ENDLESS CARES — Wedded to anxiety and care, such desperate men drag their life of futile endeavours along the corridors of sobs and sorrows to the silent court-yard of death. In an ordinary life, cares besiege the citadel of peace and joy, especially when hosts of powerful desires conquer the individual. The struggles-in-acquiring (Yoga) and anxieties-in-preserving (Kshema) the acquired objects-of-desires are the contents of all cares of life. To waste an entire life-time in such anxieties, and in the end to realise how miserably one had failed is indeed a tragedy.

SATISFACTION OF LUST AS THE HIGHEST (Kama-upabhoga-parama) — Consistent effort either in the field of the good, or in the field of the vicious, put forth without a philosophy of life that sustains the continuity of an individual’s activities, is a haphazard endeavour, ignoble and futile.

The philosophy of life that is accepted by the ‘Diabolically Fallen’ is invariably the same wherever they be. The philosophy of the (Charvakas) atheists has been hinted at herein. To them, satisfaction of their lusty nature is the goal of life and there is nothing beyond it.

ASSURED THAT IS ALL — Generally, such materialists are no fools; they have an ample share of a rough and ready intellect. They do realise that a life dedicated to an endless hunt after sense-gratifications is a tragic way of living, and that is such a scheme of existence the individual is called upon to pay an exorbitant price for relatively insignificant gains. And yet, they continue, seeking satisfaction of their uncontrolled lust. If you question them, their answer is that life is nothing but a series of such strifes. They know not of any life, the contents of which are peace and joy. They are generally pessimistic, and since they scrupulously avoid seriously thinking about life, they invariably come to express suicidal tendencies and homicidal temperaments. According to them, sorrows and care alone constitute the fabric of life. They fail to discover any harmony or rhythm underlying the superficial disturbances in life. Entertaining no hope, either for themselves or for the world, they live with embittered hearts, revengefully meeting the happenings around them in the world. In unproductive exertions, they waste their powers only to die a miserable death; exhausted, wearied, disappointed.

THE EXPRESSION OF THE ABOVE PHILOSOPHY IN THE LIFE OF THE INDIVIDUAL IS DESCRIBED IN THE FOLLOWING STANZA:

Upasritah, beset with; aparimeyam, innumerable; cintam, cares-worries that defy estimation of their limits!, i.e., constantly burdened with cares; pralayantam, which end (only) with death; kama-upabhoga-paramah, holding that the enjoyment of desirable objects is the highest goal-kama is derived in the sense of ‘that which is desired for’, viz sound etc.; considered their enjoyment to be the highest; having their minds convinced thus that this alone, viz the enjoyment of desirable objects, is the highest human goal; niscitah, feeling sure; iti, that; etavat, this is all-/p>p>16.12 Baddhah, bound, being impelled, being lured from all sides; asa-pasa-sataih, by hundreds of shackles in the from of hope-the hopes themselves are the shackles; by hundreds of these; kama-krodha-parayanah, giving themselves wholly to passion and anger, having passion and anger as their highest resort; ihante, they endeavour; artha-sancayan, to amass wealth; anyayena, through foul means, i.e. by stealing others’ wealth, etc.; kama-bhoga-artham, for the enjoyment of desirable objects-in order to enjoy desirable objects, not for righteous acts. Their intentions, too, are of this kind: