Unable to practise even a small part of that good conduct which has descended from remote times, which is eternal, which is characterised by certainty, which enters as a thread in all our duties, and by following which men of knowledge belonging to all the modes of life convert their respective duties and penances into dreadful weapons for killing the ignorance and evils of worldliness, men of foolish understandings regard acts which yield visible fruits, which are fraught with the highest power, and that are deathless, as fruitless after all and as deviations not sanctioned by the scriptures. In sooth, however, that conduct, comprising practices the very opposite to those that are seen in times of distress, is the very essence of carefulness and is never affected by lust and anger and other passions of a similar nature.
स्वकर्मभिः संश्रितानां तपो घोरत्वमागतम्। तं सदाचारमाश्रित्य पुराणं शाश्वतं ध्रुवम्॥ अशक्नुवन्तश्चरितुं किंचिद् धर्मेषु सूत्रितम्। निरापद्धर्म आचारो ह्यप्रमादोऽपराभवः॥ फलनवन्ति च कर्माणि व्युष्टिमन्ति ध्रुवाणि च। विगुणानि च पश्यन्ति तथानैकान्तिकानि च॥