought to it. We have 
 lived through different stages of our life 
 and have experienced calamity, happiness, 
 adversity and dangers — what more can we 
 add ? Alas ! what injuries have we not done 
 ourselves over and over again. 
 
THE VAIRAGYA SATAKA 127 
 
 1 16. The belly is as a pot which it is 
 difficult to fill : it withers a man’s virtue as 
 the moon withers the lotus beds. It is like 
 unto the thief who steals a purse ; yea, it is 
 even as a gleaming axe that hacks at the 
 roots of the tree of virtue. 
 
 1 1 7. Let us eat the food we have begged; 
 let the sky be our clothing ; let the earth be 
 our bed : why should we be slaves to cruel 
 masters ? 
 
 1 18. “ O my friend, arise and bear the 
 heavy burdens of poverty, and let me, over- 
 come as I am with weariness, at length enjoy 
 the repose that thou hast gained from 
 death.” Thus did the man who had lost 
 his wealth address the corpse on its way to 
 the graveyard, but the lifeless body remained 
 silent, knowing that death is better than 
 poverty. 
 
 1 19. The glory of Hara, who is glad 
 because he is half man and half woman, and 
 because his adored spouse thus forms part of 
 his own being, is seen in men who are 
 devoured by passion; but the same high 
 deity, when freed from union with his wife, 
 watches over those who are no longer subject 
 to the pangs of passion. The man who is 
 
128 
 
 (THE 1 SATAKAS 
 
 confused by the almost unbearable poisoned 
 arrows of love, cheated by Kama, can neither 
 enjoy nor give up the objects of the senses. 
 
 120. At one moment women laugh and at 
 another they weep, and in this way, although 
 they are full of insincerity, they make men 
 put their trust in them. Hence it comes 
 about that the wise man avoids women as 
 he would avoid a drinking-vessel used in a 
 cemetery. 
 
 12 1 . Let us pass our life at Benares living 
 by the banks of the divine river, clad only in 
 a single garment, and with our hands uplifted 
 over our heads. Then let us cry in suppli- 
 cation, “ O spouse of Gauri, Tripurahara, 
 Sambhu, Trinayana, shower thy mercies 
 upon us,” and in the midst of our prayers we 
 should find that days and years would pass 
 by as if they were brief moments of time. 
 
 122 . A firm bosom; sparkling eyes; a 
 small mouth ; curling hair, slow speech, and 
 rounded hips are characteristics of a woman 
 which are always praised. But when we 
 neglect the surface we find that the internal 
 characteristics corresponding to these are 
 hardness of heart, shifty eyes, a deceitful 
 face, insincerity and cunning. When we 
 
THE VAIRAGYA SATAKA 129 
 
 bear in mind both the superficial and the 
 inward characteristics of a woman, we must 
 declare that the one who should possess them 
 can be dear only to the beasts of the field. 
 
 123. Sometimes we may listen to music 
 and singing ; sometimes to weeping and wail- 
 ing ; now we may give ear to the utterances 
 of the sages, and again only to the quarrels 
 of drunken men ; there are moments when we 
 may take delight in all the pleasures that 
 the world affords, but, anon, we may find 
 that our bodies are covered with diseased 
 sores : so is the life of man partly made up 
 of nectar and partly of poison. 
 
 124. You disguise your voice and limbs 
 like the actors in a play, and then flatter 
 your wealthy patrons. But what part will 
 you play at the time when your hair is grey 
 with age ? 
 
 125. Fortune, breath, wealth : all are 
 transitory ; righteousness is the only im- 
 movable thing in the world. 
 
 126. Hara, whose brow is ornamented by 
 the crescent moon as by a tongue of flame, 
 who absorbed like a moth the god of love 
 that flew round him, thus showing himself 
 at the zenith of his happiness, and who 
 
 1 
 
130 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 removes the burden of darkness that takes 
 possession of the earth ; Hara, the gleaming 
 light in the inner mind of the ascetic — may 
 Hara overcome his enemies. 
 
 127. O mind of mine, pay no attention to 
 the goddess of fortune, for she is as unstable 
 as a courtesan, and as variable as the smile 
 or the frown of kings. Nay, clothe thyself 
 rather in ragged garments, proceed to 
 Benares, and beg from door to door the food 
 that men will gladly place in the receptacle 
 you hold out to them. 
 
 128. The tortoise, whose back is bowed 
 down with the weight of the great world 
 which he carries upon it, has indeed justified 
 his existence, and no less glorious was the 
 birth of the polar star, for the splendid zone 
 of the universe is fixed upon it. All other 
 things that come into existence are as if 
 dead ; they fly about aimlessly, and their 
 wings are useless in doing good to others : 
 they are neither above like the star, nor 
 underneath like the tortoise — they are even 
 as petty insects, buzzing about the fig-tree 
 of the world. 
 
 129. “My house is magnificent,” says 
 the man whose mind is darkened by igno- 
 
THE V AIR AG Y A SAT AKA 131 
 
 ranee; “my children are respected, my 
 wealth is boundless, my wife is beautiful, 
 and I am in the prime of life.” The wise 
 man, on the other hand, knows that every- 
 thing in the prison-house of this world is but 
 ephemeral, and frees himself from all its 
 earthly possessions. 
 
 130. Those who wish to swear may do so ; 
 but we are righteous, and, as there is no evil 
 in us, we cannot utter abusive words. We 
 cannot expect of a man more than is in him, 
 nor can we bestow upon him that which does 
 not exist. We cannot give a hare’s horn to 
 anyone. 1 
 
 13 1. Sustenance can be obtained in this 
 world by easy enough means. The land is 
 full of fruit. The skin of the elephant or 
 the deer w r ould furnish us with clothing, and 
 the consequences of happiness or of unhappi- 
 ness are identical. Who, therefore, casting 
 away the true idea of the deity, would 
 worship a deity blinded by the love of 
 money ? 
 
