verse.
The carrying of three staffs, the vow of silence, matted hair on head,
the shaving of the crown, covering one's person with barks and deerskins,
the practice of vows, ablutions, the worship of fire, abode in the woods,
emaciating the body, all these are useless if the heart be not pure. The
indulgence of the six senses is easy, if purity be not sought in the
object of enjoyment. Abstinence, however, which of itself is difficult,
is scarcely easy without purity of the objects of enjoyment. O king of
kings, among the six senses, the mind alone that is easily moved is the
most dangerous! Those high-souled persons that do not commit sins in
word, deed, heart and soul, are said to undergo ascetic austerities, and
not they that suffer their bodies to be wasted by fasts and penances. He
that hath no feeling of kindness for relatives cannot be free from sin
even if his body be pure. That hard-heartedness of his is the enemy of
his asceticism. Asceticism, again, is not mere abstinence from the
pleasures of the world. He that is always pure and decked with virtue, he
that practises kindness all his life, is a Muni even though he may lead a
domestic life. Such a man is purged of all his sins. Fasts and other
penances cannot destroy sins, however much they may weaken and dry up the
body that is made of flesh and blood. The man whose heart is without
holiness, suffers torture only by undergoing penances in ignorance of
their meaning. He is never freed from sins of such acts. The fire he
worshippeth doth not consume his sins. It is in consequence of holiness
and virtue alone that men attain to regions of blessedness, and fasts and
vows become efficacious. Subsistence on fruits and roots, the vow of
silence, living upon air, the shaving of the crown, abandonment of a
fixed home, the wearing of matted locks on the head, lying under the
canopy of heaven, daily fasts, the worship of fire, immersion in water,
and lying on the bare ground,--these alone cannot produce such a result.
They only that are possessed of holiness succeed, by knowledge and deeds,
to conquer disease, decrepitude and death, and acquire a high status. As
seeds that have been scorched by fire do not sprout forth, so the pains
that have been burnt by knowledge cannot effect the soul. This inert body
that is only like a block of wood when destitute of souls, is, without
doubt, short lived like froth in the ocean. He that obtaineth a view of
his soul, the soul that r