Whoever, stained with internal impurities, wears the ochre robe, without self-mastery and without truthfulness, is unworthy of that sacred garment.

A direct verse about spiritual authenticity. Kāsāva — the ochre robe — is the external emblem of the renunciant, the Buddhist monk. But if the wearer of that robe has not worked through their internal kasāva (the impurities: greed, hatred, delusion), the external symbol becomes a farce.

The contrast is explicit: anikkasāvo (who has not purified their internal stains) against the kāsāva (robe of pure color). The ochre garment does not confer purity; it only reveals it or exposes its absence.

This principle has universal application beyond Buddhist monasticism: any spiritual symbol adopted without corresponding internal transformation becomes an additional obstacle, because it gives the illusion of the path without the real work. The mala beads, the yoga clothes, the philosophy books on the shelf: none substitute for genuine practice.

Dhammadhammena — the path of Dhamma — implies coherence between the internal and the external. The authentic path has no gap between what one believes and what one lives.