 132. Our minds are not always set on the 
 tasks they are carrying out, so that although 
 we have killed elephants by our good swords, 
 
 1 See note to Niti Sataka, aphorism No. 5. 
 
132 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 although we have put our enemies to the 
 torture, although we have gratified ourselves 
 by amorous dalliance on the couch of our 
 beloved mistress, and although we may live 
 near within the thundering noise of the 
 Falls of the Himalayas : yet we have had 
 no pleasure. Like the crows, we have spent 
 our lives in greedily picking up the crumbs 
 of food thrown to us by others. 
 
 133. Cease, O my mind, from wandering 
 hither and thither, and rest for a time ! 
 That which has been decreed by fate cannot 
 be warded off : therefore think not of the 
 past, and trouble thyself not about the 
 future : take delight only in those pleasures 
 which come to thee and are gone without 
 being sought. 
 
 134. Let thy hand serve thee as a 
 drinking-cup ; eat in peace the food thou 
 hast begged ; repose thyself wheresoever thou 
 canst, and look upon the whole world as 
 grass. Only a few men before thee have 
 got rid of their earthly forms, and acquired 
 a knowledge of the continuous happiness felt 
 by the ascetic : a bliss which it is not difficult 
 to gain by favour of Siva. 
 
 135. O my mind, thou hast not released 
 
THE VAIRAGYA SATAKA 133 
 
 Bali from Patala ; 1 thou hast not got rid of 
 death ; thou hast not taken the dark spots 
 away from the moon, and thou hast not 
 removed sickness from among mankind. 
 Thou hast not supported the universe, even 
 for a moment, and so relieved the weari- 
 ness of Shesha. O my mind, art thou not 
 ashamed to be honoured unjustifiably in a 
 manner appropriate only to great heroes ? 
 
 136. My mind wishes to become united 
 with Siva, for in this way all the disquietude 
 resulting from discussions on the meaning 
 of the different shastras is swept away, while 
 the emotions, calmed by the noble sentiments 
 of the poets, are brought under control, and 
 we are freed from the doubts that beset us. 
 
 1 3 7 . Why do wretched men tolerate the 
 miseries they are forced to undergo by 
 waiting outside the doors of the rich when 
 the fruits of the earth lie ready to hand, and 
 there is no scarcity of trees in every wood ; 
 when the sweet, cool water of the sacred 
 
 1 A virtuous king who became so powerful as to 
 arouse the anger of the gods. Vishnu begged from him 
 as much ground as he could cover in three strides; and, 
 on the request being granted, he stepped over both 
 heaven and earth in two strides. In view of Bali 'a 
 virtues, Vishnu left him the lower region (Patala). 
 
*34 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 rivers is easy to obtain, and when delicate 
 plants form a soft couch on which the body 
 may repose ? 
 
 138. I beg my food; the cow of plenty 
 gives me milk, and my ragged garments, 
 mean as they are, keep out the cold, while I 
 worship Siva without pause. What do I 
 care for worldly possessions ? 
 
 139. All the great ascetics have de- 
 clared that the life spent as a beggar is 
 not wretched, for the beggar fears no losses ; 
 he is not possessed of envy, pride, or 
 haughtiness ; he is free from the innumer- 
 able troubles that beset mankind, and he 
 obtains his food from day to day without 
 any great difficulty. The life of a mendicant 
 is a means of purification, approved of by the 
 gods. It lays up treasure for us that will 
 last for ever, and adds to our devotion for 
 Siva. 
 
 140. The beggar who rests his body upon 
 the earth, who looks upon the sky as his 
 canopy, and the moon as his lamp, and who 
 takes delight in the unity which has been 
 brought about between himself and divine 
 peacefulness, his brow fanned from all quar- 
 ters by the winds of heaven^ is like unto a 
 
THE VAIRAGYA SATAKA 135 
 
 prince, despite his having freed himself from 
 all desire for worldly wealth. 
 
 14 1. The pleasures of the world are as 
 ephemeral as the varying ripples of the 
 mighty river. Our life passes in a moment, 
 and our days here are few. The joys of 
 youth vanish away, and even the love of 
 one’s friends faileth. Wherefore let the 
 wise man who knows full well that this world 
 is a vain thing, and whose mind clearly 
 perceives the evil side of earthly attractions, 
 make every effort in his power to reach a 
 condition of indifference. 
 
 142. Thou dost not look upon the face of 
 the rich ; thou dost not speak flattering 
 words ; thou givest no heed to the utterances 
 of pride ; thou dost not wander hither and 
 thither in the hope of profiting thereby : but 
 thou eatest in due season the fresh blades Gf 
 grass and sleepest peacefully when it is time 
 to sleep. Tell me, O deer, what penance 
 thou hast practised that thou canst lead such 
 a life of contentment. 
 
 143. Young women flee from the man 
 whose hairs are grey with age, and the man 
 who is enfeebled by senility. They keep far 
 away from him, and avoid him as they would 
 
THE SATAKAS 
 
 136 
 
 the well used by the Chandals with the pieces 
 of bone suspended over it. 1 
 
 144. How often, O senseless man, do thy 
 plans come to naught ! Filled as thou art 
 with folly, how often hast thou not desired 
 to drink deep draughts of water from the 
 mirage of this world ! Since thou art now as 
 confident as ever, and since thy mind, though 
 it has received many a shock, has not been 
 subdued, surely thy heart must be made of 
 imperishable marble. 
 
