Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Página 521

ON PREDESTINATION
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her long-absent husband is not greater than that of a good
who goes to the wars.
LVIII. Only death can cut short the affection of a faithful
woman for her family, of a tiger and other wild animals for
their claws, of a miser for his riches, of a warrior for his
soldier
weapons.
LIX. Take care not to fix your abode in a place where
there is no temple, no headman, no school, no river, no
astrologer, and no doctor.
LX. We may descend into hell, establish our dwelling in
the abode of Brahma or in the paradise of Indra, throw
ourselves into the depths of the sea, ascend to the summit
of the highest mountain, take up our habitation in the
libera reigns, take
howling desert or in the town where
refuge with Yama, bury ourselves in the bowels of the earth,
brave the dangers of battle, sojourn in the midst of veno-
mous reptiles, or take up our abode in the moon yet our
destiny will none the less be accomplished. All that will
happen to us will be such as it is not in our power to avoid \
LXI. Bad ministers cause the ruin of kings, evil oppor-
tunities that of young men, worldly communications that
of penitents, good works done without discernment that of
K
;
Brahmins.
LXII. The vice or virtue which prevails in a kingdom
the faults of kings, to their
attributed to the monarch
those
ministers
the defects of women, to their husbands
and those of disciples, to
of children, to their parents
their gurus.
LXIII. Just as intoxicating liquors destroy our sense of
taste, so does a son of bad character destroy a whole family.
The society of wicked men dishonours those whose company
they frequent. Self-interest destroys friendships that are
most firmly cemented.
LXIV. He who boasts of knowing that which he does
not know and he who affects not to know that which he
does know are equally blameworthy.
LXV. There are three kinds of persons who are well
is
;
;
;
;
In order to understand clearly the sense of this stanza, one must
of absolute predestination,
and assert that the destiny of each man is irrevocably written on his
Dubois.
forehead by the hand of Brahma himself.
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remember that Hindus admit the doctrine
DUBOIS
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