Aitareya Brahmana 7.15

In its original context

The Brahmanas are prose texts written to explain the ceremonies of the Vedas, and they are full of stories. The Aitareya Brahmana belongs to the Rig Veda, and its seventh book tells the story of King Harishchandra, who made a desperate promise: if he were given a son, he would offer that son to the god Varuna.

A son, Rohita, is born, and the king keeps finding reasons to delay. When Rohita is finally old enough to understand, he takes his bow and runs away into the forest. Each year, as he thinks of going home, a stranger meets him on the road and tells him to keep moving on. The stranger's verses are the heart of this passage.

There is no happiness for the one who stays put, he says. The fortune of the one who sits, sits; of the one who stands, stands; of the one who lies down, sleeps; and of the one who moves, moves. The wanderer finds honey and sweet figs. Look at the sun, who never tires of travelling. So keep moving on. Rohita wanders for six years. The story continues to a famous rescue, but these lines took on a life of their own as a call never to stop moving forward.