SECTION CCLIV
"Vyasa said, 'There is a wonderful tree, called Desire, in the heart of a
man. It is born of the seed called Error. Wrath and pride constitute its
large trunk. The wish for action is the basin around its foot (for
holding the water that is to nourish it). Ignorance is the root of that
tree, and heedlessness is the water that gives it sustenance. Envy
constitutes its leaves. The evil acts of past lives supply it with
vigour. Loss of judgment and anxiety are its twigs; grief forms its large
branches; and fear is its sprout. Thirst (after diverse objects) that is
(apparently) agreeable forms the creepers that twine round it on every
side. Excessively greedy men, bound in chains of iron, sitting around
that fruit-yielding tree, pay their adorations to it, in expectation of
obtaining its fruit.[1096] He who, subduing those chains, cutteth down
that tree and seeks to cast off both sorrow and joy, succeeds in
attaining to the end of both.[1097] That foolish man who nourishes this
tree by indulgence in the objects of the senses is destroyed by those
very objects in which he indulges after the manner of a poisonous pill
destroying the patient to whom it is administered.[1098] A dexterous
person, however, by the aid of Yoga, forcibly teareth up and cutteth with
the sword of samadhi, the far-reaching root of this tree.[1099] One who
knows that the end of all acts undertaken from only the desire of fruit
is rebirth or chains that bind, succeeds in transcending all sorrow. The
body is said to be a city. The understanding is said to be its mistress.
The mind dwelling within the body is the minister of that mistress whose
chief function is to decide. The senses are the citizen that are employed
by the mind (upon the service of the mistress). For cherishing those
citizens the mind displays a strong inclination for acts of diverse
kinds. In the matter of those acts, two great faults are observable,
viz., Tamas and Rajas.[1100] Upon the fruits of those acts rest those
citizens along with the chiefs of the city (viz., Mind, Understanding,
and Consciousness).[1101] The two faults (already spoken of) live upon
the fruits of those acts that are accomplished by forbidden means. This
being the case, the understanding, which of itself is unconquerable (by
either Rajas or Tamas), descends to a state of equality with the mind (by
becoming as much tainted as the mind that serves it). Then again the
senses, agitated by the stained mind, lose their own stability. Those
objects again for whose acquisition the understanding strives (regarding
them to be beneficial) become productive of grief and ultimately Meet
with destruction. Those objects, after destruction, are recollected by
the mind, and accordingly they afflict the mind even after they are lost.
The understanding is afflicted at the same time, for the mind is said to
be different from the understanding only when the mind is considered in
respect of its chief function of receiving impressions about whose
certainty it is no judge. In reality, however, the mind is identical with
the understanding.[1102] The Rajas (productive of only sorrow and evil of
every kind) that is in the understanding then overwhelms the Soul itself
that lies over the Rajas-stained understanding like an image upon a
mirror.[1103] It is the mind that first unites in friendship with Rajas.
Having united itself, it seizes the soul, the understanding, and the
senses (like a false minister seizing the king and the citizens after
having conspired with a foe) and makes them over to Rajas (with which it
has united itself).'"
