32. That country is a desert where there are not learned and good people, resembling the verdant trees of the land. The wise must not dwell in the land, where the trees yield neither fruits nor afford cooling shades.
33. Good men are as the flowering Champa trees of the land; their cooling words resemble the shady leaves of the tree, and their gentle smiles its blooming flowers. Let men therefore resort to the umbrage of such champaka bowers.
34. For want of such men, the world is a desert, burning under the darkening heat of ignorance, where no wise man should allow himself to rest in peace and quiet.
35. It is the self that is the true friend to one’s self, therefore support thyself upon thy self only; nor obscure the brightness of thy soul, under thy darkness of the bodily pride, to bury thy life in the slough of ignorance.
36. Let the learned ponder in themselves, “what is this body and how came it to existence, what is its origin and to what is it reduced?” Thus let the wise consider with diligence, the miseries to which this body is subject.
37. Neither riches nor friends, nor learning nor relatives, serve to redeem the drowning soul. It must be one’s own mind to buy its own redemption, by resigning itself to its source and cause.
38. The mind is the constant companion and true friend to the soul; and therefore it is by consultation with the mind, that one should seek to redeem himself.
39. It is by a constant habit of dispassionateness and self deliberation, that one can ford the ocean of this world, riding on the raft of true knowledge (or the knowledge of truth).
40. It is pitiable to see the inward torments of the evil minded, that neglect to release their souls from all worldly vexations.
41. Release the elephant of your living soul—jíva, from the fetters of its egoism, its bonds of avarice and the ebriety of its mind; and deliver it from the muddy pit of its birth place, and retire to your solitude.