167.
Follow not the way unworthy;
Live not thou in slothfulness;
Let not doctrines false allure thee;
Turn thy thoughts from worldliness.
168-9.
Stand! Arise! Throw sloth away;
Follow the path of righteousness;
Happy he who walks aright,
Here and in the world to come.
170.
As a bubble on the water,
As a phantom of the sands,
Him who thus the world despiseth,
Death the king[1] cannot behold.
171.
Lo! this world in all its splendour,
Like a royal car adorned,
Wherein many a fool is seated,[2]
Hath no power to bind the wise.
172.
He who formerly was slothful,
But is slothful now no more,
Lighteth up the world with splendour,
As the moon from clouds released.
173.
He who, having once done evil,
Covers up his ill with good,
Lighteth up the world with splendour,
As the moon from clouds released.
174.
All this world is wrapped in darkness;
Few be they that are not blind;
Like the birds that 'scape the fowler,
Few be they that go to heaven.
175.
Lo! the swans fly on the sun's path,[3]
Fly by magic through the air;
Wise men from the world departing
Conquer Death and all his hosts.
176.
He who by false words transgressing
Breaks one tittle of the Norm;[4]
He who future life renounceth
Every wicked deed will do.
177.
Those who covet reach not heaven;
Fools care not for charity;
He who charity approveth
Reacheth heavenly joy thereby.
178.
Rule on earth and joy in heaven,
Sovreignty of all the worlds—
These are all by him transcended
Who hath entered on the stream.[5]
[1] Maccurāja.
[2] Reading nisīdanti for visīdanti ("are immersed").
[3] Hamsā adicca-pathe yanti. In Hinduism the paramahamsa, "the swan," is the mystic name for the liberated being (Cf. Bhagavad Gītā) who goes to the sun (āditya Skt.), and is reborn no more; also in Chāndogya Upanishad, VIII, 7-5, we read: "When mind ceases to act, he attains the sun. That is the way to the region above. It is open to the learned, but closed to the ignorant." Those who are reborn are said to go on the path of the moon. In Buddhism, the Arahants, Saints, have the power (iddhi) of flying through the air even physically, by self-levitation. Cf. V. 91.
[4] Cf. N.T.: "For whosoever shall keep the whole Norm, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all."
[5] One who has "entered on the stream" is an Initiate, Solāpanno, and is saved, i.e., after seven more births, he reaches the state of Arahat and Nibbāna and is free from birth.