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body of man becomes subtil and unmanifest. It becomes invisible. How is it possible for piety to follow it?' |
"Vrihaspati said, 'Earth, Wind, Ether, Water, Light, Mind, Yama (the king of the dead), Understanding, the Soul, as also Day |
and Night, all together behold as witnesses the merits (and demerits) of all living creatures. With these, Righteousness follows |
the creature (when dead).[508] When the body becomes bereft of life, skin, bones, flesh, the vital seed, and blood, O thou of |
great intelligence, leave it at the same time. Endued with merit (and demerit) Jiva (after the destruction of this body) attains to |
another. After the attainment by Jiva of that body, the presiding deities of the five elements once more behold as witnesses all |
his acts good and bad. What else dost thou wish to hear? If endued with righteousness, Jiva enjoys happiness. What other topic, |
belonging to this or the other world, shall I discourse upon?' |
"Yudhishthira said, 'Thy illustrious self has explained how Righteousness follows Jiva. I desire to know how the vital seed is |
originated.' |
"Vrihaspati said, 'The food that these deities, O king, who dwell in the body, viz., Earth, Wind, Ether, Water, Light, and Mind |
eat, gratifies them. When those five elements become gratified, O monarch, with Mind numbering as their sixth, their vital seed |
then becomes generated, O thou of cleansed soul! When an act of union takes place between male and female, the vital seed |
flows out and causes conception. I have thus explained to thee what thou hast asked. What else dost thou wish to hear?' |
"Yudhishthira said, 'Thou hast, O illustrious one, said how conception takes place. Do thou explain how the Jiva that takes |
birth grows (by becoming possessed of body).' |
"Vrihaspati said, 'As soon as Jiva enters the vital seed, he becomes overwhelmed by the elements already mentioned. When |
Jiva becomes disunited therewith, he is said to attain to the other end (viz., death). Endued as Jiva becomes with all those |
elements, he attains, in consequence thereof, a body. The deities, that preside over those elements behold as witnesses all his |
acts, good and bad. What else dost thou wish to hear?' |
"Yudhishthira said, 'Leaving off skin and bone and flesh, and becoming destitute of all those elements, in what does Jiva |
reside, O illustrious one, for enjoying and enduring happiness and misery?' |
"Vrihaspati said, 'Endued with all his acts, the Jiva quickly enters the vital seed, and utilizing the functional flow of women, |
takes birth in time, O Bharata. After birth, the Jiva receives woe and death from the messengers of Yama. Indeed, misery and a |
painful round of rebirth are his inheritance. Endued with life, O king, the Jiva in this world, from the moment of his birth, |
enjoys and endures his own (previous) acts, depending upon righteousness (and its reverse). If the Jiva, according to the best of |
his power, follows righteousness from the day of his birth, he then succeeds in enjoying, when reborn, happiness without |
interruption. If, on the other hand, without following righteousness without interruption, he acts sinfully, he reaps happiness at |
first as the reward of his righteousness and endures misery after that. Endued with unrighteousness, the Jiva has to go to the |
dominions of Yama and suffering great misery there, he has to take birth in an intermediate order of being,[509] Listen to me |
as I tell thee what the different acts are by doing which the diva, stupefied by folly, has to take birth in different orders of |
being, as declared in the Vedas, the scriptures, and the (sacred) histories. Mortals have to go to the frightful regions of Yama. |
In those regions, O king, there are places that are fraught with every merit and that are worthy on that account of being the |
abodes of the very deities. There are, again, places in those regions that are worse than those which are inhabited by animals |
and birds. Indeed, there are spots of these kinds in the abode of Yama which (so far as its happier regions are concerned) is |
equal to the region of Brahman himself in merits. Creatures, bound by their acts, endure diverse kinds of misery. I shall, after |
this, tell thee what those acts and dispositions are in consequence of which a person obtains to an end that is fraught with great |
misery and terror. If a regenerate person, having studied the four Vedas, becomes stupefied by folly and accepts a gift from a |
fallen man, he has then to take birth in the asinine order. He has to live as an ass for five and ten years. Casting off his asinine |
form, he has next to take birth as an ox, in which state he has to live for seven years. Casting off his bovine form, he has next to |
take birth as a Rakshasa of regenerate order. Living as Rakshasa of the regenerate order for three months, he then regains his |
status (in his next birth) of a Brahmana.[510] A Brahmana, by officiating at the sacrifice of a fallen person, has to take birth as |
a vile worm. In this form he has to live for five and ten years, O Bharata. Freed from the status of a worm, be next takes birth |
as an ass. As an ass he has to live for five years, and then a hog, in which state also he has to remain for as many years. After |
that, he takes birth as a cock, and living for five years in that form, he takes birth as a jackal and lives for as many years in that |
state. He has next to take birth as a dog, and living thus for a year he regains his status of humanity. That foolish disciple who |
offends his preceptor by doing any injury to him, has certainly to undergo three transformations in this world. Such a person, O |
monarch, has in the first instance to become a dog. He has then to become a beast of prey, and then an ass. Living his asinine |
