Manu Smruti
Sutras
CHAPTER XI
1. Him who wishes (to marry for the sake of having) offspring, him who wishes to perform a sacrifice, a traveller, him who has given away all his property, him who begs for the sake of his teacher, his father, or his mother, a student of the Veda, and a sick man,
2. These nine Brahmanas one should consider as Snatakas, begging in order to fulfil the sacred law; to such poor men gifts must be given in proportion to their learning.
3. To these most excellent among the twice-born, food and presents (of money) must be given; it is declared that food must be given to others outside the sacrificial enclosure.
4. But a king shall bestow, as is proper, jewels of all sorts, and presents for the sake of sacrifices on Brahmanas learned in the Vedas.
5. If a man who has a wife weds a second wife, having begged money (to defray the marriage expenses, he obtains) no advantage but sensual enjoyment; but the issue (of his second marriage belongs) to the giver of the money.
6. One should give, according to one’s ability, wealth to Brahmanas learned in the Veda and living alone; (thus) one obtains after death heavenly bliss.
7. He who may possess (a supply of) food sufficient to maintain those dependant on him during three years or more than that, is worthy to drink the Soma-juice.
8. But a twice-born man, who, though possessing less than that amount of property, nevertheless drinks the Soma-juice, does not derive any benefit from that (act), though he may have formerly drunk the Soma-juice.
9. (If) an opulent man (is) liberal towards strangers, while his family lives in distress, that counterfeit virtue will first make him taste the sweets (of fame, but afterwards) make him swallow the poison (of punishment in hell).
10. If (a man) does anything for the sake of his happiness in another world, to the detriment of those whom he is bound to maintain, that produces evil results for him, both while he lives and when he is dead.
11. If a sacrifice, (offered) by (any twice-born) sacrificer, (and) especially by a Brahmana, must remain incomplete through (the want of) one requisite, while a righteous king rules,
12. That article (required) for the completion of the sacrifice, may be taken (forcibly) from the house of any Vaisya, who possesses a large number of cattle, (but) neither performs the (minor) sacrifices nor drinks the Soma-juice;
13. (Or) the (sacrificer) may take at his pleasure two or three (articles required for a sacrifice) from the house of a Sudra; for a Sudra has no business with sacrifices.
14. If (a man) possessing one hundred cows, kindles not the sacred fire, or one possessing a thousand cows, drinks not the Soma-juice, a (sacrificer) may unhesitatingly take (what he requires) from the houses of those two, even (though they be Brahmanas or Kshatriyas);
15. (Or) he may take (it by force or fraud) from one who always takes and never gives, and who refuses to give it; thus the fame (of the taker) will spread and his merit increase.
16. Likewise he who has not eaten at (the time of) six meals, may take at (the time of) the seventh meal (food) from a man who neglects his sacred duties, without (however) making a provision for the morrow,
17. Either from the threshing-floor, or from a field, or out of the house, or wherever he finds it; but if (the owner) asks him, he must confess to him that (deed and its cause).
18. (On such occasions) a Kshatriya must never take the property of a (virtuous Brahmana; but he who is starving may appropriate the possessions of a Dasyu, or of one who neglects his sacred duties.
19. He who takes property from the wicked and bestows it on the virtuous, transforms himself into a boat, and carries both (over the sea of misfortune).
20. The property of those who zealously offer sacrifices, the wise call the property of the gods; but the wealth of those who perform no sacrifices is called the property of the Asuras.
21. On him (who, for the reasons stated, appropriates another’s possessions), a righteous king shall not inflict punishment; for (in that case) a Brahmana pines with hunger through the Kshatriya’s want of care.
22. Having ascertained the number of those dependent on such a man, and having fully considered his learning and his conduct, the king shall allow him, out of his own property, a maintenance whereon he may live according to the law;
23. And after allotting to him a maintenance, the king must protect him in every way; for he obtains from such (a man) whom he protects, the part of his spiritual merit.
24. A Brahmana shall never beg from a Sudra property for a sacrifice; for a sacrificer, having begged (it from such a man), after death is born (again) as a Kandala.
25. A Brahmana who, having begged any property for a sacrifice, does not use the whole (for that purpose), becomes for a hundred years a (vulture of the kind called) Bhasa, or a crow.
