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He who is ever established in the Self, takes woe and joy alike; regards
a clod of earth, a stone and a peace of gold as equal in value, is
possessed of wisdom, receives the pleasant as well as the unpleasant in
the same spirit and views censure and praise alike and he who is
indifferent to honour and ignominy, is alike, to the cause of a friend
as well as to that of an enemy, and has renounced the sense of
doership in all undertakings is said to have risen above the three
Gunas. Those wise men who are free from pride and delusion, who have
conquered the evil of attachment, who are in eternal union with God,
whose cravings have altogether ceased and who are completely immune from
all pairs of opposites going by the names of pleasure and pain, reach
that supreme immortal state. Non-violence in thought, word and deed,
truthfulness and geniality of speech, absence of anger on provocation,
disclaiming doership in respect of actions, quietude or composure of
mind, abstaining from malicious gossip, compassion towards all
creatures, absence of attachment to the objects of senses even during
their contact with the senses, mildness, abstaining from frivolous
pursuits, sublimity, forbearance, fortitude, external purity, bearing
enmity to none and absence of self-esteem — these are the marks of a
person who is born with the divine gifts. Hypocrisy, arrogance, pride,
anger, sternness and ignorance these are the marks of a person, who is
born with demoniac properties. The divine gift has been recognized as
conducive to liberation and the demoniac gift as conducive to bondage.
There are only two types of men in this world, the one possessing a
divine nature and the other possessing a demoniac disposition. The
person possessing a divine nature aspires for liberation and men
possessing demoniac disposition cherish insatiable desires and for their
fulfilment engage in impure conduct and they move in this world, full of
hypocrisy, pride and arrogance. Held in bondage by hundreds of ties of
expectation and wholly giving themselves up to lust and anger, such men
strive to amass by unfair means hoards of money and other objects for
the enjoyment of sensuous pleasures. Desire, anger and greed — this
triple gate of hell brings about the ruination of the soul. Therefore,
one should avoid all these three.
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