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are foremost in piety.[472] All food that is forbidden in ritual acts should never be taken even on other occasions. The fruits of |
the Ficus religiosa and the Ficus Bengalensis as also the leaves of the Crotolaria Juncea, and the fruits of the Ficus glomerata, |
should never be eaten by one who is desirous of his own good. The flesh of goats, of kine, and the peacock, should never be |
eaten. One should also abstain from dried flesh and all flesh that is stale. The man of intelligence should never eat any salt, |
taking it up with his hand. Nor should he eat curds and flour of fried barley at night. One should abstain also from flesh of |
animals not slain in sacrifices. One should, with concentrated attention, eat once on the morning and once in the evening, |
abstaining entirely from all food, during the interval. One should never eat any food in which one may detect a hair. Nor should |
one eat at the Sraddha of an enemy. One should eat silently; one should never eat without covering one's person with an upper |
garment, and without sitting down.[473] One should never eat any food placing it on the bare ground. One should never eat |
except in a sitting posture. One should never make any noise while eating.[474] The man of intelligence should first offer water |
and then food to one that has become his guest, and after having served the guest thus, should then sit to his meals himself. He |
who sits down to dinner in a line with friends and himself eats any food without giving thereof to his friends, is said to eat |
virulent poison. As regards water and Payasa and flour of fried barley and curds and ghee and honey, one should never, after |
drinking or eating these, offer the remnants thereof to others. One should never, O chief of men, eat any food doubtingly.[475] |
One desirous of food should never drink curds at the conclusion of a meal. After the meal is finished, one should wash one's |
mouth and face with the (right) hand only, and taking a little water should then dip the toe of the right foot in it. After washing, |
one should touch the crown of one's head with the (right) hand. With concentrated attention, one should next touch fire. The |
man who knows how to observe all these ordinances with care, succeeds in attaining to the foremost place among his kinsmen. |
One should, after finishing one's meals, with one's nose and eyes and ears and navel and both hands wash with water. One |
should not, however, keep one's hands wet. Between the tip and the root of the thumb is situate the sacred Tirtha known by the |
name of Brahma. On the back of the little finger, it is said, is situate the Deva-tirtha. The intervening space between the thumb |
and the forefinger, O Bharata, should be used for discharging the Pitri rites, after touching water according to the |
ordinance.[476] One should never indulge in other people's calumny. Nor should one ever utter anything that is disagreeable. |
The man that desires his own good should never seek to provoke against himself the wrath of others. One should never seek to |
converse with a person that has fallen away from his order. The very sight of such a person should be avoided. One should |
never come in contact with a fallen person. By avoiding such contact one succeeds in attaining to a long life. One should never |
indulge in sexual congress at day-time. Nor should one have congress with a maiden, nor with a harlot nor with a barren |
woman. One should never have congress with a woman that has not bathed after the expiry of her functional period. By |
avoiding such acts one succeeds in attaining to a long life. After washing the several limbs directed, in view of religious acts, |
one should wash one's lips thrice, and once more twice. By doing this, one becomes purified and fit for religious acts. The |
several organs of sense should each be washed once, and water should also be sprinkled over the whole body. Having done |
this, one should go through the worship of the Pitris and the deities, agreeably with the ordinances of the Vedas. Listen to me, |
O thou of Kuru's race, as I tell thee what purification is cleansing and beneficial for a Brahmana. Before beginning to eat and |
after finishing the meal, and in all acts requiring purification, the Brahmana should perform the achamana with water placed on |
the limb called the Brahmatirtha.[477] After ejecting any matter from the throat or spitting, one should wash one's mouth |
before one can become pure. A kinsman who happens to be old, or a friend who happens to be poor, should be established in |
one's house and his comforts looked after as if he were a member of the family. By doing this, one succeeds in acquiring both |
fame and long life. The establishment of pigeons in one's house is fraught with blessedness, as also of parrots both male and |
female. If female these taken to one's abode, they succeed in dispelling calamity. The same is the case with cockroaches, If |
fireflies and vultures and wood-pigeons and bees enter a house or seek residence in it, acts of propitiating the deities should be |
performed. These are creatures of evil omen, as also ospreys. One should never divulge the secrets of high-souled men; one |
should never have sexual congress with a forbidden woman. Nor should one ever have such congress with the spouse of a king |
or with women that are the friends of queens. One should never cultivate intimacy with physicians, or with children, or with |
persons that are old, or with one's servants, O Yudhishthira. One should always provide for friends, for Brahmanas, and for |
such as seek one's protection. By doing this, O king, one acquires a long life. The man of wisdom should reside in such a house |
as has been constructed with the aid of a Brahmana and an engineer skilled in his profession, if indeed, O king, he desires his |
own good.[478] One should not, O king, sleep at the evening twilight. Nor should one study at such an hour for acquiring any |
branch of knowledge. The man of intelligence should never eat also at such an hour. By acting in this way one acquires a long |
life. One should never perform any act in honour of the Pitris at night time. One should not deck one's person after finishing |
one's meals. One should bathe at night, if one desires one's own advancement. One should also, O Bharata, always abstain from |
