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320. Like an elephant in battle.
The arrow shot from a bow.
I shall endure the unwarranted word;
The majority, indeed, are of poor virtue.
321. They take a tamed one to a crowd;
On a tamed one a king mounts.
Among humans a tamed one is best,
One who endures the unwarranted word.
322. Excellent are tames mules,
Thoroughbreds and horses of Sindh,
Also tuskers, great elephants.
But better than them is one who has subdued oneself.
323. Truly, not by these vehicles
Could one go to a region unreached,
As a tamed one goes
By a well-subdued, disciplined self.
324. The tusker named Dhanapalaka,
Deep in rut, is hard to control.
Bound, the tusker does not eat a morsel,
But remembers the elephant forest.
325. When one is torpid and a big eater,
A sleeper, who lies rolling about
Like a great boar, nourished on grains –
Being dull one enters the womb again and again.
326. Formerly this mind set out awandering
As it wished, where it liked, according to its pleasure.
Today I will hold it back methodically
Like one seizing a goad, an elephant in rut.
327. Be delighters in awareness;
Keep watch over your mind.
Lift yourself up from the difficult road,
Like a tusker, sunk in mire.
328. Should one get a mature companion,
Who will move about with one, a wise one who leads a good life,
Let one move with him,
All dangers overcoming, mindful and happy.
329. Should one not get a mature companion,
Who will move about with one, a wise one who leads a good life,
Let one wander alone,
Like a king who has left behind a conquered land,
Like the elephant in the Matanga forest.
330. A life of solitude is better;
There is no companionship with the childish one.
With little exertion, like the elephant in the Matanga forest,
Let one wander alone, and do no wrongs.
331. When a need has arisen, friends are a blessing,
A blessing is contentment with whatever [there be],
A blessing is the wholesome deed at the end of life,
A blessing it is to relinquish all sorrow.
332. A blessing in the world is reverence for mother,
A blessing, too, is reverence for father,
A blessing in the world is reverence for the recluse,
A blessing too reverence for the brahmana.
333. A blessing is virtue into old age,
A blessing is faith established,
A blessing is the attainment of insight-wisdom,
A blessing it is to refrain from doing wrongs.