ĀTMĀNUŚĀSANA – PRECEPT ON THE SOUL by Ācārya GUṆABHADRA (ca. 818–900 A.D.) [42]
Gātha 40
Even the ‘king-of-kings’ (cakravartī) who attains, after a long time and great effort, lordship over the entire world has to renounce all his grandeur to attain the eternal bliss of liberation. Why not you renounce beforehand the worldly sense-objects? You would thus save yourself from ridicule, as the wanderer saint who had picked up, with the intention of washing it and not to eat, the piece of sweet-food which had fallen in filth.
[next … gātha 41 → … https://www.om-arham.org/blog/view/425/atmanusasana-%E2%80%93-precept-on-the-soul-by-acarya-gu%E1%B9%87abhadra-ca-818%E2%80%93900-ad-43]
Comments
Note 1:
EXPLANATORY NOTE:
Ācārya Pūjyapāda’s Iṣṭopadeśa:
The poor man who accumulates wealth so as to be able to spend it in future on virtuous activities, like giving of gifts, is like the man who deliberately soils his body with mud thinking that he will clean it later on by bathing.
Cf. ‘Saṁvara [part 4022]’ Iṣṭopadeśa gātha 16 https://www.facebook.com/groups/692614454130155/permalink/3359036990821208.