26. That sinful man, who, through covetousness, seizes the property of the gods, or the property of Brahmanas, feeds in another world on the leavings of vultures.
27. In case the prescribed animal and Soma-sacrifices cannot be performed, let him always offer at the change of the year a Vaisvanari Ishti as a penance (for the omission).
28. But a twice-born, who, without being in distress, performs his duties according to the law for times of distress, obtains no reward for them in the next world; that is the opinion (of the sages).
29. By the Visve-devas, by the Sadhyas, and by the great sages (of the) Brahmana (caste), who were afraid of perishing in times of distress, a substitute was made for the (principal) rule.
30. That evil-minded man, who, being able (to fulfil) the original law, lives according to the secondary rule, reaps no reward for that after death.
31. A Brahmana who knows the law need not bring any (offence) to the notice of the king; by his own power alone be can punish those men who injure him.
32. His own power is greater than the power of the king; the Brahmana therefore, may punish his foes by his own power alone.
33. Let him use without hesitation the sacred texts, revealed by Atharvan and by Angiras; speech, indeed, is the weapon of the Brahmana, with that he may slay his enemies.
34. A Kshatriya shall pass through misfortunes which have befallen him by the strength of his arms, a Vaisya and a Sudra by their wealth, the chief of the twice-born by muttered prayers and burnt-oblations.
35. The Brahmana is declared (to be) the creator (of the world), the punisher, the teacher, (and hence) a benefactor (of all created beings); to him let no man say anything unpropitious, nor use any harsh words.
36. Neither a girl, nor a (married) young woman, nor a man of little learning, nor a fool, nor a man in great suffering, nor one uninitiated, shall offer an Agnihotra.
37. For such (persons) offering a burnt-oblation sink into hell, as well as he to whom that (Agnihotra) belongs; hence the person who sacrifices (for another) must be skilled in (the performance of) Vaitana (rites), and know the whole Veda.
38. A Brahmana who, though wealthy, does not give, as fee for the performance of an Agnyadheya, a horse sacred to Pragapati, becomes (equal to one) who has not kindled the sacred fires.
39. Let him who has faith and controls his senses perform other meritorious acts, but let him on no account offer sacrifices at which he gives smaller fees (than those prescribed).
40. The organs (of sense and action), honour, (bliss in) heaven, longevity, fame, offspring, and cattle are destroyed by a sacrifice at which (too) small sacrificial fees are given; hence a man of small means should not offer a (Srauta) sacrifice.
41. A Brahmana who, being an Agnihotrin, voluntarily neglects the sacred fires, shall perform a lunar penance during one month; for that (offence) is equal to the slaughter of a son.
42. Those who, obtaining wealth from Sudras, (and using that) offer an Agnihotra, are priests officiating for Sudras, (and hence) censured among those who recite the Veda.
43. Treading with his foot on the heads of those fools who worship a fire (kindled at the expense) of a Sudra, the giver (of the wealth) shall always pass over his miseries (in the next world).
44. A man who omits a prescribed act, or performs a blamable act, or cleaves to sensual enjoyments, must perform a penance.
45. (All) sages prescribe a penance for a sin unintentionally committed; some declare, on the evidence of the revealed texts, (that it may be performed) even for an intentional (offence).
46. A sin unintentionally committed is expiated by the recitation of Vedic texts, but that which (men) in their folly commit intentionally, by various (special) penances.
47. A twice-born man, having become liable to perform a penance, be it by (the decree of) fate or by (an act) committed in a former life, must not, before the penance has been performed, have intercourse with virtuous men.
48. Some wicked men suffer a change of their (natural) appearance in consequence of crimes committed in this life, and some in consequence of those committed in a former (existence).
49. He who steals the gold (of a Brahmana) has diseased nails; a drinker of (the spirituous liquor called) Sura, black teeth; the slayer of a Brahmana, consumption; the violator of a Guru’s bed, a diseased skin;
50. An informer, a foul-smelling nose; a calumniator, a stinking breath; a stealer of grain, deficiency in limbs; he who adulterates (grain), redundant limbs;
51. A stealer of (cooked) food, dyspepsia; a stealer of the words (of the Veda), dumbness a stealer of clothes, white leprosy; a horse-stealer, lameness.
