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TRANSLATIONS
SRI AUROBINDO
Contents
I. FROM SANSKRIT
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ON WEALTH
The Prayer to Mammon
Cast birth into the nether Hell; let all The useless tribe of talents farther fall; Throw virtue headlong from a rock and turn High nobleness into the fire to burn; The heroic heart let some swift thunder rive, Our enemy that hinders us to live; Wealth let us only keep; this one thing less, All those become as weeds and emptiness.
A Miracle
Behold a wonder mid the sons of men! The man is undiminished he we knew, Unmaimed his organs and his senses keen Even as of old, his actions nowise new, Voice, tone and words the same we heard before, The brain’s resistless march too as of yore; Only the nattering heat of wealth is gone, And lo! the whole man changed, his praises done.
Wealth the Sorcerer
He who has wealth, has birth; gold who can spill, Is scholar, doctor, critic, what you will; For who has golden coin, has golden tongue, Is glorious, gracious, beautiful and young; All virtues, talents, fames to gold repair And lodge in gold leaving the poor man bare. Page– 178 Two Kinds of Loss
These things are deaths, ill-counsel ruining kings, The son by fondling spoiled, by him the race, Attachment, to the sage’s heart that clings, And natural goodness marred by company base, The Brahmin by scant study unbrahminised, Sweet shame by wine o’erthrown, by wandering long Affection waning, friendship true unprized, Tillage uncared, good fortune follies wrong; But wealth in double way men may reject, Nobly by giving, poorly by neglect.
The Triple Way of Wealth
Three final roads wealth takes and only three, To give, enjoy or lose it utterly: And his whose miser hand to give is slow Nor yet enjoys, the worst third way shall go.
The Beauty of Giving
Be not a miser of thy strength and store; Oft in a wounded grace more beauty is. The jewel which the careful gravers score; The sweet fair girl-wife broken with bridal bliss, The rut-worn tusker, the autumnal stream With its long beaches dry and slender flood; The hero wreathed with victory’s diadem, Adorned with wounds and glorious with his blood; The moon’s last disc; rich men of their bright dross, By gifts disburdened, fairer shine by loss. Page– 179 Circumstance
There is no absoluteness in objects. See This indigent man aspire as to a prize To handfuls of mere barley-bread! yet he A few days past, fed full with luxuries, Held for a trifle earth and all her skies. Not in themselves are objects great or small, But circumstance works on the elastic mind, To widen or contract. The view is all, And by our inner state the world’s defined.
Advice to a King
He fosters, King, the calf who milks the cow, And thou who takest of the wide earth tax, Foster the people; with laborious brow And sleepless vigil strive till nought it lacks. Then shall the earth become thy faery tree Of plenty, pleasure, fame, felicity.
Policy
Often she lies, wears sometimes brow of truth, Kind sometimes, sometimes ravening-merciless; Now open-handed, full of bounty and grace, And now a harpy; now sweet honey and ruth Flows from her tongue, now menace harsh or stern; This moment with a bottomless desire She gathers millions in, the next will tire, — Endless expense takes prodigally its turn. Thus like a harlot changes momently In princes the chameleon Policy. Page– 180 The Uses of High Standing
Men highly placed by six good gifts are high The first is noble liberality; The second, power that swift obedience brings; Service to holy men and holy things Comes next; then fame; protection then of friends; Pleasure in pleasant things the great list ends. Whose rising with these six is unallied, What seeks he by a mighty prince’s side ?
Remonstrance with the Suppliant
What the Creator on thy forehead traced As on a plate of bronze indelibly, Expect that much or little, worst or best, Wherever thou dwell, nobly or wretchedly, Since thou shalt not have less, though full of pain In deserts waterless mid savage men Thou wander sole; nor on Olympus-hoar Ranked amid mighty Gods shalt thou have more. Therefore be royal-hearted still and bold, 0 man, nor thy proud crest in vain abase Cringing to rich men for their gathered gold. From the small well or ocean fathomless The jar draws equally what it can hold.
The Rain-lark to the Cloud
You opulent clouds that in high heavens ride, Is’t fame you seek? but surely all men know To you the darting rain-larks homage owe! Hold you then back your showers, because your pride By our low suings must be gratified ? Page– 181 To the Rain-lark
0 rain-lark, rain-lark, flitting near the cloud, Attentive hear, winged friend, a friendly word. All vapours are not like, the heavens that shroud Darkening; some drench the earth for noble fruit, Some are vain thunderers wandering by with bruit: Sue not to each thou seest then, 0 bird; If humbly entreat thou must, let few have heard. Page– 182 |
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