form, he has to wander for some time in great affliction as a spirit. After the expiration of that period, he has to take birth as a |
Brahmana. That sinful disciple who even in thought commits adultery with the wife of his preceptor, has in consequence of |
such a sinful heart, to undergo many fierce shapes in this world. First taking birth in the canine order he has to live for three |
years. Casting off the canine form when death comes, he takes birth as a worm or vile vermin. In this form he has to live for a |
year. Leaving that form he succeeds in regaining his status as a human being of the regenerate order. If the preceptor kills, |
without reason, his disciple who is even as a son to him, he has, in consequence of such a wilful act of sin on his part, to take |
birth as a beast of prey. That son who disregards his father and mother, O king, has to take birth, after leaving off his human |
form as an animal of the asinine order. Assuming the asinine form he has to live for ten years. After that he has to take birth as |
a crocodile, in which form he has to live for a year. After that he regains the human form. That son with whom his parents |
become angry, has, in consequence of his evil thoughts towards them, to take birth as an ass. As an ass he has to live for ten |
months. He has then to take birth as a dog and to remain as such for four and ten months. After that he has to take birth as a cat |
and living in that form for seven months he regains his status of humanity. Having spoken ill of parents, one has to take birth as |
a Sarika. Striking them, one has to take birth, O king, as tortoise. Living as a tortoise for ten years, he has next to take birth as a |
porcupine. After that he has to take birth as a snake, and living for six months in that form he regains the status of humanity. |
That man who, while subsisting upon the food that his royal master supplies, commits acts that are injurious to the interests of |
his master,--that man, thus stupefied by folly, has after death to take birth as an ape. For ten years he has to live as an ape, and |
after that for five years as a mouse. After that he has to become a dog, and living in that form for a period of six months he |
succeeds in regaining his status of humanity. That man who misappropriates what is deposited with him in trustfulness has to |
undergo a hundred transformations. He at last takes birth as a vile worm. In that order he has to live for a period of ten and five |
years, O Bharata. Upon the exhaustion of his great demerit in this way, he succeeds in regaining his status of humanity. That |
man who harbours malice towards others has, after death, to take birth as a Sarngaka. That man of wicked understanding who |
becomes guilty of breach of trust has to take birth as a fish. Living as a fish for eight years, he takes birth, O Bharata, as a deer. |
Living as a deer for four months, he has next to take birth as a goat. After the expiration of a full year he casts off his goatish |
body, he takes birth then as a worm. After that he succeeds in regaining his status of humanity. That shameless insensate man |
who, through stupefaction, steals paddy, barley, sesame, Masha, Kulattha, oil-seeds, oats, Kalaya, Mudga, wheat, Atasi, and |
other kinds of corn, has to take birth as a mouse[511]. After leading the life for some time he has to take birth as a hog. As soon |
as he takes birth as a hog he has to die of disease. In consequence of his sin, that foolish man has next to take birth as a dog, O |
king. Living as a dog for five years, he then regains his status of humanity. Having committed an act of adultery with the |
spouse of another man, one has to take birth as a wolf. After that he has to assume the forms of a dog and jackal and vulture. |
He has next to take birth as a snake and then as a Kanka and then as a crane.[512] That man of sinful soul who, stupefied by |
folly, commits an act of sexual congress with the spouse of a brother, has to take birth as a male Kokila and to live in that form |
for a whole year, O king. He who, through lust, commits an act of sexual congress with the wife of a friend, or the wife of |
preceptor, or the wife of his king, has, after death, to take the form of a hog. He has to live in his porcine form for five years |
and then to assume that of a wolf for ten years. For the next five years he has to assume that of a wolf for ten years. For the |
next five years he has to live as a cat and then for the next ten years as a cock. He has next to live for three months as an ant, |
and then as a worm for a month. Having undergone these transformations he has next to live as a vile worm for four and ten |
years. When his sin becomes exhausted by such chastisement, he at last regains the status of humanity. When a wedding is |
about to take place, or a sacrifice, or an act of gifts is about to be made, O thou of great puissance, the man who offers any |
obstruction, has to take birth in his next life as a vile worm, Assuming such a form he has to live, O Bharata, for five and ten |
years. When his demerit is exhausted by such suffering, he regains the status of humanity. Having once bestowed his daughter |
in marriage upon a person, he who seeks to bestow her again upon a second husband, has, O king, to take birth among vile |
worms. Assuming such a form, O Yudhisthira, he has to live for a period of three and ten years. Upon the exhaustion of his |
demerit by such sufferance, he regains the status of humanity. He who eats without having performed the rites in honour of the |
deities or those in honour of the Pitris or without having offered (even) oblations of water to both the Rishis and the Pitris, has |
to take birth as a crow. Living as a crow for a hundred years he next assumes the form of a cock. His next transformation is that |
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