52. The stealer of a lamp will become blind; he who extinguishes it will become one-eyed; injury (to sentient beings) is punished by general sickliness; an adulterer (will have) swellings (in his limbs).
53. Thus in consequence of a remnant of (the guilt of former) crimes, are born idiots, dumb, blind, deaf, and deformed men, who are (all) despised by the virtuous.
54. Penances, therefore, must always be performed for the sake of purification, because those whose sins have not been expiated, are born (again) with disgraceful marks.
55. Killing a Brahmana, drinking (the spirituous liquor called) Sura, stealing (the gold of a Brahmana), adultery with a Guru’s wife, and associating with such (offenders), they declare (to be) mortal sins (mahapataka).
56. Falsely attributing to oneself high birth, giving information to the king (regarding a crime), and falsely accusing one’s teacher, (are offences) equal to slaying a Brahmana.
57. Forgetting the Veda, reviling the Vedas, giving false evidence, slaying a friend, eating forbidden food, or (swallowing substances) unfit for food, are six (offences) equal to drinking Sura.
58. Stealing a deposit, or men, a horse, and silver, land, diamonds and (other) gems, is declared to be equal to stealing the gold (of a Brahmana).
59. Carnal intercourse with sisters by the same mother, with (unmarried) maidens, with females of the lowest castes, with the wives of a friend, or of a son, they declare to be equal to the violation of a Guru’s bed.
60. Slaying kine, sacrificing for those who are unworthy to sacrifice, adultery, selling oneself, casting off one’s teacher, mother, father, or son, giving up the (daily) study of the Veda, and neglecting the (sacred domestic) fire,
61. Allowing one’s younger brother to marry first, marrying before one’s elder brother, giving a daughter to, or sacrificing for, (either brother),
62. Defiling a damsel, usury, breaking a vow, selling a tank, a garden, one’s wife, or child,
63. Living as a Vratya, casting off a relative, teaching (the Veda) for wages, learning (the Veda) from a paid teacher, and selling goods which one ought not to sell,
64. Superintending mines (or factories) of any sort, executing great mechanical works, injuring (living) plants, subsisting on (the earnings of) one’s wife, sorcery (by means of sacrifices), and working (magic by means of) roots, (and so forth),
65. Cutting down green trees for firewood, doing acts for one’s own advantage only, eating prohibited food,
66. Neglecting to kindle the sacred fires, theft, non-payment of (the three) debts, studying bad books, and practising (the arts of) dancing and singing,
67. Stealing grain, base metals, or cattle, intercourse with women who drink spirituous liquor, slaying women, Sudras, Vaisyas, or Kshatriyas, and atheism, (are all) minor offences, causing loss of caste (Upapataka).
68. Giving pain to a Brahmana (by a blow), smelling at things which ought not to be smelt at, or at spirituous liquor, cheating, and an unnatural offence with a man, are declared to cause the loss of caste (Gatibhramsa)
69. Killing a donkey, a horse, a camel, a deer, an elephant, a goat, a sheep, a fish, a snake, or a buffalo, must be known to degrade (the offender) to a mixed caste (Samkarikarana).
70. Accepting presents from blamed men, trading, serving Sudras, and speaking a falsehood, make (the offender) unworthy to receive gifts (Apatra).
71. Killing insects, small or large, or birds, eating anything kept close to spirituous liquors, stealing fruit, firewood, or flowers, (are offences) which make impure (Malavaha).
72. Learn (now) completely those penances, by means of which all the several offences mentioned (can) be expiated.
73. For his purification the slayer of a Brahmana shall make a hut in the forest and dwell (in it) during twelve years, subsisting on alms and making the skull of a dead man his flag.
74. Or let him, of his own free will, become (in a battle) the target of archers who know (his purpose); or he may thrice throw himself headlong into a blazing fire;
75. Or he may offer a horse-sacrifice, a Svargit, a Gosava, an Abhigit, a Visvagit, a Trivrit, or an Agnishtut;
76. Or, in order to remove (the guilt of) slaying a Brahmana, he may walk one hundred yoganas, reciting one of the Vedas, eating little, and controlling his organs;
77. Or he may present to a Brahmana, learned in the Vedas, whole property, as much wealth as suffices for the maintenance (of the recipient), or a house together with the furniture;
78. Or, subsisting on sacrificial food, he may walk against the stream along (the whole course of the river) Sarasvati; or, restricting his food (very much), he may mutter thrice the Samhita of a Veda.
