Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c18.86

v2.c18.86

joyfully devoted to the law of the warrior, self-checked, far-seeing, famed in the king’s assemblies, one whose words were hearkened to,¹ who had learned much, and was of royal blood. She did upbraid her son, who had been conquered by the king of the Indus territory (Sind), and lay there with a sad and pitiable heart: “From me thou art not sprung, nor from thy father. Whence then art thou come? Without the glow of anger, one that does not count, a man with a eunuch’s organs, thou goest along without hope, so long as thou livest. Ho! thou man of no account, raise thyself, lie not there thus overcome, a joy unto all thy foes, a sorrow for thy kindred, without the conscious pride of self. Easily filled is a wretched small river, easily filled the folded fore-paws of a mouse, easily satisfied a man of no account; he avows himself satisfied with the very least.² Break out the tooth of the snake even, and so sink swiftly into death, or rush into danger, and show a hero’s strength in life. Wheel this way and that, as the fearless falcon in the air, and spy out the foeman’s weakness, either raising the battle call, or hovering silently. Wherefore dost thou lie thus like a dead man! Why like one whom the thunderbolt has struck down! Up, thou worthless man! Rise and sleep not, overcome by thine adversary. Go not under as a pitiable wretch; make thyself renowned through thine own deeds. Stand not in the middle, stand not behind; lie not deep below as a thunderstruck weakling. Blaze up, if it is only for a moment, like the brand of tinduka-wood; smoke not like a flameless fire of husks, thinking only of how to live. To blaze up for a moment, that is magnificent, but not to smoke a long time.³ O may in no king’s family a patient gentle ass be born. If a man has done all that men can, if in the race he has swept along to the utmost limit of his strength, then he has paid his debt to duty, and need not upbraid himself. Whether he reach the goal or no, the wise man does not grieve; he hastens to the immediate deed ¹; he has no yearning for the good things of life. Unfold thy hero's courage in the light, or go the way which for all is sure, letting thy duty walk before thee ²; for wherefore art thou really alive? Lift up thy race, which because of thee and of itself has sunk deep. He whose deeds and life are not so great and wonderful that men speak of them does but add to the heap, and is neither man nor woman. If a man's renown for open-handedness, asceticism, truth, for art and science, or for acquiring worldly goods does not rise high, then he is only his mother's excrement. He that outshines men in learning, or in asceticism, in pomp and power or in heroic strength, he is a man—through deeds. May no woman bear a son that is without angry, impatient passion (amarsha), without energy, without manly courage, and that does but give joy to his foes—that is a curse bearing the name of son. Be not smoke, but a mighty rising flame; be stout in the attack, and slay the foemen. Be flame on thy adversaries' heads, even if it be but for an hour, even but for a moment. A man is a man only when ³ he is filled with angry passion, when he bears with nothing patiently; the patient man without anger is neither man nor woman. Content and pity destroys fortune and greatness, so, too, these two: want of energy and fear; he that does not strive, does not win greatness. Turn thy heart to iron, and then once more seek thine own. It is from being fit for the highest things that man is called man.⁴ He bears the name in vain who lives on earth like a woman. When all beings live on a man as on a tree with ripe fruit, then his life has an end and meaning. The man who through his own strength, and full of deeds, brings his life into the heights,⁵ wins fame in this world, and