{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/vov/vov13.htm","path":"hin/vov/vov13.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/vov/vov13.htm","text":"1100\nIf we kill, sin is contracted; by not slaying virtue attaches But to the omniscient, whether he slay or save, neither attaches. How can that death be slain that thus slay Siva? (a very difficult grammatical construction to translate).\n1101\nYou may straighten a tree to prevent its being crooked. You may duly rectify stone but you cannot straighten the mind that it become not more crooked.\n1102\nWhatever any one at any time advises, a man should listen to respectfully nor be hasty. After learning the truth he will become a steady character.\n1103\nWhen their crimes fall on their head, they think of God. When they(fall with their heads under) live headlessly they think not on God. Like sinners do they make a noise as if in (or seeing) a dream, See they this? O Vema.\n1104\nWords are produced by the thousand (let bags of wards come); yet by well weighing words, they become magic gems. By knowing the composition of words, thou with thy words gain perfection O, Vema!\n1105\nThe mind is of tender age itself. The mind is still youth in all men. Mind witnesses to mind. No decrepitude affects the minds in the world, O Vema!\n1106\nThough you have gained wealth you may not have got liberality. The wisdom of Brahma Deva is the wisdom of a fool (lit. slave). He gives wealth here and liberality there.\n1107\nLooking and looking at himself he cannot perceive thee, O God. Looking and looking at thee he would forget himself. He that sees thee is the true saint.\n1108\nThe water poured at the root rises around the root and greatly increases the entire tree. In the same manner the soul pervades the entire body.\n1109\nSurely the Vedas are all mere contention. Let ashes fill the contentious man's mouth; surely the vanquisher of the Vedas is Vemana. Surely it is our great object to know what is true happiness.\n1110\nIf thou plant a tree carefully but give it no trellis, it will not grow but perish in this world. Thus it is with him who desireth wisdom but can obtain no teacher.\n1111\nShall not we cut down the forest of ignorance with the sword of knowledge? Let us not think on ignorance in our mind but look to the places where the light of wisdom is fixed!\n1112\nAlas none knows intuition (yeriki for everiki). Though thou teach none can understand; by teaching and teaching understanding is produced. Excellent (or divine) is understanding if thou will view it.\n1113\nLike as the (Parabhruta) cuckoo is reared by the crow, like as the worm comes to life by means of the wasp, thus is it that the fool pretends to be a teacher but cannot bestow perfection (moksha). The nature of the pupil does not depend on the teacher.\n1114\nIf you take a vile fellow and give him wealth he will overthrow even the venerable. Does the dog that gnaws shoes know the sweetness of the sugar cane?\n1115\nBeasts will not beg of beasts; the race of birds will not submissively ask of their equals. Is he a man who will not bestow when a man asks or is he a woman in the world, O Vema!\n1116\nWhat though you have got a putti (1600 lbs) or only a cupful of chaff. There is not in it one grain in the world. Trouble only increases in proportion to the store of empty words. The more talk the more trouble.\n1117\nBy want of food they are in distress. How should the wisdom of such mere corpses become fruitless? If you pour water into an unbaked vessel will it remain there in?\n1118\nHe was born in this land and grew up in this land but cannot bestow this land on any one. Alas the man of a foreign country is the king of the world. (Probably alludes to the Musalman Government.)\n1119\nWhy should all wisdom be published? Why should we receive the gifts of a sinner, O sage, ignorantly.\n1120\nHe that quitteth not a faithless friend--is he not a shepherd? (swain fool) Has any shepherd in the world horns (i.e. honour)?\n1121\nWhat has a thief to do with good habits? What has a fornicator to do with worship and adoration? What in the world has a palmwine drinker to do with devotion?\n1122\nThis unstable body falls about like a dog; for many days chatters, he gives his body to the fire or to the jackals of the forest.\n1123\nYour wife is the property of others. Your wealth is the property of the whores. Your body is the property of earth. If you consider them in 'your mind, the virtue (i.e. practice) alone is yours.