113 - Bruhaspati's Nittsara

Suta said: 

1. One should employ only the capable servant and not the inefficient. All good qualities can be found in a scholar and all faults in a fool. 

2. One should always sit in the company of the good and associate with them. Discussions and friendship should ever be with the good and not with the wicked. 

3. Even in a prison one should associate only with the learned, the humble, the virtuous and the truthful. Outside, he should never associate with the wicked. 

4. Completing all works left unfinished he shall become Wealthy. He should make it a point to complete un-finished tasks. 

5. Like the honey bee that sucks honey but does not cause the fall of the flower the king should take revenue from the realm without harming it. The cowherd leaves something for the calf and milks the rest. Similarly, the king should milk the earth but leave plenty for the calves i.e., the subjects. 

6. Just as the honeybee collects honey from a number of flowers so the king shall gather wealth taking a little from each. 

7. The anthill, honey, the moon in the bright half and alms wax little by little. 

8. Seeing that collyrium and ink, used though very little every day, become exhausted after some time, and that the anthill flourishes day by day, one should be careful in not wasting one's time. One should engage oneself in activities of charity or self-study. 

9. A vicious and lustful man shall find hundreds of obstacles even in a forest; but if he can control his five senses he can practise penance even in his house. He who is engaged in activities not censurable and he who is free from passion can make his house a hermitage. 

10. Virtue is protected by truth. Knowledge by further acquisition; a pot by frequent cleaning and a family by good conduct. 

11. It is better to stay in the forest of Vindhya, to die without partaking of food; it is better to sleep in a spot infested by serpents or to leap into a well; it is better to plunge into a whirlpool or a dangerous water current, than to say "Please give" or beg for a sum of money from one's own kindred. 

12. Riches dwindle when fortune dwindles and not by enjoyment; if merit had been acquired before, riches will never perish. 

13. Knowledge is an ornament to a brahmin; a king is the beautifier of the world; the moon is an ornament of the sky; a good conduct is an ornament to everyone. 

14. Bhima, Arjuna and others were born as princes, they were pleasing and delightful like the moon; they were valorous, truthful, brilliant like the sun and were kindly protected by Lord Krishna. Even they were subjected to abject misery by the influence of evil planets; they had to beg for alms.; if fate is adverse who is capable of what? The current of previous actions tosses every one about. 

15. Obeisance to Karma which forces Brahma to work like a potter in the bowls of cosmos by which Vishnu was cast into distress of ten incarnations; by which Rudra was compelled to beg for alms with a skull in his hand and at the behest of which the sun goes round and round in the sky. 

16. The donor was King Bali, the receiver Lord Vishnu himself, the gift consisted of whole Earth and that too in the presence of learned brahmins. What did he get in return? Only bondage. O Fate! obeisance to Thee-who workest as it pleasest thee. 

17. The mother is Goddess Lakshmi herself; the father is Lord Vishnu; still if the son (cupid) were to be of crooked mind, who is to be punished for the same? 

18. Man enjoys only the fruits of his previous actions; whatever he has done in the previous births has its reactions now. 

19. The happiness is enjoined by oneself; the sorrow too is enjoined by oneself; even the womb selected by him is in accordance with the action of the previous birth. 

20. Aman can never forsake the action done by him far into the sky, or deep into the sea or high on the mountain; whether he is held by his mother on her head or kept in her lap. 

21. Even Ravana perished at the hands of Time. Ravana whose fortress was the mountain Trikuta¹, the moat-the very ocean; soldiers-Rakshasas; the action of the highest order; and the Shastra propounded by Ushanas.

1. The mountain on which the city of Lanka was situated.

22. Everything happens in the age, time, day, night, hour or moment as is ordained beforehand; not otherwise. 

23. Whether people go up in the sky, or deep in the nether world; whether they traverse all quarters, they will not get what is not given by Karma. 

24. The learning of by-gone-days, the money made over as gift and the actions done before-these run ahead of a person who walks at speed. 

25. Actions alone are of consequence. See Janaki (Sita), whose marriage was celebrated when the stars and planets were ascendant and the lagna (i.e., auspicious hour) was decided by sage Vasishtha himself, had to undergo miseries. 

26. Auspicious signs, characteristic marks are of no avail when Karma comes into clash; for Rama who had stout muscular calves, Laksmana who was as swift as sound and Sita who had thickly grown glossy hair-all these had to suffer a lot. 

