Vijaya Dharma Sūri ►Sayings

Sayings of Śrī Vijayadharma Suri ^[1]

1.

Advice given by people whom Passion governs, is always marred by selfish regards. The advice of the Passionless alone can guide thee towards thy very welfare.

2.

If the quarrels of this world have filled thee with disgust, and the terrors of death with apprehension, beware, O man! from reposing thyself in the shadow of sensual pleasure! Keep aloof from it! Keep far aloof!

3.

Carelessness is a mortal enemy of man: hovering over his head, he lures him away from his duty, to hurl him down from his spiritual heights.

4.

The mental peace, which we have acquired by turning away from the world, can so quickly be destroyed by wrath. How unwise is it to store up such a treasure under endless troubles, to see it destroyed in a moment!

5.

Man ought to be like a lion, not like a dog: the dog rushes towards the instrument (viz., the clog in the assailant's hand), the lion, however, faces the essential cause (viz., the assailant himself).

6.

Be thankful to him who blames thee, if thou art guilty of the fault: for he has reminded thee of thy imperfection! Pity him, if thou are guiltless: for the poor wretch has burdened his soul with the sin of slandering.

7.

Not by beauty is the aim of Religion attained, but by the body: many, though void of beauty, have reached highest spiritual stages merely by means of the body.

8.

Mildness is an excellent remedy against Pride, Arrogance and Conceit.

9.

If thou wishest to behold the Three Jewels 'Knowledge', 'Belief' and 'Ethical Conduct', thou must light torches like 'Discretion', 'Modesty', 'Equanimity' and 'Compassion', in thy heart.

10.

What graces the layman, disgraces the monk.

11.

“One word, and one weight”, this is the source of all prosperity for the tradesman.

12.

A man, who has escaped from the claws of the terrible demon 'Illusion', is, in truth, a genuine jewel, a genuine king, a genuine object of worship.

13.

Remember that the latent consequences of thy actions do not temper justice with mercy!

14.

As the dark planet Rāhū (dragon's head) has got the power of eclipsing the bright moon, just so hypocrisy can deprive piety of all its brilliancy and power.

15.

Around 'Desire', all the vices seem to flock together. If desire is absent, man is virtuous.

16.

An iron chain can be broken by physical strength, but the chain 'Infatuation' cannot be shattered, except with the help of the tool 'Aversion from the world'.

17.

The circuit of all the mundane existences we have to undergo, is nothing but the result of the efficacy of our former actions. Where the latter are absent, the other is non-existent too.

18.

Happiness followed by pain is pain, and not happiness, and pain followed by happiness is happiness, and not pain.

19.

When Right Philosophical Knowledge reveals the vulnerable points of Delusion, the true hero, who endeavours for his welfare, begins to display his strength.

20.

Not he is a real Paṇḍita, who after studying his books engages in sophistry, nor he who instructs others without acting accordingly himself: but a true Paṇḍita possesses knowledge, and also acts according to it.

21.

Spiritual happiness is a wish-tree as it were, whose blossoms are those supernatural powers called 'Labdhi', which form, as it were, the wealth of the Inner Self.

22.

If thou hast contracted a habit of, or predilection for slandering, slander thy own self: then there will be a chance of something good coming out therefrom.

23.

Forgiveness is an ornament of the followers of Vīra. Where Forgiveness is absent, and Wrath dominates, there the great Goddess Non-injury will never come to dwell.

24.

Slandering pulls our own pure actions down to the level of the impure ones of others.

25.

Piety is nothing but good acting, and impiety nothing but evil acting.

26.

Obstinacy excludes piety.

27.

With the increase of tranquillity, sensuality fades away, justice and morals rule, and love towards all creatures becomes manifest: this is called piety.

28.

Religious actions done without devotion are as useless as termitaries, which, though rising in the shape of spires, still are never called spires nor hills.

29.

Neither the destruction of our enemies, nor the increase of our fortune, nor the attainment of renown ought to be the motive of our devotions, but Salvation only alone.

30.

Worship is nothing but that feeling of reverence with which we regard a statue or a picture, a book or a person.

31.

No object is in itself endowed with the quality of being dear or hateful. Our own disposition for loving or hating makes one object, dear to us and another hateful. This is why one and the same object so often appears dear to us and hateful to someone else.

32.

Harness thy mind to the chariot called 'Aversion from the World', take up the arms 'Discretion', 'Modesty' and the like, and open the fight against 'Wrath', and other internal enemies!

33.