the flour of fried barley at night. The remnants of food and drink, as also the flowers with which one has worshipped the |
deities, should never be used. Inviting a guest at night, one should never, with excessive courtesy, force him to eat to the point |
of gratification. Nor should one eat oneself to the point of gratification, at night. One should not slay a bird (for eating it), |
especially after having fed it.[479] One possessed of wisdom should wed a maiden born in a high family, endued with |
auspicious indications, and of full age. Begetting children upon her and thus perpetuating one's race by that means, one should |
make over one's sons to a good preceptor for acquiring general knowledge, O Bharata, as also a knowledge of the especial |
customs of the family, O monarch. The daughters that one may beget should be bestowed upon youths of respectable families, |
that are again possessed of intelligence. Sons should also be established and a portion of the family inheritance, given to them, |
O Bharata, as their provision. One should bathe by dipping one's head in water before one sits down to perform any act in |
honour of the Pitris of the deities. One should never perform a Sraddha under the constellation of one's nativity. No Sraddha |
should be performed under any of the Bhadrapadas (prior or later), nor under the constellation Krittika, O Bharata. The |
Sraddha should never be performed under any of those constellations that are regarded as fierce (such as Aslesha, etc ) and any |
of those that, upon calculation, seem to be hostile. Indeed, in this respect, all these constellations should be avoided which are |
forbidden in treatises on astrology. One should sit facing either the east or the north while undergoing a shave at the hands of |
the barber. By so doing, O great king, one succeeds in acquiring a long life. One should never indulge in other people's |
calumny or self-reproach, for, O chief of the Bharatas, it is said that calumny is sinful, whether of others or of oneself. In |
wedding, one should avoid a woman that is deficient of any limb. A maiden too, if such, should also be avoided. A woman of |
the same Pravaras should also be avoided; as also one that has any malformation; as also one that has been born in the race to |
which one's mother belongs.[480] One possessed of wisdom should never have sexual congress with a woman that is old, or |
one that has abandoned the domestic mode of life for entering the forest mode, or one that is true to her lord, or one whose |
organs of generation are not healthy or well-formed.[481] It behoveth thee not to wed a woman that is of a yellow complexion, |
or one that is afflicted with leprosy, or one born in a family in which there has been epilepsy, or one that is low in birth and |
habits, or one that is born in a family in which the disease called Switra (leprosy) has appeared, or one belonging by birth to a |
race in which there are early deaths. Only that maiden who is endued with auspicious indications, and who is accomplished for |
qualifications of diverse kinds, who is agreeable and handsome, should be wedded. One should wed, O Yudhishthira, in a |
family that is higher or at least equal to one's own. One who is desirous of one's own prosperity, should never wed a woman |
that is of an inferior order or that has fallen away from the order of her birth. Carefully igniting the fire, one should accomplish |
all those acts which have been ordained and declared in the Vedas or by the Brahmanas.[482] One should never seek to injure |
women. Spouses should always be protected. Malice always shortens life. Hence, one should always abstain from cherishing |
malice. Sleep at day-time shortens life. To sleep after the sun has risen shortens life. They who sleep at any of the twilights, or |
at nightfall or who go to sleep in a state of impurity, have their lives shortened. Adultery always shortens life. One should not |
remain in a state of impurity after shaving.[483] One should, O Bharata, carefully abstain from studying or reciting the Vedas, |
and eating, and bathing, at eventide. When the evening twilight comes, one should collect one's senses for meditation, without |
doing any act. One should, O king, bathe and then worship the Brahmanas. Indeed, one should bathe before worshipping the |
deities and reverentially saluting the preceptor. One should never go to a sacrifice unless invited. Indeed, one may go there |
without an invitation if one wishes only to see how the sacrifice is conducted. If one goes to a sacrifice (for any other purpose) |
without an invitation and if one does not, on that account, receive proper worship from the sacrificer, one's life becomes |
shortened. One should never go alone on a journey to foreign parts. Nor should one ever proceed alone to any place at night. |
Before evening comes, one should come back to one's house and remain within it. One should always obey the commands of |
one's mother and father and preceptor, without at all judging whether those commands are beneficial or otherwise. One should, |
O king, attend with great care to the Vedas and the science of arms. Do then, O king, carefully attend to the practice of riding |
an elephant, a steed, and a war-chariot. The man who attends to these with care succeeds in attaining to happiness. Such a king |
succeeds in becoming unconquerable by foes, and sway his servants and kinsmen without any of them being able to get the |
better of him. The king that attains to such a position and that carefully attends to the duty of protecting his subjects, has never |
to incur any loss. Thou shouldst acquire, O king, the science of reasoning, as also the science of words, the science of the |
Gandharvas, and the four and sixty branches of knowledge known by the name of Kala. One should every day hear the Puranas |
and the Itihasas and all the other narratives that exist, as also the life-stories of all high-souled personages. When one's spouse |
passes through functional period, one should never have congress with her, nor even summon her for conversation. The man |
endued with wisdom may accept her companionship on the fourth day after the bath of purification. If one indulges in congress |
on the fifth day from the first appearance of the functional operation, one gets a daughter. By indulging in congress on the sixth |
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