The poems/words of wisdom are mostly about the evils of riches, luxury or women and about the inherent superiority of Asceticism. But there are several about the value of being a good person.
My thoughts
Would knowing about Indian myths, symbols and philosophy help understanding these poems? Yes.
Do I have anything more than the barest idea about those things? No but that's not going to stop me. The book do have some helpful asterisks to explain the symbolism of the various plants, animals and gods. Which is good since there are a lot of those several of the poems are of the format creating a simile between something in nature and some human behavior.
In general I was underwhelmed sure there were some poems I enjoyed like the one that is a fair description of the Dunning-Kruger effect. But my largest take away was how similar the poems all were to each other. This might have been partially my own fault I don't think you are meant to read them all in one go. Also most show a worldview that I don't subscribe to, mainly the sexism.It does the, women's only value is in their beauty but they bring ruin to men, thing. But also the asceticism, sleeping on the ground does not automatically make you a better person.
All in all I didn't like it which isn't helped by me not really feeling like reading it in the first place. Basically I'm reading a lot for my studies right now so I don't feel like reading anything difficult to relax. So I picked this one because each page is just one poem. Forgetting that short doesn't mean easy.
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