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  71.

  Can love be latched and hidden? A trickling tear

  Will proclaim it loud.

  72.

  The loveless grasp all; while the loving

  With their very bones help others.

  73.

  The soul, it is said, is enclosed in bones

  That human love may be.*

  74.

  From love, devotion comes; and from that unsought

  Priceless enlightenment.*

  75.

  Bliss hereafter is the fruit, they say,

  Of a loving life here.

  76.

  “Love helps only virtue”, say the fools:

  But it also cures vice.*

  77.

  As boneless worms wither in the sun, so too

  The loveless in a just world.

  78.

  A loveless life is a withered tree that would fain

  Sprout in a desert.

  79.

  What good are outward features if they lack

  Love, the inward sense?

  80.

  Love’s way is life; without it humans are

  But bones skin-clad.

  9. Hospitality

  81.

  Keeping house and gathering gear

  Is all to entertain guests.

  82.

  It is wrong to eat even nectar alone

  Leaving your guest outside.

  83.

  The daily feeding of a guest

  Will never end in want.

  84.

  Fortune will smile on the host

  Who plays host with a smile.

  85.

  Why should he think of sowing

  Who feeds his guest before himself?*

  86.

  Who hosts the passing guests and waits for more

  Will be hosted by the gods.

  87.

  The gains of hospitality cannot be reckoned:

  Their worth depends on the guest.

  88.

  “We gathered and we lost”, rue those

  Who never entertained.

  89.

  To have no guests is to want amidst plenty:

  Such poverty belongs to fools.

  90. The aniccam withers when smelt:

  A cold look withers a guest.*

  10. Affability

  91.

  Those are sweet words which men of virtue speak

  Mingling love with sincerity.

  92.

  More pleasing than a gracious gift

  Are sweet words with a smiling face.

  93.

  Real chanty is a smiling welcome

  And sweet words heartfelt.

  94.

  Want and sorrow shall never be theirs

  Who have a pleasant word for all.

  95.

  Sweet words and humility are one’s true jewels;

  All else are foreign and none.

  96.

  Sweet words well-chosen diminish ill

  And increase virtue.

  97.

  Helpful words yoked with courtesy

  Breed justice and strengthen virtue.

  98.

  Sweet words free of meanness yield joy

  Here and hereafter.

  99.

  How can one pleased with sweet words oneself

  Use harsh words to others?

  100.

  To use harsh words when sweet ones are at hand

  Is to prefer raw fruit to ripe.

  11. Gratitude

  101.

  Neither earth nor heaven can truly repay

  Spontaneous aid.*

  102.

  Given in time, even a trifling help

  Exceeds the earth.

  103.

  Help given regardless of return

  Is wider than the sea.

  104.

  To the discerning a millet of aid

  Is as big as a palm fruit.

  105.

  Not according to the aid but its receiver

  Is its recompense determined.

  106.

  Do not neglect the friendship of the pure

  Nor forsake the props in your need.

  107.

  The good remember through all seven births

  The friends who wiped their tears.

  108.

  To forget a good turn is not good, and good it is

  To forget at once what isn’t good.*

  109.

  Deadly though one’s sting, one’s one good deed

  Remembered acts as balm.

  110.

  All other sins may be redeemed,

  Except ingratitude.

  12. Impartiality

  111.

  Great is impartiality, not swayed

  By hate, apathy or love.*

  112.

  The wealth of a just man stays, and passes intact

  To his posterity.

  113.

  Wealth ill-got, however useful,

  Should not be touched.*

  114.

  The just and the unjust shall be known

  By what they leave behind.*

  115.

  The wise will never swerve, well aware

  That want and wealth are fated.

  116.

  Let him who thinks inequity be warned

  That ruin awaits him.

  117.

  The world will not look down

  On a just man’s low estate.

  118.

  Like a just balance are the great–

  Poised truly and unbiased.

  119.

  Equity is words without bias

  And comes from a firm, unbiased mind.

  120.

  A merchant’s best merchandise

  Is tending other’s goods as his own.

  13. Self-control

  121.

  Self-control takes one to the gods;

  Its lack to utter darkness.

  122.

  Guard self-control as a treasure;

  There is nothing more precious in life.

  123.

  Self-restraint taught by commonsense,

  Leads to virtue and gains glory.

  124.

  The steadfast self-controlled towers aloft

  Taller than a mountain.

