CVIII. The value of rites depends on the inward purity of the performer.

Vayu Purana viii. 190.

No sacred lore, howe'er profound,
Nor all the long and varied round
Of sacred rites, can bliss procure
For worthless men, in heart impure.
Although a man with zeal and skill
Should all external rites fulfil,
He reaps no fruit of all his toil,
If sin his inner man should soil.
Ev'n he his all in alms who spends
With heart defiled, secures no meed:
The disposition, not the deed,

Has value, all on it depends.

CIX. Fate of those who have no belief in virtue ; benefits of faith.

Mahabhavata iii. 13747 f.

The fearful doom of all is sure

Who laugh at men whose lives are pure;

Who duty's binding force deny,

And scout all virtue as a lie.

The man who loves to live in sin

Is like a huge inflated skin;

With wisdom's show himself he cheats,
For vain are all his proud conceits.
No sin can want of faith exceed,

While men by faith from sin are freed.

Believing men throw off their sins,
As snakes cast off their worn-out skins.*

CX. Moral Goodness essential.
Mahabharata xiv. 2835 (comp. xiii. 5544).

The knaves, untrained in wisdom's schools
Who smile at honest men as fools,
Who never vexed with scruples, long
Have wealth amassed by fraud and wrong,
And then their gains, with hearts elate,
To pious uses dedicate,

On costly sacrifices spend,

Or ample gifts to Brahmans send,-
Such knaves can never gain the meeds
Ordained for truly righteous deeds:
Their riches, sprung from poisoned roots,
Can bear none else than deadly fruits.

Bad men, who goodness only feign,
In hope the world's esteem to gain,
With lavish gifts and dainty feasts
In vain delight a host of priests.

Esteem that Brahman's doom assured,
Whoe'er, by lust of gold allured,
From virtue's hallowed path departs,
And heaps up wealth by wicked arts.

But those who others' wants relieve,
By giving what they have to give,-

The following does not sound so satisfactory, but very Antinomian; but see the context as given in the Appendix:

Sacrifice is everything.

Mahabharata xii. 2320.

A man of wicked life, a thief-
Of sinners yea the very chief,-
I reckoned good, if so he bring
The gods a fitting offering.

The scantiest harvest-gleanings, roots,
A draught of water, herbs, or fruits,-
These righteous, self-denying men

At length the bliss of heaven attain.

CXI. True Piety and Righteousness, and their Fruits.
Mahabharata xiii. 7574. (Matthew vi. 19 f.; xix. 21.)

With awe sincere the gods adore,
Meet honour to thy tutor show,

With gifts enrich the good, and so
In heaven enduring treasure store.

Thy pious acts perform apart;

A love for goodness scorn to feign,
And never, as a means of gain,
Parade it with self-seeking art.

[In xii. 1328, it is said, "Let no man bestow gifts in order to gain reputation" (na dadyād yaśase dānam)].

CXII. The most meritorious Gifts.

Mahabharata xiv. 2788.

Rich presents, though profusely given,
Are not so dear to righteous Heaven
As gifts, by honest gains supplied,
Though small, which faith has sanctified.

CXIII. Two Enheritors of Paradise.
Mahabharata v. 1028.

Two men of heavenly bliss are sure,
The lordly man who rules a land
With mild and patient self-command,
The man who freely gives, though poor.

CXIV. The best use of Wealth.

Mahabharata xii. 795.

For what should wealthy mortals live?
Should such their gains enjoy or hoard?
Not all should be enjoyed or stored:
Those use wealth best who freely gfve.

CXV. Good practised because it is duty.
Mahābhārata xii. 5906 (comp. xii. 1328).
'Tis not for gain, for fame, from fear,
That righteous men injustice shun,
And virtuous men hold virtue dear;
An inward voice they seem to hear
Which tells that duty must be done.

CXVI. Good easy, evil difficult, to a noble man. Mahabharata vii. 5960.

A noble man no effort needs

To make to practice noble deeds;

But, oh he struggles hard and long

Before he perpetrates a wrong.

CXVII. Effort, not success, the test of Goodness.

Mahabharata v. 3313.

A man who toils with all his strength

A high and righteous end to gain,

May fail,—but has not wrought in vain; His merit gains its meed at length.

* The apparent rigour of the original is modified here.

F

CXVIII. Evil intentions, if relinquished, not punished.

Mahabharata v. 3314.

Should thou the base intention nurse
To wrong another, pause and think:
Even then if thou from sin shalt shrink,
Thou shalt of guilt escape the curse.

CXIX. Dirtue lies in the thought, not in the act.
Mahabharata xii. 7063 (comp. xiii. 7593' ff.)

The real seat of virtue's in the mind

And not in outward act, so say the wise:
Let therefore every man in thought devise,
With earnest zeal, the good of all mankind.

CXX. Dirtue must be a man's own unaided act.
Mahabharata xii. 7064.

In virtue's practice men alone must stand;

No friends can e'er their moral efforts share: Wise guides or books the rule of life declare; But only men themselves their acts command.

(Comp. xiii. 7594' ff., translated above, No. cxi., first line of verse second. It is only the first clause which corresponds to this passage, and the meaning is different, though the words correspond.)

CXXI. Rind and Heartless Men.

Mahabharata xiii. 3010.

That man beloved by other lives
Who kindly acts and kindly gives :
From other men a fitting meed
He gains for every loving deed.