12.170
Yudhiṣṭhira said.
O grandsire, for those who are wealthy or poor and live independently, how does happiness and sorrow come to them, and in what manner?
Bhīṣma said.
Here too, they recount this ancient story, which was sung by Śamyāka, the liberated one, who had attained peace.
Once, a certain brāhmaṇa devoted to renunciation, tormented by hunger, poor tools, and ragged clothes, spoke to me.
From the moment of birth in this world, a human being inevitably experiences various kinds of sufferings and pleasures.
If one is led on either of those two paths, he should neither rejoice on attaining happiness nor be distressed on attaining sorrow.
You do not act for your own good or for what you desire. Even one whose self is without desire, indeed, always takes up the yoke of duty and certainly does so.
A person who owns nothing, even when falling, will experience happiness. One who owns nothing sleeps happily and certainly rises again.
In this world, absence of possessions brings happiness, wholesomeness, auspiciousness, and freedom from disease. And being without enemies is indeed difficult to attain, but for the virtuous it is easily achieved.
Observing the three worlds in every way, I do not find anything equal to one who is pure, possesses nothing, and is appropriate.
I weighed non-possession and kingdom equally on a balance; poverty was found to surpass even the kingdom, being greater in virtue.
There is a great difference between poverty and sovereignty: the wealthy are always anxious, as if they are in the jaws of death.
Neither fire, nor the sun, nor death, nor enemies can harm one who has abandoned weapons and is free from desires.
The dwellers of heaven always praise him who moves as he wishes, lies on an unspread bed, rests with his arms as a pillow.
A wealthy man, overpowered by anger and greed, loses his sense, looks sideways, has a dry mouth, is wicked, and wears a frown.
Biting his lower lip in anger and speaking harshly, who would wish to even look at him, let alone wish to give him the earth?
Indeed, constant association with prosperity deludes the undiscerning; she carries away his mind just as the wind carries away an autumn cloud.
Then he acquires pride of beauty and pride of wealth. He thinks, "I am noble-born, I am perfected, I am not merely human." Thus, by these three causes, his mind is influenced.
He, whose mind is attached, having abandoned the enjoyments accumulated by his ancestors, and being impoverished, considers taking others' wealth to be proper.
Kings, greedy for gain, restrain him who, having crossed the boundary, takes from here and there, just as hunters restrain a deer with arrows.
Thus, all these various sufferings, those and others, befall a man here, including those arising from contact with the body.
One should wisely administer remedies to those who are greatly afflicted. Understanding the ways of the world, one should recognize the interplay of the permanent with the impermanent.
One does not attain happiness without renunciation; nor does one reach the highest without renunciation; nor does the fearless one rest without renunciation. Abandoning everything, be happy.
Thus, this was explained in Hastinapura by the Brāhmaṇa. Long ago, Śamyāka told me this; therefore, renunciation is considered supreme.