 145. What will not the eyes of a woman 
 accomplish ! They will softly and quietly 
 make their way into a man’s heart and 
 inspire him with infatuation, with delirium, 
 with threats, and with felicity. What, 
 indeed, will not the eyes of a woman 
 accomplish ? 
 
 146. The powerful lion feeding on the 
 flesh of bears and elephants enjoj^s the 
 pleasures of love only once in a twelvemonth, 
 but the dove, picking up only morsels of 
 hard rock, loves every day. How, I pray, 
 can this be explained ? 
 
 147. The ascetic who desires union with 
 
 1 The Chandals are pariahs and outcasts, lower even 
 than the Sudras. 
 
THE VAIRAGYA SATAKA .137 
 
 Hara leads a life of peaceful calm with his 
 mind fixed only upon one object. He lives 
 in some sacred forest with only the deer as 
 his companions, supporting his life on the 
 fruits of the earth, and on the vegetables 
 growing on the banks of the stream ; while 
 the flat surface of a rock serves him for a 
 couch. His mind is fixed upon Hara, and 
 the forest and the dwelling are one and the 
 same thing to him. 
 
 148. The goddess utters sweet sounding 
 words that please us more than honey or 
 ghee ; the syllables that fall from her lips fill 
 us with delight. Let us but obtain our barley 
 grain by begging, and so long as we can do 
 that, we shall have no desire to seek wealth 
 in a state of slavery. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE SRINGA SATAKA 
 
 1. Fall down and worship the illustrious 
 wielder of the flowery bow, 1 who compelled 
 even the gods themselves to be the servants 
 of antelope-eyed ladies ; the youth whose 
 curious deeds cannot be described in words. 
 
 2. Smiles, gestures, modesty, and coquet- 
 tish glances, the face half-turned away, 
 teasing, jealousy, quarrels, chaff — these are 
 indeed the weapons of women, out of which 
 they make a chain to bind down men. 
 
 3. Eyes cast down, sidelong looks, pretty 
 eyebrows, soft words, modest smiles, arti- 
 ficial movements and postures of the body, 
 a slow, indolent movement in walking — 
 these things serve women equally well as 
 ornaments and as weapons. 
 
 4. If once our fancy has been caught by 
 
 1 Cupid. 
 
THE SRINGA SATAKA 139 
 
 women we shall never cast a look round us 
 without seeing the world filled, as it were, 
 with the sparkling glances of lotus-eyed 
 navodahs 1 — glances which strike us at first 
 by the movements of the beautiful eyebrows, 
 and then, perhaps, by the modesty or shy- 
 ness of the fair one, or by her timidity 
 and laughing gracefulness, or the unsteady 
 feelings displayed in those eyes, those 
 fickle eyes, whose magnificence resembles 
 the dark-blue lotus in full bloom. 
 
 5. A face that shames the splendour of 
 the moon, eyes that surpass the beauty of 
 the lotus, a complexion outshining even the 
 lustre of gold, thick hair, blacker than 
 the black bee, breasts that make us forget 
 the twin domes on the forehead of an 
 elephant, rounded hips, and a sweet voice 
 — these are the natural ornaments of young 
 women. 
 
 6. What is not handsome about young and 
 beautiful maidens who are just entering on 
 the threshold of womanhood ? Their gently 
 smiling faces, frank and innocent looks, 
 their harmonious voices when we speak to 
 them, and, when they walk, the delicate 
 
 1 Young and newly married women. 
 
140 THE SATAKAS 
 
 movements of their limbs, like the trembling 
 of lotus stems — these things are, one and 
 all, unsurpassed in their loveliness. 
 
 7. What can be more beautiful for the 
 lover to look at than the face of his antelope- 
 eyed mistress smiling at him with unchecked 
 passion ? What can be more lovely for him 
 to breathe than the breath of her mouth ? 
 What more beautiful for him to hear than 
 her voice ? What more beautiful for him to 
 eat than the delicate ambrosia of her lips ? 
 What can be more lovely for him to touch 
 than her soft hxty, and what more beautiful 
 for him to think about than the image and 
 grace of his adored one ? 
 
 8. Who is there that is not conquered 
 by the artless, timid glances of lovely and 
 youthful women, the melodious tinkling of 
 whose loose anklets and waistbelts puts to 
 shame even the sweet tones of the swans ? 1 
 
 9. The charms of a lovely woman, whose 
 body has been anointed with saffron, whose 
 necklace swings gently with the rise and fall 
 of her golden breasts, and from whose feet 
 we hear the sweet sounds of her tinkling 
 anklets : by making use of these things 
 
 1 A favourite comparison in Sanskrit poetry. 
 
THE SRINGA SATAKA' 141 
 
 what handsome woman cannot reduce a man 
 to a condition of the most abject slavery ? 
 
 10. All the best poets were wrong when 
 they called woman weak. How can such an 
 expression be applied to those whose star- 
 like eyes subdued the hearts of Indra himself, 
 and the other mighty gods ? 
 
 11. Makaradhvaja 1 is truly the obedient 
 slave of the beautiful woman who possesses 
 a pair of fine eyebrows : for he consoles 
 himself in all their labyrinths, and is ready 
 at any moment to take the field in her 
 service. 
 
 12. Thy well-combed hair, thy splendid 
 eyes, with their arches curved almost to 
 thine ear, thy two rows of teeth, entirety 
 pure and regular, thy breasts adorned with 
 beautiful flowers or necklaces of pearls — 
 thus thy body, oh beautiful woman, inspii'es 
 us with the liveliest emotion. 2 
 
 1 Cupid ; the Indian God of Love. 
 
 a In the original the lady is compared to “ calm and 
 peaceful Yogi ” — this being a play on the Sanscrit 
 words which, when applied to the ear, the teeth, and 
 the pearls, have a complimentary meaning, though they 
 bear a different interpretation — such as “ self-denying,” 
 or “ pious ” — when applied to the divine writings or to 
 emancipated souls. 
 
