Who that is wise about worldly existence

Would be arrogant, thinking “I” and “mine”?

For all things belong equally

To all embodied beings. [4.76]

 

Society’s servant, paid with a sixth part,

Why are you so arrogant?

Your becoming the agent of actions
Depends on being placed in control. [4.77]

 

When those in his care receive their due,

They think of their master as the giver.

When the master gives what is to be given,

He thinks with conceit, “I am the giver.” [4.78]

 

That which you wrongly regard,

Others [consider] a source of suffering.

Living by working for others,

What causes you pleasure? [4.79]

 

When a ruler seems to be the protector

Of his people, as well as protected,

Why be proud because of the one?

Why not be free from pride because of the other? [4.80]

 

Those is each caste prefer their own work;

Thus a living is hard to find.

If you become non-virtuous

Good rebirths will be scarce for you. [4.81]

 

Those who act at others’ insistence

Are called fools on this earth.

There is no one else at all

So dependent on others as you. [4.82]

 

Claiming that ”protection depends on me,”

You take payment from the people,

But if you perform ill deeds,

Who is equally merciless? [4.83]

 

If people who do ill deeds

Should not be treated with mercy,

All ordinary childish people

Would also not need to be protected. [4.84]

 

There is nothing that will not serve

As a reason for happiness.

Reason such as scriptural statements.

Will not destroy demerit. [4.85]

 

If giving proper protection is

A ruler’s religious practice,

Why would the toil of artisans too

Not be religious practice? [4.86]

 

This example shows the ruler on whom

The people rely as reprehensible.

The excellent see attachment to existence

As mother of all those in the world. [4.87]

 

The sensible do not acquire kingship.

Since fools have no compassion,

These merciless rulers of men,

Although protectors, are irreligious. [4.88]

 

Sages’ activities are not all

[Actions] that the wise perform,

For there are inferior,

Mediocre and superior ones. [4.89]

 

Virtuous rulers of the past

Protected the people like their children.

Through the practices of this time of strife.

It is now like a waste without wildlife. [4.90]

 

If a king who seizes the occasion

To harm is not doing wrong,

Then others, too, such as thieves

Have not done so in the first place. [4.91]

 

If giving all one has for liquor

And so on is not an offering,

Why consider it an offering

To give oneself in battle? [4.92]

 

You, the king, guardian of the people,

Have no guardian yourself.

Since your guardianship does not

Release you, who would be happy? [4.93]

 

Though a king is famous after his death

It will bring no benefit.

Do you, being worthless, and those who

Cook dogs do not have notoriety? [4.94]

 

When all power and wealth

Are produced by merit,

It cannot be said that this one

Will not be a basis for power and wealth. [4.95]

 

In the world caste is determined

With regard to the main means of livelihood

Thus there is no division among

All sentient beings by way of caste. [4.96]

 

Since it was very long ago

And women’s minds are fickle,

There is no one from the caste

Known as the royal caste. [4.97]

 

If even one of common caste

Through his work could become royal caste,

One might wonder why even a commoner

Should not become Brahmin through his work. [4.98]

 

A king's ill deeds cannot be

Distributed like his wealth.

What wise person ever destroys

Their future for another’s sake? [4.99]

 

Pride caused by power and wealth

Does not remain in the hearts of the wise,

Once one has looked at others

With equal or superior power. [4.100]

 

 

SUMMARIZING STANZA   Thinking about the impermanence and uncleanness of the body. Understand the faults of attachment to it. Make effort to achieve unsurpassable enlightenment And give up pride in both “I” and “mine”.     This concludes the fourth chapter of the Four Hundred Stanzas on the Yogic Deeds, showing the means to abandon conceptions of self.