Classic Poem

1

Render hate to those who hate you,
Deeper rolls the stream of strife;
Render love and healing kindness,
Hatred dies and sweet is life!

2

Pious precepts, smooth-tongued preacher,
Never acted, wisely meant,
Are like gay and golden blossoms
Without fragrance, without scent!

3

Dost thou shrink from death and suffering,
Dost thou cling to life from birth?
So doth every brother-creature, —
Harm not living things on earth!

4

Unto those who live in hatred
Thou shalt bear unchanging love,
Unto those who smite in anger
Thou shalt thy forgiveness prove!

5

Pious acts endure for ever,
And in heaven the doer meet,
As his loved and loving kinsmen
Home-returning kinsman greet!

6

By your Love the wrathful conquer,
By your Grace the ill pursue,
By your Charity the miser,
By your Truth the false subdue!

7

Faults of other men ye question,
Not the evil ye have done,
Neighbour's sins like chaff ye winnow,
Like a false die hide your own!

8

Not a sage and not an elder
Is the man advanced in age,
Truth and virtue, love and kindness,
Make the elder and the sage!

9

Not by skins and plaited tresses,
Not by family and birth,
But by truth and righteous conduct
Is the Brahman known on earth!

10

Wherefore then thy plaited tresses
And thy holy robe of skin,
What avails this outward penance
When there's ravening within?