Chapter CCXXX - A Synopsis of practical pieties

Hari said Now hear me, O Shankara, narrate a catechism of practised pieties, which extinguishes all sin of, and grant enjoyment of worldly pleasures and emancipation of self to, its listener. Grief robs a man of bis pleasure, energy, fortitude, strength, virtues and erudition; hence, one should abandon all grief. Acts of a man are the deities that mould his destiny, acts are the factors that determine the nature of his environment as well as the character of the region of his birth, acts are his true friends and relations, and it is his acts that lead him to happiness or misery in this world. Charity is the highest of all virtues; through the merit of practising charity a man may acquire a kingdom or work out his own salvation, and become an emancipated Self: hence, a man shall, practise charity and make gifts to the poor and the worthy. One kind of charity is to make gifts with proper Dakshinis, another kind of charity consists in succoring the lives of the oppressed and the tyrannised. Those, who obstruct or destroy the piety, which is acquired by practising penances or Brahmacharyayam, or by celebrating religious sacrifices, or [by performing] ceremonial ablutions, go to hell. Those, who are devoted to the performance of Homas, Japas. Pujas and ablutions, and are full of truthfulness, forbearance and compassion, go to heaven. None there is who dispenses happiness or misery to a man j or removes them out of his own sweet will; man suffers misery or enjoys happiness as the effects of what he has done. Those, who live for practising virtues, visit their wives for the procreation of children, and cast offerings to the deities for bringing about their satisfaction, tide over the evils of life. Who is he that cannot live contented on fares of fruits and bulbs? It is through company and entering into relationship that, man dives into troubles. Dreadful is the consequence of greed alone; from greed proceeds wrath or anger; and from wrath, strife; out of greed comes delusion, from delusion proceeds attachment, from attachment proceed pride and egotistic feelings. He, who lives in peace with himself, undisturbed by counter calls of desire, wrath, greed, pride delusion and falsehood, ascends to the region of highest bliss, undefiled by the touch of any sin whatsoever. O Hara, the gods, the celestial sages, the Nagas, the Gandharvas and Gujhyakas adore the pious and the truthful in this world, and not those who are rich and full of desires. Neither by dint of valour or energy, nor by wisdom or occult power, a mortal can obtain that which he is not fated to obtain hence there is nothing to be deplored in that. As fishes shpring upon their prey in water, as wild beasts live upon their prey on land, as birds eat their prey in the sky, so the rich are devoured by designing persons, everywhere. Compassion towards all creatures, control of all the senses, and a knowledge of the transitory nature of all things are the highest bliss. Like the teat-like excrescences on the neck of a she-goat, futile are the lives of those, who do not practise virtues, even with the sight of death ahead. A patricide, a Brahmanicide, a defiler of his preceptor’s bed, a cow-killer, or a destroyer of a fætus in the womb may expiate his sin by making the gift of a plot of land, possessed of all the commendable features. This is my opinion, O thou bull-ensigned deity, that the gift of a cow is the highest of all gifts; the gift of a cow, honestly obtained or purchased, succours the whole family of the giver. No gift can vie with the gift of food (Annam) in point of merit; it is food that sustains the whole world, whether mobile or immobile. The merit, which is acquired by making gifts of horses, elephants, chariots, gems, lands, or of girls, or by performing Japas, or Vrishotsargas (letting loose of a bull on the celebration of a Shraddha ceremony), does not rank one sixteenth part of that, which is acquired by gifting food to the poor and the needy, in as much as food sustains strength and life, and from food proceed sperm and comprehension.

Excavations of wells, or tanks for public purposes and laying out of fruit-gardens for the use of the public lead to the regeneration of twenty one generations of the donor, who is also glorified for his piety in the region of Vishnu, after death. The sight of the holy is more sanctifying than a pilgrimage to a sanctuary; the merit of a pilgrimage takes time to bear fruit, the company of the holy becomes fruitful on the same day. Truthfulness, self-control, practice of austerities, purity, contentment, forbearance, simplicity, knowledge, compassion and charity—these are the eternal virtues.