Verse 12

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Desire is never stilled by having it· Verses 12–17

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So am I, fair-browed one, wretched, held fast by love of you. I do not know my own self, bewildered as I am by your maya. Whatever rice and barley there is on the earth, whatever gold, whatever cattle and women, none of it yields the mind's pleasure to a man struck down by desire. Desire is never stilled by the having of what is desired. Like the fire with the black track, fed with butter, it only rises higher. When a man means no harm to any being at all, and looks at everything evenly, then every quarter is full of ease for him. That thirst which the ill-minded cannot let go of, which does not grow old though the man himself grows old: let one who wants ease drop it quickly. It is a heap of sorrows.

One should not sit alone with a mother, a sister or a daughter. The gathered senses are strong, and drag away even a man who knows.