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876.

  When hard beset keep your options open

  Even among those previously tested.

  877.

  Keep your sorrows from your friends

  And your weakness from your foes.

  878.

  Plan, strengthen and guard yourself,

  And your foe’s hopes will collapse

  879.

  Cut a thorn betimes—grown a tree

  It will hurt the hand that cuts.

  880.

  The foe despised and not put down;

  May blast you with a breath.

  89. The Enemy Within

  881.

  Even shade and water not wholesome will harm—

  Likewise one’s kinsmen.

  882.

  No need to fear the enemy with swords—

  Beware of the false friend.

  883.

  Beware of the foe within—like the potter’s knife

  He might cut you at the nick.

  884.

  Lying dissensions breed many evils

  That break up unity.

  885.

  Secret dissensions caused by kinsmen

  May lead to disaster and death.

  886.

  A break where there should be unity

  Is no way to avoid death.

  887.

  A house divided like a vial and its lid

  Seems one but comes apart.*

  888.

  A house with internal foes will wear out

  Like iron filed.

  889.

  Internal dissension is a small seed

  That harbours a huge growth.

  890.

  To partner one with a hidden hate

  Is to share a hut with a cobra.

  90. Irreverence

  891.

  The best way to guard oneself

  Is not to slight the powerful.

  892.

  Irreverence to the great will lead

  To endless trouble through them.

  893.

  To offend the powerful wantonly

  Is to ask for trouble.

  894.

  For the weak to challenge the mighty

  Is for a mortal to beckon death.

  895.

  Where can he find shelter and escape

  Who falls foul of a powerful king?

  896.

  One may survive a fire but not the ire

  Of a sage offended.

  897.

  What avails pomp and wealth if one

  Rouses the wrath of a sage?

  898.

  If the rock-like sages wish to destroy

  Those seeming rooted will perish utterly.

  899.

  Even kings will collapse

  If a sage’s wrath is roused.

  900.

  Kings with all their army and kin

  Cannot survive a sage’s wrath.

  91. Uxoriousness

  901.

  Wives unduly exalted impede

  Virtue and career.

  902.

  The unmanly doings of an uxorious man

  Are a public scandal.

  903.

  Cowardly submission to one’s wife leads

  To endless shame among decent men.

  904.

  A henpecked husband acquires no virtue,

  Nor do his deeds achieve fame.

  905.

  A man who fears his wife will always fear

  To do good to the good.

  906.

  Those who fear their wives’ slender shoulders

  May live like gods but are not men.

  907.

  Better a shy woman herself than the effeminate man

  Who does a woman’s bidding.

  908.

  A doting husband will have no time

  For friends or virtuous deeds.

  909.

  Virtue, wealth and happiness

  Are not for the henpecked.

  910.

  The firm-willed are forever free

  Of uxorious folly.

  92. Public Women

  911.

  Fraught with ill are the sweet words

  Of jewelled women who sell their love.

  912.

  See through and avoid the immoral women

  Who talk of morals with a purpose.

  913.

  A harlot’s embrace feigning love for lucre

  Is like one clasping an alien corpse in a dark room for money.*

  914.

  The wise seeking grace will have no use

  For prostitutes seeking mammon.

  915.

  Men of wisdom inborn or acquired

  Will find no joy in the cheap delight of a harlot.

  916.

  Those who would spread their good name will not touch

  Others who spread their charms for money.

  917.

  The empty-hearted alone will embrace

  Hearts that go not with their bodies.

  918.

  A false woman’s embrace is a siren’s

  To one who cannot see through it.

  919.

  The soft shoulders of those who sell their charms

  Are a bog for low minds.

  920.

  Fortune leaves those whose friends

  Are wantons, wine and dice.

  93. Abstinence

  921.

  A wine-lover strikes no fear in his foes

  And his glory wanes.

  922.

  Drink no wine, or let them drink it

  Who do not care what wise men think.

  923.

  When a drunkard’s glee hurts his own mother,

  Why speak of the wise?

  924.

  The good lady

  Shame averts her face

  From the disgusting vice of drunkenness.

  925.

  Rank ignorance alone will pay for and get

  Self-ignorance.

  926.

  The sleeping do not differ from the dead—

  Nor wine from poison.

  927.

  The secret drinker with his drooping eyes

  Is the village butt.

