Attachment and aversion are the root cause of karma, and karma originates from infatuation. Karma is the root cause of birth and death, and these are said to be the source of misery. None can escape the effect of their own past karma.
One who neglects or disregards the existence of earth, air, fire, water and vegetation disregards his own existence which is entwined with them.
There’s no knowledge without right faith,
No conduct is possible without knowledge,
Without conduct, there’s no liberation,
And without liberation, no deliverance
Endowed with conduct and discipline,
Who practices control of self,
Who throws out all his bondage,
He attains the eternal place
All unenlightened persons produce sufferings. Having become deluded,
they produce and reproduce sufferings, in this endless world.
Just as a threaded (sasutra) needle is secure from being lost,
in the same way a person given to self-study (sasutra) cannot be lost.
Only that science is a great and the best of all sciences,
the study of which frees man from all kinds of miseries.
That with the help of which we can know the truth,
control the restless mind, and purify the soul is called knowledge.
That which subdues passions, leads to beatitude
and fosters friendliness is called knowledge.
The unenlightened takes millions of lives
to extirpate the effects of karma whereas a man
possessing spiritual knowledge and discipline
obliterates them in a single moment.
The nights that have departed will never return.
They have been wasted by those given to adharma (unrighteousness).
The nights that have departed will never return.
They are profitable for one who is given to dharma (righteousness).
Those who are ignorant of the supreme purpose of life will
never be able to attain nirvana (liberation) in spite of their
observance of the vratas (vows) and niymas (rules) of religious conduct
and practice of shila (celibacy) and tapas (penance).
