Verse 17
The deer's song and the fish's tongue· Verses 17–21
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17A wandering ascetic who lives in the forest should never listen to the songs of the villages. Let him learn from the deer that was caught, bewildered by the hunter's song. 18Rsyasrnga, the doe's son, took pleasure in the village dancing and music and singing of women, and became their plaything and was in their power. 19A man led astray by taste, through the tongue that stirs everything up, sets his mind on what is not real and comes to his death, as a fish comes to it by the hooks. 20Thinking men who go without food conquer the senses quickly, all but the tongue: in one who does not eat, that one only grows stronger.
21A man has not mastered his senses so long as he has not mastered the tongue, though he has mastered all the others. When taste is conquered, everything is conquered.