Page:Vairagyasatakam.djvu/5

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(iii)

forward, possessed of noble faith in itself, un- ambitious of high distinction among men, but deeply susceptible to the beauties and charms of sentiment, seems to have been involved once in a tangle of sensual enjoyments too heavy to leave it the sustained strength for wielding the sceptre, till from a life of such weakness and consequent dependence, it gradually rose through reactions, deep and incisive, to a wonderfully enriched sense of worldly vanity and an effective strength of renunciation. The verses composed by Bhartri- hari tend to present to view the background of such a nature still holding in control lower susceptibilities, once indulged, by the dawning possibilities of a life of Yoga. And though it is difficult to ascertain how far this life of Yoga had advanced behind the role of the poet re- presenting different stages of wisdom, it is fairly presumptive that the poet's voice gradually merged in the silence of the highest spiritual realisations.

The hundred verses of the Vairagya-Satakam are divided into ten groups under the following ten headings : ^regfffi*& condemnation of desire ; r y futile efforts to give up sense- objects; *U^K-^<^4% condemnation of the poverty of a supplicant attitude; MMUt:l4*lK, delineation of the evanescence of enjoyments; description of the working of Time, or the principle of change; ^f&^ffi^reTOR, a com- parison as to how a monk stands to a king ; SR:- Rr control of mind by stimulating wis- dom, in it; f^rpfcrctsgRrorc: descrimination of the