In his silken quilts, a Universal Emperor, lord of all luxury and enjoyments, cannot find that exquisite happiness which the Monk, who, lean and emaciated as he is himself, has emaciated his love and hatred too, experiences on his bed of straw.

34.

Religious actions are fertile only if combined with knowledge, and religious knowledge is fertile only if combined with actions.

35.

If we cannot grasp the truth, it is because a layer of prejudice covers our Inner Self. Therefore, it is necessary first of all to do away with prejudice.

36.

He who subdues desire is a true ascetic, a true sage and, though living in the world, still aloof from it in every respect.

37.

Unless coupled with Forbearance, all the remaining virtues are as useless as zeroes isolated from the other figures.

38.

Only he who renounces gold and women renounces truly, and only he is worthy of reverence.

39.

A person over whom Illusion has got power, be his outer position ever so high, can never reach the shore of this ocean of births and re-births.

40.

A nation, a family, or a community in which good-will is absent, can never be successful.

41.

Every work should be done in conformity with matter, place, time and disposition. He who ignores these four - be he a scholar, a physician, or a preacher - gets needs into trouble.

42.

An army or a community, into, which licentiousness has found its way, or which has got no leader, or many leaders, can never hope to be successful.

43.

A family, community, or nation in which intolerance has found a home-stead, gets rotten in all its parts.

44.

The habit of exposing others' faults not only adds to our own faults, but also helps to create bad prospects for our own after lives.

45.

He who cannot see others' merits without debasing them, will never gain renown.

46.

It is one of the chief commandments of Lord Vīra to save other lives even at the cost of our own.

47.

The suppression of such customs as are a stain on religion, is religious duty, and helps to establish religion itself so much the firmer.

48.

Religiousness is that attitude or activity by which thinking and feeling are being purified.

49.

It is a good thing not to be proud of our caste, lineage, strength, beauty, austerity, wealth, wisdom or gain; but our mental purity, and our religious activity too ought not to be capable of making us conceited.

50.

An Aryan is he who remains aloof from all objectionable actions.

51.

Indulging in sensual enjoyment makes a soul fall from its spiritual heights. It is like lying down on a couch made of untwisted threads, which nobody could do without falling to the ground.

52.

Birth as a human being is like a wish-tree, which one must not allow to wither from the brine of sensuality and passion.

53.

On being united with the desirable, thou shalt not exult, and on being separated from it, thou shalt not grieve. Nor shalt thou grieve on being united with the undesirable, nor exult on being separated from it.

54.

The happiness and pain, which the soul has to experience, are imparted by fate alone, and fate is nothing but the consequence of our good or evil deeds.

Srī Vijaya Dharma Sūri

55.

Meditating on the dispassionate makes the soul approach the ideal state of dispassionateness, and meditating on the impassioned makes it impassioned.

56.

Not only destroying another's body is injury, but injury comprises the causing of any pain to another creature in inimical intention.

57.

The more good deeds a living being does, the higher is the form of existence it will acquire.

58.

Breath is matter. Still its destruction causes pain to the immaterial soul. This is why killing is counted as injury.

59.

You may cut his head: still a brave man will not give up his valour.

60.

A monk who refrains from imparting religious instruction is like a stray leaf: both are floating towards their destination, without being able to make others float to theirs.

61.

There will be births and re-births as long as the efficacy of our actions will not be exhausted. At the disappearance of the latter, the former too will cease.

62.

What were we to understand by irreligiousness, if the aim of religion could be reached by injuring others, lying, stealing and the like!

63.

Remember that the consequences of serving others open bright, and those of causing pain to others, sad prospects for your after-lives.

64.

To say that Religion can be served by injury, is just as preposterous as it would be to assert that a snake drops nectar from its jaws.

65.

In a heart in which the Goddess Non-injury has taken her domicile, the whole host of virtues, such as chastity, unselfishness, contentment, liberality, meditation, austerity and prayer soon manifest themselves.

66.

Knowledge, meditation, the morning and evening devotions, and other religious actions are necessary to form a fence, as it were, around the useful garden 'Non-injury', in order to protect it duly.

67.

The root of piety is compassion. Where there is injury, there cannot be compassion, and thus, there cannot be piety either.

68.

To commit injury and afterwards atone for it, is just like soiling one's feet with mud and then washing them.

69.

No object is so dear to a creature as its life. Thus there can be not greater sin than to take it away, in order to fatten one's own body by that of the poor killed thing.

70.

Bear in mind that in feeling happiness and pain, another's self is just like thy own: therefore love others even as thou lovest thyself.

71.

