Without doubt, O Desire, thy heart is as hard as adamant, since though affected by a hundred distresses, thou does not break into a hundred pieces! I know thee, O Desire, and all those things that are dear to thee! Seeking what is dear to thee, I shall feel happiness in my own Self.[527] O Desire, I know thy root. Thou springest from Will.[528]--I shall, therefore, avoid Will. Thou shalt then be destroyed with thy roots. The desire for wealth can never be fraught with happiness. If acquired, great is the anxiety that the acquirer feels. If lost after acquisition, that is felt as death. Lastly, respecting acquisition itself, it is very uncertain. Wealth cannot be got by even the surrender of one's person. What can be more painful than this? When acquired, one is never gratified with its measure, but one continues to seek it. Like the sweet water of the Ganges, wealth only increases one's hankering. It is my destruction. I am now awakened. Do thou, O Desire, leave me! Let that Desire which has taken refuge in this my body,--this compound of (five) elements,--go whithersoever it chooses and live happily whithersoever it likes.[529] Ye all that are not of the Soul, I have no joy in you, for ye follow the lead of Desire and Cupidity! Abandoning all of you I shall take refuge in the quality of Goodness.[530] Beholding all creatures in my own body and my own mind, and devoting my reason to Yoga, my life to the instructions of the wise, and soul to Brahma, I shall happily rove through the world, without attachment and without calamities of any kinds, so that thou mayst not be able to plunge me again into such sorrows![531] If I continue to be agitated by thee, O Desire, I shall necessarily be without a path (by which to effect my deliverance). Thou, O Desire, art always the progenitor of thirst, of grief, and of fatigue and toil. I think the grief that one feels at the loss of wealth is very keen and far greater than what one feels under any other circumstances.Mbh 12.177.2c · Mahabharata · SANTI PARVA
Mbh 12.177.2c
Mahabharata · translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli
Themes in this passage
DesireWealthGriefProtectionThe SoulTrustAnxietyAttachment
Desire in other traditions
The same theme, as Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism and Islam address it.
From lust comes grief, from lust comes fear; he who is free from lust knows neither grief nor fear.Dhp 16.214 · Dhammapada · Pleasure
Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.Philippians 4:17 · Bible · Philippians
If this transformation became to me an object of desire, I would express the desire by the nameless simplicity. Simplicity without a name Is free from all external aim. With no desire, at rest and still, All things go right as of their will. PART II.Tao Te Ching 37.3 · Tao Te Ching
And He it is Who hath appointed night and day in succession, for him who desireth to remember, or desireth thankfulness.Quran 25:62 · Quran · The Criterion
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