  928.

  Don’t say, “I never drank”:

  Secrets will be out when drunk.

  929.

  As well search for a drowned man with a lamp under water

  As reason with one drowned in drink.

  930.

  When a drunkard sober sees another drunk

  Why does he not note his own damage?

  94. Gambling

  931.

  Don’t gamble even if you win—

  Your gain is a bait to draw you in.

  932.

  Can gamblers ever thrive

  Who gain one and lose a hundred?

  933.

  To be lost all the time in the rolling dice

  Is to lose your wealth to others.

  934.

  There is nothing like gambling to bring

  Poverty, sorrow and disgrace.

  935.

  They lose all who will not give up

  The dice, the board and the throw.

  936.

  Those caught by the Goddess of Poverty called Dice

  Will starve on earth and burn in hell.*

  937.

  Time wasted in a gambling house

  Loses ancestral wealth and worth.

  938.

  Dicing loses wealth, imposes lies,

  Kills grace and causes sorrow.

  939.

  The gambler will lose riches and renown,

  Learning, food and clothes.

  940.

  Life goes on in spite of sorrow

  And stakes in spite of loss!

  95. Medicine

  941.

  Three things beginning with wind, say the experts,

  In excess or lacking cause disease.*

  942.


  His body needs no drugs who only eats

  After digesting what he ate before.

  943.

  Past food digested, eat in measure

  And so live long.

  944.

  Assured of digestion and truly hungry

  Eat with care agreeable food.

  945.

  Agreeable food in moderation

  Ensures absence of pain.

  946.

  As health to a moderate eater

  So disease sticks to a glutton.

  947.

  Measureless eating the stomach cannot tackle

  Causes measureless ills.

  948.

  Diagnose with care, discover the cause,

  And find and apply the remedy.

  949.

  A doctor should treat taking account

  Of the patient, the illness and the time.

  950.

  The patient, the doctor, the remedy and attendant

  Are medicine’s four limbs.

  (iii) Miscellaneous

  96. Lineage

  951.

  Integrity and shame are natural

  Only to the well-born.

  952.

  Men of birth will never slip

  In conduct, truth and refinement.

  953.

  A smiling face, a generous heart, sweet words and no scorn

  Are said to mark the well-born.

  954.

  Men of birth will not be mean

  Even for countless wealth.

  955.

  An ancient family may default in charity,

  Never in their conduct.

  956.

  Those wedded to their spotless heritage

  Will do nothing unworthy or false.

  957.

  A failing in a noble family

  Stands out like the moon’s spot.

  958.

  His lineage is suspect

  Who is harsh and loveless.

  959.

  The plant betrays the soil, and his speech

  The man of birth.

  960.

  There is no good without a sense of shame

  Nor high birth without politeness.

  97. Honour

  961.

  Reject base actions even if such rejection

  Makes life impossible.

  962.

  Those who desire fame with honour

  Will not sacrifice honour for fame.

  963.

  In prosperity, bend low;

  In adversity, stand straight.

  964.

  Men fallen from high estate

  Are like hair fallen from the head.

  965.

  Even a hill-like eminence can be brought low

  By a small speck.

  966.

  Why pursue the proud and get

  No name on earth, no place in heaven?

  967.

  Rather than the life of a dependant

  Prefer death on the spot.

  968.

  Does life saved at the cost of honour

  Put death off forever?

  969.

  Like the yak that dies for its hair

  Some die for their honour.

  970.

  The world sings the praise of those who prefer

  Death to dishonour.

  98. Greatness

  971.

  Glory is the desire to excel;

  And to live without it, shame.

  972.

  Birth is alike to all—but not their worth

  Because of their diverse deeds.

  973.

  The high who act low are not high,

  Nor the low who act high, low.

  974.

  Fame is a jealous mistress

  And will brook no rival.

  975.

  The great will achieve deeds

  Rare in achievement.

  976.

  The small are incapable of regard

  For the great.

  977.

  The good points of the small-minded

  Only make them arrogant.

  978.

  The great are always humble, and the small

  Lost in self-admiration.

  979.

  Greatness is never puffed up, while the small

  Are inordinately proud.

  980.

  The great hide others’ faults—

  Only the small talk of nothing else.

  99. Character

  981.

  All virtues are said to be natural to those

  Who acquire character as a duty.

