30. The adoration of Indra, Upendro and the other gods, is as the worshipping rotten straws with respect to that of the God in spirit; and the offering of flowers and sacrifices, are nothing in comparison to your cultivation of reason, and association with wise and learned men.
31. The Supreme God who is the giver of all blessings, being worshipped in the true light of the spirit in one’s own soul, confers his best blessing of liberation in an instant.
32. Why does the ignorant man resort to another, when his soul is the sole lord; Do you associate with the good and have your equanimity and content, and adore the Supreme soul with your best reason.
33. The worship of idols, pilgrimages and all sorts of devotion, together with all your charities, are as useless as the offering of scentless Sirisha flowers, and injurious as fire, poison and the wounds of weapons are to the body.
34. The actions of mean minded men, are as useless as ashes on account of their unreasonableness; let them therefore act with reason in order to render their deeds fruitful.
35. Why therefore don’t you foster your reasoning powers in your mind, by means of your knowledge of the true natures of things, and the concentration of your desires in the Supreme spirit.
36. It is by divine grace only, that the reasoning faculty has its exercise in the mind, therefore the power of reasoning is to be fostered in the mind, by sprinkling the ambrosial water of equanimity over it.
37. Until the fountain of error in the mind, is dried up by the blaze of right knowledge, so long the tendency towards the corporeal, continues to run over it in all directions.
38. Equanimity overcomes the sense of shame, sorrow, fear and envy; as the conviction of the nihility of the world and all corporeal things, removes the possibility of their existence at any time. (According to the dictum—nyáya,—násato vidyate vába. Ex nihilo nihil fit nothing comes from nothing).
39. And if it be the work of a cause, it must be the selfexistent Brahma that both at once; as the reflexion is alike the reflector, and the reflected knowledge of a pot or picture is nothing in reality. (The effect is akin to the cause agreeably to the maxim “similes similibus”).