XIII.LOKAVAGGA. THE WORLD

167. Do not serve mean ends ; do not live in heedlessness; do not embrace false views; do not be a world-upholder.

168. Be not heedless in standing (at doors for alms); observe scrupulously (this) practice; he who observes this practice lives happily both in this world and the next.

169. Observe scrupulously (this) practice; do not observe it unscrupulously; he who observes this practice lives happily both in this world and the next.

170. Just as one would view a bubble, just as one would view a mirage; if a person thus looks upon the world, the King of Death sees him not.

171. Come, behold this world, like an ornamented royal chariot, wherein fools flounder, but for the wise there is no attachment.

172. Whoever was heedless before and afterwards is not, such a one illumines this world like the moon freed from clouds.

173. Whoever, by good deed, covers the evil done, such a one illumines the world like the moon freed from clouds.

174. Blind is this world; few are there who clearly see; as birds that escape from a net few go to heaven.

175. Swans go on the path of the sun; (men) go through air by psychic powers. The wise are led away from the world, having conquered Mãra and his host.

176. There is no evil that cannot be done by a lying person, who has transgressed the one law (of truthfulness) and who is indifferent to a world beyond.

177. Verily, the misers go not to celestial realms. Fools do not indeed praise liberality; the wise man rejoices in giving and thereby becomes happy thereafter.

178. Better than sole sovereignty over the earth, better than going to heaven, better than even lordship over all the worlds is the Fruit of a Stream-winner.