27-28. Neither the son with Pinda-dana and other rites nor the father with various rites for the welfare of the son can ward off the adverse influence of Karma. In the physical bodies born as a result of Karma, different kinds of illness physical or mental fall in quick succession like the shafts discharged by a skilful archer. Hence, a courageous man should view objects in the light of Shastraic injunctions and not otherwise. 

29. In every birth, a man reaps the fruits of his previous merits and demerits in the respective ages of infancy, youth or old age at which the actions had been performed. 

30. Just as a gale blows a boat, the Karma drags a man against his wish even from foreign countries to the place where he has to reap the fruits. 

31. A man necessarily gets what he is destined to get. Even a god is incapable of stopping it. Hence, I do not bewail or am not surprised at the events. The line of fate cannot be erased. 

32. When chased, a serpent escapes into a well; an elephant to the trunk (to which it can be tethered); a mouse to its hole; but who can fly from Karma which is quicker than all these? 

33. A well-assimilated knowledge never diminishes; it increases on being imparted to others like the water in a well which increases when water is drawn out. 

34. Riches acquired virtuously become stable; they flourish still more with virtue. Hence, when you aim at riches, remember this and seek virtue. You thus become great in the world. 

35. None becomes miserable if, seeking virtue, he undergoes the same hardships as a poor layman does seeking food. 

36. Of all purities, purity of food is excellent. If a man incurs impurity by taking unwholesome food, he cannot be cleansed with clay or water or any other substance of cleanliness. 

37. There are five cleansing agents-truthfulness, pure mind, suppression of sense-organs, sympathy with all living beings and water the fifth of the series. 

38. He who maintains truthfulness and purity finds an easy access to heaven. Truthfulness is superior to even Horse sacrifice. 

39. A man habitually wicked in deeds, with his conscience benumbed with evil thoughts cannot be cleansed with a thousand lumps of clay or a hundred pots of water. 

40. He who keeps his hands and feet clean, his mind under perfect control, and acquires learning penance and fame reaps the fruit of pilgrimage. 

41. The characteristics of a saintly man are: -he is not elated much when honoured, he does not become angry when slighted, he does not speak harsh words in anger. 

42. No one feels satisfied at the outset on hearing wholesome advice at the proper time from a poor man though intelligent and sweet-voiced. 

43. What men are not destined to get cannot be secured by them through mantras, strength, valour, intellect or manliness. What is there to lament over? 

44. I have secured something unsolicited. When I sent it back, it went away from where it had come. What is there to lament over? 

45. During nights birds flock together on a tree for rest. In the mornings they go to different quarters. What is there to lament over? 

46. All have the same destination. All are proceeding there. If one among them goes more quickly what is there to lament over? 

47. O Shaunaka, the living beings arise from the unmanifest; at their death they dissolve themselves in the unmanifest. In between they remain manifest. What is there to lament over? 

48. If the time of death has not been reached no one dies even if pierced with a hundred arrows. If the same has arrived he does not survive even a slight prick with the tip of a Kusha grass. 

49. A man gets only those things he is destined to get; he goes only to those places where he has to go (at the behest of Karma) and whether misery or pleasure he gets only what he has to get. 

50. A man gets things from Karma only. Why should he shout and cry? Even if prodded, flowers and fruits do not transgress their stipulated time [they do not come out earlier or later]. So is the case with Karma of the previous birth. 

51. Neither conduct, nor parentage, neither learning nor knowledge, neither the qualities nor the purity of seed fructifies in man. As in the case of trees, good deeds acquired by austerities fructify in men. 

52. A man meets with death where there is a slayer or riches where there is plenty. Goaded by Karma a man goes to the respective places. 

53-56. Just as a calf can recognize its mother in the midst of a thousand cows, the previous Karma approaches the doer. Enjoy your merits, O fool! Why should you feel aggrieved? What you do now will certainly follow you here after whether good or bad. 

57. The vicious and the mean observe other's faults, be they so little as the mustard seeds. They see but pretend not to see their own faults as big as Bilva fruits. 

58. O Brahmin! Nowhere can they find happiness, who are defiled by lust and hatred. After careful consideration-I see that there is pleasure where there is enlightened bliss. 

59. Attachment is a cause of misery; since apprehension follows in the wake of attachment. If, therefore, attachment is eschewed one should be happy. 

60. The body is the base for misery and happiness. Life and body are born together. 

61. Pleasure and pain can be defined briefly. Whatever goes in the possession of others is misery, whatever remains in one's own possession is pleasure. 

62. After pleasure comes the pain and after pain comes the pleasure. Pleasure and pain whirl like wheels in human life. 

63. What has passed has gone for ever; if anything is to happen it is still far off. He who minds the present alone is not afflicted by sorrow.