hat knowledge. As the final resting-place of all rivers
is the ocean, even so the end of all embodied creatures is death. Those
persons that know this well are never stupefied, O wielder of the
thunderbolt! They, however, who are overwhelmed with Passion and loss of
judgment, do not know this, they whose understanding is lost, sink under
the weight of misfortune. A person who acquires a keen understanding
succeeds in destroying all his sins. A sinless person acquires the
attribute of Goodness, and having acquired it becomes cheerful. They,
however, that deviate from the attribute of Goodness, and obtain repeated
rebirths, are obliged to indulge in sorrow and grief, led on by desire
and the objects of the senses. Success or the reverse, in respect of the
attainment of all objects of desire, life or death, the fruits of action
that are represented by pleasure or pain, I neither dislike nor like.
When one slays another, one slays only that other's body. That man, who
thinks that it is he who slays another, is himself slain. Indeed, both of
them are ignorant of the truth, viz., he who slays and he who is
slain.[838] That person, O Maghavat, who having killed or vanquished any
one brags of his manliness, should know that he is not the actor but the
act (of which he boasts) has been accomplished by a real agent (who is
different). When the question comes as to who is it that causes the
creation and the destruction of things in the world, it is generally
regarded that some person (who has himself been caused or created) has
caused the act (of creation or destruction). Know, however, that the
person who is so regarded has (as already said) a creator. Earth, light
or heat, space, water, and wind constituting the fifth--from these do all
creatures spring. (When this is known to me) what sorrow can I feel (for
this change in my condition)? One that is possessed of great learning,
one that has not much of learning, one that is possessed of strength, one
that is destitute of strength, one that is possessed of personal beauty,
and one that is very ugly, one that is fortunate and one that is not
blessed by fortune, are all swept away by Time, which is too deep to be
fathomed, by its own energy. When I know that I have been vanquished by
Time, what sorrow can I feel (for this alteration in my circumstances)?
One that burns anything burns a thing that has been already burnt. One
that slays, only slays a victim already slain. One that is de