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a king, this Vedic declaration should be re-cited to him, so that he may make gifts of earth and may never take away earth from |
a righteous person. Without doubt, the entire wealth owned by the king belongs to the Brahmanas. A king well-conversant with |
the science of duty and morality is the first requisite of the kingdom's prosperity. Those people whose king is unrighteous and |
atheistic in conduct and belief can never be happy. Such people can never sleep or wake in peace. In consequence of his acts of |
wickedness his subjects become always filled with anxiety. Protection of what the subjects already have and new acquisitions |
according to lawful means are incidents that are not noticeable in the kingdom of such a ruler. Those people, again, who have a |
wise and righteous king, sleep happily and wake up in happiness. Through the blessed and righteous acts of such a king, his |
subjects become freed from anxiety. The subjects, restrained from wicked acts, grow in prosperity through their own conduct. |
Capable of retaining what they have, they go on making new acquisitions. That king who makes gifts of earth is regarded as |
well-born. He is regarded as a man. He is a friend. He is righteous in his acts. He is a giver. He is regarded as possessing |
prowess. Those men who make gifts of ample and fertile earth unto Brahmanas conversant with the Vedas, always shine in the |
world, in consequence of their energy, like so many suns. As seeds scattered on the soil grow and return a goodly crop, even so |
all one's wishes become crowned with fruition in consequence of one's making gifts of earth. Aditya and Varuna and Vishnu |
and Brahman and Soma and Hutasana, and the illustrious and trident-bearing Mahadeva, all applaud the man that makes a gift |
of earth. Living creatures spring into life from the earth and it is into the earth that they become merged when they disappear. |
Living creatures which are distributed into four classes (i.e., viviparous, oviparous, filthborn, and vegetables) have earth for |
their constituent essence. The earth is both the mother and father of the universe of creatures, O monarch. There is no element, |
O ruler of men, that can compare with earth. In this connection is cited the old narrative of a discourse between the celestial |
preceptor Vrihaspati and Indra the ruler of Heaven, O Yudhishthira. Having adored Vishnu in a hundred sacrifices each of |
which was distinguished by plentiful gifts as Dakshina, Maghavat put this question to Vrihaspati, that foremost of all eloquent |
persons.' |
"Maghavat said, 'O illustrious one, by what gift does one succeed in coming to Heaven and attaining to beatitude? O foremost |
of speakers, do thou tell me of that gift which is productive of high and inexhaustible merit.' |
"Bhishma continued, 'Thus addressed by the chief of the celestials the preceptor of the deities, viz., Vrihaspati of great energy, |
said these words in reply unto him of a hundred sacrifices. Endued as he is with the merits that attach to the gift of earth, the |
region of felicity reserved for the person who makes gift of such earth as is auspicious and rich with every taste, never become |
exhausted.[331] That king, O Sakra, who desires to have prosperity and who wishes to win happiness for himself, should |
always make gifts of earth, with due rites, unto deserving persons. If after committing numerous sins a person makes gifts of |
earth unto members of the regenerate class, he casts off all those sins like a snake casting off its slough. The person that makes |
a gift of earth is said to make gifts of everything, that is, of seas and rivers and mountains and forests. By making a gift of |
earth, the person is said to give away lakes and tanks and wells and streams. In consequence of the moisture of earth, one is |
said to give away articles of diverse tastes by making a gift of earth. The man who makes a gift of earth is regarded as giving |
away herbs and plants possessed of high and efficacious virtues, trees adorned with flowers and fruit, delightful woods, and |
hillocks. The merit that a person acquires by making a gift of earth is incapable of being acquired by the performance of even |
such great sacrifices as the Agnishtoma and others with plentiful gifts in the shape of Dakshina. The giver of earth, it has been |
already said, rescues ten generations of both his paternal and maternal races. Similarly, by taking away earth that was given |
away, one hurls oneself into hell and casts ten generations of both one's paternal and maternal lines into the same place of |
misery. That man who having promised to make a gift of earth does not actually make it, or who having made a gift takes it |
back, has to pass a long time, in great misery in consequence of being tied with the noose of Varuna at the command of Death. |
Those men have never to go to Yama who honour and worship those foremost of Brahmanas that pour libations every day on |
their domestic fire, that are always engaged in the performance of sacrifices, that have scanty means of livelihood, and that |
receive with hospitality every guest seeking shelter in their abodes The king, O Purandara, should free himself from the debt he |
owes to the Brahmanas and protect the helpless and the weak belonging to the other orders. The king should never resume, O |
chief of the deities, earth that has been given away by another unto a Brahmana, O ruler of the celestials, that is destitute of the |
means of life.[332] The tears that would fall from the eyes of such cheerless and destitute Brahmanas in consequence of their |
lands being taken back are capable of destroying the ancestors and descendants to the third generation of the resumer. That |
