Markandeyapurana 38.4

38.4

mārjārabhakṣite duḥ khaṃ yādṛśaṃ gṛhakukkuṭe /
na tādṛṅmamatāśūnye kalaviṅke 'tha mūṣike //

“No whit of affliction have I, O brāhman, when I look on things in a proper frame of mind: those who look on things amiss are always sunk in a sea of unhappiness. In whatever thing a man’s intellect becomes self-engrossed, he receives woes therefrom and pays them back. There is not so much pain when a cat eats an unselfish sparrow or mouse, as when it eats a domestic fowl. I then feel neither pain nor pleasure, since I am beyond the material world.[1] Whoever is subject to created things by means of created things, is indeed sensitive to pleasure and pain.”