142 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 13. Oh, thou most charming maiden, 
 where hast thou acquired thy knowledge of 
 archery ? — a magnificent knowledge indeed ; 
 for thou canst pierce the hearts of others 
 merely by touching the strings of the bow, 
 without using a single shaft. 
 
 14. Noth withstanding the light from the 
 bright lamps, the fires, the sun, the moon, 
 and the stars, the whole world appears to 
 me to be wrapped in the deepest gloom, 
 because my fawn-eyed darling is no longer 
 with me. 
 
 15. It is but natural that the voluptuous- 
 ness of thy rounded breasts, thy trembling 
 eyes, thy ever-moving brows, and thy rosy 
 lips, should arouse amorous emotions in a 
 man ; but why is it that that thin line of hair 
 w r hich we can just see peeping forth ex ventre 
 tuo should cause us so much more emotional 
 discomfort ? — that little line of hair that 
 looks like a special mark of favour bestowed 
 by the God of Love himself. 
 
 16. The delicate form of that beautiful 
 woman resembles the constellation of the 
 stars. Look at her neck and breasts, her 
 face that puts the moon to shame, and her 
 slow, dignified mien. 
 
THE SRINGA SATAKA 143 
 
 17. If any emotion is aroused in thy soul 
 at the sight of the firm breasts, the rounded 
 hips, and adorable face of that young woman, 
 and if your desire is all for the voluptuous 
 sights on which you have cast your eye, then 
 practise the virtues ; for, without this prac- 
 tice, the fulfilment of your hopes can never 
 come to pass. 
 
 18. There is one question upon which we 
 
 must make up our minds, having set aside 
 all longing for the time being : Shall we 
 
 devote ourselves to the nitambas (mountain 
 caves) or to the nitambas (sexual charms) of 
 young and beautiful women ? 
 
 19. In this worthless world learned men 
 have two alternative ways of enjoying them- 
 selves : they may either drink the ambrosia 
 of knowledge and truth, or they may give 
 themselves up to the society of charming 
 women and of courtesans, whose amorous 
 desires are awakened by the mere touch of 
 the hand. 
 
 20. That woman may indeed be said to be 
 made up of precious jewels ; for her face is 
 like the moonstone, her dark hair like sap- 
 phires, and her hands like rubies, with their 
 red palms. 
 
144 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 21. What cannot clever women do when 
 once they take possession of the hearts of 
 men ? They can drive them mad, intoxicate 
 or stupefy them with sympathy and love, 
 mock them, threaten them, please them, and 
 likewise worry them in a thousand different 
 ways. 
 
 22. Behold the delicate form of that 
 charming woman who is walking in the 
 cool moonlight with slow and cautious step, 
 resting now and then in the shade of the 
 forest trees, and, with her shapely hand, 
 drawing her veil over her face to shield 
 herself from the rays of the moon. 
 
 23. So long as we do not view women too 
 closely, we wish merely to glance at their 
 handsome figures. When once this wish is 
 gratified, however, we want to have her 
 whole body in a loving embrace. And 
 when that boon has been vouchsafed us, 
 we pray that our bodies may be united for 
 all eternity. 
 
 24. Who can truly be said to have secured 
 a portion of ethereal bliss in this wretched 
 world ? Those, doubtless, who wear frag- 
 rant garlands of jasmine round their necks, 
 rub the sweet saffron over their bodies, and 
 
THE SRINGA SATAKA 145 
 
 press close to their hearts the adored form 
 of their beloved. 
 
 25. Our beloved one approaches us with 
 lascivious movements and then shyly yields 
 to our embraces. But, her desire once grati- 
 fied, she sets aside all reserve, becomes more 
 audacious, and gladly gives herself up to all 
 the delicious pleasures of love. 
 
 26. What pleasure can be compared to 
 that of drinking the nectar off the lips 
 of our beloved mistresses as they lie with 
 dishevelled hair and rosy cheeks, their 
 bodies palpitating with the delights of love ? 
 
 27. Qui nictantibus oculis amatorid e 
 pugna fit copulationis liquor, hoc insimul 
 ut veram lascivi dramatis catastrophen 
 amantium paria sane dignoscunt. (Literal 
 translation by H. Fauche.) 
 
 28. Impotence is an unworthy thing that 
 results in men, when they have become old, 
 too old for the joys of love ; but it never 
 happens in the case of well-developed 
 women : even when, in other respects, they 
 have become old and enervated, they are 
 still ready for pleasure. 
 
 29. The true object of amorous intercourse 
 is the uniting of the hearts of the two 
 
 K 
 
146 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 participants in it ; and when this end is not 
 accomplished the union resembles merely the 
 contact of corpses . 
 
 30. How well women can charm men by 
 their words — words which meekness may 
 make sweet, or which may be affectionate, or 
 slowly uttered as the result of the intensity 
 of the woman’s love, or agreeable to the ear, 
 or expressive of the utmost happiness, or 
 graceful, or passionate. 
 
 31. You must make your choice of a 
 habitation — either on the banks of the 
 Ganges, the hoty waters of which will wash 
 away all your sins, or on the breast of a 
 beautiful young woman adorned with a 
 necklace of pearls. 
 
 32. The anger of jealousy may rise in the 
 hearts of the young women who love us, but 
 it will last only until it is blown away by 
 a fresh breeze bringing with it the sweet 
 odours of the sandal-wood. 
 
