1. Acts Making a Man an Outcaste or Sordid
5. Social interaction with outcastes is not permitted, 6. as also with degraded people.
7. These are the actions causing loss of caste:
8. theft; acts causing infamy; homicide; neglect of the Vedas;
abortion; sex with the siblings of one’s mother or father or with their children;
drinking liquor; sex with those with whom sex is forbidden;
9. sex with a friend of one’s female or male elders or with the wife of another man –
10. - some maintain that there is no loss of caste when one has sex with a woman other than the wife of an elder––; 11. and the persistent commission of unrighteous (adharma) acts.
12. And these are the actions that make people sordid:
13. sex with Śūdras on the part of Ārya women; 14. eating the meat of forbidden animals, 15. to wit, dogs, humans, village cocks, village pigs, and carnivorous animals;
16. consuming human urine and excrement; 17. eating a Śūdra’s leftovers; and sex with a degraded woman on the part of Āryas.
18. According to some, even these cause loss of caste.
19. Sinful actions other than these also make people sordid.
20. When he comes to know about a sin that would make a man an outcaste, let him not be the first to tell others about it.
He should, however, avoid such a person while he is performing religious activities.
22.
2. Knowledge of the Self
1. He should practise the disciplines pertaining to the inner self, disciplines that have definite consequences and prevent mental digression.
2. There is nothing higher than the realization of the self.
3. In this regard, we will cite verses that speak to the realization of the self:
4. All living beings are the residence
of the one who dwells within the cave,
who cannot be slain, and who is free from stain.
The one who is immovable but resides within the movable –
those who worship him become immortal.
5. Whatever there is here, whatever is called a sensory object in this world –
casting away all that, a wise man should worship the one who dwells within the cave.
6. Follow what is wholesome, not what is unwholesome.
Not finding it in my own self, I then seek in others, without attachment,
the abode of the good, the one who is the great body of lustre
and the lord abiding in everything.
7. The one who is the eternal among all creatures;
who is wise, immortal, and unchanging;
who has no limbs, voice, body, or touch;
who is immense and resplendent –
he is the whole world, he is the highest goal,
he is the centre, he is the fort without compare.
8. When a man worships him everywhere,
follows his path always, and, self-possessed,
sees that profound one who is difficult to see,
he will rejoice in heaven.
23.
1. Seeing all beings in himself,
a wise man thinks about it and is not perplexed.
A Brahmin who sees himself in all beings,
likewise, shines forth in the vault of heaven.
2. The one who is profound, finer than a lotus strand,
and stands encompassing the universe,
who is wider than the earth, unchangeable,
and stands containing the universe –
he is different from the knowledge of this world obtained through the senses;
he is not different from the objects of knowledge; he is the highest lord;
from him, as he divides himself, all bodies come into being;
he is the root; he is everlasting; he is eternal.
3. In this life, however, the eradication of faults depends on Yoga.
The learned man who uproots these faults that torment creatures attains bliss.
4. We will now enumerate the faults that torment creatures. 5. They are:
anger, excitement, rage, greed, perplexity, hypocrisy, malice, lying, overeating, calumny, envy, lust, ire, lack of self- control, and absence of Yoga.
- Their eradication depends on Yoga.
6. Refraining from anger, excitement, rage, greed, perplexity, hypocrisy, and malice; speaking the truth; refraining from overeating, calumny, and envy; sharing, liberality, rectitude, gentleness, tranquillity, self-control, amity with all creatures, Yoga, Ārya-like conduct, benevolence, and contentment–
–there is agreement that these apply to all orders of life.
By practising them according to the rules, a man attains the All.
24.
3. Penances
1. If someone kills a Kṣatriya, he should give a thousand cows to erase the enmity, 2. a hundred if he kills a Vaiśya, 3. and ten if he kills a Śūdra. 4. In addition a bull is to be given in each case as expiation. 5. The same applies for killing women of these classes.
6. If someone kills a man of the first 2 classes who has studied the Veda or who has been consecrated to perform a Soma sacrifice, he becomes a heinous sinner;
7. so too someone who kills an ordinary Brahmin, 8. a Brahmin’s foetus whose gender cannot be determined, 9. or a Brahmin woman soon after her menstrual period.
10. This is the atonement for such a man:
11. He should build a hut in the wilderness, curb his speech, carry a skull as a banner, and cover himself from the navel to the knees with a scrap of hempen cloth.
12. His path is the gap between the tracks of cartwheels, 13. and if he happens to see another person he should step aside.
14. He should set out to the village carrying a broken metal bowl 15. and visit 7 houses, saying: ‘Who will give alms-food to a heinous sinner?’
16. - That is how he maintains himself.
