yadā na kurute bhāvaṁ sarva-bhūteṣv amaṅgalam |
sama-dṛṣṭes tadā puṁsaḥ sarvāḥ sukhamayā diśaḥ ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 9.19.15)
“When a person does not foster an attitude of inauspiciousness towards all living beings, then, because of [one’s] equal vision, all directions are filled with happiness.”
pūrṇaṁ varṣa-sahasraṁ me viṣayān sevato’sakṛt |
tathāpi cānusavanaṁ tṛṣṇā teṣūpajāyate ||
tasmād etām ahaṁ tyaktvā brahmaṇy adhyāya mānasam |
nirdvandvo nirahaṅkāraś cariṣyāmi mṛgaiḥ saha ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 9.19.18–19)
“[Mahārāja Yayāti to his wife Devayānī:] I have spent a full one thousand years enjoying objects of the senses continuously, and still desire for them arises constantly [i.e., it has not been extinguished in the least]. Therefore, giving that up and fixing my mind on Brahman, I shall roam with the deer free from duality and free from self-conceit.”
yā dustyajā durmatibhir jīryato yā na jīryati |
tāṁ tṛṣṇāṁ duḥkha-nivahāṁ śarma-kāmo drutaṁ tyajet ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 9.19.16)
“One who has an interest in well-being should swiftly shun that constant [alt., extreme, or, invariable] bearer of miseries—desire—which is difficult to shun for the ill-minded and which does not age as a result of aging.”
Bhārata Sāvitrī
Śrī Vedavyāsa’s final message to humanity in Mahābhārata.
Excerpted from the Svargārohana Parva, 5.47–51.
jñāna-pūrvā bhavel lipsā lipsā-pūrvābhisandhitā |
abhisandhi-pūrvakaṁ karma karma-mūlaṁ tataḥ phalam ||
(Mahābhārata: Śānti-parva, 206.6)
“Desire [for an object] shall be preceded by knowledge [of the object], aim [for an object] preceded by desire [for it], and action [to attain it] preceded by the aim [for it]. Then the result, the basis of which is the action, occurs.”
niṣeka-garbha-janmāni bālya-kaumāra-yauvanam |
vayo-madhyaṁ jarā mṛtyur ity avasthās tanor nava ||
etā manoratha-mayīr hānyasyoccāvacās tanūḥ |
guṇa-saṅgād upādatte kvacit kaścij jahāti ca ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.22.47–48)
“Impregnation, gestation, birth, childhood [up to five years], boyhood [up to sixteen years], youth [up to forty-five years], middle age [up to sixty years], old age, and death are the nine states of the body. Sometimes someone [i.e., a jīva] takes on these greater and lesser manifestations of another [i.e., of a material body], which are made of desire, as a result of attachment to the guṇas, and [sometimes someone] gives [them] up [as a result of Śrī Bhagavān’s grace].”
yathā śrutaṁ vedavidāṁ vara tvayā
jano’yam uccaiḥ pada-laṅghanotsukaḥ |
tapaḥ kiledaṁ tad-avāpti-sādhanaṁ
manorathānām agatir na vidyate ||
(Kumāra-sambhava: 5.64)
[Parvatī speaking to a sādhu:] “O knower of the Veda, what you have heard is correct. This person [i.e., I] is intent upon attaining a high position [i.e., that of the wife of Lord Śiva], and this austerity [I am performing] is indeed the means of attaining that. [Since it is such that] Desires have no unapproachable object.”
mahābhūtāny ahaṁkāro buddhir avyaktam eva ca |
indriyāṇi daśaikaṁ ca pañca cendriya-gocarāḥ ||
icchā dveṣaḥ sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ saṁghātaś cetanā dhṛtiḥ |
etat kṣetraṁ samāsena sa-vikāram udāhṛtam ||
(Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā: 13.5-6)
“The [five] gross elements (mahābhūtas), the ego (ahaṅkāra), the intellect (buddhi), the unmanifested [i.e., prakṛti], the ten senses and the one [additional one], the five objects of the senses, desire, aversion, happiness, suffering, the aggregate [i.e., the body], consciousness, and resolution—this in sum is said to be the field (kṣetra) along with its transformations.”
(Svāmī Vivekānanda in Bhakti-rahasya)
“A great soul would say, ‘Imagine there is a thief in this house. Somehow, he came to know that there is a tāla of gold in the next room, and between these two rooms there is a very thin wall. In such a case, what will be the condition of the thief? He will have no sleep. He will not be able to eat. He will not be able to do anything. “How can I obtain that tāla of gold?” His mind will remain fixed only on that. He will only think, “How can I make a hole in that wall and take the tāla of gold?” “‘What do you all want to say [i.e., so, what do I mean by this]? If human beings truly had faith that the source of happiness, bliss, and glory, Svayaṁ Bhagavān, exists, then would they be able to engage in ordinary worldly (sāṁsārika) work and not try to attain him?’ “As soon as human beings have faith that someone known as Bhagavān exists, then they become mad with intense desire to attain him. … This frenzy, this thirst, this earnest propensity, is called the awakening of a life of dharma. Only when people reach this state has their spiritual (ādhyātmika) life begun.”
yā dustyajā durmatibhir yā na jīryati jīryataḥ |
yo’sau prāṇantiko rogas tāṁ tṛṣṇāṁ tyajataḥ sukham ||
(Mahābhārata: 12.168.45)
“Happiness comes from casting off desire, that which is difficult to cast away for the ill-minded, which does not age as a result of aging [i.e., does not wane even as the body becomes decrepit], and which is a fatal disease.”