79. Having shaved off (all his hair), he may dwell at the extremity of the village, or in a cow-pen, or in a hermitage, or at the root of a tree, taking pleasure in doing good to cows and Brahmanas.
80. He who unhesitatingly abandons life for the sake of Brahmanas or of cows, is freed from (the guilt of) the murder of a Brahmana, and (so is he) who saves (the life of) a cow, or of a Brahmana.
81. If either he fights at least three times (against robbers in defence of) a Brahmana’s (property), or reconquers the whole property of a Brahmana, or if he loses his life for such a cause, he is freed (from his guilt).
82. He who thus (remains) always firm in his vow, chaste, and of concentrated mind, removes after the lapse of twelve years (the guilt of) slaying a Brahmana.
83. Or he who, after confessing his crime in an assembly of the gods of the earth (Brahnanas), and the gods of men (Kshatriyas), bathes (with the priests) at the close of a horse-sacrifice, is (also) freed (from
guilt).
guilt).
84. The Brahmana is declared (to be) the root of the sacred law and the Kshatriya its top; hence he who has confessed his sin before an assembly of such men, becomes pure.
85. By his origin alone a Brahmana is a deity even for the gods, and (his teaching is) authoritative for men, because the Veda is the foundation for that.
86. (If) only three of them who are learned in the Veda proclaim the expiation for offences, that shall purify the (sinners); for the words of learned men are a means of purification.
87. A Brahmana who, with a concentrated mind, follows any of the (above-mentioned) rules, removes the sin committed by slaying a Brahmana through his self-control.
88. For destroying the embryo (of a Brahmana, the sex of which was) unknown, for slaying a Kshatriya or a Vaisya who are (engaged in or) have offered a (Vedic) sacrifice, or a (Brahmana) woman who has bathed after temporary uncleanness (Atreyi), he must perform the same penance,
89. Likewise for giving false evidence (in an important cause), for passionately abusing the teacher, for stealing a deposit, and for killing (his) wife or his friend:
90. This expiation has been prescribed for unintentionally killing a Brahmana; but for intentionally slaying a Brahmana no atonement is ordained.
91. A twice-born man who has (intentionally) drunk, through delusion of mind, (the spirituous liquor called) Sura shall drink that liquor boiling-hot; when his body has been completely scalded by that, he is freed from his guilt;
92. Or he may drink cow’s urine, water, milk, clarified butter or (liquid) cowdung boiling-hot, until he dies;
93. Or, in order to remove (the guilt of) drinking Sura, he may eat during a year once (a day) at night grains (of rice) or oilcake, wearing clothes made of cowhair and his own hair in braids and carrying (a wine cup as) a flag.
94. Sura, indeed, is the dirty refuse (mala) of grain, sin also is called dirt (mala); hence a Brahmana, a Kshatriya, and a Vaisya shall not drink Sura.
95. Sura one must know to be of three kinds, that distilled from molasses (gaudi), that distilled from ground rice, and that distilled from Madhuka-flowers (madhvi); as the one (named above) even so are all (three sorts) forbidden to the chief of the twice-born.
CHAPTER XII
1. ‘O sinless One, the whole sacred law, (applicable) to the four castes, has been declared by thee; communicate to us (now), according to the truth, the ultimate retribution for (their) deeds.’
2. To the great sages (who addressed him thus) righteous Bhrigu, sprung from Manu, answered, ‘Hear the decision concerning this whole connexion with actions.’
3. Action, which springs from the mind, from speech, and from the body, produces either good or evil results; by action are caused the (various) conditions of men, the highest, the middling, and the lowest.
4. Know that the mind is the instigator here below, even to that (action) which is connected with the body, (and) which is of three kinds, has three locations, and falls under ten heads.
5. Coveting the property of others, thinking in one’s heart of what is undesirable, and adherence to false (doctrines), are the three kinds of (sinful) mental action.
