________________
112
RELIGIOUS SECTS
21. Sit with humility at the foot of God, and rid yourselves of the impurities of your bodies. Be fearless and let no mortal qualities pervade you.
22. From the impurities of the body there is much to fear, because all sins enter into it; therefore let your dwelling be with the fearless and conduct yourselves towards the light of God.
23. For there neither sword nor poison have power to destroy, and sin cannot enter. Ye will live even as God liveth, and the fire of death will be guarded, as it were with water.
24. He that meditateth will naturally be happy, because he is wise and suffereth not the passions to spread over his mind. He loveth but one God.
25. The greatest wisdom is to prevent your minds from being influenced by bad passions, and, in meditating upon the one God. Afford help also to the poor stranger.
26. If ye are humble ye will be unknown, because it is vanity which impelleth us to boast of our own merits, and which causeth us to exult, in being spoken of by others. Meditate on the words of the holy, that the fever of your body may depart from you.
27. For when ye comprehend the words of the holy, ye will be disentangled from all impurities, and be absorbed in God. If ye flatter yourselves, you will never comprehend.
28. When ye have learned the wisdom of the invisible one from the mouth of his priests, ye will be disentangled from all impurities; turn ye round therefore, and examine yourselves well in the mirror which crowneth the lotus.
29. Meditate on that particular wisdom, which alone is able to increase in you the love and worship of God. Purify your minds, retaining only that which is excellent.
30. Meditate on him by whom all things were made. Pandits and Qázis are fools: of what avail are the heaps of books which they have compiled?
31. What does it avail to compile a heap of books? Let your minds freely meditate on the spirit of God, that they may be enlightened regarding the mystery of his divinity. Wear not away your lives, by studying the Vedas.
32. There is fire in water and water in fire, but the ignorant