Chant.

Having striven, brahman, cut the stream.
Expel sensual passions.
Without abandoning sensual passions
a sage encounters no oneness of mind.

If something's to be done, then work at it firmly,
for a slack going-forth kicks up all the more dust.
It's better to leave a misdeed undone.
A misdeed burns you afterward.
Better that a good deed be done
that, when you've done it,
you don't regret.

Just as sharp-bladed grass, if wrongly held,
wounds the very hand that holds it —
the contemplative life, if wrongly grasped,
drags you down to hell.
Any slack act, or defiled observance,
or fraudulent life of chastity
bears no great fruit.