 33. Who can avoid feeling the pleasurable 
 excitement of passion in the course of a 
 lovely spring evening when the air has an 
 agreeable perfume, the boughs of the trees 
 are covered with fresh foliage, and the sweet 
 notes of the birds melt the hearts of the 
 
THE SRINGA SATAKA 147 
 
 ladies — and when, too, the wistful sigh 
 and the gently moving breasts betray their 
 amorous desires ? 
 
 34. When lovers are separated from their 
 sweethearts their feelings are made even 
 sadder by the freshness of the spring, 
 despite the songs of the birds and the 
 magnificent breezes from the Malaya. In 
 man’s misfortunes even his nectar becomes 
 poison for him. 
 
 35. Not many people can manage to de- 
 light themselves in the pleasant nights of 
 Chaitra 1 by resting from the pleasures cf 
 love at the side of their adored ones or 
 listening to the sweet notes of the cuckoos, by 
 reposing within a lovely arbour of creepers, 
 by entering into converse with good poets, 
 or enjoying the cool rays of the moon. 
 
 36. The troubles of the traveller who is 
 journeying far from home are added to by 
 the sight of the burning mango stalks, 
 representing, as it were, the burning flames 
 of the fire of separation from his wife. 
 Then, too, there are the sad notes of the 
 birds and the sweet breezes blowing from the 
 Malaya. 
 
 1 From about the end of March to the middle' of April. 
 
148 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 37. In the springtime, when the scent 
 of perfume pervades everything, and the 
 atmosphere is heavy with the sw T eet odours 
 of the mango flowers and the bees intoxicated 
 with drinking the juice, we feel an irresis- 
 tible desire to seek the society of those w r e 
 love. Is there, indeed, any man who does 
 not feel his heart moved by the impulses of 
 love and passion ? 
 
 38. Various things all help to strengthen, 
 in the summer-time, the power of high 
 spirits and love — the hand of a beautiful 
 woman dripping with the moisture of 
 sandal- wood, houses provided with arti- 
 ficial fountains of water, flowers, the rays 
 of the moon, the mild and sweet-smelling 
 breezes, and the beautiful roofs of the 
 palaces. 
 
 39. When the privileged few are troubled 
 by the excessive heat of summer they have 
 remedies at hand — beautiful bunches of 
 flowers, fans, the rays of the moon, pollen 
 dust, charming lakes, sandal-powder, pure 
 sidhou, 1 light clothing, fine palaces, and 
 loving women with voluptuous eyes. 
 
 1 Sidhou : Wilson defines this as “ rum distilled from 
 molasses.” 
 
THE SRINGA SATAKA 149 
 
 40. A well-cleaned house, the spotless 
 
 rays of the moon, the lotus-like faces of 
 our adored ones, sweet-smelling sandal- wood 
 dust, and beautiful flowers : all these 
 
 things excite the hearts of the passionate, 
 but they have no effect on the wise man 
 who has turned his head away from the 
 pleasures of love. 
 
 41. Who is not delighted by the rainy 
 season — those months of autumn that rouse 
 the passions of men, almost as much as a 
 youthful woman, by the jati flowers which 
 it brings to their full growth, and the 
 clouds, thick with rain, like a full-breasted 
 woman . 
 
 42. The feelings of everyone, whether 
 happy or unhappy, are sure to be influ- 
 enced and made somewhat melancholy by 
 the sight of the cloudy autumn sky, the 
 sprouting fields, and the fragrant breeze, 
 heavy with the sweet odours of the kutaja 1 
 and the kadambs 2 and the peacocks that 
 make the forest ring with their shrill cries. 
 
 43. When the traveller looks up and 
 finds that the rain-clouds cover his head 
 
 1 Nauclea orientalis. 
 
 3 Echites antidysenterica (Fauche). 
 
THE SATAKAS 
 
 150 
 
 like a canopy, that the amorous peacocks 
 dance on the sides of the mountains, and 
 that the soil under his feet is beginning to 
 be covered with budding flowers and roots, 
 how can he refrain from uttering a sigh of 
 melancholy pleasure? 
 
 44. Consider the case of beautiful and 
 passionate women when they are separated 
 from their husbands in the autumn : how 
 lonely their days will be ! and how will it be 
 possible for them to walk abroad and see 
 here the brilliant flashes of lightning in 
 the sky, and there the peacocks, with their 
 passionate cries, while sweet breezes blow 
 about them and they feel the strong scent 
 of the flowers? — when, in short, everything 
 about them stimulates amorous passion ? 
 
 45. In the dark nights of Nabhas or 
 Shravana, 1 when the rain and the hail 
 fall to the earth with a hideous noise, 
 when the roads are flooded and the skies 
 are continually illuminated with flashes of 
 lightning : then women will be filled with 
 miseries and fears and w r ill long for the 
 return of their loved ones. 
 
 46. For happy husbands a rainy day is a 
 
 1 About July. 
 
THE SRINGA SATAKA 15 1 
 
 time of pleasure and delight, for, not being 
 able to go out on account of the wet, they 
 gladly return to their wives, who, trembling 
 with cold, take them into their embraces. 
 
 47. He who is tired of the pleasures of 
 love after part of the night has elapsed, 
 and, his throat parched with unquenched 
 thirst, sits on the lovely roof of a palace and 
 yet refrains from the delight of drinking 
 the clear autumnal water held to his lips in 
 a pitcher by the hands of his beautiful 
 sweetheart — she whose strength has also 
 failed as the result of the pleasures of love 
 — is without doubt a very unfortunate 
 being. 
 
 48. Those persons are indeed fortunate 
 who, in the depths of winter, can afford to 
 have plenty of milk and ghee on their 
 tables, wear thick garments, enjoy the 
 luxury of anointing their bodies with 
 saffroti, tire themselves with a variety of 
 sensual enjoyments, sleep in the embraces 
 of beautiful women, and repose at the'_ ease 
 within their dwellings, chewing a leaf of 
 piper-betel mixed with various spices. 
 
