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sacrifices, were to die with any portion of a Sudra's food remaining undigested in his stomach, he is sure to take birth in his |
next life as a Sudra. In consequence of those remains of a Sudra's food in his stomach, he falls away from the status of a |
Brahmana. Such a Brahmana becomes invested with the status of a Sudra. There is no doubt in this. This Brahmana in his next |
life becomes invested with the status of that order upon whose food he subsists through life or with the undigested portion of |
whose food in his stomach he breathes his last.[571] That man who, having attained to the auspicious status of a Brahmana |
which is so difficult to acquire, disregards it and eats interdicted food, falls away from his high status. That Brahmana who |
drinks alcohol, who becomes guilty of Brahmanicide or mean in his behaviour, or a thief, or who breaks his vows, or becomes |
impure, or unmindful of his Vedic studies, or sinful, or characterised by cupidity, or guilty of cunning or cheating, or who does |
not observe vows, or who weds a Sudra woman, or who derives his subsistence by pandering to the lusts of other people or |
who sells the Soma plant, or who serves a person of an order below his, falls away from his status of Brahmanahood.[572] That |
Brahmana who violates the bed of his preceptor, or who cherishes malice towards him, or who takes pleasure in speaking ill of |
him, falls away from the status of Brahmanahood even if he be conversant with Brahman. By these good acts, again, O |
goddess, when performed, a Sudra becomes a Brahmana, and a Vaisya becomes a Kshatriya. The Sudra should perform all the |
duties laid down for him, properly and according to the ordinance. He should always wait, with obedience and humility, upon |
person of the three other orders and serve them with care. Always adhering to the path of righteousness, the Sudra should |
cheerfully do all this. He should honour the deities and persons of the regenerate orders. He should observe the vow of |
hospitality to all persons. With senses kept under subjection and becoming abstemious in food, he should never approach his |
wife except in her season. He should ever search after persons that are holy and pure. As regards food, he should eat that which |
remains after the needs of all persons have been satisfied. If, indeed, the Sudra desires to be a Vaisya (in his next life), he |
should also abstain from meat of animals not slain in sacrifices. If a Vaisya wishes to be a Brahmana (in his next life), he |
should observe even these duties. He should be truthful in speech, and free from pride or arrogance. He should rise superior to |
all pairs of opposites (such as heat and cold, joy and sorrow, etc.) He should be observant of the duties of peace and |
tranquillity. He should adore the deities in sacrifices, attend with devotion to the study and recitation of the Vedas, and become |
pure in body and mind. He should keep his senses under subjection, honour the Brahmanas, and seek the welfare of all the |
orders. Leading the domestic mode of life and eating only twice a day at the prescribed hours he should gratify his hunger with |
only such food as remains after the needs have been satisfied of all the members of his family with dependants and guests. He |
should be abstemious in food, and act without being impelled by the desire of reward. He should be free from egotism. He |
should adore the deities in the Agnihotra and pour libations according to the ordinance. Observing the duties of hospitality |
towards all persons, he should, as already said, eat the food that remains after serving all others for whom it has been cooked. |
He should, according to the ordinance laid down, worship the three fires. Such a Vaisya of pure conduct takes birth in his next |
life in a high Kshatriya family.[573] If a Vaisya, after having taken birth as a Kshatriya, goes through the usual purificatory |
rites, becomes invested with the sacred thread, and betakes himself to the observance of vows, he becomes, in his next life, an |
honoured Brahmana. Indeed, after his birth as a Kshatriya, he should make presents, adore the deities in great sacrifices with |
plentiful Dakshinas, study the Vedas, and desirous of attaining to Heaven should worship the three fires. He should interfere |
for dispelling the sorrows of the distressed, and should always righteously cherish and protect those subjects that own his sway. |
He should be truthful, and do all acts that have truth in them, and seek happiness in conduct like this. He should award |
punishments that are righteous, without laying aside the rod of chastisement for good. He should induce men to do righteous |
deeds. Guided by considerations of policy (in the matter of swaying his people), he should take a sixth of the produce of the |
fields.[574] He should never indulge in sexual pleasure, but live cheerfully and in independence, well-conversant with the |
science of Wealth or Profit. Of righteous soul, he should seek his wedded spouse only in her season. He should always observe |
fasts, keep his soul under control, devote himself to the study of the Vedas, and be pure in body and mind. He should sleep on |
blades of Kusa grass spread out in his fire, chamber. He should pursue the aggregate of Three (viz., Righteousness, Wealth, and |
Pleasure), and be always cheerful. Unto Sudras desirous of food, he should always answer that it is ready. He should never |
desire any thing from motives of gain or pleasure. He should worship the Pitris and gods and guests. In his own house he |
should live the life of a mendicant. He should duly adore the deities in his Agnihotra, morning, noon, and evening every day, |
by pouring libations agreeably to the ordinance. With his face turned towards the foe, he should cast off his life-breath in battle |
fought for the benefit of kine and Brahmanas. Or he may enter the triple fires sanctified with Mantras and cast off his body. By |
