In this connection is instanced the old story recited, O
Yudhishthira, by king Senajit in grief. The irresistible course of Time
affects all mortals. All earthly things, ripened by Time, suffer
destruction. Some, O king, slay some men. The slayers, again, are slain
by others. This is the language of the world. Really, however, no one
slays and no one is slain. Some one thinks men slay (their fellow-men).
Another thinks men do not slay. The truth is that the birth and
destruction of all creatures have been ordained to happen in consequence
of their very nature. Upon the loss of one's wealth or the death of one's
wife or son or sire, one cries out, saying 'Alas, what grief!' and
dwelling upon that sorrow always enhances it. Why do you, like a foolish
person, indulge in grief? Why do you grieve for them that are subject to
grief?[74] Behold, grief is increased by indulgence as fear is by
yielding to. This body even is not mine. Nothing in this earth is mine.
Or, the things of this earth belong as much to others as to me. The wise,
seeing this, do not suffer themselves to be deluded. There are thousands
of causes for sorrow, and hundreds of causes for joy. These every day
affect the ignorant only, but not him that is wise. These, in course of
Time, become objects of affection or aversion, and appearing as bliss or
woe revolve (as if in a wheel) for affecting living creatures. There is
only sorrow in this world but no happiness. It is for this that sorrow
only is felt. Indeed, sorrow springs from that affliction called desire,
and happiness springs from the affliction called sorrow. Sorrow comes
after happiness, and happiness after sorrow. One does not always suffer
sorrow or always enjoy happiness. Happiness always ends in sorrow, and
sometimes proceeds from sorrow itself. He, therefore, that desires
eternal happiness must abandon both. When sorrow must arise upon the
expiration of happiness, and happiness upon the expiration of sorrow, one
should, for that, cast off, like a (snake-bit) limb of one's body, that
from which one experiences sorrow or that heart-burning which is nurtured
by sorrow or that which is the root of his anxiety.[75] Be it happiness
or sorrow, be it agreeable or disagreeable, whatever comes should be
borne with an unaffected heart. O amiable one, if thou abstainest, in
even a slight measure, from doing what is agreeable to your wives and
children, thou shalt then know who is whose and why so and for what