Wisdom from Gujarat

The tiny state of Gujarat that sits north of Maharashtra, is home to Mahatma Ghandi. Literature from Gujarat is quite rich and contains significant quantities of travelogues, observational humor and rustic wisdom. It has relatively fewer saints, vis-a-vis the state of Maharashtra. When I was forwarded some couplets/aphorisms in the regional language of Gujarati, I was pleasantly surprised at their depth and could not resist translating them and share it. Who ever compiled these, saved the best one for the last:

Measured words and measured fire
Tie the ties of wedlock
Excessively use the former
And the bonds will catch the latter

Earthly life is akin to earth
Shower it with tears too often
And surely it turns to muck

Life is to be cherished
As one would value ice
As the past and future of both are fluid,
only the 'present' is tangibly real

Some questions will continue to persist
The wealthy ones will keep on asking:
"What can I do to stir some hunger in me?"
The poor ones will keep on asking:
"What will I do when the hunger stirs in me?"

Life, you art irony
The day laborer lifts five bags of wheat,
but cannot affort a single
The money lender can buy all five,
but lift not even one


And finally...

If life ceases, but soul's desires do not:
Death has surely come
If the desires cease, but death is still afar,
Liberation has surely come