abandoned his (sacred) fire, one who sells a
knowledge of the Vedas,[111] one who slays his preceptor or a woman, one
born in a sinful family, one who slays an animal wilfully,[112] one who
sets fire to a dwelling house, one who lives by deceit, one who acts in
opposition to his preceptor, and one who has violated a compact,--these
all are guilty of sins requiring expiation. I shall now mention other
acts that men should not do, viz., acts that are interdicted by both the
world and the Vedas. Listen to me with concentrated attention. The
rejection of one's own creed, the practice of other people's creed,
assisting at the sacrifice or the religious rites of one that is not
worthy of such assistance, eating of food that is forbidden, deserting
one that craves protection, neglect in maintaining servants and
dependants, selling salt and treacle (and similar other substances),
killing of birds and animals, refusal, though competent, to procreate
upon a soliciting woman, omission to present the daily gifts (of handfuls
of grass to kine and the like), omission to present the dakshina,
humiliating a Brahmana,--these all have been pronounced by persons
conversant with duty to be acts that no one should do. The son that
quarrels with the father, the person that violates the bed of his
preceptor, one that neglects to produce offspring in one's wedded wife,
are all sinful, O tiger among men! I have now declared to thee, in brief
as also in detail, those acts and omissions by which a man becomes liable
to perform expiation. Listen now to the circumstances under which men, by
even committing these acts, do not become stained with sin. If a Brahmana
well acquainted with the Vedas takes up arms and rushes against thee in
battle for killing thee, thou mayst proceed against him for taking his
life. By such an act the slayer does not become guilty of the slaughter
of a Brahmana.[113] There is a mantra in the Vedas, O son of Kunti, that
lays this down, I declare unto thee only those practices that are
sanctioned by the authority of the Vedas. One who slays a Brahmana that
has fallen away from his own duties and that advances, weapon in hand,
with intent to slaughter, does not truly become the slayer of a Brahmana.
In such a case it is the wrath of the slayer that proceeds against the
wrath of the slain. A person by drinking alcoholic stimulants in
ignorance or upon the advice of a virtuous physician when his life is at
peril, should have th