1.   SALUTATION to the deity who is not definable in time or space: infinite–pure intelligence in incarnate form: who is peace and glory: whose sole essence is self-knowledge.

2.   That woman is attracted by another man whom I supposed to be always devoted to me: to her another man is attached: while a certain other woman takes pleasure in my doings. Fie on her and on him, on the god of love, on that woman, and on myself.

3.   The man who is entirely ignorant is easily guided: the wise man is still more easily led: but even the Supreme Being himself cannot influence the smatterer.

4.   A man may forcibly get back a jewel from the teeth of a crocodile: he may cross over the raging waves of the sea: he may wear an angry serpent on his head as if it were a garland of flowers: but he cannot win over the mind of one who is foolish and obstinate.

5.   A man may get oil from sand by violent pressure : he may drink water from a mirage when oppressed by thirst: he may get possession of the horn of a hare: but he cannot win over the mind of one who is foolish and obstinate.

6. He who would lead evil men into the path of virtue by a few soft words, is as one who binds an elephant with a young lotus-fibre: as one who tries to cut the diamond with a filament of śirisha; or as one who desires to make the salt sea sweet with a drop of honey.

7.   The Creator has given man, as it were, a cloak to conceal his ignorance: with that he can cover himself at all times, for it is always at hand. That gift is silence, the special ornament of the ignorant in the assembly of the wise.

8.   When I knew but a little, I was blinded by pride, as an elephant is blinded by passion: my mind was exalted, and in my arrogance I thought I knew all things. Then I came into the presence of the wise who know many kinds of wisdom, and my pride left me even like a fever.

9.   A dog eats with delight putrid abominable bones, and though the king of the gods may stand before him, takes no heed: even so a mean man considers not the worthlessness of that which belongs to him.

10.   The Ganges falls from heaven upon the head of Śiva; from the head of Śiva on to the mountain; from the top of the mountain to the earth, always falling lower and lower: even in so many ways is the fall of one whose judgment has departed from him.

11.   Fire can be quenched by water, the heat of the sun can be kept off by a parasol, a wild elephant can be guided by a sharp hook, an ox or an ass by a stick: sickness can be subdued by the help of physicians, poison by the assistance of various charms. A cure has been ordained by the Sâstras for everything, but there is no medicine for the cure of a fool.

12.   The man who has no sense of literature and music is like a beast, though he has not horns and a tail: he may not eat grass, but yet he lives a life exactly like that of the cattle.

13.   Those in whom is neither wisdom, nor penance, nor liberality, nor knowledge, nor good disposition, nor virtue, nor righteousness, may live in the world of mortals in the form of men, hut they pass through the world like beasts encumbering the earth.

14. It is better to wander in a mountain-pass with the wild beasts than to live in the palace of the gods with a fool.