\n1124\nIf with thy whole heart thou seek and see that, think that it is of wondrous semblance; then shalt thou perceive that it pervades all space and is not of nature divisible.\n1125\nHow should he who is attached to (desires) sin think of the deity. How should the sinner be a teacher? Behold the mind of a fool. Does it know (Had) God?\n1126\nTo cleanse his mouth is a great trouble (nastiness) even to the great saint. Not even a son of Brahma can purify his mouth, But the mouth that speaks the truth is the purest in the world.\n1127\nFirst it rises above the water and becomes a sprout; the sprout is itself both husband and son of the earth. The earth is the seed, to both mother and wife\n1128\nWho are the kings who always being engaged in the earth nourish the world? Whence does the title of great Lord attach to man?\n1129\nIn former time in the world a Boya man, when a tiger roared in the forests, held it to be a cruel beast, and slew it. The sin that he incurred hereby seized the Boysa and whelmed him.\n1130\nFrom their birth they continually slay all animals, and become the garden bed of sin. Shall beatitude be attained by evil doers?\n1131\nAnimals that have tails, they get and cut their throats, they break the necks of all the goats of the flocks and as for the rest of the animals they burn and eat them.\n1132\nThey will quit all tasks whatever and the men of the world long (lit. dwell) for the taste of the mouth (eloquence). If you say Devil, the girls are alarmed; all the world has become thus. O Vera I look well to thy words.\n1133\nLook at your wife. She is shackles on your leg. All your children (in a row) are the rivets. All connections are like to a prison as you consider them closely.\n1134\nHe himself remain sunk in the ocean of love formed by the triple love of wife, offspring and wealth. In what way then should men be able to attain beatitude. When the song is ended we obtain the symphony.\n1135\nThrough those desires that have been wound about us ever since we were children-thus high are we entrapped by the names of relations, called younger sister, elder sister, mother and father.\n1136\nHow many are thy mothers and fathers? How many births hast thou had? Again how many are the places where thou sufferest pain (or live)? The fool knoweth not, this is stable and this fluctuating.\n1137\nThat cannot perceive that life is unstable, thus mad men. They are puffed up here in the earth. All souls are surely in the sight of Yama like as goats bound for sacrifice.\n1138\nWhen your father and mother are dead, you and your wife unite and look to building your house agreeably. Like as though a thief already fixed on the impaling post should ask for food.\n1139\nIncrease are decrease, consider, occur to all, however great. The body is not real, if you think on the facts. They cannot know this. What can we say to this.\n1140\nThrough a selfish spirit it is that we say of any one thing, I cannot live (or get on) without this. To have it, but to know you cannot perceive it, go to. This is the bond of the worldly life.\n1141\nWhat though we learn and know whence we came and where we go; it is but like the coming or going of sleep. The birth and departure of the soul, these behold, form the divine state and are alone of importance.\n1142\nAll men are bound in the cords of their lusts, shining in their dignity. They cannot sever it with the sword of wisdom.\n1143\nWho are ye that ye should be able to walk independently of the endless course of time. Relinquish all your idiotic properties and walk, O men in the paths of beatitude.\n1144\nWhat has become of all the noble race that lived of all? They might have exalted them in the world. To crush their enemies none has prevailed besides Siva.\n1145\nThings that are produced from earth we separate from earth and dress them again in an earthen vessel; at what strong love we feel for the earthen vessel?\n1146\nVegetables without salt are to the taste vile as (salt ground) barren land. A ruined wretch is he that hath no shoes and the man out of debt is the richest of the wealthy.\n1147\nThe egg in the womb dwells in the body. By the course of breath it pleasantly rambles. This is like austerity in a vine-yard (under a palm tree). When shall he attain bliss.\n1148\nHow is instruction gained? He cannot see the top of his head. It is good to seek him, the deity who dwells on the top of your head. That skilful man who comprehends his head, takes beatitude by violence.\n1149\nIn truth, worth is the source of a faithful intention; devoid of faith thou shalt not attain bliss. What is this we call bliss? Thou art thyself its origin.