  125.

  Humility, good for all,

  Is an added richness to the rich.

  126.

  Let a man like a tortoise draw his fire in one birth

  And he will forge for himself a shield for seven!*

  127.

  Guard your tongue if nothing else; for words

  Unguarded cause distress.

  128.

  A single bad word will destroy

  All other good.

  129.

  The wound caused by fire will heal within,

  But not the scar left by the tongue.

  130.

  Virtue will wait with timely aid on him

  Who learns to curb his wrath.

  14. Right Conduct

  131.

  Right conduct leads to excellence, and so

  Must be guarded above life.

  132.

  Guard your conduct with care; studies won’t give

  A surer aid.

  133.

  Caste is right conduct: and its lack

  Makes one an outcaste.

  134.

  Vedas forgot can be re-learnt; bad conduct

  Debases a Brahmin at once.

  135.

  The immoral can no more earn respect

  Than the envious be rich.*

  136.

  The strong-willed never slack in virtue; they know

  What evils flow from a lapse.

  137.

  Right conduct exalts one, while a bad name

  Exposes one to undeserved disgrace.

  138.

  Good conduct sows good, and from bad springs

 
; Eternal trouble.

  139.

  Men of good conduct cannot speak ill

  Even forgetfully.

  140.

  Those are fools however learned

  Who have not learned to walk with the world.

  15. Faithfulness

  141.

  He who prizes virtue and weal

  Won’t foolishly chase another’s wife.

  142.

  No sinner so foolish as he who lurks

  At the door of another’s wife.

  143.

  Those adulterers are better dead

  Who betray friends that trust them.

  144.

  What price greatness if with least scruple

  One desecrates another’s home?

  145.

  The adulterer deems it a trifle

  But heaps on himself disgrace undying.

  146.

  Four things will dog the adulterer:

  Hatred, sin, fear and disgrace.

  147.

  A virtuous householder

  Does not covet another’s wife.

  148.

  The manliness that scorns adultery

  Is both virtue and propriety.

  149.

  He merits most on this sea-girt earth

  Who will not clasp another’s wife.

  150.

  Even a sinner will be well-advised

  Not to covet another’s wife.

  16. Forbearance

  151.

  To bear insults is best, like the earth

  Which bears and maintains its diggers.

  152.

  Forgive transgressions always, better still

  Forget them.

  153.

  The want of wants is to be inhospitable,

  The might of mights to suffer fools.

  154.

  If you would keep your goodness intact

  Practise forbearance.*

  155.

  Avengers count for nothing, forgivers

  Are prized as gold.

  156.

  The avenger’s joy is for a day,

  The forgiver’s fame lasts like the earth’s.

  157.

  Though sinfully injured it is best

  To desist from evil out of pity.

  158.

  Conquer with forbearance

  The excesses of insolence.

  159.

  Those who bear a reprobate’s rude words

  Are pure as ascetics.

  160.

  To fast and bear pangs is great, but only next

  To bearing insults.

  17. Envy

  161.

  Make it a way of life to expel

  Envy from your heart.

  162.

  That excellence is unmatched if one can learn

  To be free of envy.

  163.

  He is unmindful of virtue and weal

  Who envies another’s wealth.

  164.

  Ill-deeds through envy will be shunned

  If the distress to which it leads is known.

  165.

  The envious need no other foes–

  Their envy is enough.

  166.

  An envious man who runs down charity

  Will see his folk naked and starving.

  167.

  An envious man annoys the Goddess of Wealth

  Who leaves him to her elder sister.*

  168.

  A unique parricide is Envy who ruins

  His father’s wealth, and leads him to hell.*

  169.

  The weal of the envious and the woe of the good

  Should be pondered.*

  170.

  None has gained through envy,

  Nor the unenvious ever lost.

  18. Covetousness

  171.

  Inordinate desire destroys the home

  And leads to crime at once.

  172.

  They will not sin through covetousness

  Who shun inequity.

  173.

  They will not sin for fleeting pleasures

  Who seek eternal joy.

  174.

  Their senses conquered, the clear-eyed

  Will not covet through want.

  175.

  What use is a mind which is wide and sharp

  If it is driven headlong by greed?

  176.

  Even he whom grace beckons

  Beckoned by greed, will scheme and fall.

  177.

  Avoid wealth through greed:

  Out of it comes no good.

