It means someone loves to write sentences that don't mean anything. Honestly, this is almost incomprehensible. It might make more sense if you can share the context, the sentences that come before and after it, but it's always going to be ugly and hard to understand. I don't know where you got it from, but throw it away immediately and read something more useful.

It looks like this is from the poet Tulsidas and later quoted by Gandhi. And the full quote is "Of religion, pity or love is the root, as egotism of the body. Therefore we should not abandon pity so long as we are alive." From what I can tell, it's a pretty dense, hard to read text and I've not read enough of the rest of Gandhi's work to know exactly what his point is. (I could make a few guesses, but they'd probably either lead you in the wrong direction or confuse you more.) It seems like something to ask your philosophy professor.

I agree with Chris Ke. It's nonsense. Find something better to read.

Tulsidas 印度詩人, 聖者 etc Tulsidas 曰 「是為宗教, 是為悲憫, 或是為恩情, 都是肉体利己主義之根元」