Golden Verses of Pythagoras*
Preparation
Worship the Immortal Gods* by making your sacrifice: keeping your faith, honoring great heroes, living in harmony in the world.
Purification
Honor your mother and father, and your relatives.
Choose for yourself wise friends; heed their advice and learn from their virtues; do not quarrel with them for trifle reasons.
Remember about the law of cause and effect in your life.
You are given the ability to overcome your passions: greed, laziness, lust, and anger; use it and restrain yourself!
Do nothing shameful, neither in the presence of others, nor when you are alone! Preserve your honor!
Practice justice in your words and deeds; follow the dictates of the mind and the law.
Remember that all people are destined to die.
Remember that the earthly boons can be easily given to people and so easily they can be taken from them.
As for the misfortunes that are sent to people according to their destinies, you have to endure them patiently. Strive nevertheless to alleviate the pain as much as you can. And remember that the Immortal Gods never send to people trials above their strength.
There are many possibilities people can choose from. There are bad and there are good ones. So, look carefully and choose for yourself the noble Path.
If among people delusion prevails over truth, the wise steps aside and waits until truth reigns again.
Heed to what I am going to tell you:
Do not let deeds and thoughts of other people confuse you; let them not prompt you to do or say anything evil!
Listen to others’ advice and think yourself! Only fools act thoughtlessly, without consideration!
Do not do anything that will make you feel ashamed and remorse!
Do not neglect the health of your body. Give to the body food, drink, and exercise in measure — so that it will strengthen and know not surfeit and slumber!
Keep your life in order. Abandon any luxury, for it can make other people envious.
Be afraid of becoming a stingy person, but fear also to squander goods like careless people do.
Do only that which will not lead you to destruction! Therefore, before acting, deliberate on your every step and deed.
Perfection
Before sleep closes your eyes, remember thrice your deeds of the day. Consider them as an impartial judge and ask yourself: “What good did I do? What did I fail to do that I should have done?” Thus review everything you did throughout the day. Reproach yourself severely for all wrong deeds! Be glad about the good ones!
Reflect on these instructions and practice them! With their help you can approach Perfection! The warrantor of this truth is He Who put in us the basis for Divine Realization and higher virtues!
Address the Gods with fervent request for help and get to work!
Standing firmly on this path, you will know everything about the Immortal Gods. You will know also about people, about the difference between them, about the One Who contains them in Himself, being their Foundation. You will know that the entire universe is a Single Whole, and that in the Eternal there is no dead matter.
Having known this, you will make no mistakes, for nothing will be hidden from you!
You will know also that people themselves cause their calamities due to ignorance! They are free in choosing their destinies!
Wretches! They do not see that the desired happiness resides in them, in their own depths!
Only a few can cast away afflictions with their own efforts, for most people are blind to the law of the formation of their destinies! Like wheels they roll downhill carrying the burden of their past misdeeds toward others, the burden which controls their destinies until death comes…
Instead of seeking occasions for a quarrel, people should avoid it, conceding to each other without arguing…
O omnipotent Zeus, are You alone capable of saving the human kind from afflictions by showing them the veil of ignorance which blinds their eyes?!
But we should not abandon hope of saving people from the darkness of ignorance — for every human has a Divine root and the nature is willing to reveal to people its mysteries. Once you know them, you will realize what I foretell you!
Heal the soul! This will reveal to you the way to Liberation!
And abstain from eating flesh: this is contrary to your nature and will prevent you from purifying yourself!
So if you want to become free from the earthly fetters, follow this superior understanding given to you from above. Let it control your destiny.
And after you transform the soul completely, you can defeat death and become an Immortal God!