53. The sphere of the senses is as dark as that of the clouded sky, where the black clouds of distress are continually growling, and the lightnings of joy are incessantly flashing with their transient glare.
54. The organs of sense are as subterranean cells or mounds of mud upon earth; these are resorted to by inferior animals, but shunned by superior and intelligent beings.
55. They are like hidden caves on earth overspread with thorns and brambles, and inbred with venomous snakes, in which the unwary fall to be smitten and bitten to death.
56. All sensualities are as savage Rákshasas or cannibals, that rove and revel about in their venturous excursions in the darkness of night; and glut themselves with human victims.
57. Our organs of sense are as dry sticks, all hollow and pithless in the inside; they are crooked and full of joints all along, and fit only as fuel for fire.
58. The bodily organs are the instruments of vice, and are as pits and thickets on our way; they are fitted with dirt within, like the notes of canes and reeds that are full of useless stuff.
59. The organic limbs and members are the implements of action, and the apparatus for producing an infinite variety of works. They are like the potter’s wheels, turning and whirling with their mud, in order to produce the fragile pottery of clay.
60. Thus Sir, I am plunged in the dangerous sea of my sensual appetites, and you alone are able to raise me out of it by your kindness to me; because they say, that holy saints only are victorious over their senses in this world, and it is their society only that removes the griefs of mankind, and saves them from the perilous sea of sensuality.
CHAPTER VII.
Description of the Seed of the Arbour of the World.
Argument:—The arbor of the world as growing from the seed of Ignorance in the soil of Ignorance.