The Sanskrit Epics, page 947
50. For if a man should milk a cow which has not calved, he would not obtain milk, because he would be milking at the wrong season; or again, given the right season, he would not obtain milk if through ignorance he were to milk a cow by the horn.
51. And a man who wants a fire will not obtain one from damp wood, however much he tries, nor because of using the wrong method will he obtain a fire even from dry wood, if he merely throws it down.
52. Examining duly the conditions of time and place as well as the scope and method of Yoga, a man should strive his utmost while having regard to the strong and weak points of his self and not doing what is contrary thereto.
53. But when the soul is excited, he should not resort to the subject of meditation known as ‘inducing energy’; for thus the mind does not reach tranquillity, as fire fanned by (the wind) does not die down.
54. It is when the mind is excited that it is the time for the subject of meditation which is prescribed for tranquillity; for thus the thoughts can assume tranquillity, as a blazing fire would be quenched by water.
55. When the mind is sluggish, he should not resort to the subject of meditation prescribed for inducing tranquillity; for thus the mind becomes still more sluggish, like a fire of little substance when not fanned.
56. It is when the mind is sluggish that it is the time for the subject of meditation prescribed for inducing energy; for thus the mind can become capable of action, like a sinking fire through fuel.
57. The subject of meditation inducing indifference is not recommended when the thoughts are either sluggish or excited; for thus it might bring about a grievous calamity, like the illness of a sick man if it is neglected.
58. When the thoughts have attained equilibrium, then is the time for the subject of meditation inducing indifference; for thus there would be application to the duty in hand, like a chariot starting off with well-trained horses.
59. When the mind is disturbed by the excitement of passion, the method of cultivating the idea of benevolence should be avoided; for the man of passionate nature goes wrong through benevolence, like a man disturbed by phlegm through unctuous treatment.
60. But when the mind is excited by passion, the subject of meditation called ‘impure’ should be selected so as to reach steadfastness; for thus the man of passionate nature obtains relief, like the man subject to phlegm who uses astringent remedies.
61. But when the mind is agitated by the vice of malevolence, do not choose the subject of meditation known as ‘impure’; for that meditation tends to the destruction of the man whose nature is full of hate, just as pungent treatment does for the man of bilious temperament.
62. But when the mind is troubled by the vice of malevolence, practise thoughts of benevolence by considering the application (of hurt) to yourself; for benevolence tends to tranquillising the nature full of hate, like cooling treatment the man of bilious temperament.
63. When the working of the mind is subject to delusion, the subjects of benevolence and impurity are unsuitable; for from them a man is overtaken by further delusion, as a man of windy temperament is overtaken by further unconsciousness, if given astringent treatment.
64. When the working of the mind is affected by delusion, the subject of reflection should be causality; for this is the path to peace for the deluded mind, like unctuous treatment for the man of windy temperament.
65. Compare the goldsmith in this world who, placing gold in the mouth of the forge, applies the bellows at the proper time, wets it with water at the proper time and gradually at the proper time allows it to cool off.
66. For by using the bellows at the wrong time he would burn the gold, by throwing it into the water at the wrong time he would make it too soft and by letting it cool off at the wrong time he would not bring it to maturity properly.
67. But one should consider in the mind the proper subject for meditation, whether of effort, of tranquillity, and similarly at the proper time of indifference. For even effort, if not regulated by the proper method, leads to destruction.’
68. Thus the Blessed One spoke to him of the right plan and of abandoning the wrong one and, knowing all the varieties of behaviour, He further explained the processes for the elimination of thought.
69. As the physician prescribes the treatment for the cure of disease according to which one of the three humours it is that has become deranged, so the Buddha prescribed the treatment for the faults:-
70. ‘If by one means impure thoughts cannot be rooted out because the habit has become too strong, then another course should be tried, but in no circumstances is the meritorious practice to be abandoned.
71. For the faults cannot be extirpated all at once, partly because the troop of the vices are very strong, having from their nature accumulated from time without beginning, and partly because right practice is difficult.
72. As a man, skilled in the job, uses a small wedge to knock out another bigger one, so a subject of meditation that has bad results should be driven out by selecting another one.
73. Or if nevertheless impure thoughts are not allayed owing to the inexperience of the mind, they should be eliminated by examining the faults inherent in them, as a traveller goes away from a road infested by wild beasts.
74. As the man, who wishes to live, would not eat food infected with poison, however famished he were, so the wise man abandons an impure meditation, recognising that it brings about sin.
75. For who is capable of holding back from vice a man who does not see it for what it really is? But he who sees the good quality in any good quality will set out for it despite all obstruction.
76. For men of noble birth are ashamed of the active workings of the mind towards impurity, the invisible, unholy desires, as a spirited and handsome youth is ashamed of unsightly and ill-arranged objects attached to his neck.
77. But if evil thoughts, though shaken off, should subsist even a little, you must labour for their obliteration by some other means such as study, action etc.
78. The prudent man should even sleep or undergo bodily fatigue; but in no case should he meditate on wrong subjects, by attachment to which disaster might ensue.
79. For as a man frightened of thieves will not grant entrance at night even to his friends, so the wise man represses the practice of good and evil (thoughts) alike together with the faults.
