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BOOK I, LECTURE 7.
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otters?, and demons living in water. The clever ones declare those to be wrong who maintain that perfection may be obtained through water. (15)
If water did wash off the impure Karman, it must take off merit too. But this (assertion of the heretics) has no foundation but their wish. As a blind man follows a guide (and misses his goal), so a fool (who makes ablutions, &c. as a means of reaching Môksha) kills living beings. (16)
If water did wash off the sins of him who committed them, some would have obtained perfection who killed water-beings. Therefore he is wrong who maintains the attainment of perfection through water. (17)
Those who, lighting fire in the morning and evening, contend that perfection is obtained through fire (are easily refuted). For if thereby perfection could be obtained, mechanics also, who use fire, would be liberated. (18)
Perfection cannot be established by such gratuitous assertions; those who have not learned the truth will come to harm. A wise man, who knows the truth, should know and understand that all beings desire happiness. (19)
All creatures who have committed sins wail, suffer, and tremble. Considering this a wise monk who has ceased to sin, and guards his own self, should abstain from violence with regard to movable and (immovable) beings. (20)
He who keeps a store of rightly-obtained food and eats it; he who makes ablutions with pure water,
1 Utta or uttha, explained as 'a kind of aquatic animal ;' the Sanskrit prototype is apparently udra, but the commentators render it ushtra !