 49. Kissing the rosy cheeks of women, 
 causing a feeling of cold on their faces over 
 
152 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 which the luxuriant hair is blown hither 
 and thither, moving even their breasts and 
 blowing aside the clothing from their legs 
 and bodies — clearly in doing all these 
 things the winds of winter are playing the 
 part of paramours with beautiful women in 
 the broad light of day. 
 
 50. The winter wind tosses women’s hair 
 from side to side, makes them close their 
 eyes, blows their garments hither and 
 thither, thrills their bodies, embraces them, 
 makes them utter low sounds of fear and 
 delight, and kisses their lips ; and in doing 
 all this it acts with all the charm of a lover. 
 
 51. No doubt sensual pleasures lead to 
 no good result, and prevent us from 
 properly renouncing the world. People 
 may think and speak thus, but there is 
 nevertheless something powerful and, in- 
 deed, indefinable, in sensuality ; something 
 that can even agitate the souls of those who 
 have turned away from the world to devote 
 themselves to meditation and the search for 
 truth. 
 
 52. You, for your part, have found 
 consolation in studying the divine Vedic 
 writings, while we, on the other hand, are 
 
THE SRINGA SATAKA 153 
 
 the disciples of poets whose words are always 
 pleasing. You will therefore hold that 
 there is nothing better on this earth than 
 doing good to others, while we shall main- 
 tain that there is nothing better than 
 lotus-eyed, beautiful women. 
 
 53. Of what use are vain words and 
 useless discourses ? There are only two 
 things in this world to which man should 
 give himself ,up. One is the youthful 
 period of a beautiful woman, who is tired, 
 so to speak, of carrying the weight of her 
 lovely breasts and wishes for a new source 
 of enjoyment, and the other is a forest 
 where one can live as a hermit. 
 
 54. Listen, oh man, for I am saying 
 what is true, and am not speaking frivo- 
 lously. It is admitted and certain that 
 nothing enchants the soul so much as 
 young women. They alone are the cause 
 of evil ; and there is no other. 
 
 55. The lamp of wisdom and judgment 
 in the hearts of man burns only so long as 
 it is not extinguished by the brilliant glances 
 from the eyes of beautiful women. 1 
 
 56. Those learned men who interpret 
 
 1 That is, women annihilate all discretion in man. 
 
154 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 the Vedas by preaching that we should 
 renounce the world do not, after all, preach 
 this doctrine to us but with their tongue ; 
 for who can give up altogether the pleasure 
 to be found in the societ}^ of a beautiful 
 woman, ornamented with a waistbelt of 
 precious stones ? 
 
 57. That learned man who shuns the 
 company of beautiful women is deceiving 
 himself as well as deceiving others ; for is it 
 not the case that the enjoyment of apsaras 1 
 is one of the most prominent rewards of 
 Heaven ? 
 
 58. There are many men on this earth 
 who can cleave in the brow of a mad 
 elephant, and there are others who do not 
 hesitate to go out and slay a lion ; but who 
 among the bravest can I point to as having 
 broken the onslaught of the God of Love? 
 Men of this last type are undoubtedly 
 few. 
 
 59. A man may walk in the right path, 
 retain control over himself, and behave with 
 perfect propriety until at last he finds 
 himself in the company of sparkling-eyed 
 women who shoot arrows of love into his 
 
 1 The Indian equivalent of Moslem houris. 
 
THE SRINGA SATAKA 155 
 
 heart from the bows formed of their beautiful 
 eyebrows. 
 
 60. When women, inspired by the pas- 
 sions of love set about some task, even 
 Brahma himself is afraid to place an 
 obstacle in their way. 
 
 61. A man will preserve his greatness, 
 wisdom, nobility, and learning until the 
 God of Love causes his frame to tingle with 
 the arrows of desire. 
 
 62. There are many profound students 
 of the shastras, men 'who are famous for 
 their morality and, indeed, for the knowl- 
 edge they possess of their souls ; but of 
 the large number only a relatively small 
 number can expect to reach eternal happi- 
 ness ; for the key of the arched brows of 
 beautiful women opens a way for them 
 leading to the gates of hell. 
 
 63. Identical with aphorism No. 18 of the 
 Vairagya Sataka. 
 
 64. Foolish men have broken the divine 
 seal of women. They have thrown it aside 
 carelessly and now seek, but in vain, a 
 substitute for this seal, which gives birth to 
 love and brings everything to perfecting. 
 But they have met with condign punish- 
 
THE SATAKAS 
 
 156 
 
 ment at the hands of Cupid himself. He 
 has condemned some of them to walk to 
 and fro in a naked condition and with 
 their heads shaved, while others, with 
 matted beards, beg their bread from door 
 to door, carrying in their hand a human 
 skull. 
 
 65. Even Visvamitra, Parashara, and 
 innumerable other ascetics who had sub- 
 sisted on little else than the winds of 
 Heaven, dead leaves and water, were thrown 
 into confusion at the mere sight of a woman 
 as beautiful as the lotus; and how, then, 
 is it possible for men living on luxuries 
 such as rice, ghee, milk, and so forth, to 
 control their senses ? It would be as diffi- 
 cult for them to do so as it would be for 
 Mount Vindhya to swim over the sea. 
 