  982.

  To the wise the only worth

  Is character, naught else.

  983.

  The pillars of excellence are five—love, modesty,

  Altruism, compassion, truthfulness.

  984.

  The core of penance is not killing,

  Of goodness not speaking slander.

  985.

  The secret of success is humility;

  It is also wisdom’s weapon against foes.

  986.

  The touchstone of goodness is to own one’s defeat

  Even to inferiors.

  987.

  What good is that good which does not return

  Good for evil?

  988.

  Poverty is no disgrace.

  To one with strength of character.

  989.

  Seas may whelm, but men of character

  Will stand like the shore.

  990.

  If the great fail in nobility, the earth

  Will bear us no more.

  100. Courtesy

  991.

  Accessibility, they say, is the easy way

  To be courteous to all.

  992.

  Gentle kin and kindliness combined

  Constitute courtesy.

  993.

  Not with their bodies do people come together

  But with their gifts and graces.

  994.

  The world loves the gentility which combines

  Justice with benevolence.

  995.

  Mockery hurts even in jest, and hence

  The kindly are courteous even to their foes.

  996.

  The world goes on because of good men—

  Else it will turn to dust.

  997.

  Their minds may be sharp as files, but the boorish

  Behave like trees.

  998.

  It is base to be discourteous

  Even to one’s enemies.

  999.

  This world is dark even at noon

  To those who cannot laugh.

  1000.

  A boor’s great wealth is milk gone sour

  In a can unscrubbed.

  101. Useless Wealth

  1001.

  A miser makes of his vast wealth

  No more use than a corpse.

  1002.

  The hoarder deluded that wealth was all

  Haunts it as a ghost when dead.

  1003.

  They are a burden on earth who prefer

  Hoarding to fame.

  1004.

  What does he think will survive him

  Whom none loves?

  1005.

  He is poor though a millionaire

  Who neither gives nor spends.

  1006.

  Riches are a curse when neither enjoyed

  Nor given to the worthy.

  1007.

  Wealth not given to the needy

  Like a lovely spinster goes to waste.

  1008.

  The wealth of the unloved

  Is a poison tree which ripens at hand.

  1009.

  Strangers shall possess that wealth

  Amassed without love, comfort or scruples.

  1010.

  The poverty of the virtuous will pass

  Like dr
ought before rain.

  102. Nicety

  1011.

  Girls are shy by nature: real shyness

  Refrains from a mean act.

  1012.

  Food, clothes and the rest are common to all—

  Distinction comes with nicety.

  1013.

  All life is attached to the body,

  All excellence to nicety.

  1014.

  Isn’t nicety the jewel of the great

  And, the lack of it pomposity and a curse?

  1015.

  The world regards him as nicety’s abode

  To whom another’s shame is his own.

  1016.

  Noble men will not accept the world itself

  Unfenced by nicety.

  1017.

  Those attached to nicety will lose their life for it,

  Never nicety for their life.

  1018.

  Virtue will shrink from one who does not shrink

  From what others shrink from.

  1019.

  Bad conduct loses caste, but all is lost

  By lack of shame.

  1020.

  Those not controlled by innate nicety

  Are puppets miming life, controlled by a string.

  103. Social Service

  1021.

  There is nothing more glorious than to persist

  In the advance of the community.*

  1022.

  Ceaseless zeal and wisdom—these two—

  Advance the community.

  1023.

  Fate itself girds up its loins and rushes

  To help one bent on social service.

  1024.

  Success will come of itself

  To the hard social worker.

  1025.

  The world will flock round one devoted

  To honest social service.

  1026.

  True manliness is the taking on

  Of the leadership of one’s people.

  1027.

  In social work as in the battlefield

  The burden falls on the fit.

  1028.

  There is no set time for social service:

  To put off and be finical is ruinous.

  1029.

  “Must my body be a cup of bitterness?”

  Might well be the reformer’s cry.

  1030.

  Society will crash axed by misfortune

  Without good men to support it.

  104. Agriculture

  1031.

  After trying other jobs the world comes to the plough,

  Which though hard is best.

  1032.

  Ploughmen are the earth’s axle-pin;

  They carry all the world.

  1033.

  They only live whose food is what they raise—

  The rest must cringe and trail.

  1034.

  The might of many kingdoms comes under the shade