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have not been satiated with hearing thy nectar-like words!' |
"Vaisampayana continued, 'Thus addressed by king Yudhishthira the just, Santanu's son began to discourse to him once again, |
in detail on the merits attaching to the gift of kine.' |
"Bhishma said, 'By giving unto a Brahmana a cow possessed of a calf, endued with docility and other virtues, young in years, |
and wrapped round with a piece of cloth, one becomes cleansed of all one's sins. There are many regions (in Hell) which are |
sunless. One who makes the gift of a cow has not to go thither. That man, however, who gives unto a Brahmana a cow that is |
incapable of drinking or eating, that has her milk dried up, that is endued with senses all of which have been weakened, and |
that is diseased and overcome with decrepitude, and that may, therefore, be likened to a tank whose water has been dried up,-- |
indeed, the man who gives such a cow unto a Brahmana and thereby inflicts only pain and disappointment upon him, has |
certainly to enter into dark Hell. That cow which is wrathful and vicious, or diseased, or weak or which has been purchased |
without the price agreed upon having been paid,--or which would only afflict the regenerate recipient with distress and |
disappointment, should never be given. The regions such a man may acquire (as the rewards of other acts of righteousness |
performed by him) would fail to give him any happiness or impart to him any energy. Only such kine as are strong, endued |
with good behaviour, young in years, and possessed of fragrance, are applauded by all (in the matter of gift). Verily, as Ganga |
is the foremost of all rivers, even so is a Kapila cow the foremost of all kine.' |
"Yudhishthira said, 'Why, O grandsire, do the righteous applaud the gift of a Kapila cow (as more meritorious) when all good |
kine that are given away should be regarded as equal? O thou of great puissance, I wish to hear what the distinction is that |
attaches to a Kapila cow. Thou art, verily, competent to discourse to me on this topic!'[371] |
"Bhishma said, 'I have, O son, heard old men recite this history respecting the circumstances under which the Kapila cow was |
created. I shall recite that old history to thee! In days of yore, the Self-born Brahman commanded the Rishi Daksha, saying,-- |
Do thou create living creatures! From desire of doing good to creatures, Daksha, in the first instance, created food. Even as the |
deities exist, depending upon nectar, all living creatures, O puissant one, live depending upon the sustenance assigned by |
Daksha. Among all objects mobile and immobile, the mobile are superior. Among mobile creatures Brahmanas are superior. |
The sacrifices are all established upon them. It is by sacrifice that Soma (nectar) is got. Sacrifice has been established upon |
kine.[372] The gods become gratified through sacrifices. As regards the Creation then, the means of support came first, |
creatures came next. As soon as creatures were born, they began to cry aloud for food. All of them then approached their |
creator who was to give them food like children approaching their father or mother. Knowing the intention which moved all his |
creatures, the holy lord of all creatures, viz., Daksha, for the sake of the beings he had created, himself drank a quantity of |
nectar. He became gratified with the nectar he quaffed and thereupon an eructation came out, diffusing an excellent perfume all |
around. As the result of that eructation. Daksha saw that it gave birth to a cow which he named Surabhi. This Surabhi was thus |
a daughter of his, that had sprung from his mouth. The cow called Surabhi brought forth a number of daughters who came to be |
regarded as the mothers of the world. Their complexion was like that of gold, and they were all Kapilas. They were the means |
of sustenance for all creatures. As those kine, whose complexion resembled that of Amrita, began to pour milk, the froth of that |
milk arose and began to spread on every side, even as when the waves of a running stream dashing against one another, |
copious froth is produced that spreads on every side. Some of that froth fell, from the mouths of the calves that were sucking, |
upon the head of Mahadeva who was then sitting on the Earth. The puissant Mahadeva thereupon, filled with wrath, cast his |
eyes upon those kine. With that third eye of his which adorns his forehead, he seemed to burn those kine as he looked at them. |
Like the Sun tingeing masses of clouds with diverse colours the energy that issued from the third eye of Mahadeva produced, O |
monarch, diverse complexion in those kine. Those amongst them, however, which succeeded in escaping from the glance of |
Mahadeva by entering the region of Soma, remained of the same colour with which they were born, for no change was |
produced in their complexion. Seeing that Mahadeva had become exceedingly angry; Daksha, the lord of all creatures, |
addressed him, saying--Thou hast, O great deity, been drenched with nectar. The milk or the froth that escapes from the mouths |
of calves sucking their dams is never regarded as impure remnant.[373] Chandramas, after drinking the nectar, pours it once |
more. It is not, however, on that account, looked upon as impure. After the same manner, the milk that these kine yield, being |
