Psalms of the Brethren CCXLV: Godatta

E’en as the mettled brute of noble breed,
Yoked to his load, drawing his load along,
Though worn by burden past his powers, [unfair],
Breaks not away, revolting from his bonds,

So they in whom, as water in the sea,
Wisdom abounds, despise not other men;
This among creatures is the Ariyan rule.

Living in time, come ’neath the power of time;
Subject to dread concerning future life,
Men go their ways to pain and misery,
Yea, here below the sons of men do mourn.

Elated by some pleasant hap, by ill
Depressed, the fools are smitten to and fro,
Who nothing as it really is can see.

They stand as any pillar at the gate,
Neither elated they, nor yet depressed.

For not to gain or loss, to honour, fame,
To praise or blame, to pleasure or to pain —

Where’er it be — do they take hold and cling,
No more than drop of dew to lotus-leaf.
Hale and serene are heroes everywhere,
And everywhere unconquered [bound to win].

Of him who rightly seeks and nought doth gain,
And him who gains but seeketh wrongfully,
Better is he who rightly sought and lost
Than he who gained by methods that were wrong.

Of them who have repute, but scanty dower
Of wit, and them who know, but lack repute,
Better the wise men who do lack repute
Than great repute and men of little wit.

Of praises by the unintelligent,
And blame and criticism by the wise,
Better the censure of th’ intelligent
Than are the commendations of a fool.

The pleasure born of sensuous desire,
The pain that comes from life detached, austere,
Better the pain that comes from life austere
Than pleasure born of sensuous desire.

To live by wrong; for doing right to die,
Better ’twere thus to die than so to live.

They who have put off sense-desire and wrath,
Peace in their heart regarding life to come,
They walk the world from lust and craving free;
Likes and dislikes are not for such as these.

The factors of enlightenment, the powers,
These have they studied and the forces too.
So winning perfect peace, as fires extinct,
They wholly pass away, sane and immune.