alth, and Pleasure are to be
abandoned, one should abandon them when one has freed one's self by
ascetic penances.[377] The aim of the triple aggregate is towards
emancipation. Would that man could obtain it! One's acts, undertaken and
completed with even the aid of intelligence may or may not lead to the
expected results. Virtue is not always the root of Wealth, for other
things than Virtue lead to Wealth (such as service, agriculture, &c).
There is again a contrary opinion (for some say that Wealth is earned
through chance or birth or like causes). In some instances, Wealth
acquired has been productive of evil. Other things again than Wealth
(such as fasts and vows) have led to the acquisition of Virtue. As
regards this topic, therefore, a dullard whose understanding has been
debased by ignorance, never succeeds in acquiring the highest aim of
Virtue and Wealth, viz., Emancipation. Virtue's dross consists in the
desire of reward; the dross of Wealth consists in hoarding it; when
purged of these impurities, they are productive of great results. In this
connection is cited the narrative of the discourse that look place in
days of old between Kamandaka and Angaristha. One day, king Angaristha,
having waited for the opportunity, saluted the Rishi Kamandaka as he was
seated at his ease and asked him the following questions, 'If a king,
forced by lust and folly, commits sin for which he afterwards repents, by
what acts, O Rishi, can those sins be destroyed? If again a man impelled
by ignorance, does what is sinful in the belief that he is acting
righteously, how shall the king put a stop to that sin come into vogue
among men?'

"'"Kamandaka said, 'That man who, abandoning Virtue and Wealth pursues only
Pleasure, reaps as the consequence of such conduct the destruction of his
intelligence. The destruction of intelligence is followed by heedlessness
that is at once destructive of both Virtue and Wealth. From such
heedlessness proceed dire atheism and systematic wickedness of conduct.
If the king does not restrain those wicked men of sinful conduct, all
good subjects then live in fear of him like the inmate of a room within
which a snake has concealed itself. The subjects do not follow such a
king. Brahmanas and all pious persons also act in the same way. As a
consequence the king incurs great danger, and ultimately the risk of
destruction itself. Overtaken by infamy and insult, he has to drag on a
miserable existence. A life