Distressed to see my behaviour, my guru would always admonish me, but on hearing his admonition I only burnt with rage. Can pride gladly accept sober counsel?

One day my preceptor sent for me and instructed me at length in all the principles of right conduct. “The reward, my son,” he said, “of worshipping Shiva is a steadfast devotion to the feet of Rama.

Shiva himself as well as Brahma (the Creator), my boy, worships Rama; of what account, then, is a miserable mortal? Do you hope to secure happiness, you luckless boy, by regarding him with rancour whose feet are loved by Brahma and Shiva?”

When I heard the guru speak of Shiva as a votary of Hari, my heart, O king of birds, was ablaze with anger. Vile of descent as I was, I had become puffed up by the little learning I had acquired, like a snake fed on milk!

Proud, perverse, ill-starred and ill-bred, I would set myself against my guru day and night; but he was too tender-hearted to show any resentment; on the other hand, he refrained not from giving me his wisest counsel.

The first thing a mean-minded man does is to kill and destroy the very man who has been instrumental in exalting him. Listen, brother; smoke, which is produced by fire, extinguishes that fire when it is exalted to the dignity of a cloud.

The dust lying on the road is held in contempt and is ever trodden under travellers’ feet, but, when carried aloft by the wind, it first envelopes the air itself and then descends on the eyes or sullies the crowns of kings.