 66. Had there been no young women 
 with eyes as beautiful as the lotus and faces 
 outshining the beauty of the moon, whose 
 waistbelts gave forth such joyful sounds 
 and who were almost bent by the develop- 
 ment of their breasts, how would it have 
 been possible for men to have cast aside 
 their natural wisdom and inclinations and 
 entered the service of some cowardly king, 
 
THE SRINGA SAT AKA 157 
 
 passing their time near the gates of the 
 palace ? 1 
 
 67. If there had been no beautiful women 
 in the world, no wise man would have 
 stained his head by devotional bows, par- 
 ticularly when he could have spent his time 
 in some saintly cavern on the side of the 
 Himalayas, whose rocks are washed by the 
 waters of the Gange^ _md whose trees have 
 their roots in the shoulders of the Nandi, 
 the divine Ox of Siva. 
 
 68. It would have been an easy matter 
 to pay for our passage over the ocean of 
 existence if there had been no women with 
 beautiful eyes to hinder our progress. 
 
 69. No one in this world, O king, has 
 ever succeeded in crossing his ocean of 
 desires. Of what use to us are abundant 
 riches if we must let our youth slip away 
 from us without the enjoyment of our wives 
 whom we adore ? Eet us therefore hasten 
 to our homes so that we may be able to 
 reach them before the beauty of our loved 
 ones has been withered by the approach of 
 age. 
 
 1 That is, most men enter such service as this simply 
 for the sake of their wives and children. 
 
THE SATAKAS 
 
 158 
 
 70. What greater calamity can a man 
 suffer in this world than his own youth, 
 which is at once the abiding-place of passion, 
 the cause of dreadful agonies in hell, the seed 
 of ignorance, the gatherings of clouds that 
 hide the moon of knowledge, the great 
 friend of the God of Love, and the chain 
 that binds together innumerable sins. 
 
 71. Fortunate indeed is the person who 
 can retain the mastery of his senses at the 
 critical period of his youth — youth, this 
 waterer of the tree of love, the rapid-flowing 
 stream of sexual enjoyment, the dear friend 
 of the God of Love, the full moon of the 
 chakor-like eyes of women, and the treasury 
 of happiness and wealth. 
 
 72. “ Beautiful woman. What a divine 
 expression ! What a magnificent form ! ” 
 cries the man who. is blinded by passion ; or, 
 perhaps, “What a breast! What eye- 
 brows ! ” In this way the sight of a 
 beautiful woman delights him. He feels 
 intoxicated with an excessive joy, and yet 
 he may know very well that she is a woman 
 whose impurity is known to the whole 
 world . 
 
 73. How can we go on loving 
 
 women 
 
THE SRINGA SAT AKA 159 
 
 when the thought of her warms our hearts, 
 the sight of her intoxicates us, and a touch 
 of her nearly drives us mad ? 
 
 74. A woman is indeed the very incarna- 
 tion of the purest ambrosia so long as we 
 have her within sight ; but no sooner is she 
 beyond the range of our vision than she 
 becomes worse even than poison. 1 
 
 75. Whatever young woman we may 
 have in mind she is neither ambrosia nor 
 poison — if she loves us she will be like 
 an ambrosial creeper embracing us with its 
 tendrils ; but if she is indifferent she is like 
 a poisonous plant. 
 
 76. A whirlpool of uncertainty, a palace 
 of pride, a prison of punishment, a store- 
 house of sin, a fraud in a hundred different 
 respects, an obstacle placed for us before 
 the gates of paradise, the field of deceit, a 
 basket of illusion, the open throat of hell : 
 such are some of the features of women, 
 who change nectar into poison and are as 
 a chain by which man is attached to the 
 chariot of folly, 
 
 77. It is certain enough that the face of a 
 
 1 The company of our wives is delightful, and 
 separation from them is as bad as poison. 
 
160 THE SATAKAS 
 
 woman is not made up of the moon, that 
 her eyes are not twin lotuses, and that 
 her limbs are not really gold. Why, alas, 
 have poets been led to deceive us in this 
 manner? Men are capable of distinguish- 
 ing ; but nevertheless, deceived by the 
 poets, they none the less adore those fawn- 
 eyed women, even though they know well 
 enough that their bodies are composed of 
 nothing more than skin, flesh, and bone. 
 
 78. Redness is a natural feature of the 
 lotus ; but the bees mistake it for a sign of 
 its love for them, so they continually hover 
 around the flower. Similarly, though flir- 
 tations and amorous actions are natural to 
 women, they yet make deep impressions on 
 the hearts of foolish men, who mistake these 
 things for real tokens of love. 
 
 79. We behold a young girl with a lotus- 
 eyed face resembling the splendour of the 
 moon, and we remark the ambrosia on her 
 lips. Too soon this face, like a rotten piece 
 of fruit, will lose all its flavour, and will 
 begin to taste like bitter poison. 
 
 80. A 3'oung woman is like a river; for 
 the lines of her body resemble the waves; 
 her breasts represent the ducks swimming 
 
THE SRINGA SATAKA’ 161 
 
 on the surface, the nymphs are seen in the 
 brilliant colours of her face : but the bed of 
 the river is dangerous, its course is difficult 
 to perceive and leads rapidly to the ocean ; 
 so let men turn aside from it if they do not 
 wish to be drowned. 
 
 81. Women, being all of a flighty dis- 
 position, look at this man and talk to that 
 man at one time — and think of yet a third 
 person : Who can possibly be a lover of 
 women ? 
 
 82. Women’s words may be like honey, 
 while their hearts may be filled with poison. 
 What more natural, then, than we should 
 clasp their breasts tightly while kissing 
 their lips ? 
 
 83 . Oh my friend ! Carefully avoid that 
 form of serpent whom we know as woman. 
 She wears the hood of amorous glances and 
 actions while the looks she darts from her 
 eyes are like stings of poison. Those who 
 are bitten by ordinary snakes may be cured 
 by medicines ; but those who are wounded 
 by the serpents in the form of woman 
 cannot be cured even by the most famous 
 charmers. 
 
