sitions are bound up in conceit: this is the true word of the Veda. You have a charming appearance, but covet it out of greed.

Alas! Only those who possess hands succeed in their worldly aims. How I long to be counted among the world’s dextrous! We desire hands just as you desire wealth: no acquisition is more valuable than that of hands. Because we do not have any hands, brahmin, we cannot remove thorns from our bodies and we cannot scratch off the different creatures that bite us. But those to whom the gods give two hands and ten fingers, they can remove worms from their bodies and can scratch off biting creatures.

180.15

They can build refuges from the rain, snow and sun; they can enjoy fine clothes, food, a pleasant bed and a shelter from the wind. In this world they can herd cattle, enjoy their products and make them carry loads; they can exert their control over them in all sorts of ways. But those wheezing wretches without tongues or hands endure terrible sufferings. Thank heaven you are not like them, silent sage!

Thank heaven that you are not a jackal, worm, mouse, snake, frog or any other creature of beastly origin. You should be content with what you have, Kashyapa—how much more so since you are the best of all creatures, O brahmin.

180.20

These worms devour me but because I have no hands I am incapable of removing them. Look at my condition! And yet I do not renounce my body, which I consider improper, and so I will not fall to another state even more beastly than this. Among evil births, there are many other states more beastly than that of a jackal, which is my lot.