No, 62. — 1909.] JNANA VASISHTAM. 



313 



mastery over thought, only then would you be deemed by the 

 sages of India on the way to freedom. But the effacement of 

 thought does not mean its giving place to sleep. This too 

 must be conquered, a no less difficult conquest, and then 

 according to them the veil lifts and you pass into that region 

 of your consciousness where your true self dwells and where, 

 in the words of Tennyson, is the gain of such large life as 

 matched with ours were Sun to spark. 



To return to our hero, he continues : — In the dark night, 

 desire, the owls, lust, anger, and the rest haunt the sky of 

 the soul. Good qualities are destroyed by desire, as the 

 strings of a violin by mice. Caught in desire like a bird in a 

 net, I faint, I burn. Desire makes cowards of heroes, blinds 

 the clear-sighted, makes the wise tremble, is like a courtesan 

 who runs in vain after men though her charms have long 

 departed, or like a dancer attempting dances beyond her 

 power, seeks things hard to get, is -not satisfied even when 

 they are got, is ever on the move like a monkey or a bee, 

 tra verse th earth and heaven in a second, is the root of all 

 sorrow. Desire masters and ruins the greatest of men in a 

 moment : its only cure is the riddance of thought. 



Nothing is so mean and worthless as this body, the dwelling 

 place of the ego, with his wife desire, and handmaidens the 

 organs of sense and action. Fleeting riches and royalty and 

 body, are they worthy to be sought ? In a little while they 

 disappear. Rich and poor alike are subject to age, disease, 

 death. What profiteth this body ? Infancy is more restless 

 than waves or lightning or woman's eyes ; it eats dirt, is easily 

 moved to joy and sorrow, it calls to the moon, is the home of 

 folly, ever breeds fear to parents and guardians. Passing 

 from infancy to youth greater dangers wait. Youth is 

 attacked by the demon lust in the cave of the heart. None so 

 learned or wise but in youth is deluded and blinded. Youth 

 is a mirage which torments the deer, mind, sinking in the 

 slough of external objects. Only those rare ones, who cross 

 the dangers of youth and in youth attain wisdom, are worthy 

 to be called men. 



What is the attraction of woman's beauty ? Analyse the 

 component parts of her lovely body — flesh, bone, blood, mucus, 