  178.

  Do not cover another’s wealth

  If you would keep your own unshrunk.

  179.

  Fortune will herself seek those

  Who, wise and virtuous, are not greedy.

  180.

  Thoughtless greed leads to ruin,

  Sublime content to triumph.

  19. Slander

  181.

  Even to ignore virtue and to sin

  Is not so bad as to earn a slanderer’s name.

  182.

  Worse than scoffing at virtue and committing a sin

  Is to slander behind one’s back and smile to his face.

  183.

  Better die and save one’s soul

  Than slander, pretend and live.

  184.

  Better heartless words to a man’s face

  Than thoughtless ones at his back.

  185.

  A slanderer’s meanness will betray

  His virtuous pose.

  186.

  A slanderer invites a searching censure

  Of his own faults.

  187.

  Those who cannot laugh and make friends

  Can only slander and make foes.

  188.

  What won’t they do to strangers

  Who broadcast their friends’ faults?

  189.

  The earth bears a scandalmonger

  Only for the sake of duty.

  190.

  Can there be evil if we can see

  Our own faults like those of others?

  20. Vain Speech

  191.

  To disgust people with empty words

  Is to be despised by all.

  192.

  Vain speech in public is worse

  Than a wrong done to a friend.

  193.

  Empty words long drawn betray

  The speaker’s worthlessness.

  194.

  Vain and crude speech in public

  Is improper and degrades.

  195.

  Men of worth, speaking nonsense,

  Will lose greatness and esteem.

  196.

  Call him not a man but chaff

  Who indulges in empty speech.

  197.

  Unpleasant words may be spoken, but the wise

  Should avoid idle speech.

  198.

  Men of discernment will not utter words

  Of scant import.

  199.

  Not even forgetfully will the spotless and clear-eyed

  Say things without meaning.

  200.

  Speak words which are useful,

  Never those that are vain.

  21. Doing Evil

  201.

  The good are afraid, not the hardened,

  To strut in sin’s robes.

  202.

  Fear evil more than fire

  As sin leads to sin.

  203.

  The height of wisdom, it is said,

  Is not to return ill for ill.

  204.

  Avoid even thoughtless ill, or else

  Justice will work your ill.

  205.

  Plead not poverty for doing ill

  Whereby you will become poorer still.

  206.

  To avoid sorrow for yourself

  Eschew e
vil to others.

  207.

  Whatever foes you may escape

  Your past will pursue and confound you.

  208.

  Evil’s ill-brood are like a shadow

  Which hides underfoot and never leaves.

  209.

  If you love yourself

  Refrain from ill to others.

  210.

  No harm shall ever come to one

  Who never strays into evil.

  22. Social Obligation

  211.

  Duty is not for reward:

  Does the world recompense the rain-cloud?

  212.

  The worthy work and earn wealth

  In order to help others.

  213.

  How rare to find in heaven or earth

  A joy to excel beneficence!

  214.

  He only lives who is kin to all creation;

  Deem the rest dead.

  215.

  The wealth of a wise philanthropist

  Is a village pool ever full.

  216.

  The wealth of a liberal man

  Is a village tree fruit-laden.

  217.

  The wealth of the large-hearted

  Is an unfailing medicine tree.

  218.

  Those bound to their community

  Even helpless will not slacken.

  219.

  The want the liberal-minded feel

  Is not to be able to help others.

  220.

  If poverty comes of doing good

  One’s self may be sold to do it.

  23. Charity

  221.

  The only gift is giving to the poor;

  All else is exchange.

  222.

  To receive, even if sinless, is bad; and to give

  Even without a heaven, is good.

  223.

  Never to say, “I lack” and to give

  Mark the well-born.

  224.

  Pity is painful till one sees the face

  Of the suppliant lit with joy.

  225.

  It is great to endure hunger, but only next

  To removing it.

  226.

  A rich man who removes a poor’s killing hunger

  Lays up treasures for himself.

  227.

  Hunger, dread, disease, will never touch

  One who shares his food.

  228.

  Don’t they know the joy of giving

  Who heartless hoard and love their wealth?

  229.

  To eat alone what one has hoarded

  Is worse than begging.

  230.

  Nothing is worse than death: but death is sweet

  If one can’t help the poor.

  24. Fame

  231.

  The only asset in life is fame

  That comes of charity.

  232.

  All the praise in the world is praise