\n1150\nFormerly Boya Kannappa drew near to the three-eyed god and became beatified. Purity of heart is the root of all acceptable worship.\n1151\nTime is the effective form of Siva. Time is the duration of God. How shalt a fool know the meaning of true happiness?\n1152\nBy means of a name, a country becomes a holy ground. Thus have stones, through names become kings (i.e., idols). By names have water become all holy streams.\n1153\nFor garden herbs, for spontaneous vegetables, for bran and for empty ears (of corn), those jack asses who for such boons as these have written poems and have become as great as the truly excellent.\n1154\nWhen we were born in the womb of our mother at first we not clothing nor shall have at our latter end. Is not it then a joke for us to wear clothing in our intermediate life?\nThere is no artist in the land nobler than the creator. Draw near with delight to him the lord of all; who is greater than that artist; are men to revile the creator.\n1156\nIf he knows not how to restrain his five senses, and cannot (hold) check the flame of the fire within, and if he has not singleness of heart how shall he regenerate?\n1157\nHe considereth himself the teacher of all the tribes (castes) but knoweth not death, this son of a pariar, when this teacher dies he is vile as the crow that never had a teacher.\n1158\nHe that cannot restrain his mind is in his soul even lower than a pariar, after death hell shall be his fate. O men!\n1159\nIs not it wrong to call that man living soul who can perceive no beauty in the deity Where is the linga? Where is the Zangam? (i.e., what has such a Zangam to do with the linga).\n1160\nRelinquish the degraded commerce of excessive sensual delights (Lit. delights of the five senses) and truly become part of the divine self. Let not the internal vision desire the pleasures of eyesights. Call not merely with thy mouth on god, O Vema!\n1161\nExternally ye suspend the lingam to a number of threads and daub yourselves externally with ashes, yet cannot see that God who dwells externally in all space,\n1162\nWhen God ordered the world to proceed by means of death and birth, the name of teacher is attached to him; false is the teacher who knoweth not that his own death is certain.\n1163\nSee these robbers call themselves teachers--void of knowledge, ignorant of themselves--these unprofitable sons of slave.\n1164\nThere is not a single teacher who can show us the (gurutu) truth, not one excellent scholar is there who discerneth the truth. A teacher and a wise pupil are rare as a hare's horns.\n1165\nSetting up a teacher in even each religion, not even one man hath attained bliss. They worship unblushing teachers.\n1166\nOne is born only to devour food, and perishes, another is born to attain beatitude, and perishes. To attain power another becomes a pariar...\n1167\nThey talk and say there is a teacher in each sect--O ye pariars! ignorant of hidden truth. He that calls himself, dies a crow devoid of instructor.\n1168\nIn the evening the Brahmin performs the religious draughts. The king mounts the sedan, in this earthly dwelling. The cobbler dances a jig. The disease is healed by medicine.\n1169\nFirst knowledge, thereby...let not the pious entertain doubts; without the illumination of a lamp shall darkness be dissipated?\n1170\nKnowing that the body will perish in the ground, yet through great attachment a man nourishes it. Lo! Lo! like as if he should cut off his nee and set himself to drink the blood,\n1171\nHow large this exterior may be. I know not what connection there is between the divinity and this world. In the estimation of the wise how large is the sun, Thus musing they are evidently alarmed. (exemplification of doubt.) (\"sunt qui formidive nulla Imbuti spectent\")\n1172\nIf rain raineth, the field fruiteth. If rain fall not, it is soon dried up. Thus is the field ordained as sustenance to all.\n1173\nHe that speaketh the truth (tatwa) is to be met with some where in the earth. But he who knows the truth is no where found. If he should exist, he is certainly imperceptible to us.\n1174\nHe who being charitable in his mind considers the hungry guest as God, and without the least heat (displeasure) gives him a mouthful (as much as a nut) of food, this is the man who can cry avaunt to yama (death) and slay him.\n1175\nOur connections (family) being about us and living in sweet enjoyment, in the midst of them their ruler (the soul) sits. O ye men attain the dwelling of God; there alone is true happiness found.