birth
and the death of all creatures, was sitting, divested of prosperity but
untroubled at heart like the vast ocean in perfect stillness, Purandara
addressed him these words, 'Fallen off from thy place, bound with cords,
brought under the sway of thy foes, and divested of prosperity, dost
thou, O Namuchi, indulge in grief or passest thou thy days cheerfully?'

"'"Namuchi answered, 'By indulging in such sorrow as cannot be warded off
one only wastes one's body and gladdens one's foes. Then, again, no one
can lighten another's sorrow by taking any portion of it upon oneself.
For these reasons, O Sakra, I do not indulge in sorrow. All this that
thou seest hath one end.[849] Indulgence in sorrow destroys personal
comeliness, prosperity, life, and virtue itself, O chief of the deities!
Without doubt, suppressing that sorrow which comes upon oneself and which
is born of an improper disposition of the mind, one possessed of true
knowledge should reflect in one's mind of that which is productive of the
highest good and which dwells in the heart itself.[850] When one sets
one's mind upon what is for one's highest good, without doubt, the result
that takes place is that one's objects are all accomplished.[851] There
is One Ordainer, and no second. His control extends over the being that
lies within the womb. Controlled by the great Ordainer I go on as He sets
me on, like water running along a downward path. Knowing what is
existence and what is emancipation, and understanding also that the
latter is superior to the former, I do not, however, strive for attaining
to it. Doing acts that tend towards the direction of virtue and also
those that tend towards the opposite direction, I go on as He sets me on.
One gets those things that are ordained to be got. That which is to
happen actually happens. One has repeatedly to reside in such wombs in
which one is placed by the Ordainer. One has no choice in the matter.
That person is never stupefied, who when placed in any particular
condition, accepts it as that which he was ordained to be placed in. Men
are affected by pleasure and pain that come by turns in course of Time.
There is no personal agency (in the matter of pleasure or pain to any
one). In this lies sorrow, viz., that he that dislikes sorrow regards
himself as the actor.[852] Amongst Rishis, gods, great Asuras, persons
fully conversant with the three Vedas, and ascetics in the forest, who is
there whom calamities do not appro