27. I am ready to subdue my mind which is my greatest enemy in this world, for the purpose of mastering all the virtues, which the learned say depend upon it. My want of desires has made me averse to wealth and the gross pleasures it yields, which are as tints of clouds tainting the (clear disk of the) moon (of our mind).
CHAPTER XVII.
On Cupidity.
I SEE our vices like a flock of owls flying about in the region of our minds, under the darkness of our affections, and in the lonesome night of our avarice.
2. I am parched by my anxieties like the wet clay under solar rays, infusing an inward heat in it by extraction of its soft moisture.
3. My mind is like a vast and lonesome wilderness, covered under the mist of errors, and infested by the terrible fiend of desire is continually floundering about it.
4. My wailings and tears serve only to expand and mature my anxiety, as the dews of night open and ripen the blossoms of beans and give them a bright golden hue.
5. Avarice by raising expectations in men, serves only to whirl them about, as the vortex of the sea wallows the marine animals in it.
6. The stream of worldly avarice flows like a rapid current within the rock of my body, with precipitate force (in my actions), and loud resounding waves (of my speech).
7. Our minds are driven by foul avarice from one place to another, as the dusty dry hays are borne away by the winds, and as the Chátakas are impelled by thirst to fly about (for drink).
8. It is avarice which destroys all the good qualities and grace which we adopted to ourselves in good faith, just as the mischievous mouse severs the wires (of a musical instrument).