In this world, which is so full of fears, only he can live fearlessly, who practises compassion towards all creatures.

72.

No reasoning can justify the cruelty which man displays when destroying the whole existence of another creature for the sake of a momentary gratification of his desires.

73.

The faculty of doing important work grows in the measure in which one preserves one's chastity.

74.

The preservation of virility in its intactness means self-preservation.

75.

When protecting our virility, we protect, as it were, a popular and just king: for virility is the ruler of the body.

76.

After squeezing the juice out of sugar-cane, nothing remains but dry fibres. Just so the consumption of your virility leaves your body worthless - an empty case as it were.

77.

True monks are those who, living on alms, wander about on earth for their own and others' benefit.

78.

The monk, who lives in constant celibacy, never ought to face such circumstances nor to engage in such practices, as offer opportunities of violating his chastity.

79.

People living in complete celibacy ought to keep aloof from all talk concerning the other sex, which is so capable of increasing sensual desire.

80.

Food which serves to increase erotic desire ought to be strictly avoided by people observing celibacy.

81.

He who eats little verily eats much.

82.

The pulling out of toe hair, severe penances, exposing one's body to the five fires, and thousands of other severe ascetical practices are useless, where chastity is destroyed.

83.

He who transgresses his limits has to pass his whole life in constant fear, sorrow and uneasiness.

84.

As the firmness of a house depends on the firmness of the foundation, just so the firmness of thy life depends on the absolute preservation of thy virility.

85.

The destruction of chastity in childhood and early youth is not only the breach of a natural law, but it is fighting against Nature itself.

86.

As rotten seeds can never yield a good crop, just so immature virility cannot produce valuable progeny.

87.

Bear in mind that erotical scenes and words, seen and heard in early childhood, infect the mind of the child with the poison of sensuality.

88.

He whom a very wicked and ruinous vice has once subdued, must surely perish before long.

89.

He who, transgressing the limits drawn in the Sacred Writings, indulges in sexual enjoyment in a way discordant with Ethics, does not accomplish one of the aims of human life, but commits a crime.

90.

The hope of fully gratifying sensual desire by indulging in it for a time, is vain: has one ever calmed down fire by feeding it with melted butter?

91.

Old age can indeed be a treasury of wisdom and an embodiment of empirical knowledge, provided it has been preceded by a period of strictly observed sexual abstinence.

92.

The procreation of too numerous progeny contributes to the material pauperization of a country.

93.

The chief reasons of the increase of the number of widows are child marriages and marriages of old men. By abolishing these two evils, the problem, whether widows should be allowed to remarry or not, could be easily solved.

94.

Modesty, discretion, contentment and all other virtues take their permanent seat in the heart of such men or women as have preserved their chastity in full.

95.

The highest and the very ideal one of all the virtues in woman is conjugal fidelity.

96.

The pleasure, which man derives from indulging in sexual enjoyment, resembles that of a dog who, gnawing at a fleshless bone, is gratified by the taste of his own blood that streams forth from his teeth.

97.

Reaching the summit of genuine happiness is truest self-perfection.

98.

Good conduct and good thought are the best expedients to annihilate evil actions.

99.

He who remains unshakable as Mount Meru in spite of all hardships, pure as a conch-shell in spite of all impurity round about, and brave and patient in spite of all pain, is indeed the ideal of a man.

100.

The three genuine spiritual jewels 'Knowledge', 'Faith' and 'Good Conduct' relieve the misery under which the soul has been suffering since eternity, so that it can never again find a foothold there.

101.

As the ocean is the support of all jewels, and the earth the support of all beings, just so Right Faith is the support of all virtues.

102.

A soul can reach perfection only after the dirt consisting in the latent efficacy of its former deeds has disappeared from it.

103.

Knowledge without Faith and Good Conduct is useless; it cannot lead to the accomplishment of any object whatsoever.

104.

How can a man lead others to spiritual welfare, as long as he is affected by worldly interests himself?

105.

If instruction from the lips of the worthiest of ascetics cannot influence a hardened, arid heart, the fault does not lie with the preceptor, nor with the instruction, but solely with the unfortunate disposition of the soul in question.

106.

In the hand of the pious, wealth serves as an expedient for securing spiritual welfare by selfless deeds, whereas in the hand of the sensually disposed, it becomes an expedient for securing sensual pleasures.

107.

With a person, in whom the latent efficacy of former good deeds is still operative, wealth becomes dependent on virtue, and spontaneously hastens to join it.

108.

Let there be diversity in this world, but let there be no enmity! Let there be competition, but let there be no jealousy!