80. If they still do not turn away, though combated by such means, then they must be eliminated, like the impurities of gold, by driving them out in the order of their grossness.
81. As a man exhausted with strenuous erotic practices takes to walking quickly etc., so does the wise man deal with the vices.
82. If evil thoughts are not allayed owing to failure to find the correct counteragent, still they must not be tolerated for a moment without opposition, any more than snakes in the house would be.
83. A man may do his best by setting the teeth, pressing the edge of the gums with the tongue and restraining the mind with the mind, but in any case they will not be readily docile.
84. What need for wonder that a man, who has adopted the forest life and is healthy in mind and free from delusion, should not be deluded? He indeed is a true saint and truly steadfast who is not shaken before the onslaught of such ideas in the soul.
85. Therefore to obtain seisin of the noble Truths, first purify the Path by this method as you set out to subdue your enemies, just as a king, starting on a campaign to subdue his enemies and desiring to conquer hitherto unconquered sovereignty, has his road first cleared.
86. These forests on every side are auspicious, suited for Yoga and not thronged by mail. Finding sufficient solitude for the body, enter the Path for the elimination of the vices.
87. Kaundinya, Nanda, Krmila, Aniruddha, Tisya, Upasena, Vimala and Râdha, Vaspa, Uttara, Dhautaki, Moharâja, Kâtyâyana, Dravya and Pilindavatsa, —
88. Bhaddâli, Bhadrâyana, Sarpadâsa, Subhüti, Godattta, Sujâta, Vatsa, Samgrâmajit, Bhadrajit, Asvajit, Srona, Sona Kotikarna, 89. Ksemà, Ajita, the mothers of Nandaka and Nanda, Upâli, Vâglsa, Yaéas and Yasoda, Mahâhvaya, Yalkalin, Râstrapâla, Sudaréana, Svâgata and Meghika, 90. Kapphina, Kâfyapa of Uruvilvâ, Mahâmahâkâsyapa, Tisya, Nanda, Pürna, Pürna, Pürnaka and Pürna Sonâparânta, 91. Sâradvatïputra, Subâhu, Cunda, Kondeya, Kâpya, Bhrgu, Kunthadhâna, éaivala, Revata and Kausthila, and Maudgalyâyana and Gavâmpati:
92. The courage which they showed in the practice of Yoga do you also display quickly in proper form. Then you will certainly reach the stage and glory those... ones reached.
93. Just as a substance may be hot in taste and yet when eaten be easy to digest, so energy may be painful through the toil it involves and yet be pleasant in its result through the accomplishment of the object in hand.
94. Energy is of the greatest import, for it is the foundation for carrying through what is to be done and without energy nothing can be accomplished; all success in the world arises from energy, and if there be a lack of it there is nothing but sin.
95. For men who have not energy there can certainly be no acquisition of what they have not acquired, and there is loss of what they have acquired as well as self-contempt, misery, and insult from the stronger, mental darkness, loss of power, and cessation of learning, of self-control and of contentment, and ultimately descent to a lower plane of existence.
96. It is indolence, not his enemy, that is the cause that a man capable of success, on hearing of the method, fails to progress, that, knowing the supreme Law, he does not gain an abode above and that, having left his home, he does not attain peace in Salvation.
97. A man obtains water if he digs the earth with unremitting energy; he produces fire from the fire-sticks by continuous friction; and the men who apply themselves to Yoga certainly obtain the fruit of their toil. For streams, by ever running swiftly, wear away even mountains.
98. By ploughing the soil and by guarding (his field) with infinite pains man obtains a splendid crop; by diving strenuously into the ocean he rejoices in splendid jewels; by overwhelming the might of his enemies with arrows he enjoys the splendour of sovereignty. Therefore show energy for the sake of tranquillity; for of a certainty all prosperity lies in energy.’
CANTO XVII. THE ENTRY INTO IMMORTALITY
1. SO NANDA was thus instructed in the path to reality and then, entering the Path of Salvation, he did reverence to the Guru with all his heart and departed to the forest to eliminate the vices.
2. There he saw a quiet glade in a group of trees with soft dürva grass and surrounded by a stream running noiselessly with water blue as beryl.
3. There by the clean, auspicious and splendid root of a tree, after bathing his feet and putting on the girdle of resolution for Salvation, he took up the Yogin’s posture, bent over his lap.
4. Straightening all his body, he directed his attention on his body and, collecting all his sense-faculties in himself, he entered earnestly into the practice of Yoga.
5. Then in his desire to grasp the entire truth and to perform the practices favourable to Salvation, he passed along the stage of preparation of the mind through mundane knowledge and tranquillity.
6. By assuming steadfastness, applying effort, driving away attachment and mastering his capacity, he caused his thoughts to be tranquil and to abide in the rule of abstinence, and, being then at ease, he lost all liking for sensual objects.
7. But then, despite the zeal of his mind and the resolution of his soul, the idea of love from constant habit fouled his mind, as a thunderbolt coming in the rains makes the water turbid.