17. If he does not receive anything, he should fast.
18. He should also look after the cows; 19. indeed, when the cows go out and return, he has a second reason for going to the village.
20. After he has lived like this for 12 years and become cleansed, he may associate with good people.
21. Alternatively, he may build a hut on a track usually taken by robbers and live there seeking to recover the cows of Brahmins.
He is absolved after he has fought with them 3 times or after he has recovered the cows. 22. Or else, he is absolved after taking part in the ritual bath that concludes a horse sacrifice.
23. The same penance applies to a man who, when Law and profit are in conflict, chooses profit.
24. If someone has killed one of his elders or a Vedic scholar who has completed a sacrifice, he should live in the same manner until his last breath. 25. No rehabilitation is possible for such a man in this life; his sin, however, is removed.
25.
1. A man who has had sex with the wife of an elder should cut off his penis together with the testicles and, holding them in his cupped hands, walk towards the south without turning back;
2. or else he should end his life by embracing a red-hot metal column.
3. A man who has drunk liquor should drink burning hot liquor.
4. A thief, his hair dishevelled and carrying a pestle on his shoulder, should go to the king and confess his deed. The king should slay him with that pestle, and, when he is killed, he is absolved. 5. If he is pardoned, the sin falls on the one who pardons him.
6. Alternatively, he may throw himself into a fire, perform severe mortifications, 7. end his life by reducing the amount he eats, 8. or perform the arduous penance for a year.
9. Now, they also quote:
10. People who have committed a theft, drunk liquor, had sex with the wife of an elder - so long as they have not killed a Brahmin –
should eat a little at every fourth mealtime, dip into water at dawn, noon, and dusk, and remain standing during the day and seated at night.
Such people get rid of their sin in 3 years.
11. When someone not belonging to the first social class kills a man belonging to the first class, he should go and stand in a battlefield, where they would kill him. 12. Or else, he may have his body hair, skin, and flesh offered as a sacrifice in a fire and then throw himself into that fire.
13. Crow, chameleon, peacock, Cakravāka goose, Hamsa goose, Bhāsa vulture, frog, common mongoose, Derikā rat, and dog - the penance for killing any of these is the same as for killing a Śūdra.
26.
1. The penance is the same also for killing a milk cow or an ox without cause 2. and for killing a cart-load of other animals.
3. If someone uses harsh words against a person against whom one is not permitted to use such words, or if he tells a lie, he should eat food without milk, spices, or salt for 3 days; 4. if he is a Śūdra, he should not eat for 7 days.
5. These provisions apply also to women.
6. - When, without endangering the man’s life, someone cuts off one limb of a man for whose murder he would become a heinous sinner;
7. - when someone behaves in a manner unbecoming of an Ārya, engages in slander, and does forbidden things;
- when someone partakes of food or drink that is forbidden or unfit;
- when someone ejaculates his semen in a Śūdra woman or in any place other than the vagina;
- and when someone performs a nefarious rite intentionally or unintentionally –
- he should bathe reciting the Abliṅga or˙ Vāruṇī formulas, or other purificatory texts in proportion to the frequency with which he has committed these offences.
8. Employing the ritual procedure of the cooked oblation, a student who has broken his vow of chastity should offer an ass, 9. and a Śūdra should eat of that offering.
10. Next, the penances for studying in contravention of the rules:
11. Engaged in activities beneficial to his teacher, he should keep silence for a year, speaking only during his daily Vedic recitation, when addressing his teacher or the teacher’s wife, and while he is begging.
12. The same applies also to other sinful acts that do not cause loss of caste, as do the penances that we will enumerate below.
13. Alternatively, he should make an offering to Lust and Anger or recite softly: ‘Lust did it!’, ‘Anger did it!’
14. Or else, on a day of the moon’s change he should either eat some sesame seeds or fast, and on the following day he should bathe and recite the Sāvitrī verse one thousand times either controlling his breath or without controlling his breath.
27.
1. On the full-moon day of July–August he should eat some sesame seeds or fast, and on the following day bathe in a great river and offer one thousand kindling sticks in the sacred fires while reciting the Sāvitrī verse or simply recite the Sāvitrī verse one thousand times.
2. Or else, he should offer Iṣṭi-offerings and Yajña-kratu-sacrifices in order to purify himself.
3. After eating something unfit to be eaten, he should fast until all the excrement is gone, 4. which happens after 7 days.
5. Alternatively, he should bathe each morning and evening during the winter and spring, 6. or perform the 12-day arduous penance.
7. This is the procedure for the 12-day arduous penance:
for 3 days the person does not eat during the night,
and for the next 3 days during the day;
for 3 days he eats what he receives unasked,
and for 3 days he does not eat at all.
