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Sunder Kand Doha 37
English
When a minister, a physician and a religious preceptor – these three use pleasing words from fear or hope of reward, the result is that dominion, health and faith – all the three forthwith go to the dogs.
It was such a contingency that presented itself before Ravana. They all extolled him only to his face. Perceiving it to be an opportune hour, Vibhisana (Ravana’s youngest brother) arrived and bowed his head at his brother’s feet. Bowing his head once more he occupied his own seat and, when ordered to speak, addressed him thus: “Since Your gracious Majesty has asked me my opinion I tender it, dear brother, according to my own lights and in your own interest. Let him who seeks after his welfare, good reputation, wisdom, a good destiny after his death and joys of various kinds turn his eyes away from the brow of another’s wife even as one should refuse to see the moon on the fourth night (of the bright half) of a lunar month. Even though a man happened to be the sole lord of the fourteen spheres, he would certainly fall if he turned hostile to living beings. No one will speak well of a man who has the slightest avarice even if he were an ocean of virtues and clever too.
