“Greed disrupts contentment and brings chaos.”
The verse: Bhartrihari Vairagya Shataka 104
The quote above is our paraphrase. This is the verse as it reads in the B. Hale Wortham translation (1886):
“Every living thing is subject to death. Youth passes into old age; contentment is destroyed by covetousness after riches; peace of mind by the glances of beautiful women; the just are slandered by envious men; forests are infested by serpents; kings are ruined by evil counsellors. Even the divine virtues themselves are unstable; so everything in the world suffers loss and damage.”
About the poet: Bhartrihari
Bhartrihari is the Sanskrit poet to whom the Shatakatraya is attributed: three collections of about 100 verses each, usually dated to around the 5th century CE. They cover worldly conduct (Niti), love (Shringara) and renunciation (Vairagya), often in a wry, sceptical voice.
More from Bhartrihari
- “Desires are obstacles to inner peace.”
- “Humility opens the path to divine wisdom.”
- “The embrace of loved ones is fleeting, but the embrace of wisdom is eternal.”
- “Worldly pleasures devour us; we never truly enjoy them.”
- “The wise abandon fleeting desires for eternal bliss.”
- “Simplicity in living fosters higher thinking.”