#RAM_NAVAMI
The Marks of the Wicked and the Corrupt:
1. The wicked man's heart burns with endless fire—
He seethes whenever he sees another's gain.
Should he but hear a neighbor's name cast down,
Joy floods his breast as if he'd found a treasure.
Meaning: The wicked heart is a reservoir of infinite torment—the man burns perpetually at the sight of another's prosperity. Should he ever hear someone slandered, his joy becomes such that it seems he has suddenly acquired wealth!
2. Like hemp that binds another fast,
The wicked tears his own skin in distress—
Yet bears the ruin unto death itself.
Without cause or self-interest, hear me, Garud—
Like serpent and mouse, the wicked one
Harms others still, though gain there be none.
Meaning: The wicked enslave others like hemp that binds, and even as they tear their own hide in torment, they endure ruin and perish. Hear me, O Garud, the wicked—like the serpent and the mouse—inflict harm on others even without cause or self-interest. (All their joy lies in another's suffering.)
3. He who destroys another's wealth
Destroys himself as well—
As hail that ruins the harvest
Itself must melt and disappear.
The wicked heart brings torment to the world,
As Ketu, the lowly planet, brings calamity.
Meaning: The wicked man who destroys another's wealth destroys himself as well—as hailstones that ruin the field's harvest melt and vanish. The wicked heart is a source of suffering in the world—as the inauspicious planet Ketu is famously known to be.
(According to Hindu mythology, during the churning of the cosmic ocean, a demon named Rahu drank several drops of divine nectar in secret. When the Sun and Moon recognized him, they informed Lord Vishnu in his form as Mohini. Swift was the Lord's response: before the nectar could pass Rahu's throat, Vishnu's discus severed his head from his body. The head, having tasted immortal nectar, became immortal and gave rise to the planet Rahu; the headless body became Ketu. Because of his enmity toward the Sun and Moon, at fixed times each year Rahu swallows them, causing eclipses. Yet after each eclipse, the Sun and Moon emerge again from Rahu's severed neck.)
4. Enslaved to lust, to rage, to pride and greed,
Merciless, deceitful, crooked, steeped in sin—
He harbors enmity toward all without cause,
And harms even those who wish him well.
Meaning: He is devoted to desire, anger, arrogance, and greed; he is pitiless, false, twisted, and the very embodiment of vice. Without reason, he bears enmity toward everyone, and even to those who seek his welfare, he brings only harm.
5. In vain he takes, in vain he gives,
In vain he eats, in vain he chews—
Sweet words he speaks, like the peacock's call,
Yet great serpents he consumes; his heart is hard as stone.
Meaning: Futile is his receiving, futile his giving, futile his eating, futile his chewing—he speaks in honeyed tones like the peacock, yet in his heart he swallows mighty serpents, and his heart remains stone-hard and unfeeling.
6. (Couplet) He who schemes against others, lusts after another's wife, covets another's wealth, and dwells in slander of the neighbor—such a base man is truly a demon, bearing a sinful form upon this earth.
Meaning: The person who wrongs others, is enslaved by desire for another man's wife, hungers for another's riches, and lives by speaking ill of his neighbor—such a vile creature is in truth a rakshasa, incarnate in a body corrupted by sin.
7. Greed is his garment, greed is his bed;
For the belly's fill and the senses' bread
He strives and toils, yet fears not the dread
Realm of the Judge of the dead.
Hear but a word of another's praise,
And his breath comes quick as a fever's blaze.
Meaning: Greed is his cloak, greed is his bedding; he busies himself with sensual pleasure and appetite, nor does he fear the court of Yama. Should he hear anyone speak another's worth, he gasps as though seized by fever's heat.
8. When he beholds another's ruin and despair,
Joy floods his heart—he imagines himself the master of all,
Self-serving, hostile to his own blood,
Lustful, greedy, consumed by wrathful flood.
Meaning: When such a wretch sees another in distress, he exults as though he has become the lord of creation itself. He is wedded to self-interest, at odds with his own kin, dissolute, consumed by lust and greed, and possessed of ungovernable rage.
9. He honors not mother nor father, guru nor brahmin,
Ruined himself, he ruins others too—
Blinded by delusion, he deals harm as his due,
The company of saints and the tales of Hari he eschews.
Meaning: He shows no reverence to mother, father, teacher, or brahmin—himself destroyed, he destroys others as well. Deluded, he inflicts injury on all, and neither seeks the fellowship of the righteous nor desires to hear of the Lord's deeds.
10. An ocean of vice, dull of mind, bound by desire,
He mocks the Vedas, claims what belongs to another as his own.
He harbors special hatred for the brahmin and the divine order,
Yet adorns himself with the fair mask of virtue and honor.
Meaning: He is a sea of depravity—dim-witted, enslaved to appetite. He scorns the sacred teachings and usurps another's wealth. In his heart burns a peculiar enmity toward brahmins and the celestial realm, yet he wraps himself in the fair garments of piety and cunning.
11. (Couplet) Such base and wicked men are nowhere found in the Satya Yuga or the Treta;
A few appear in the Dvapara, but in the Kali age they multiply without number.
Meaning: Such vile and iniquitous creatures do not appear in the age of truth or the age of ritual sacrifice. A few emerged in the age of conflict, but in the Kali Yuga, the age of darkness, they shall swarm like locusts.
12. Brother, no dharma compares to serving others' good,
No baseness equals the causing of another's pain.
All this the Vedas and Puranas have decreed—
O father, only the wise shall truly understand this truth.
Meaning: My brother, there is no virtue equal to the welfare of others, nor is there a greater vice than inflicting suffering upon another. All of this is the settled conclusion of the Vedas and sacred texts—O father, it is only the learned who truly comprehend this wisdom.
13. Those who dwell in human form and cause suffering to others
shall endure the terrible bondage of existence and its sorrows.
Those deluded by delusion, acting from self-interest, commit countless sins—
their afterlife is surely ruined, their path to liberation forever lost.
Leave a Reply