1.108.24. A wife who appreciates good qualities, devoted to her husband, and satisfied with the minimum in everything is real beloved.
1.108.25. It is death indeed if one has a wicked wife, a rogue as a friend, a servant who answers back and serpents infesting his house.
1.108.26. Forsake the contact with wicked people, resort to the assembly of the good; do meritorious acts day and night and remember the unstability of everything.
1.108.27. A woman devoid of love, terrific in appearance, ferocious by nature, more horrible than a serpent round the neck, tigerlike in having ruddy eyes, appearing to spit fire, desirous of visiting other houses and cities should never be approached.
1.108.28. Devotion in the son, good deed in the ungrateful, coldness in the fire may occur sometime by God’s grace; but love in a prostitute is never come across.
1.108.29. Who can be complacent and carefree if serpents infest the house wherever we cast our eyes, if sickness cannot be cured with all appliances of treatment and if death is ever ready to pounce on the body at every age from infancy to old age?
Suta said:
1.109.1. Money should be saved for emergency; wife should be protected by spending hoarded wealth and one’s own self should be saved even at the risk of preserved assets and wife.
1.109.2. One should sacrifice oneself to save the family; a family should be sacrificed to save the village; a village should be sacrificed for the safety of the land and the land should be sacrificed to save one’s soul.
1.109.3. The residence in hell is better than that in a house of evil conduct. By the former, one’s sins are washed away whereas there is no redemption from the latter.
1.109.4. The intelligent man fixes one foot firmly and moves with the other. Without testing the new place well, the old place of resort should not be abandoned.
1.109.5. One should unhesitatingly abandon a country infested with men of evil conduct, a residence of harassing environment, a king of miserly temperament, and a friend of deceptive disposition.
1.109.6. What purpose can be served by the riches in the hands of a miser? Of what avail to men can that knowledge be that is tarnished by a roguish disposition? Of what avail is beauty bereft of good qualities and valour? Of what value is a friend who turns his face away at the time of misfortune?
1.109.7. Many persons unknown to him before will flock round a person occupying a high post as his friends and assistants. Time being adverse, if he loses his wealth and is dismissed from his post even his kinsmen become his enemies.
1.109.8. A friend can be found out if he is genuine or otherwise in times of danger; the test of valour is the battlefield; the test of purity of a man is his conduct in isolated places. Loss of wealth puts fidelity of the wife to a test and famine provides an opportunity to test whether a man is fond of entertaining a guest or otherwise.
1.109.9. Birds leave off the tree when the fruits are exhausted; the sarasa [bird] quits the lake when it is dried up; the courtesan turns out the man who has no money in his pockets; ministers bid good-bye to the king who has lost his throne; honeybees never touch the flower that is faded and withered; the deer flee the forest consumed by fire – so it is evident that people take delight in things that delight them. Who takes interest in others otherwise?
1.109.10. One should propitiate a greedy man by giving him money; a praiseworthy man by reverence with joined palms; a fool by allowing him to do as he pleases and the scholar by a clear statement of facts.
1.109.11. Devas, good people and brahmanas are pleased with genuine good nature; the ordinary vulgar people by an offer of something to eat or drink and the learned scholars by due honour and fitting rewards.
1.109.12. The noblest can be won over by humility and submission; the rogue with a threat; the vulgar with small gifts and concessions and men of equal status by exhibiting an equal strength and valour.
1.109.13. An intelligent man must penetrate deep into the innermost recesses of everyone’s heart and speak and act befitting his nature and inclination and win him over to his side.
1.109.14. Implicit trust in rivers, clawed beasts, horned animals, armed men, women and scions of royal families is never to be encouraged.
1.109.15. Men of sense will never disclose loss of wealth, mental anguish, illicit actions in the house, deception (of which they had been the victim) and disrespect.
1.109.16. The following are the activities that bring about the destruction of chastity and good conduct in women: association with base and wicked people, a long separation from the husband, too much of consideration and love shown to them (by the would-be defiler) and residence in another man’s house.
1.109.17. Which family is devoid of defects? Who is not distressed by sickness? Who is not oppressed by vices and calamities? Who enjoys continuous blessings of the goddess of fortune?
1.109.18. Who is the man in the wide world who does not become haughty on attaining wealth? Who has escaped miseries in his life? Whose mind is not ripped asunder by maidens? Who has been a favourite of kings forever? Who is that suppliant who has won honour and respect? Who is that fortunate fellow who has escaped unscathed after having once fallen into the wily nets of the wicked?
