English
The Elephant Chapter Like an elephant in battle, enduring an arrow shot from a bow, I will endure abusive speech; for the multitude is ill-behaved. A tamed one they lead to an assembly, a tamed one the king mounts; A tamed one is best among humans, who endures abusive speech. Better are tamed mules, and noble Sindhu horses, and great elephants, tusker-elephants; better than these is one who has tamed oneself. Not by these vehicles can one go to the untrodden direction; but by oneself well-tamed, a tamed one goes by the tamed. The elephant named Dhanapālaka, fierce in rut, hard to restrain; bound, does not eat his fodder, the elephant remembers the elephant forest. When one is sluggish and a great glutton, a sleeper, rolling over and lying down; like a great hog fed on swill, that dullard repeatedly enters the womb. This mind formerly wandered about, wherever it wished, wherever it desired, as it pleased; Today I shall restrain it thoroughly, as a mahout restrains an elephant in rut. Be diligent, guard your own mind; Lift yourselves out of the evil path, like an elephant sunk in mud. If one should find a discerning companion, who walks together, living well, wise; Overcoming all dangers, one should walk with him, joyful and mindful. If one should not find a discerning companion, who walks together, living well, wise; Like a king who abandons a conquered kingdom, one should walk alone, like an elephant in the Mātanga forest. Better is the solitary life, there is no companionship with fools; Let one walk alone, and do no evil, without anxiety, like an elephant in the Mātanga forest. Companions are pleasant when a need arises, pleasant is contentment with whatever one has; Merit is pleasant at the end of life, pleasant is the abandoning of all suffering. Pleasant is motherhood in the world, and pleasant is fatherhood; Happy is recluseship in the world, And happy is brahminhood. Happy is virtue until old age, Happy is established faith; Happy is the attainment of wisdom, Happy is the non-doing of evils. The Twenty-third Chapter on Elephants is concluded.