Verse 12

¹²When a thorough turning away comes over him from the worlds that are the ripening of works and are hells in their own nature, then, having laid down his fires, he should go out and wander. ¹³Having worshipped me as he was taught, having given everything he owns to the officiating priest, having taken the fires into his own breath, he should go wandering with nothing to look back for. ¹⁴When a brahmin renounces, the gods put hindrances in his way, taking the shape of a wife and the rest; for this man will step past us, they say, and reach the highest. ¹⁵If the sage keeps a garment at all, let it be no more than a cover for his loins. Apart from staff and bowl he should take up nothing at all that he has given up, unless he is hard pressed.

¹⁶He should set his foot where the eye has made it clean, drink water that a cloth has made clean, speak speech that truth has made clean, and do what the mind has made clean. ¹⁷Silence, doing nothing, the holding of the breath: these are the staves for speech, body and thought. One who does not have these, dear one, does not become an ascetic by carrying bamboo. ¹⁸He should go for alms among the four classes, keeping clear of those who are held blameworthy, to seven houses not settled on beforehand, and be content with just so much as he gets. ¹⁹Going outside to a stretch of water, he should touch it there, keep his speech in check, and share out what he has brought; then he should eat what is left, made clean, and eat all of it.