Verses 500–509

500. The earth is the noble mother; the seed is the father, the crops are sons, the produce of cattle (i.e., milk etc.), is heaven (because milk in various forms is offered in sacrifice), virtue is divinity. That is Truth.

501. The farmer begins by cutting hastily down the flower gardens of the god to build gates for the sluice (with the planks of the trees). Sinners are they who attempt such acts.

502. Sorrow shall follow and seize him who wastes grain. If he possesses grain his pain is over. In the veranda of the very whores of him who hath grain, men shall abjectly wait for gruel.

503. Bread and water are the origin of the glory even to the Gods. In this iron age it is the seat of all virtues. Food is as the elder brother of all men (a pun).

504. Food puts an end to difficulties; food alone is the dwelling of life, beyond all other things. Are there any in this earth who desire not food (instance of comparative?) If there be any, they must be none but Siva (Ugrudu).

505. If the beggar cries (Date obolum) he who replies 'Oho' how likely and asks him ridiculous questions, where shall such fools acquire honours? They shall perish roots and branch in their avarice.

506. What honour or what shame can the mouth full of spittle, receive a buffalo mouth, (mouth as gaping as that of a buffalo) is like a dry well. They cannot discern purity as they discern tastes.

507. However many curses (slaying words) we utter, they are but as wealth beheld in a dream, all fleeting, but a single blessing (word of life) suffices--it is unexhaustible as the mines of the Ocean.

508. He who after receiving the value the mortgage usurps, more than was settled shall lose that surplus and the original article alone shall be his.

509. Inordinate enjoyment occasions the loss of the original possession. Property put in pledge suffers a certain degree of loss. In the first case the original possessor sustains a loss.