8. He recognised the disturbance in his feelings and quickly threw off that idea so ruinous to the Law, like a man of spirit who with thoughts filled with wrath rejects an offending woman, however dear she be to him.
9. But again an evil thought approached him when all his energy was applied to attaining tranquillity of mind, like a fearful symptom coming on a man whose mind is set on the destruction of his illness.
10. To overcome it he had recourse to another good subject of meditation favourable to Yoga, as a man whose power has failed and who is being overthrown by a mighty enemy has recourse to a powerful protector of the oppressed.
11. Just as a king obtains possession of lands not previously ruled by him by building strong cities, administering justice, making allies and repressing enemies, so is the policy in Yoga of the man who seeks Salvation.
12. For the mind of the Yogin also who aspires to Salvation is his strong city, the way of knowledge his administration of justice, the virtues his allies, the vices his enemies and Salvation the land for whose conquest he strives.
13. Desiring release from the mighty net of suffering, wishing to enter into possession of the Road of Salvation and desiring to see the supreme noble Path, he reached tranquillity by obtaining a certain degree of insight.
14. The homeless wanderer who should make himself into a home of mental darkness would, though he were taught the truth, be neglectful of it, but, since Nanda was a vessel fit for Salvation, he collected his mind in himself.
— 15. Then in possession of his soul and devoted to escape from being, he duly examined the elements of existence according to their prerequisites, their causation, their nature, the sensations with which they are experienced and their individual defects.
16. He investigated the body in order to see its entire material and immaterial substance. Then he deemed it to be impure, subject to suffering, impermanent, without owner or self.
17. For from a consideration of the body’s impermanence, its absence of individuality, its lack of self and its liability to suffering he made the tree of the vices shake by the supreme mundane Path.
18. Since inevitably in this world all phenomena come into being from not-being and pass away again from being into not-being, and since they all have a cause and that a transitory cause, therefore he concluded that the world is impermanent.
19. Since the union with karman of whatever is born is continually operative and is the cause of bondage and destruction, and since what is called pleasure is but the means of countering suffering, he saw that mundane existence is suffering.
20. Since the individual is a mere creature of the samskaras and there is neither agent nor knower and active being originates from the complex (of the causes), he saw that this world is devoid (of individuality).
21. Since the world has no motive force of its own and is not self-dependent, and since there is no one being who exercises paramountey over actions, and since states of being arise from dependence on other states, he understood the world to be without soul.
22. Then he reached the inaccessible supermundane Path, as one might obtain a breeze in the hot weather by fanning or the fire which abides in the wood by friction or the water in the ground by digging.
23. Holding the bow of holy knowledge, girding on the armour of attentiveness and taking up his post on the chariot of the vows of pure discipline, he prepared for victory, ready to join battle with the foes of the vices arrayed on the battlefield of the thoughts.
24. Then taking the sharp weapons of the constituents of enlightenment and standing on the excellent chariot of right efforts, with an army containing the elephants of the constituents of the Path, gradually he pierced the battle-line of the vices.
25. With the four arrows of the application of attention working each along its own line of activity, he destroyed in a moment his foes, the four perversions of knowledge, the causes of suffering.
26. With the five unequalled noble powers he burst asunder the five obstructions of the mind and he put to flight the eight elephants of the constituents of the false path with the eight elephants of the constituents of the true Path.
27. Then by shaking off entirely the theory of the existence of the self, by becoming free from doubt in the four Truths and by taking the true view of the discipline to be followed, he reached the stage of the first fruit of the Law.
28 — 29. He rid himself of hesitation in the practice of the Law by means of his understanding of the noble Tetrad, by disconnection from one section of the vices, by his individual acquisition of excellence, by perception of the ecstasy felt by possessors of true knowledge, by the firmness of his faith, by the constancy of his steadfastness, by freedom from confusion about the four Truths and by absence of defect in his own most excellent conduct.
30. Released from the net of wrong views and seeing the world as it actually is, he experienced the ecstasy that has its base in knowledge and felt still further faith in the Guru.
31. For he, who recognises active being in this world not to be determined by any outside cause or to be without a cause, but understands that everything is dependent on something else, sees the noble Law that leads to final beatitude.
32. And he who sees the peaceful, holy, unaging, passionless Element, the ultimate good, and its Teacher, the Chief of the Saints, has obtained illumination and sees the Buddha.
33. As a man recovered from illness by auspicious treatment regards the physician gratefully in acknowledgement with his mind’s eye and is delighted with his benevolence and knowledge of the (medical) treatises, 34. So he who is freed by the noble Path, knowing reality, possessing the noble reality and experiencing it with his body, regards the Tathàgata in acknowledgement and is delighted with His benevolence and omniscience.
35. Freed from destructive aberrations of doctrine, seeing the end of rebirth and feeling disgust in the manifestations of the vices, Nanda was not afraid of death or of the realms of misery.
36. Then seeing the body to be but an impure aggregate of skin, sinew, fat, blood, bone, flesh, hair etc., and reflecting on its substance, he did not perceive even the minutest (real substance) in it.
37. Firm in himself, with the same Yoga he reduced to small proportions desire and hate, and so he, whose body was broad-chested, by reducing these two obtained the second fruit of the noble Law.