6. Abusing (others, speaking) untruth, detracting from the merits of all men, and talking idly, shall be the four kinds of (evil) verbal action.
7. Taking what has not been given, injuring (creatures) without the sanction of the law, and holding criminal intercourse with another man’s wife, are declared to be the three kinds of (wicked) bodily action.
8. (A man) obtains (the result of) a good or evil mental (act) in his mind, (that of) a verbal (act) in his speech, (that of) a bodily (act) in his body.
9. In consequence of (many) sinful acts committed with his body, a man becomes (in the next birth) something inanimate, in consequence (of sins) committed by speech, a bird, or a beast, and in consequence of mental (sins he is re-born in) a low caste.
10. That man is called a (true) tridandin in whose mind these three, the control over his speech (vagdanda), the control over his thoughts (manodanda), and the control over his body (kayadanda), are firmly fixed.
11. That man who keeps this threefold control (over himself) with respect to all created beings and wholly subdues desire and wrath, thereby assuredly gains complete success.
12. Him who impels this (corporeal) Self to action, they call the Kshetragna (the knower of the field); but him who does the acts, the wise name the Bhutatman (the Self consisting of the elements).
13. Another internal Self that is generated with all embodied (Kshetragnas) is called Giva, through which (the Kshetragna) becomes sensible of all pleasure and pain in (successive) births.
14. These two, the Great One and the Kshetragna, who are closely united with the elements, pervade him who resides in the multiform created beings.
15. From his body innumerable forms go forth, which constantly impel the multiform creatures to action.
16. Another strong body, formed of particles (of the) five (elements and) destined to suffer the torments (in hell), is produced after death (in the case) of wicked men.
17. When (the evil-doers) by means of that body have suffered there the torments imposed by Yama, (its constituent parts) are united, each according to its class, with those very elements (from which they were taken).
18. He, having suffered for his faults, which are produced by attachment to sensual objects, and which result in misery, approaches, free from stains, those two mighty ones.
19. Those two together examine without tiring the merit and the guilt of that (individual soul), united with which it obtains bliss or misery both in this world and the next.
20. If (the soul) chiefly practises virtue and vice to a small degree, it obtains bliss in heaven, clothed with those very elements.
21. But if it chiefly cleaves to vice and to virtue in a small degree, it suffers, deserted by the elements, the torments inflicted by Yama.
22. The individual soul, having endured those torments of Yama, again enters, free from taint, those very five elements, each in due proportion.
23. Let (man), having recognised even by means of his intellect these transitions of the individual soul (which depend) on merit and demerit, always fix his heart on (the acquisition of) merit.
24. Know Goodness (sattva), Activity (ragas), and Darkness (tamas) to be the three qualities of the Self, with which the Great One always completely pervades all existences.
25. When one of these qualities wholly predominates in a body, then it makes the embodied (soul) eminently distinguished for that quality.
26. Goodness is declared (to have the form of) knowledge, Darkness (of) ignorance, Activity (of) love and hatred; such is the nature of these (three) which is (all-) pervading and clings to everything created.
27. When (man) experiences in his soul a (feeling) full of bliss, a deep calm, as it were, and a pure light, then let him know (that it is) among those three (the quality called) Goodness.
28. What is mixed with pain and does not give satisfaction to the soul one may know (to be the quality of) Activity, which is difficult to conquer, and which ever draws embodied (souls towards sensual objects).
29. What is coupled with delusion, what has the character of an undiscernible mass, what cannot be fathomed by reasoning, what cannot be fully known, one must consider (as the quality of) Darkness.
30. I will, moreover, fully describe the results which arise from these three qualities, the excellent ones, the middling ones, and the lowest.
31. The study of the Vedas, austerity, (the pursuit of) knowledge, purity, control over the organs, the performance of meritorious acts and meditation on the Soul, (are) the marks of the quality of Goodness.
32. Delighting in undertakings, want of firmness, commission of sinful acts, and continual indulgence in sensual pleasures, (are) the marks of the quality of Activity.
33. Covetousness, sleepiness, pusillanimity, cruelty, atheism, leading an evil life, a habit of soliciting favours, and inattentiveness, are the marks of the quality of Darkness.
34. Know, moreover, the following to be a brief description of the three qualities, each in its order, as they appear in the three (times, the present, past, and future).