born of nectar, should not be regarded as impure (even though the udders have been touched by the calves with their mouths). |
The wind can never become impure. Fire can never become impure. Gold can never become impure. The Ocean can never |
become impure. The Nectar, even when drunk by the deities, can never become impure. Similarly, the milk of a cow, even |
when her udders are sucked by her calf, can never become impure. These kine will support all these worlds with the milk they |
will yield and the ghee that will be manufactured therefrom. All creatures wish to enjoy the auspicious wealth, identifiable with |
nectar, that kine possess!--Having said these words, the lord of creatures, Daksha, made a present unto Mahadeva of a bull with |
certain kine. Daksha gratified the heart of Rudra, O Bharata, with that present, Mahadeva, thus gratified, made that bull his |
vehicle. And it was after the form of that bull that Mahadeva adopted the device on the standard floating on his battle-car. For |
this reason it is that Rudra came to be known as the bull-bannered deity. It was on that occasion also that the celestials, uniting |
together, made Mahadeva the lord of animals. Indeed, the great Rudra became the Master of kine and is named as the bull- |
signed deity. Hence, O king, in the matter of giving away kine, the gift is regarded as primarily desirable of Kapila kine which |
are endued with great energy and possessed of colour unchanged (from white). Thus are kine, the foremost of all creatures in |
the world. It is from them that the means have flowed of the sustenance of all the worlds. They have Rudra for their master. |
They yield Soma (nectar) in the form of milk. They are auspicious and sacred, and grantors of every wish and givers of life. A |
person by making a gift of a cow come to be regarded as making a gift of every article that is desired to be enjoyed by men. |
That man who, desiring to attain to prosperity, reads with a pure heart and body these verses on the origin of kine, becomes |
cleansed of all his sins and attains to prosperity and children and wealth and animals. He who makes a gift of a cow, O king, |
always succeeds in acquiring the merits that attach to gifts of Havya and Kavya, to the offer of oblations of water unto the |
Pitris, to other religious acts whose performance brings peace and happiness, to the gift of vehicles and cloths, and to the |
cherishing of children and the old.' |
"Vaisampayana continued, 'Hearing these words of his grandsire, Pritha's son, viz., the royal Yudhishthira of Ajamida's race, |
uniting with his brothers, began to make gifts of both bulls and kine of different colours unto foremost of Brahmanas. Verily, |
for the purpose of subduing regions of felicity in the next, and winning great fame, king Yudhishthira performed many |
sacrifices and, as sacrificial presents, gave away hundreds of thousands of kine unto such Brahmanas.'" |
SECTION LXXVIII |
"Bhishma said, 'In days of yore, king Saudasa born of Ikshvaku's race, that foremost of eloquent men, on one occasion |
approached his family priest, viz., Vasishtha, that foremost of Rishis, crowned with ascetic success, capable of wandering |
through every region, the receptacle of Brahma, and endued with eternal life and put him the following question.' |
"Saudasa said, 'O holy one, O sinless one, what is that in the three worlds which is sacred and by reciting which at all times a |
man may acquire high merit?' |
"Bhishma said, 'Unto king Saudasa who stood before him with head bent in reverence, the learned Vasishtha having first |
bowed unto kine and purified himself (in body and mind), discoursed upon the mystery relating to kine, a topic that is fraught |
with result highly beneficial to all persons.' |
"Vasishtha said, 'Kine are always fragrant. The perfume emanated by the exudation of the Amytis agallochum issues out of the |
bodies. Kine are the great refuge of all creatures. Kine constitute the great source of blessing unto all.[374] Kine are the Past |
and the Future. Kine are the source of eternal growth. Kine are the root of Prosperity. Anything given to kine is never lost. |
Kine constitute the highest food. They are the best Havi for the deities. The Mantras called Swaha and Vashat are forever |
established in kine. Kine constitute the fruit of sacrifices. Sacrifices are established in kine. Kine are the Future and the Past, |
and Sacrifice rest on them. Morning and evening kine yield unto the Rishis, O foremost of men, Havi for use in Homa, O thou |
of great effulgence. They who make gift of kine succeed in transcending all sins which they may have committed and all kinds |
of calamities into which they may fall, O thou of great puissance. The man possessing ten kine and making a gift of one cow, |
he possessing a hundred kine and making a gift of ten kine, and he possessing a thousand kine and making a gift of a hundred |
kine, all earn the same measure of merit. The man who, though possessed of hundred kine, does not establish a domestic fire |
for daily worship, that man who though possessed of a thousand kine does not perform sacrifices, and that man who though |
possessed of wealth acts as a miser (by not making gift and discharging the duties of hospitality), are all three regarded as not |
worthy of any respect. Those men who make gift of Kapila king with their calves and with vessel of white brass for milking |
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