8. If he repeats this for a year, it is called the year-long arduous penance.
9. Now, another penance––by reciting the Veda completely 3 times while abstaining from food, one discharges the penance for committing even a great many sins that do not cause loss of caste.
10. When someone takes a non-Ārya woman to bed, lends money on interest, drinks a decoction, or pays obeisance in a manner unworthy of a Brahmin,
- he should sit on a spread of grass letting the sun scorch his back.
11. The sin a Brahmin commits by serving a person of the black class for 1 day he removes in 3 years by bathing daily and eating at every fourth mealtime.
28.
1. ‘A man who, under any circumstance, covets what belongs to another man is undoubtedly a thief’––that is the view of Kautsa and Hārīta, as also of Kaṇva and Puṣkarasādi.
2. ‘There are exceptions in the case of certain belongings,’ says Vārṣyāyaṇi – 3. such as legume pods or fodder for a draught ox. Owners normally do not forbid someone from taking these.
4. - To take too much of these, however, is a crime.
5. ‘One must always obtain permission first,’ says Hārīta.
6. Let him not visit a teacher or relative who has fallen from his caste with the intention of seeing him 7. or accept anything of value from him. 8. If he meets such a person accidentally, he should clasp his feet and go away silently.
9. A mother does countless things to bring about male progeny. So, even if she has fallen from her caste, he must always serve her, 10. but not let her participate in any of his religious activities.
11. He should separate himself from anything of value that he has obtained unrighteously (adharma), proclaiming ‘We and unrighteousness don’t go together!’;
- wear a piece of cloth from his navel to his knees;
- bathe 3 times a day at dawn, noon, and dusk;
- eat food without milk, spices, or salt;
- and not enter a house for 12 years.
12. After that he becomes cleansed, 13. and thereafter he may associate with Āryas.
14. This same penance applies also to other sins causing loss of caste.
15. A man who has had sex with the wife of an elder, however,
should enter a hollow metal column, have fires lit on both sides, and burn himself up.
16. ‘That is wrong,’ says Hārīta; 17. for anyone who kills himself or another man becomes a heinous sinner without a doubt.
18. What such a man should do is to live in the above manner until his last breath.
No rehabilitation is possible for such a man in this life; his sin, however, is removed.
19. A man who has unjustly abandoned his wife should wear a donkey’s skin with its hairy side out and beg from 7 houses, saying, ‘Alms-food for a man who has unjustly abandoned his wife!’ That should be his livelihood for 6 months.
20. Women who abandon their husbands unjustly, on the other hand, should perform the 12-day arduous penance for the same length of time.
21. Now, a man who has performed an abortion
should wear the skin of a dog or a donkey with its hairy side out, carry a human skull as his drinking cup
29.
1. and a post from a bed-frame as his staff,
and go around proclaiming the name of his crime and saying,
‘Who will give alms-food to an abortionist?’
Obtaining his sustenance from a village, he should seek shelter in an abandoned house or at the foot of a tree, with the thought, ‘I am not allowed to associate with Āryas.’
He should live in this manner until his last breath.
No rehabilitation is possible for such a man in this life; his sin, however, is removed.
2. A man who kills unintentionally reaps the fruit of his sin,
3. but it is greater if he does so with forethought.
4. - This principle applies also to other sinful acts 5. and also to meritorious deeds.
6. A Brahmin should not take a weapon into his hands even to examine it.
7. ‘When someone kills an assailant who is trying to kill him, he commits no sin;
for then wrath alone confronts wrath’
- so states a Purāṇa.
8. Now, heinous sinners should live in a common settlement and, convinced that this is in keeping with the Law, they should officiate at each other’s sacrifices, teach each other, and marry each other.
9. When they father sons, they should tell them:
‘Go away from us, for then you will be accepted from amongst us as Āryas.’
10. When a man falls from his caste, moreover, his virile power does not fall with him, 11. the truth of which can be gathered from the fact that a man lacking a limb fathers a child possessing all the limbs.
12. ‘That is false,’ says Hārīta:
13. A wife is comparable to a curd- pot, 14. for if someone were to put impure milk into a curd-pot and mix in the curdling substance, that curd cannot be used for ritual purposes.
In like manner, there can be no association with what is produced by the semen of a sordid man.
15. Sorcery and cursing make a man sordid but do not cause loss of caste.
16. ‘They do cause loss of caste,’ says Hārīta.
17. People guilty of sins that make them sordid should follow the life prescribed for sins causing loss of caste for 12 months, for 12 fortnights, for 12 times 12 days, for 12 times 7 days, for 12 times 3 days, for 12 days, for 7 days, for 3 days, or for one day.
18. In this manner sins that make a man sordid should be expiated
in accordance with the way the deed was committed.