out this. For the
Brahmana who is vain and haughty, who is addicted to vices and wedded to
evil and degrading practices, is like a Sudra. On the other hand, I
consider a Sudra who is always adorned with these
virtues,--righteousness, self-restraint, and truthfulness,--as a
Brahmana. A man becomes a Brahmana by his character; by his own evil
karma a man attains an evil and terrible doom. O good man. I believe that
sin in thee has now died out. Thou must not grieve for this, for men,
like thee who art so virtuous and learned in the ways and mysteries of
the world, can have no cause for grief.'

"The fowler replied, 'The bodily afflictions should be cured with
medicines, and the mental ones with spiritual wisdom. This is the power
of knowledge. Knowing this, the wise should not behave like boys. Man of
low intelligence are overpowered with grief at the occurrence of
something which is not agreeable to them, or non-occurrence of something
which is good or much desired. Indeed, all creatures are subject to this
characteristic (of grief or happiness). It is not merely a single
creature or class that is subject to misery. Cognisant of this evil,
people quickly mend their ways, and if they perceive it at the very
outset they succeed in curing it altogether. Whoever grieves for it, only
makes himself uneasy. Those wise men whose knowledge has made them happy
and contented, and who are indifferent to happiness and misery alike, are
really happy. The wise are always contented and the foolish always
discontented. There is no end to discontentment, and contentment is the
highest happiness. People who have reached the perfect way, do not
grieve, they are always conscious of the final destiny of all creatures.
One must not give way to discontent[57] for it is like a virulent poison.
It kills persons of undeveloped intelligence, just as child is killed by
an enraged snake. That man has no manliness whose energies have left him
and who is overpowered with perplexity when an occasion for the exercise
of vigour presents itself. Our actions are surely followed by their
consequences. Whoever merely gives himself up to passive indifference (to
worldly affairs) accomplishes no good. Instead of murmuring one must try
to find out the way by which he can secure exemption from (spiritual)
misery; and the means of salvation found, he must then free himself from
sensuality. The man who has attained a high state of spiritual knowledge
is always cons