eansing
food. Persons conversant with the scriptures do not take into account the
sins that women may commit at heart. Whatever their sins (of this
description), they are cleansed by their menstrual course like a metallic
plate that is scoured with ashes. Plates (made of the alloy of brass and
copper) stained by a Sudra eating off it, or a vessel of the same metal
that has been smelt by a cow, or stained by a Brahmana's Gandusha, may be
cleansed by means of the ten purifying substances.[117] It has been laid
down that a Brahmana should acquire and practise the full measure of
virtue. For a person at the kingly order it has been laid down that he
should acquire and practise a measure of virtue less by a fourth part.
So, a Vaisya should acquire a measure less (than a Kshatriya's) by a
fourth and a Sudra less (than a Vaisya's) by a fourth. The heaviness or
lightness of sins (for purposes of expiation) of each of the four orders,
should be determined upon this principle. Having slain a bird or an
animal, or cut down living trees, a person should publish his sin and
fast for three nights. By having intercourse with one with whom
intercourse is prohibited, the expiation for one is wandering in wet
clothes and sleeping on a bed of ashes. These, O king, are the expiations
for sinful acts, according to precedent and reason and scriptures and the
ordinances. A Brahmana may be cleansed of all sins by reciting the
Gayatri in a sacred place, all the while living upon frugal fare, casting
off malice, abandoning wrath and hate, unmoved by praise and blame, and
abstaining from speech. He should during the day-time be under shelter of
the sky and should lie down at night even at such a place. Thrice during
the day, and thrice during the night, he should also plunge with his
clothes into a stream or lake for performing his ablutions. Observant of
rigid vows, he should abstain from speech with women, Sudras, and fallen
persons. A Brahmana by observing such regulations may be cleansed of all
sins unconsciously committed by him. A person obtains in the other world
the fruits, good or bad, of his acts here which are all witnessed by the
elements. Be it virtue or be it vice, according to the true measure that
one acquires of either, one enjoys or suffers the consequences (even
here). By knowledge, by penances, and by righteous acts, therefore, one
enhances his weal (even here). One, therefore may similarly enhance his
misery by committing unrig