Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 5


Of the Self

 

[1]

 

If you consider the self dear to you, guard it well and protect it. In one or other of the three vigils, (youth, ripe age, old age), keep awake.

 

[2]

 

Establish yourself first in the right way, then you may instruct others. Thus the wise one will avoid all blame.

 

[3]

 

One must practise oneself what one teaches others. Being self­-controlled he can control others. It is difficult indeed to control oneself.

 

[4]

 

One's own self is one's master. Which other can be the master? By self-mastery one attains a mastery that is rarely achieved.

 

 

[5]

 

The evil done to oneself, the evil born of oneself, the evil going out of oneself crushes the evil-minded man, even as diamond crushes a stony gem.

 

[6]

 

One whose evil character has no limit, even like a pine tree entwined by a creeper, does to himself exactly what his enemies would like to do to him.

 

[7]

 

To do evil, to do wrong to oneself is very easy; but to do what is good, to do what is right is extremely difficult.

 

[8]

 

One with a wrong mind who takes to wrong views reviles the teaching of the noble, the virtuous, the perfect; he flourishes in order to bring about his own destruction, even as the bamboo tree does producing its poisonous fruit.

 

Page 219


[9]

 

By doing a wrong one does wrong to oneself; by not doing wrong, one purifies oneself. Purity or impurity belongs to one's own self, none can purify another.

 

[10]

 

One must not give up one's own good for the sake of another's good, however great it may be. Know your own good and adhere to it.

 

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