6 IV. path, in which his parents and forefathers walked: CHAP. ' while he moves in that path, he can give no offence. 179. WITH an attendant on consecrated fire, a per' former of holy rites, and a teacher of the Véda, with his maternal uncle, with his guest or a dependant, a ' with a child, with a man either aged or sick, with a physician, with his paternal kindred, with his relations by marriage, and with cousins on the side of his mother, 180. With his mother herself, or with his father, with his kinswomen, with his brother, with his son, his wife, or his daughter, and with his whole set ' of servants let him have no strife. 181. A house-keeper, who shuns altercation with 'those just mentioned, is released from all secret faults; and, by suppressing all such disputes, he obtains a victory over the following worlds: 182. The teacher of the Véda secures him the ' world of BRAHMA'; his father, the world of the Sun, or of the Prajápatis; his guest, the world of INDRA; 'his attendance on holy fire, the world of Dévas; 183. His female relations, the world of celestial nymphs; his maternal cousins, the world of the Vis'wadévas; his relations by affinity, the world of waters; his mother and maternal uncle give him power on earth; 184. Children, old men, poor dependants, and sick persons, must be considered as rulers of the pure ⚫ether; $ 2 CHAP. 'ether; his elder brother, as equal to his father; his wife and son, as his own body; 185. His assemblage of servants, as his own shadow; 'his daughter, as the highest object of tenderness: let him, therefore, when offended by any of those, bear the offence without indignation. 186. THOUGH permitted to receive presents, let him ' avoid a habit of taking them; since, by taking many gifts, his divine light soon fades. 187. Let no man of sense, who has not fully informed himself of the law concerning gifts of particular things, accept a present, even though he pine ' with hunger. 188. The man who knows not that law, yet accepts gold or gems, land, a horse, a cow, food, raiment, oils or clarified butter, becomes n ere ashes, like 'wood consumed by fire: 189. Gold and gems burn up his nourishment and life; land and a cow, his body; a horse, his eyes; raiment, his skin; clarified butter, his manly strength; oils, his progeny. ( 190. A twice-born man, void of true devotion, and 'not having read the Véda, yet eager to take a gift, sinks down together with it, as with a boat of stone in deep water. even by a small gift, may become CHAP. helpless as a cow in a bog. 192. Let no man, apprized of this law, present even water to a priest, who acts like a cat, nor to him, 'who acts like a bittern, nor to him, who is unlearned ' in the Véda ; 193. Since property, though legally gained, if it 'be given to either of those three, becomes preju'dicial in the next world, both to the giver and re'ceiver: 194. As he, who tries to pass over deep water in a boat of stone, sinks to the bottom, so those two ignorant men, the receiver and the giver, sink to a region of torment. 195. A covetous wretch, who continually displays 'the flag of virtue, a pretender, a deluder of the people, is declared to be the man who acts like a cat he is an injurious hypocrite, a detractor from the merits of all men. 6 : 196. A twice-born man, with his eyes dejected, morose, intent on his own advantage, sly, and falsely 'demure, is he, who acts like a bittern. 197. Such priests, as live like bitterns, and such as demean themselves like cats, fall by that sinful 'conduct into the hell called Andhatámisra. 198. LET no man, having committed sin, perform 'a penance, under the pretext of austere devotion, disguising IV. disguising his crime under fictitious religion, and deceiving both women and low men: 199. Such impostors, though Bráhmens, are despised in the next life and in this, by all who pronounce holy texts; and every religious act fraudulently performed goes to evil beings. 200. He, who has no right to distinguishing marks, yet gains a subsistence by wearing false marks of distinction, takes to himself the sin committed by 'those who are entitled to such marks, and shall again be born from the womb of a brute animal. 6 6 201. NEVER let him bathe in the pool of another man; for he, who bathes in it without licence, takes to himself a small portion of the sins, which the 'maker of the pool has committed. 202. He, who appropriates to his own use the carriage, the bed, the seat, the well, the garden, or the house of another man, who has not deliver'ed them to him, assumes a fourth part of the guilt of their owner. 203. In rivers, in ponds dug by holy persons, and in lakes, let him always bathe; in rivulets also, and in torrents. 204. A WISE man should constantly discharge all the moral duties, though he perform not constantly the ceremonies of religion; since he falls low, if, while he performs ceremonial acts only, he discharge 6 not his moral duties. 205. NEVER 6 205. NEVER let a priest eat part of a sacrifice not CHAP. begun with texts of the Véda, nor of one performed by a common sacrificer, by a woman, or by an eu6 nuch: 6 206. When those persons offer the clarified butter, it brings misfortune to good men, and raises aversion in the deities; such oblations, therefore, he must carefully shun. 207. Let him never eat the food of the insane, 'the wrathful, or the sick; nor that, on which lice have fallen; nor that, which has designedly been touched by a foot; 6 208. Nor that, which has been looked at by the slayer of a priest, or by any other deadly sinner, or has even been touched by a woman in her courses, or pecked by a bird, or approached by a dog: 209. Nor food which has been smelled by a cow; nor particularly that which has been proclaimed for all comers; nor the food of associated knaves, or of harlots; nor that, which is contemned by the learned in scripture; 210. Nor that of a thief or a publick singer, of a carpenter, of an usurer, of one who has recently come from a sacrifice, of a niggardly churl, or of one bound with fetters; 6 211. Of one publickly defamed, of an eunuch, of an unchaste woman, or of a hypocrite: nor any 'sweet thing turned acid, nor what has been kept a • whole IV. |