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IMPURITY.
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when it springs from it, destroys it; thus do a transgressor's own works lead him to the evil path.
241. The taint of prayers is non-repetition; the taint of houses, non-repair ; the taint of the body is sloth; the taint of a watchman, thoughtlessness.
242. Bad conduct is the taint of woman, greediness the taint of a benefactor; tainted are all evil ways, in this world and in the next.
243. But there is a taint worse than all taints, ignorance is the greatest taint. O mendicants ! throw off that taint, and become taintless!
244. Life is easy to live for a man who is without shame, a crow hero, a mischief-maker, an insulting, bold, and wretched fellow.
245. But life is hard to live for a modest man, who always looks for what is pure, who is disinterested, quiet, spotless, and intelligent.
246. He who destroys life, who speaks untruth, who in this world takes what is not given him, who goes to another man's wife ;
247. And the man who gives himself to drinking intoxicating liquors, he, even in this world, digs up his own root. takes advantage of self.
248. O man, know this, that the unrestrained are in a bad state ; take care that greediness and vice do not bring thee to grief for a long time!
244. Pakkhandin is identified by Dr. Fausböll with praskandin, one who jumps forward, insults, or, as Buddhaghosa explains it, one who meddles with other people's business, an interloper. At all events, it is a term of reproach, and, as it would seem, of theological reproach.
246. On the five principal commandments which are recapitulated in verses 246 and 247, see Buddhaghosha's Parables, p. 153.
248. Cf. Mahâbhârata XII, 4055, yeshâm vrittis ka samyatâ. See also verse 307.
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