35. When a (man), having done, doing, or being about to do any act, feels ashamed, the learned may know that all (such acts bear) the mark of the quality of Darkness.
36. But, when (a man) desires (to gain) by an act much fame in this world and feels no sorrow on failing, know that it (bears the mark of the quality of) Activity.
37. But that (bears) the mark of the quality of Goodness which with his whole (heart) he desires to know, which he is not ashamed to perform, and at which his soul rejoices.
38. The craving after sensual pleasures is declared to be the mark of Darkness, (the pursuit of) wealth (the mark) of Activity, (the desire to gain) spiritual merit the mark of Goodness; each later) named quality is) better than the preceding one.
39. I will briefly declare in due order what transmigrations in this whole (world a man) obtains through each of these qualities.
40. Those endowed with Goodness reach the state of gods, those endowed with Activity the state of men, and those endowed with Darkness ever sink to the condition of beasts; that is the threefold course of transmigrations.
41. But know this threefold course of transmigrations that depends on the (three) qualities (to be again) threefold, low, middling, and high, according to the particular nature of the acts and of the knowledge (of each man).
42. Immovable (beings), insects, both small and great, fishes, snakes, and tortoises, cattle and wild animals, are the lowest conditions to which (the quality of) Darkness leads.
43. Elephants, horses, Sudras, and despicable barbarians, lions, tigers, and boars (are) the middling states, caused by (the quality of) Darkness.
44. Karanas, Suparnas and hypocrites, Rakshasas and Pisakas (belong to) the highest (rank of) conditions among those produced by Darkness.
45. Ghallas, Mallas, Natas, men who subsist by despicable occupations and those addicted to gambling and drinking (form) the lowest (order of) conditions caused by Activity.
46. Kings and Kshatriyas, the domestic priests of kings, and those who delight in the warfare of disputations (constitute) the middling (rank of the) states caused by Activity.
47. The Gandharvas, the Guhyakas, and the servants of the gods, likewise the Apsarases, (belong all to) the highest (rank of) conditions produced by Activity.
48. Hermits, ascetics, Brahmanas, the crowds of the Vaimanika deities, the lunar mansions, and the Daityas (form) the first (and lowest rank of the) existences caused by Goodness.
49. Sacrificers, the sages, the gods, the Vedas, the heavenly lights, the years, the manes, and the Sadhyas (constitute) the second order of existences, caused by Goodness.
50. The sages declare Brahma, the creators of the universe, the law, the Great One, and the Undiscernible One (to constitute) the highest order of beings produced by Goodness.
51. Thus (the result) of the threefold action, the whole system of transmigrations which (consists) of three classes, (each) with three subdivisions, and which includes all created beings, has been fully pointed out.
52. In consequence of attachment to (the objects of) the senses, and in consequence of the non-performance of their duties, fools, the lowest of men, reach the vilest births.
53. What wombs this individual soul enters in this world and in consequence of what actions, learn the particulars of that at large and in due order.
54. Those who committed mortal sins (mahapataka), having passed during large numbers of years through dreadful hells, obtain, after the expiration of (that term of punishment), the following births.
55. The slayer of a Brahmana enters the womb of a dog, a pig, an ass, a camel, a cow, a goat, a sheep, a deer, a bird, a Kandala, and a Pukkasa.
56. A Brahmana who drinks (the spirituous liquor called) Sura shall enter (the bodies) of small and large insects, of moths, of birds, feeding on ordure, and of destructive beasts.
57. A Brahmana who steals (the gold of a Brahmana shall pass) a thousand times (through the bodies) of spiders, snakes and lizards, of aquatic animals and of destructive Pisakas.
58. The violator of a Guru’s bed (enters) a hundred times (the forms) of grasses, shrubs, and creepers, likewise of carnivorous (animals) and of (beasts) with fangs and of those doing cruel deeds.
59. Men who delight in doing hurt (become) carnivorous (animals); those who eat forbidden food, worms; thieves, creatures consuming their own kind; those who have intercourse with women of the lowest castes, Pretas.
60. He who has associated with outcasts, he who has approached the wives of other men, and he who has stolen the property of a Brahmana become Brahmarakshasas.