 84. Cupid, in the guise of a fisherman, 
 
 L 
 
i6 2 the satakas 
 
 has spread his net in the form of a woman ; 
 and the bait he offers is the nectar from 
 her lips. Soon men are tempted by the 
 attraction that is put before them and, when 
 they are caught, they are roasted in the fire 
 of love. 
 
 85. Never, oh my heart, venture into 
 the dense forest of a pretty woman’s body. 
 The way through it is rendered difficult by 
 the high mountains of her breasts, and the 
 God of Love hovers round like a brigand. 
 
 86. Woe is me ! for I must one day 
 be pierced by the large, swift, voluptuous 
 eye of a woman, which follows one like a 
 quickly-moving serpent, and finally strikes. 
 In nearly every country there are charmers 
 who can cure a snake bite ; but, alas ! for 
 the man whose heart is pierced by the ej^e 
 of a woman there is neither medicine nor 
 doctor. 
 
 87. In one place we hear a melodious 
 song, in another we see a well-executed 
 dance or inhale a beautiful perfume ; while 
 again, somewhere else, w r e are intoxicated by 
 touching a beautiful breast. In this way our 
 senses ramble hither and thither and destroy 
 the higher ideas of our minds — all of them 
 
THE SRINGA SATAKA 163 
 
 workmen carrying out useless tasks and all 
 of them continually abused and deceived. 
 
 88. The disease of love cannot be healed 
 by mantras or the customary medicines. 
 The study of the divine texts is of little 
 avail ; and whenever the patient is attacked 
 his eyes roll with pain, and his limbs assume 
 a peculiar livid hue. 
 
 89. What wise man can possibly take 
 delight in loving a prostitute — a woman 
 who, for the mere hope of gaining a small 
 sum of money, sells her lovely person even 
 to a blind man, or a man who is indescrib- 
 ably ugly and worn out with age, or a man 
 of low origin, or again a man who repels us 
 by his leprosy. What man, I ask, can love 
 a prostitute — this scythe who cuts down the 
 divine shrub of wisdom, the roots of which 
 are planted in paradise itself ? 
 
 90. A prostitute is, so to speak, a fire of 
 love, glowing from the fuel of beauty, and 
 burning to ashes the youth and wealth of 
 sensual persons. 
 
 91. However beautiful the lips of a pros- 
 titute may be, no man who respects himself 
 can possibly kiss them — for what are they 
 but a kind of vessel in which everyone is at 
 
THE SATAKAS 
 
 164 
 
 liberty to spit, be he spy, soldier, thief, 
 slave, actor, or cheat? 
 
 92. Happy indeed are those men whose 
 hearts are not inflamed by the sight of 
 beautiful women with large eyes, firm 
 breasts, and all the characteristics of youth 
 about their delicate bodies. 
 
 93. My child, why dart coquettish glances 
 from thy half-closed eyes ? Cease ! Cease ! 
 for thy labour is in vain. We have become 
 different men ; our youth is at an end. The 
 world, so far as we are concerned, is in the 
 middle of a forest. Folly is dead in our 
 hearts, and this world, through which one’s 
 desires are inflamed, is to us nothing but a 
 handful of grass. 
 
 94. That charming young woman con- 
 tinually casts sparkling glances towards us ; 
 but what object can she have in doing so? 
 Our desires have long since left us, and love, 
 the tireless hunter, has put away his arrows 
 which pierce our bodies with the pangs of 
 pain. Yet that woman will not cease. [ Cf . 
 Vadragya Sataka, aphorisms Nos. 66 and 
 67.] 
 
 95. Magnificent palaces, passionate young 
 women, wealth, and power — a man can enjoy 
 
THE SRINGA SATAKA 165 
 
 these things in recompense for virtuous 
 actions, but only for so long as the merits 
 of such actions entitle him to do ; and 
 then, when the term has expired, everything 
 collapses and vanishes into ruin like a rope 
 of pearls suddenly broken in the course of 
 an amorous dispute. 
 
 96. Love, who, although invisible, attacks 
 everybody, continually hovers round the 
 victorious ascetic in whose soul all evils 
 have been conquered by meditation and the 
 practice of Yoga. In view of this, what use 
 can he make of the society of agreeable 
 women, the charming honey of their lips, 
 the odour of their sighs, and their voluptuous 
 kisses ? 
 
 97. Why, O love, should you tire your- 
 self ? of what avail now your bow and arrow, 
 or your words uttered in your most melodious 
 tones ? Away from me, young fool, away 
 with your side-glances so piercing, sweet, 
 loving, and delicate ! My thoughts are 
 directed now only towards God; the only 
 ambrosia which I absorb is that which comes 
 to me when I meditate at the feet of Siva ! 
 
 98. When I was ignorant and walking in 
 darkness it appeared to me that the whole 
 
i66 
 
 THE SATAKAS 
 
 world was nothing but the body of a woman ; 
 but now that I have become more clear- 
 sighted, I recognise that the three worlds 
 are comprised in Brahma himself. 1 
 
 99. One man walks in the path of absolute 
 renunciation, while another follows the way 
 of moral obligations, and a third devotes 
 himself to love. 
 
 100. It is thus in this world that the differ- 
 ences in the characters of men enable us to 
 distinguish between them ; and if the third 
 does not possess what, in love, is essentially 
 beautiful, the wishes of the second tend 
 towards the beautiful. The soul of the first 
 has not yet reached this stainless state; 
 nevertheless his desires have gained posses- 
 sion of the lotus. 
 
 1 C/. Niti Sataka, aphorism No. 8. 
 
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