One is not an ascetic by shaving the head, if one violates vows and speaks lies. Full of desire and greed, how could one be an ascetic?

Na muṇḍakeṇe samaṇo — one is not an ascetic by shaving the head: muṇḍaka is the shaved head, the external sign of monastic renunciation. But the external sign without internal transformation is empty.

Abbato alikaṃ bhaṇaṃ — violating vows and speaking lies: a-vata is without vows, without discipline. Alika is lie. The two marks of the false ascetic: not keeping what they promised and lying.

Icchālobhasamāpanno — full of desire and greed: icchā (desire) and lobha (greed). The rhetorical question that closes the verse is devastating: how can one be an ascetic who is full exactly of what asceticism seeks to eradicate?

In all traditions, the spiritual charlatan uses external signs of practice (clothing, shaved head, titles) to obtain benefits without doing the inner work.