Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 5

 

Pali

 

 

The Twins

 

[1]

 

Mind is the foremost of all movements, mind is the highest of all movements, mind enters into all movements. If with an evil mind you speak or act, suffering will pursue you even as the wheel of the cart does the hooves of the bullock.

 

[2]

 

Mind is the foremost of all movements, mind is the highest of all movements, mind enters into all movements. If with a clean mind you speak or act, happiness will follow you even like your never-failing shadow.

 

[3]

 

"I am blamed, I am beaten, I am defeated, I am robbed" – they who cherish such thoughts can never quieten their feeling of enmity.

 

[4]

 

"I am abused, I am beaten, I am defeated, I am robbed" – they who do not cherish such thoughts will have their feeling of enmity quietened.

 

[5]

 

By being an enemy enmities are never quietened here below, they are quietened only by not being an enemy, – such has been the Law Eternal.

 

[6]

 

Others do not know that we must cease to exist here, for those who know it the passions cease.

 

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[7]

 

One who goes about in the pursuit of the pleasurable, who is uncontrolled in his senses, who is immoderate in his food, who is lazy and unmanly, such a man Mara overwhelms even as the gale does a weak tree.

 

[8]

 

One who goes about in the pursuit of that which is not the pleasurable, who is well controlled in his senses, who is moderate in regard to food, who is full of faith and manliness, such a man the Mara does not overwhelm even as the gale does not a rocky mountain.

 

[9]

 

He who puts on the holy robe and yet has not discarded his impurities and has neither self-control nor truth, does not indeed deserve the holy robe.

 

[10]

 

One who has discarded all impurities, who is firmly established in the moral disciplines, who is full of self-control and truth deserves indeed the yellow robe.

 

[11]

 

They who consider error as truth and see truth in error never attain the truth, for they follow wrong desires and their false apprehensions.¹

 

[12]

 

They who know the true as the true and the false as the false attain the true, for they follow true desires and right apprehensions.

 

[13]

 

Just as the rains pierce through the bad roofing of a house, even so the passions pierce through an ill-disciplined mind.

 

[14]

 

Just as the rains do not pierce through the perfect roofing of

   

¹Or, for they have false apprehensions in view.

 

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a house, even so the passions do not pierce through a perfectly disciplined mind.

 

[15]

 

He grieves here, he grieves hereafter. The evil-doer grieves in both. He grieves, he suffers as he sees the wrong in his actions.

 

[16]

 

He rejoices here, he rejoices hereafter. The righteous rejoices in both. He rejoices, he rejoices evermore as he sees the purity of his actions.

 

[17]

 

He suffers here, he suffers hereafter. In both the wrong-doer suffers. He suffers seeing he has done wrong. He suffers ever more as he goes to the evil world.

 

[18]

 

He delights here, hereafter he delights. In both the righteous delights. He delights seeing he has done right. He delights evermore as he goes to the happy world.

 

[19]

 

Many may be the sacred texts he recites, but if, in his delusion, he does not act up to them, then he becomes like a cowherd who counts only others' cattle; he does not share in the holy disciplehood.

 

[20]

 

Very few may be the sacred texts he recites, but if he carries out in practice the Teaching, then abandoning passion and ill-will and delusion, possessing the right knowledge, the consciousness wholly freed, seeking nothing either here or elsewhere, he shares in the holy disciplehood.

 

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