man who succeeds by his endeavours in re-establishing a king driven away from his kingdom, obtains residence in heaven and |
is much honoured by the denizens thereof. That king who succeeds in making gifts of earth with such crops standing thereon as |
sugar-cane or barley or wheat, or with kine and horses and other draft cattle,--earth that has been won with the might of the |
giver's arms,--that has mineral wealth in its bowels and that is covered with every kind of wealth of the surface, wins |
inexhaustible regions of felicity in the next world, and such a king it is that is said to perform the earth-sacrifice. That king who |
makes a gift of earth becomes washed of every sin and is, therefore, pure and approved of the righteous. In this world he is |
highly honoured and applauded by all righteous men. The merit that attaches to a gift of earth increases every time the earth |
given away bears crops for the benefit of the owner, even as a drop of oil, falling upon water, is seen to extend on every side, |
and cover the watery surface. Those heroic kings and ornaments of assemblies who cast off their lives in battle with faces |
towards the foe, attain, O Sakra, to the region of Brahman. Beautiful damsels skilled in music and dancing and adorned with |
garlands of celestial flowers, approach, O chief of the deities, the giver of earth as he comes to heaven departing from the earth. |
That king who makes gifts of earth with due rites unto persons of the regenerate order, sports in bliss in the celestial regions, |
adorned all the while by the deities and Gandharvas. A century of Apsaras, adorned with celestial garlands, approach, O chief |
of the deities, the giver of earth as he ascends to the region of Brahman. Flowers of excellent perfumes, an excellent conch and |
excellent seat, an umbrella and excellent steeds with excellent vehicles, are always ready for the person how makes gifts of |
earth. By making gifts of earth a king can always command flowers of excellent perfumes and heaps of gold. Possessed of all |
kinds of wealth the commands of such a king can never be disobeyed anywhere, and cries of victory hail him wheresoever he |
may approach. The rewards that attach to gifts of earth consist of residence in heaven, O Purandara, and gold, and flowers, and |
plants and herbs of medicinal virtue, and Kusa and mineral wealth and verdant grass. A person by making a gift of earth |
acquires in his next life nectar yielding earth. There is no gift that is equal to a gift of earth. There is no senior worthy of greater |
respect than the mother. There is no duty higher than truth. There is no wealth more precious than that which is given away.' |
"Bhishma continued, 'Hearing these words from the son of Angiras, Vasava made a gift unto him of the whole earth with all |
her jewels and gems and all her wealth of diverse kinds. If these verses declaring the merit attaching to gifts of earth be recited |
on the occasion of a Sraddha, neither Rakshasas nor Asuras can succeed in appropriating any share of the offerings made in it. |
Without doubt, the offerings one makes unto the Pitris at such a Sraddha become inexhaustible. Hence, on occasions of |
Sraddhas, the man of learning should recite these verses on the subject of the merits that attach to gifts of earth, in the presence |
and hearing of the invited Brahmanas when engaged in eating. I have thus, O chief of the Bharatas, discoursed unto thee of that |
gift which is the foremost of all gifts. What else dost thou wish to hear?'" |
SECTION LXIII |
"Yudhishthira said, 'When a king becomes desirous of making gifts in this world, what, indeed, are those gifts which he should |
make, O best of the Bharatas, unto such Brahmanas as are possessed of superior accomplishments? What gift is that by which |
the Brahmanas become immediately gratified? What fruits do they bestow in return? O thou of mighty arms, tell me what is the |
high reward attainable through the merit arising from gifts. What gifts, O king, are productive of rewards both here and |
hereafter? I desire to hear all this from thee. Do thou discourse to me on all this in detail.' |
"Bhishma said, 'These very questions were on a former occasion put by me to Narada of celestial appearance. Hear me as I |
recite to thee what that celestial sage told me in reply.' |
"Narada said, 'The deities and all the Rishis applaud food. The course of the world and the intellectual faculties have all been |
established on food. There has never been, nor will be any gift that is equal to the gifts of food. Hence, men always desire |
particularly to make gifts of food. In this world, food is the cause of energy and strength. The life-breaths are established on |
food. It is food that upholds the wide universe, O puissant one. All classes of men, householders and mendicants and ascetics, |
exist, depending upon food. The life-breaths depend upon food. There is no doubt in this. Afflicting (if need be) one's relatives, |
one is desirous of one's own prosperity, should make gifts of food unto a high-souled Brahmana or a person of the mendicant |
order. That man who makes a gift of food unto an accomplished Brahmana who solicits the same, secures for himself in the |
world to come wealth of great value. The householder who is desirous of his own prosperity should receive with reverence a |
deserving old man that is spent with toil while proceeding on his way far from home, when such a man honours the |
householder's abode with his presence. That man who, casting off wrath that overleaps every bound and becoming righteous in |
disposition and freed from malice, makes gifts of food, is sure to attain to happiness, O king, both here and hereafter. The |
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