Verses 290–299

290. Siva assumed the shape of the sharabha and slew Narasimha; which (masculine, yēdi) God is greater than Siva? Where is there one more worthy to be looked to?

291. Seeing that Vishnu abhorred not himself to be born in ten incarnations, to grow in them as to delight in them; if then thou do away the lustre of the noble married state shall thou hereby become one of the excellent.

292. Agajata (Paravati) causes him (Siva) who gave her half his body (see the mythology) to be slain (i.e., her worship as shacti, supersedes his)? If he cannot revenge this cruel is he man and not a woman?

293. The Veda is on every subject (words of the choultry). The signification of the Veda is a refuge (a branch of hold). Its rules are worthy to be known. Proclaim it consolingly in the world that the sound produced by closing the ears is subject to the state of meditation.

294. He who has seen the similarity of every generation and by wisdom knows the nature of the bathing, eating and lying in each, that man who thus knows how to walk is the grihasta (i.e., a perfectly virtuous man of the world).

295. If defilement attaches to food, it attaches also to the soul that thereby subsists. Food that is digested within us (let our soul) this is defilement. Food is the purification of the soul and the soul the purifier of the food. Thus united as the earth and sky are.

296. Daily does defilement flow down through the nine orifices, If this defilement of humanity be done away, man dies; foulness that never dies is produced in the loins.

297. Heedless of foulness and impurity, they eat three times a day, and worship him who sports within the soul (Brahma). He who thus attains the future life is the complete yogee.

298. That pious man who delights in bestowing house, garden, and field on Brahmins, long shall he rule the earth, and be filled with enjoyments.

299. The property given by a Brahmin to a Brahmin, though it be highly fruitful, yet cannot be enjoyed by a lord of earth (Brahmin). He must quit it.