King's Codes II

There are two kinds of sweetness:

Seeing food in front of you,

Do not yet eat,

A sweetness consists of foolish words

Which normally propagate and tend toward arguments,

The other consists of women

Who are only an illusion.

The words of the sage, always severe,

The drink, always intoxicating,

Are not pleasant to the palate,

Veridic words, normally critical,

Are not pleasant to the ear;

Parental guidance

Are considered to be an inconvenience.

A foolish man usually resents a learned man;

The poor, without knowing,

Resents those with fortune;

An eccentric and jealous woman,

Usually detests the favorite servant;

The fool, devoids of principles,

Usually rejects any and all advises.

By desiring good, you get evil;

Too excited to gain,

You usually lose your property;

By being obstinate, you lose friends

And family members;

By being irascible and vicious,

You usually destroy yourself.

By focusing on propriety, you earn a good name

If you seek to acquire properties,

You should know how to preserve them;

If you want to be grand, do not boast

To have illustrated origins;

If you want to stay on the right path,

You must associate with people of good character.

The kite flies thanks to the wind;

An officer is admired because of the soldiers

Surrounding him;

The goods last if the woman

Knows how to save;

The home is full of happiness

If the wife is endowed with virtues.

You lose your dignity because of laziness;

You lose religious virtue

If you drink;

If you practice oppression, you lose merits;

If you are full of anger, you lose wisdom;

If you take pleasure in jests and taunts,

You lose your respectability.

Express understanding, practice forgiveness,

Cultivate goodness,

Will generate richness.

Cultivate friendship will produce

Parents who will always stand beside you.

Avoid unreasonable deed

Will lead you to always smell like a “good perfume”.

Water flows to the lowlands;

Merit is lost because of evil deed;

Your gain is lost because of violence;

Clear water disappears because of the waves

That dispel reflective images;

You harvest wrongfulness

If you are cruel and speak in hurtful way.

Usually, a foolish man detests the sage;

As for the coward,

He normally claims to be brave;

A poor man, without regard,

Pretends to be rich,

Normally a man without good linage,

Regards others with contempt.

 Stanzas 6-15 of Chbab Rajaneti (Moral Codes of Conduct: King’s Neti)

by King Sri Dharmaraja II (1628-1630)

Go here for stanzas 1-5