Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana Book 11 Chapter 8:1-11

Book 11: Chapter 8

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Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana: Book 11: Chapter 8: Verses 1-11

The Brahmana said : 0 king ! pleasure and pain which come through the sensed are experienced in heaven as well as in hell by embodied beings; therefore a wise man should not seek them. Like a python one should eat food, obtained without effort, whether it be more or less and sweet or bitter. If no food reaches one, (then) like the python let one go without it and make no effort to obtain it. Let one sleep for many days patiently believing that it is Fate which provides food. Bearing one's body actionless even when one is strong of body, mind and senses, and lying down, though sleepless, one should do nothing, though having the strength to exercise senses. An ascetic should be quiet and grave like the calm deep sea. He should be inscrutable, dominated by none and unaffected by time and space and unperturbed by likes and dislikes. An ascetic devoted to the Lord, whether he has or has not the desired objects, should feel neither elated nor depressed just as the ocean does not swell when rivers flow into it nor dries up when they do not. When the man who has no control over his senses sees the Maya of the Lord in the shape of a woman, he is allured by her gestures and falls into the darkness of hell just as a moth falls into fire. The ignorant man allured by the gold ornaments, clothes etc., of a woman for the sake of enjoyment of these objects, which are-the creation of the Lord's Maya, loses his discrimination and is destroyed like a moth. An ascetic should take food in small quantities (from householders), without giving them any trouble, and barely enough to maintain his body, and thus adopt the course of the black bee. Like the bee collecting honey from (many) flowers a discriminating person should gather the essence from all scriptures, great or small. He should not keep in store for the evening or the following day the food collected by begging; his hands (alone) should be the vessel and belly, the receptacle for food. He should not be a hoarder like the bee.

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