pursuing this line of conduct he takes birth in his next life as a Brahmana. Endued with knowledge and science, purified from |
all dross, and fully conversant with the Vedas, a pious Kshatriya, by his own acts, becomes a Brahmana. It is with the aid of |
these acts, O goddess, that a person who has sprung from a degraded order, viz., a Sudra, may become a Brahmana refined of |
all stains and possessed of Vedic lore, One that is a Brahmana, when he becomes wicked in conduct and observes no |
distinction in respect of food, falls away from the status of Brahmanahood and becomes a Sudra. Even a Sudra, O goddess, that |
has purified his soul by pure deeds and that has subjugated all his senses, deserves to be waited upon and served with reverence |
as a Brahmana. This has been said by the Self-born Brahmana himself. When a pious nature and pious deeds are noticeable in |
even a Sudra, he should, according to my opinion, be held superior to a person of the three regenerate classes. Neither birth, |
nor the purificatory rites, nor learning, nor offspring, can be regarded as grounds for conferring upon one the regenerate status. |
Verily, conduct is the only ground. All Brahmanas in this world are Brahmanas in consequence of conduct. A Sudra, if he is |
established on good conduct, is regarded as possessed of the status of a Brahmana. The status of Brahma, O auspicious lady, is |
equal wherever it exists. Even this is my opinion. He, indeed, is a Brahmana in whom the status of Brahma exists,--that |
condition which is bereft of attributes and which has no stain attached to it. The boon-giving Brahma, while he created all |
creatures, himself said that the distribution of human beings into the four orders dependent on birth is only for purposes of |
classification. The Brahmana is a great field in this world,--a field equipped with feet for it moves from place to place. He who |
plants seeds in that field, O beautiful lady, reaps the crop in the next world. That Brahmana who wishes to achieve his own |
good should always live upon the remains of the food that may be there in his house after gratifying the needs of all others. He |
should always adhere to the path of righteousness. Indeed, he should tread along the path that belongs to Brahma. He should |
live engaged in the study of the Samhitas and remaining at home he should discharge all the duties of a householder. He should |
always be devoted to the study of the Vedas, but he should never derive the means of subsistence from such study. That |
Brahmana who always conducts himself thus, adhering to the path of righteousness, worshipping his sacred fire, and engaged |
in the study of the Vedas, comes to be regarded as Brahma. The status of a Brahmana once gained, it should always be |
protected with care, O thou of sweet smiles, by avoiding the stain of contact with persons born in inferior orders, and by |
abstaining from the acceptance of gifts. I have thus told thee a mystery, viz., the manner in which a Sudra may become a |
Brahmana, or that by which a Brahmana falls away from his own pure status and becomes a Sudra." |
SECTION CXLIV |
"Uma said, 'O holy one, O Lord of all beings, O thou that art worshipped by the deities and Asuras equally, tell me what are the |
duties and derelictions of men. Indeed, O puissant one, resolve my doubts. It is by these three, viz., thought, word, and deed, |
that men become bound with bonds. It is by these same three that they become freed from those bonds. By pursuing what |
conduct, O god,--indeed, by what kind of acts,--by what behaviour and attributes and words, do men succeed in ascending to |
heaven?' |
"The god of gods said, 'O goddess, thou art well-conversant with the true import of duties. Thou art ever devoted to |
righteousness and self-restraint. The question thou hast asked me is fraught with the benefit of all creatures. It enhances the |
intelligence of all persons. Do thou, therefore, listen to the answer. Those persons that are devoted to the religion of Truth, that |
are righteous and destitute of the indications of the several modes of life, and that enjoy the wealth earned by righteous means, |
succeed in ascending to heaven. Those men that are freed from all doubts, that are possessed of omniscience, and that have |
eyes to behold all things, are never enchained by either virtue or sin. Those men that are freed from all attachments can never |
be bound by the chains of action. They who never injure others in thought, word, or deed, and who never attach themselves to |
anything, can never be bound by acts. They who abstain from taking the lives of any creature, who are pious in conduct, who |
have compassion, who regard friends and foes in an equal light and who are self-restrained, can never be bound by acts. Those |
men that are endued with compassion towards all beings, that succeed in inspiring the confidence of all living creatures, and |
that have cast off malice in their behaviour, succeed in ascending to heaven. Those men that have no desire to appropriate what |
belongs to others, that keep themselves aloof from the wedded wives of others, and that enjoy only such wealth as has been |
earned by righteous means, succeed in ascending to heaven. Those men who behave towards the wives of other people as |
towards their own mothers and sisters and daughters, succeed in attaining to heaven. Those men that abstain from appropriating |
what belongs to others, that are perfectly contented with what they possess, and that live depending upon their own destiny, |
succeed in ascending to heaven. Those men that, in their conduct, always shut their eyes against association with other people's |
spouses, that are masters of their senses, and that are devoted to righteous conduct, succeed in ascending to heaven. Even this is |
the path, created by the gods, that the righteous should follow. This is the path, freed from passion and aversion, laid down for |
the righteous to follow. Those men who are devoted to their own spouses and who seek them only in their seasons, and who |
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