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50 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
and religions,—their wealth has real solidity, and when it perishes it produces no pain at the end.
I
“This thy suggestion concerning me, O King, is prompted by pure generosity and friendship; I will meet thee courteously with simple friendship, I would not utter aught else in my reply.
“I am not so afraid even of serpents nor of thunderbolts falling from heaven, nor of flames blown together by the wind, as I am afraid of these worldly objects.
“These transient pleasures,—the robbers of our happiness and our wealth, and which float empty and like illusions through the world,—infatuate man’s minds even when they are only hoped for,—still more when they take up their abode in the soul.
“The victims of pleasure attain not to happiness even in the heaven of the gods, still less in the world of mortals ; he who is athirst is never satisfied with pleasures, as the fire, the friend of the wind, with fuel.
“There is no calamity in the world like pleasures, people are devoted to them through delusion; when he once knows the truth and so fears evil, what wise man would of his own choice desire evil ?
“When they have obtained all the earth girdled by the sea, kings, wish to conquer the other side of the great ocean ; mankind is never satiated with pleasures, as the ocean with the waters that fall into it.
“When it had rained a golden shower from heaven, and when he had conquered the continents and had even obtained the half of Sakra’s throne, Mandhatri was still full of craving for worldly objects.
“Though he enjoyed the kingdom of the gods in heaven, when Indra had concealed himself through fear of Vritra, and though in his pride he had made the great Rishis bear his litter, Nahusha was not satisfied.
“Who would seek these enemies bearing the name of pleasures, by whom even those sages have been overcome, who were devoted to other pursuits, whose only clothes were rags, whose food roots, fruits,