He who is ever established in the Self, takes woe and joy alike; regards a clod of earth, a stone and a peace of gold as equal in value, is possessed of wisdom, receives the pleasant as well as the unpleasant in the same spirit and views censure and praise alike and he who is indifferent to honour and ignominy, is alike, to the cause of a friend as well as to that of an enemy, and has renounced the sense of doership in all undertakings is said to have risen above the three Gunas. Those wise men who are free from pride and delusion, who have conquered the evil of attachment, who are in eternal union with God, whose cravings have altogether ceased and who are completely immune from all pairs of opposites going by the names of pleasure and pain, reach that supreme immortal state. Non-violence in thought, word and deed, truthfulness and geniality of speech, absence of anger on provocation, disclaiming doership in respect of actions, quietude or composure of mind, abstaining from malicious gossip, compassion towards all creatures, absence of attachment to the objects of senses even during their contact with the senses, mildness, abstaining from frivolous pursuits, sublimity, forbearance, fortitude, external purity, bearing enmity to none and absence of self-esteem — these are the marks of a person who is born with the divine gifts. Hypocrisy, arrogance, pride, anger, sternness and ignorance these are the marks of a person, who is born with demoniac properties. The divine gift has been recognized as conducive to liberation and the demoniac gift as conducive to bondage. There are only two types of men in this world, the one possessing a divine nature and the other possessing a demoniac disposition. The person possessing a divine nature aspires for liberation and men possessing demoniac disposition cherish insatiable desires and for their fulfilment engage in impure conduct and they move in this world, full of hypocrisy, pride and arrogance. Held in bondage by hundreds of ties of expectation and wholly giving themselves up to lust and anger, such men strive to amass by unfair means hoards of money and other objects for the enjoyment of sensuous pleasures. Desire, anger and greed — this triple gate of hell brings about the ruination of the soul. Therefore, one should avoid all these three.