61. A man who out of greed has stolen gems, pearls or coral, or any of the many other kinds of precious things, is born among the goldsmiths.
62. For stealing grain (a man) becomes a rat, for stealing yellow metal a Hamsa, for stealing water a Plava, for stealing honey a stinging insect, for stealing milk a crow, for stealing condiments a dog, for stealing clarified butter an ichneumon;
63. For stealing meat a vulture, for stealing fat a cormorant, for stealing oil a winged animal (of the kind called) Tailapaka, for stealing salt a cricket, for stealing sour milk a bird (of the kind called) Balaka.
64. For stealing silk a partridge, for stealing linen a frog, for stealing cotton-cloth a crane, for stealing a cow an iguana, for stealing molasses a flying-fox;
65. For stealing fine perfumes a musk-rat, for stealing vegetables consisting of leaves a peacock, for stealing cooked food of various kinds a porcupine, for stealing uncooked food a hedgehog.
66. For stealing fire he becomes a heron, for stealing household-utensils a mason-wasp, for stealing dyed clothes a francolin-partridge;
67. For stealing a deer or an elephant a wolf, for stealing a horse a tiger, for stealing fruit and roots a monkey, for stealing a woman a bear, for stealing water a black-white cuckoo, for stealing vehicles a camel, for stealing cattle a he-goat.
68. That man who has forcibly taken away any kind of property belonging to another, or who has eaten sacrificial food (of) which (no portion) had been offered, inevitably becomes an animal.
69. Women, also, who in like manner have committed a theft, shall incur guilt; they will become the females of those same creatures (which have been enumerated above).
70. But (men of the four) castes who have relinquished without the pressure of necessity their proper occupations, will become the servants of Dasyus, after migrating into despicable bodies.
71. A Brahmana who has fallen off from his duty (becomes) an Ulkamukha Preta, who feeds on what has been vomited; and a Kshatriya, a Kataputana (Preta), who eats impure substances and corpses.
72. A Vaisya who has fallen off from his duty becomes a Maitrakshagyotika Preta, who feeds on pus; and a Sudra, a Kailasaka (Preta, who feeds on moths).
73. In proportion as sensual men indulge in sensual pleasures, in that same proportion their taste for them grows.
74. By repeating their sinful acts those men of small understanding
suffer pain here (below) in various births;
suffer pain here (below) in various births;
75. (The torture of) being tossed about in dreadful hells, Tamisra and the rest, (that of) the Forest with sword-leaved trees and the like, and (that of) being bound and mangled;
76. And various torments, the (pain of) being devoured by ravens and owls, the heat of scorching sand, and the (torture of) being boiled in jars, which is hard to bear;
77. And births in the wombs (of) despicable (beings) which cause constant misery, and afflictions from cold and heat and terrors of various kinds,
78. The (pain of) repeatedly lying in various wombs and agonizing births, imprisonment in fetters hard to bear, and the misery of being enslaved by others,
79. And separations from their relatives and dear ones, and the (pain of) dwelling together with the wicked, (labour in) gaining wealth and its loss, (trouble in) making friends and (the appearance of) enemies,
80. Old age against which there is no remedy, the pangs of diseases, afflictions of many various kinds, and (finally) unconquerable death.
81. But with whatever disposition of mind (a man) forms any act, he reaps its result in a (future) body endowed with the same quality.
82. All the results, proceeding from actions, have been thus pointed out; learn (next) those acts which secure supreme bliss to a Brahmana.
83. Studying the Veda, (practising) austerities, (the acquisition of true) knowledge, the subjugation of the organs, abstention from doing injury, and serving the Guru are the best means for attaining supreme bliss.
84. (If you ask) whether among all these virtuous actions, (performed) here below, (there be) one which has been declared more efficacious (than the rest) for securing supreme happiness to man,
85. (The answer is that) the knowledge of the Soul is stated to be the most excellent among all of them; for that is the first of all sciences, because immortality is gained through that.
86. Among those six (kinds of) actions (enumerated) above, the performance of) the acts taught in the Veda must ever be held to be most efficacious for ensuring happiness in this world and the next.
87. For in the performance of the acts prescribed by the Veda all those (others) are fully comprised, (each) in its turn in the several rules for the rites.
