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Posts: 4397 · Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 11:44 pm

2.3.22. Medicine

941
The learned books count three, with wind as first; of these,
As any one prevail, or fail; 'twill cause disease.
If (food and work are either) excessive or deficient, the three things enumerated by (medical) writers, flatulence, biliousness, and phlegm, will cause (one) disease.

942
No need of medicine to heal your body's pain,
If, what you ate before digested well, you eat again.
No medicine is necessary for him who eats after assuring (himself) that what he has (already) eaten has been digested.

943
Who has a body gained may long the gift retain,
If, food digested well, in measure due he eat again.
If (one's food has been) digested let one eat with moderation; (for) that is the way to prolong the life of an embodied soul.

944
Knowing the food digested well, when hunger prompteth thee,
With constant care, the viands choose that well agree.
(First) assure yourself that your food has been digested and never fail to eat, when very hungry, whatever is not disagreeable (to you).

945
With self-denial take the well-selected meal;
So shall thy frame no sudden sickness feel.
There will be no disaster to one's life if one eats with moderation, food that is not disagreeable.

946
On modest temperance as pleasures pure,
So pain attends the greedy epicure.
As pleasure dwells with him who eats moderately, so disease (dwells) with the glutton who eats voraciously.

947
Who largely feeds, nor measure of the fire within maintains,
That thoughtless man shall feel unmeasured pains.
He will be afflicted with numberless diseases, who eats immoderately, ignorant (of the rules of health).

948
Disease, its cause, what may abate the ill:
Let leech examine these, then use his skill.
Let the physician enquire into the (nature of the) disease, its cause and its method of cure and treat it faithfully according to (medical rule).

949
The habitudes of patient and disease, the crises of the ill
These must the learned leech think over well, then use his skill.
The learned (physician) should ascertain the condition of his patient; the nature of his disease, and the season (of the year) and (then) proceed (with his treatment).

950
For patient, leech, and remedies, and him who waits by patient's side,
The art of medicine must fourfold code of laws provide.
Medical science consists of four parts, viz., patient, physician, medicine and compounder; and each of these (again) contains four sub-divisions.

2.4 Miscellaneous
2.4.1. Nobility

951
Save in the scions of a noble house, you never find
Instinctive sense of right and virtuous shame combined.
Consistency (of thought, word and deed) and fear (of sin) are conjointly natural only to the high-born.

952
In these three things the men of noble birth fail not:
In virtuous deed and truthful word, and chastened thought.
The high-born will never deviate from these three; good manners, truthfulness and modesty.

953
The smile, the gift, the pleasant word, unfailing courtesy
These are the signs, they say, of true nobility.
A cheerful countenance, liberality, pleasant words, and an unreviling disposition, these four are said to be the proper qualities of the truly high-born.

954
Millions on millions piled would never win
The men of noble race to soul-degrading sin.
Though blessed with immense wealth, the noble will never do anything unbecoming.

955
Though stores for charity should fail within, the ancient race
Will never lose its old ancestral grace.
Though their means fall off, those born in ancient families, will not lose their character (for liberality).

956
Whose minds are set to live as fits their sire's unspotted fame,
Stooping to low deceit, commit no deeds that gender shame.
Those who seek to preserve the irreproachable honour of their families will not viciously do what is detrimental thereto.

957
The faults of men of noble race are seen by every eye,
As spots on her bright orb that walks sublime the evening sky.
The defects of the noble will be observed as clearly as the dark spots in the moon.

958
If lack of love appear in those who bear some goodly name,
'Twill make men doubt the ancestry they claim.
If one of a good family betrays want of affection, his descent from it will be called in question.

959
Of soil the plants that spring thereout will show the worth:
The words they speak declare the men of noble birth.
As the sprout indicates the nature of the soil, (so) the speech of the noble indicates (that of one's birth).

960
Who seek for good the grace of virtuous shame must know;
Who seek for noble name to all must reverence show.
He who desires a good name must desire modesty; and he who desires (the continuance of) a family greatness must be submissive to all.

2.4.2. Honour

961
Though linked to splendours man no otherwise may gain,
Reject each act that may thine honour's clearness stain.
Actions that would degrade (one's) family should not be done; though they may be so important that not doing them would end in death.

962
Who seek with glory to combine honour's untarnished fame,
Do no inglorious deeds, though men accord them glory's name.
Those who desire (to maintain their) honour, will surely do nothing dishonourable, even for the sake of fame.

963
Bow down thy soul, with increase blest, in happy hour;
Lift up thy heart, when stript of all by fortune's power.
In great prosperity humility is becoming; dignity, in great adversity.

964
Like hairs from off the head that fall to earth,
When fall'n from high estate are men of noble birth.
They who have fallen from their (high) position are like the hair which has fallen from the head.

965
If meanness, slight as 'abrus' grain, by men be wrought,
Though like a hill their high estate, they sink to nought.
Even those who are exalted like a hill will be thought low, if they commit deeds that are debasing.

966
It yields no praise, nor to the land of Gods throws wide the gate:
Why follow men who scorn, and at their bidding wait?
Of what good is it (for the high-born) to go and stand in vain before those who revile him ? it only brings him loss of honour and exclusion from heaven.

967
Better 'twere said, 'He's perished!' than to gain
The means to live, following in foeman's train.
It is better for a man to be said of him that he died in his usual state than that he eked out his life by following those who disgraced him.

968
When high estate has lost its pride of honour meet,
Is life, that nurses this poor flesh, as nectar sweet?
For the high-born to keep their body in life when their honour is gone will certainly not prove a remedy against death.

969
Like the wild ox that, of its tuft bereft, will pine away,
Are those who, of their honour shorn, will quit the light of day.
Those who give up (their) life when (their) honour is at stake are like the yark which kills itself at the loss of (even one of) its hairs.

970
Who, when dishonour comes, refuse to live, their honoured memory
Will live in worship and applause of all the world for aye!
The world will (always) praise and adore the fame of the honourable who would rather die than suffer indignity.