Another's Praise Feels like Fever and Another's Sorrow like a Crown
Uttara Kanda, Chaupai 38
Doha 40 · Movement 1 of 2
Keep this contemplation
Preserve, print, or share
Greed becomes blanket and bed, wrapping the harmful person by night and supporting the body by day. Fear of death and Yama's realm no longer restrains conduct. Hearing another praised produces a gasp like the onset of fever.
Seeing another's calamity brings the happiness of suddenly ruling the world. Self-interest divides families, lust and anger grow, and mother, father, Guru, and sacred learning receive no honor. Such people ruin themselves while drawing others toward the same fall.
Satsang and Hari's story bring them no delight. The heart becomes an ocean of faults, ridiculing the Vedas, coveting wealth, and nourishing hostility beneath virtuous clothing. Rama's imagery reveals an inverted inner world where good news burns and suffering gives pleasure. Wickedness is not only forbidden action. It is joy and pain trained to arise at the wrong objects.
The gravest disorder begins when another's light feels like illness and another's darkness feels like a coronation.
Read the passage from the Manas
लोभइ ओढ़न लोभइ डासन। सिस्त्रोदर पर जमपुर त्रास न।। काहू की जौं सुनहिं बड़ाई। स्वास लेहिं जनु जूड़ी आई।। जब काहू कै देखहिं बिपती। सुखी भए मानहुँ जग नृपती।। स्वारथ रत परिवार बिरोधी। लंपट काम लोभ अति क्रोधी।। मातु पिता गुर बिप्र न मानहिं। आपु गए अरु घालहिं आनहिं।। करहिं मोह बस द्रोह परावा। संत संग हरि कथा न भावा।। अवगुन सिंधु मंदमति कामी। बेद बिदूषक परधन स्वामी।। बिप्र द्रोह पर द्रोह बिसेषा। दंभ कपट जियँ धरें सुबेषा।।
Greed is their blanket, greed is their bed. They have no fear of death or the realm of Yama. When they hear of someone's greatness or praise, they gasp as if struck by fever. When they see someone else's misfortune, they become as happy as if they were kings of the world. They are devoted to self-interest, hostile to their own family, lustful, greedy, and extremely wrathful. They do not respect mother, father, guru, or brahmins. They destroy themselves and ruin others too. Deluded, they engage in enmity with others. They find no joy in satsanga or the katha of Hari. They are oceans of vice, dull-witted and lustful, mockers of the Vedas and thieves of others' wealth. They harbor special enmity toward brahmins and toward all. Hypocrisy and deceit fill their hearts while they wear a virtuous appearance.