88. The acts prescribed by the Veda are of two kinds, such as procure an increase of happiness and cause a continuation (of mundane existence, pravritta), and such as ensure supreme bliss and cause a cessation (of mundane existence, nivritta).
89. Acts which secure (the fulfilment of) wishes in this world or in the next are called pravritta (such as cause a continuation of mundane existence); but acts performed without any desire (for a reward), preceded by (the acquisition) of (true) knowledge, are declared to be nivritta (such as cause the cessation of mundane existence).
90. He who sedulously performs acts leading to future births (pravritta) becomes equal to the gods; but he who is intent on the performance of those causing the cessation (of existence, nivritta) indeed, passes beyond (the reach of) the five elements.
91. He who sacrifices to the Self (alone), equally recognising the Self in all created beings and all created beings in the Self, becomes (independent like) an autocrat and self-luminous.
92. After giving up even the above-mentioned sacrificial rites, a Brahmana should exert himself in (acquiring) the knowledge of the Soul, in extinguishing his passions, and in studying the Veda.
93. For that secures the attainment of the object of existence, especially in the case of a Brahmana, because by attaining that, not otherwise, a twice-born man has gained all his ends.
94. The Veda is the eternal eye of the manes, gods, and men; the Veda-ordinance (is) both beyond the sphere of (human) power, and beyond the sphere of (human) comprehension; that is a certain fact.
95. All those traditions (smriti) and those despicable systems of philosophy, which are not based on the Veda, produce no reward after death; for they are declared to be founded on Darkness.
96. All those (doctrines), differing from the (Veda), which spring up and (soon) perish, are worthless and false, because they are of modern date.
97. The four castes, the three worlds, the four orders, the past, the present, and the future are all severally known by means of the Veda.
98. Sound, touch, colour, taste, and fifthly smell are known through the Veda alone, (their) production (is) through the (Vedic rites, which in this respect are) secondary acts.
99. The eternal lore of the Veda upholds all created beings; hence I hold that to be supreme, which is the means of (securing happiness to) these creatures.
100. Command of armies, royal authority, the office of a judge, and sovereignty over the whole world he (only) deserves who knows the Veda-science.
101. As a fire that has gained strength consumes even trees full of sap, even so he who knows the Veda burns out the taint of his soul which arises from (evil) acts.
102. In whatever order (a man) who knows the true meaning of the Veda-science may dwell, he becomes even while abiding in this world, fit for the union with Brahman.
103. (Even forgetful) students of the (sacred) books are more distinguished than the ignorant, those who remember them surpass the (forgetful) students, those who possess a knowledge (of the meaning) are more distinguished than those who (only) remember (the words), men who follow (the teaching of the texts) surpass those who (merely) know (their meaning).
104. Austerity and sacred learning are the best means by which a Brahmana secures supreme bliss; by austerities he destroys guilt, by sacred learning he obtains the cessation of (births and) deaths.
105. The three (kinds of evidence), perception, inference, and the (sacred) Institutes which comprise the tradition (of) many (schools), must be fully understood by him who desires perfect correctness with respect to the sacred law.
106. He alone, and no other man, knows the sacred law, who explores the (utterances) of the sages and the body of the laws, by (modes of) reasoning, not repugnant to the Veda-lore.
107. Thus the acts which secure supreme bliss have been exactly and fully described; (now) the secret portion of these Institutes, proclaimed by Manu, will be taught.
108. If it be asked how it should be with respect to (points of) the law which have not been (specially) mentioned, (the answer is), ‘that which Brahmanas (who are) Sishtas propound, shall doubtlessly have legal (force).’
109. Those Brahmanas must be considered as Sishtas who, in accordance with the sacred law, have studied the Veda together with its appendages, and are able to adduce proofs perceptible by the senses from the revealed texts.
110. Whatever an assembly, consisting either of at least ten, or of at least three persons who follow their prescribed occupations, declares to be law, the legal (force of) that one must not dispute.
111. Three persons who each know one of the three principal Vedas, a logician, a Mimamsaka, one who knows the Nirukta, one who recites (the Institutes of) the sacred law, and three men belonging to the first three orders shall constitute a (legal) assembly, consisting of at least ten members.
Om Tat Sat
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