\n1176\nAfter you have boiled vegetables, is it possible to pick out the straws? Sense would teach you to gather them before boiling, After you have lost all you possessed where is charity (dharma).\n1177\nWhere trees are produced, fruits also flourish, They must be cut down (or gathered) with a knife. If you dress and eat them, you will know their quality.\n1178\nWhile there is still salt and tamarind fruits in the village why dread famine, O farmer! Is there no orpiment? Is there no tin? (That is, I advise you to poison yourselves either with natural poisons or with immoderate quantities of salt or tamarind acid).\n1179\nIf with a mouth defiled with spittle thou meditate on him, does the divinity thereby become spittle (in a thousand ways)? However many persons we name they are not thereby defiled.\n1180\nHe who in the budding of prosperity gives the gifts of a virgin (kanyadan), at the last the region of holiness shall be attained by him. This is the secret of Vedanta.\n1181\nIf seeing one man's wealth and strength, and desiring his gold, thou give him thy daughter (kanya) heaven exists not for thee. He who favouring the poor gives a female to him, what is the use of talking? He is the Parama Siva.\n1182\nThe dowry (or gift in marriage) which is given through seeing and desiring, all possessions and good things perish. A disproportioned dowry produces much profits.\n1183\nAt the time when they give a daughter to a man of wealth, fools exult greatly. It is merely the result of their prayers. Will your pride remain stable?\n1184\nThough he be devoid of learning, and void of money, if after all even a fool, or dumb, if she be grown you may give her to a favourite connection (bandhu).\n1185\nHe who takes a connection of his own and without reckoning his wealth, looks only to his age bestows the dowry and thus gives his daughter (woman) in marriage, this is the wisest of all.\n1186\nIf you bestow your daughter in marriage looking to wealth, it is as if you gaffe her for a price. The dignified way is to give her to an equal. If thou give her to a poor man, they remain entwined in close attachments.\n1187\nGiving one's daughter to a rich man is like the water of a well flowing into the sea. But a woman given to a poor man is like watering a lime tree with sea of water,\n1188\nThrough a man's wealth he gets an excellent wife (punyavati). Thus a fit husband is also gained by an excellent woman. By the fortune (bhagam) of both, friends and good sons and the eight blessings will be gained.\n1189\nWhen a marriage contract (manuvu) is made by a rich man with a poor one, wealth and poverty became thereby united. What then is possession and what is poverty?\n1190\nMother, father, friends and relations, and all others will seek and desire a young man. They will give him the girl but not fortune with her.\n1191\nThere is no place that exists not in the mind it is closely united with our acts, if we meditate on God in our hearts.\n1192\nDuring his life he doth not restrain his lusts but when death comes, he turns recluse. Without thou quell thy mind, is beatitude attainable?\nIf thy eye be single, the knowledge shall be one like a man in this earth is united with a woman. Then shall thy interior be full of light like to the lord of the world.\n1194\nBorn in the dark, we grow up in the darkness. Why are we ensnared in the (concealment) darkness of delusion. If thou understand this darkness, this whole world shall appear to thee.\n1195\nNot seeing the might of time and imagining that this present is perpetual they merely weary themselves. How is it that the men of this world can never discern this noble boon, the lapse of time.\n1196\nThrough worshipping the three eyed in ignorant faith, in former time, Boya Kannappa became a sage. Did this happen through his worship? Wisdom was the cause.\n1197\nIf while we own the error of another we ourselves participate therein, the fortune we enjoy will perish. Is it not enough if water leaks out of a cracked pot (i.e., defect is merely less obvious)? (Olla Ollam melamopraction of pellat)\n1198\nShall the amorous, or he that is enslaved to cupidity or for wealth, or that is engrossed in attachment to his family or the stubborn, or he who (makes his face half) turns away his face, see heaven? Though these turn out of the way shall the words of Vemana ever fall to the ground?\n1199\nBy the spread of the passing wind, (water touched by it,) water acquires coolness. There is another secret hidden near to this, if men would understand it (the mind is similarly affected by outward occurrences).","title":"Verses of Vemana: 1100-1199","type":"page"}