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of a snake for a month. After this, he regains the status of humanity. He who disregards his eldest brother who is even like a |
sire, has, after death, to take birth in the order of cranes. Having assumed that form he has to live in it for two years. Casting off |
that form at the conclusion of that period, he regains the status of humanity. That Sudra who has sexual intercourse with a |
Brahmana woman, has, after death, to take birth as a hog. As soon as he takes birth in the porcine order he dies of disease, O |
king. The wretch has next to take birth as a dog. O king, in consequence of his dire act of sin. Casting off his canine form he |
regains upon the exhaustion of his demerit, the status of humanity. The Sudra who begets offspring upon a Brahmana woman, |
leaving off his human form, becomes reborn as a mouse. The man who becomes guilty of ingratitude O king, has to go to the |
regions of Yama and there to undergo very painful and severe treatment at the hands of the messengers, provoked to fury, of |
the grim king of the dead. Clubs with heavy hammers and mallets, sharp-pointed lances, heated jars, all fraught with severe |
pain, frightful forests of sword-blades, heated sands, thorny Salmalis--these and many other instruments of the most painful |
torture such a man has to endure in the regions of Yama, O Bharata! The ungrateful person, O chief of Bharata's race, having |
endured such terrible treatment in the regions of the grim king of the dead, has to come back to this world and take birth among |
vile vermin.[513] He has to live as a vile vermin for a period of five and ten years. O Bharata, He has then to enter the womb |
and die prematurely before birth. After this, that person has to enter the womb a hundred times in succession. Indeed, having, |
undergone a hundred rebirths, he at last becomes born as a creature in some intermediate order between man and inanimate |
nature. Having endured misery for a great many years, he has to take birth as a hairless tortoise. A person that steals curds has |
to take birth as a crane. One becomes a monkey by stealing raw fish. That man of intelligence who steals honey has to take |
birth as a gadfly. By stealing fruits or roots or cakes one becomes an ant. By stealing Nishpava one becomes a |
Halagolaka.[514] By stealing Payasa one becomes in one's next birth a Tittiri bird. By stealing cakes one becomes a screech- |
owl. That man of little intelligence who steals iron has to take birth as a cow. That man of little understanding who steals white |
brass has to take birth as a bird of the Harita species. By stealing a vessel of silver one becomes a pigeon. By stealing a vessel |
of gold one has to take birth as a vile vermin. By stealing a piece of silken cloth, one becomes a Krikara. By stealing a piece of |
cloth made of red silk, one becomes a Vartaka.[515] By stealing a piece of muslin one becomes a parrot. By stealing a piece of |
cloth that is of fine texture, one becomes a duck after casting off one's human body. By stealing a piece of cloth made of |
cotton, one becomes a crane. By stealing a piece of cloth made of jute, one becomes a sheep in one's next life. By stealing a |
piece of linen, one has to take birth as a hare. By stealing different kinds of colouring matter one has to take birth as a peacock. |
By stealing a piece of red cloth one has to take birth as a bird of the Jivajivaka species. By stealing unguents (such as sandal- |
paste) and perfumes in this world, the man possessed of cupidity, O king, has to take birth as a mole. Assuming the form of a |
mole one has to live in it for a period of five and ten years. After the exhaustion of his demerit by such sufferings he regains the |
status of humanity. By stealing milk, one becomes a crane. That man, O king, who through stupefaction of the understanding, |
steals oil, has to take birth, after casting off this body, as an animal that subsists upon oil as his form.[516] That wretch who |
himself well armed, slays another while that other is unarmed, from motives of obtaining his victim's wealth or from feelings of |
hostility, has, after casting off his human body, to take birth as an ass. Assuming that asinine form he has to live for a period of |
two years and then he meets with death at the edge of a weapon. Casting off in this way his asinine body he has to take birth in |
his next life as a deer always filled with anxiety (at the thought of foes that may kill him). Upon the expiration of a year from |
the time of his birth as a deer, he has to yield up his life at the point of a weapon. Thus casting off his form of a deer, he next |
takes birth as a fish and dies in consequence of being dragged up in net, on the expiration of the fourth month. He has next to |
take birth as a beast of prey. For ten years he has to live in that form, and then he takes birth as a pard in which form he has to |
live for a period of five years. Impelled by the change that is brought about by time, he then casts off that form, and his demerit |
having been exhausted he regains the status of humanity. That man of little understanding who kills a woman has to go the |
regions of Yama and to endure diverse kinds of pain and misery. He then has to pass through full one and twenty |
transformations. After that, O monarch, he has to take birth as a vile vermin. Living as a vermin for twenty years, he regains |
the status of humanity. By stealing food, one has to take birth as a bee. Living for many months in the company of other bees, |
his demerit becomes exhausted and he regains the status of humanity. By stealing paddy, one becomes a cat. That man who |
steals food mixed with sesame cakes has in his next birth to assume the form of a mouse large or small according to the |
largeness or smallness of the quantity stolen. He bites human beings every day and as the consequence thereof becomes sinful |
and travels through a varied round of rebirths. That man of foolish understanding who steals ghee has to take birth as a |
gallinule. That wicked person who steals fish has to take birth as a crow. By stealing salt one has to take birth as a mimicking |
bird. That man who misappropriates what is deposited with him through confidence, has to sustain a diminution in the period |
of his life, and after death has to take birth among fishes. Having lived for some time as a fish he dies and regains the human |
form. Regaining, however, the status of humanity, he becomes short-lived. Indeed, having committed sins, O Bharata, one has |
to take birth in an order intermediate between that of humanity and vegetables. Those people are entirely unacquainted with |
righteousness which has their own hearts for its authority. Those men that commit diverse acts of sin and then seek to expiate |
them by continuous vows and observances of piety, become endued with both happiness and misery and live in great anxiety of |
heart.[517] Those men that are of sinful conduct and that yield to the influence of cupidity and stupefaction, without doubt, |
take birth as Mlechchhas that do not deserve to be associated with. Those men on the other hand, who abstain from sin all their |
lives, become free from disease of every kind, endued with beauty of form and possessed of wealth. Women also, when they |
act in the way indicated, attain to births of the same kind. Indeed, they have to take births as the spouses of the animals I have |
indicated. I have told thee all the faults that relate to the appropriation of what belongs to others. I have discoursed to thee very |
briefly on the subject, O sinless one. In connection with some other subject, O Bharata, thou shalt again hear of those faults. I |
heard all this, O king, in days of old, from Brahman himself, and I asked all about it in a becoming way, when he discoursed on |
it in the midst of the celestial Rishis. I have told thee truly and in detail all that thou hadst asked me. Having listened to all this, |
O monarch, do thou always set thy heart on righteousness.'" |
SECTION CXII |
"Yudhishthira said, 'Thou hast told me, O regenerate one, what the end is of unrighteousness or sin. I desire now to hear, O |
foremost of speakers, of what the end is of Righteousness. Having committed diverse acts of sin, by what acts of people |
succeed in attaining to an auspicious end in this world? By what acts also do people attain to an auspicious end in heaven?' |
"Vrihaspati said, 'By committing sinful acts with perverted mind, one yields to the sway of unrighteousness and as a |
consequence goeth to hell. That man who, having perpetrated sinful acts through stupefaction of mind, feels the pangs of |
repentance and sets his heart on contemplation (of the deity), has not to endure the consequences of his sins. One becomes |
freed from one's sins in proportion as one repents for them. If one having committed a sin, O king, proclaims it in the presence |
of Brahmanas conversant with duties, one becomes quickly cleansed from the obloquy arising from one's sin. Accordingly as |
one becomes cleansed therefrom fully or otherwise, like a snake freed from his diseased slough. By making, with a |
concentrated mind, gifts of diverse kinds unto a Brahmana, and concentrating the mind (on the deity), one attains to an |
auspicious end. I shall now tell thee what those gifts are, O Yudhisthira, by making which a person, even if guilty of having |
committed sinful acts, may become endued with merit. Of all kinds of gifts, that of food is regarded as the best. One desirous |
of attaining to merit should, with a sincere heart, make gifts of food. Food is the life-breath of men. From it all creatures are |
born. All the worlds of living creatures are established upon food. Hence food is applauded. The deities, Rishis, Pitris, and |
men, all praise food. King Rantideva, in days of old, proceeded to Heaven by making gifts of food. Food that is good and that |
has been acquired lawfully, should be given, with a cheerful heart, unto such Brahmanas as are possessed of Vedic lore. That |
man has never to take birth in an intermediate order, whose food, given with a cheerful heart is taken by a thousand |
Brahmanas. A person, O chief of men, by feeding ten thousand Brahmanas, becomes cleansed of the piety and devoted to Yoga |
practices. A Brahmana conversant with the Vedas, by giving away food acquired by him as alms, unto a Brahmana devoted to |
the study of the Vedas, succeeds in attaining to happiness here. That Kshatriya who, without taking anything that belongs to a |
Brahmana, protects his subjects lawfully, and makes gifts of food, obtained by the exercise of his strength, unto Brahmanas |
foremost in Vedic knowledge, with concentrated heart, succeeds by such conduct, O thou of righteous soul, in cleansing |
himself, O son of Pandu, of all his sinful acts. That Vaisya who divides the produce of his fields into six equal shares and |
makes a gift of one of those shares unto Brahmanas, succeeds by such conduct in cleansing himself from every sin. That Sudra |
who, earning food by hard labour and at the risk of life itself, makes a gift of it to Brahmanas, becomes cleansed from every |
sin. That man who, by putting forth his physical strength, earns food without doing any act of injury to any creature, and makes |
gift of it unto Brahmanas succeeds in avoiding all calamities. A person by cheerfully making gifts of food acquired by lawful |
means unto Brahmanas pre-eminent for Vedic lore, becomes cleansed of all his sins. By treading in the path of the righteous |
one becomes freed from all sins. A person by making gifts of such food as is productive of great energy, becomes himself |
possessed of great energy. The path made by charitable persons is always trod by those that are endued with wisdom. They that |
make gifts of food are regarded as givers of life. The merit they acquire by such gifts is eternal. Hence, a person should, under |
all circumstances, seek to earn food by lawful means, and having earned to make always gifts of it unto deserving men. Food is |
the great refuge of the world of living creatures. By making gifts of food, one has never to go to hell. Hence, one should always |
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