Chapter 189

“Bharadwaja said, ‘By what acts does one become a Brahmana? By what, aKshatriya? O best of regenerate ones, by what acts again does one becomea Vaisya or a Sudra? Tell me this, O foremost of speakers.’

“Bhrigu said, ‘That person is called a Brahmana who has been sanctifiedby such rites as those called jata and others; who is pure in behaviour;who is engaged in studying the Vedas; who is devoted to the sixwell-known acts (of ablutions every morning and evening, silentrecitation of mantras, pouring libations on the sacrificial fire,worshipping the deities, doing the duties of hospitality to guests, andoffering food to the Viswedevas); who is properly observant of all piousacts; who never takes food without having offered it duly to gods andguests; who is filled with reverence for his preceptor; and who is alwaysdevoted to vows and truth. He is called a Brahmana in whom are truth,gifts, abstention from injury to others, compassion, shame,benevolence,[564] and penance. He who is engaged in the profession ofbattle, who studies the Vedas, who makes gifts (to Brahmanas) and takeswealth (from those he protects) is called a Kshatriya. He who earns famefrom keep of cattle, who is employed in agriculture and the means ofacquiring wealth, who is pure in behaviour and attends to the study ofthe Vedas, is called a Vaisya.[565] He who takes pleasure in eating everykind of food, who is engaged in doing every kind of work, who is impurein behaviour, who does not study the Vedas, and whose conduct is unclean,is said to be a Sudra. If these characteristics be observable in a Sudra,and if they be not found in a Brahmana, then such a Sudra is no Sudra,and, such a Brahmana is no Brahmana. By every means should cupidity andwrath be restrained. This as also self-restraint, are the highest resultsof Knowledge. Those two passions (viz., cupidity and wrath), should, withone’s whole heart, be resisted. They make their appearance for destroyingone’s highest good. One should always protect one’s prosperity from one’swrath, one’s penances from pride; one’s knowledge from honour anddisgrace; and one’s soul from error. That intelligent person, Oregenerate one, who does all acts without desire of fruit, whose wholewealth exists for charity, and who performs the daily Homa, is a realRenouncer.[566] One should conduct oneself as a friend to all creatures,abstaining from all acts of injury. Rejecting the acceptance of allgifts, one should, by the aid of one’s own intelligence, be a completemaster of one’s passions. One should live in one’s soul where there canbe no grief. One would then have no fear here and attain to a fearlessregion hereafter. One should live always devoted to penances, and withall passions completely restrained; observing the vow of taciturnity, andwith soul concentrated on itself; desirous of conquering the unconqueredsenses, and unattached in the midst of attachments. All things that canbe perceived by the senses are called Manifest. All, however, that isUnmanifest, that is beyond the ken of the senses, that can be ascertainedonly by the subtile senses, should be sought to be known.[567] If therebe no faith, one will never succeed in attaining to that subtile sense.Therefore, one should hold oneself in faith. The mind should be unitedwith Prana, and Prana should then be held within Brahma. By dissociatingoneself from all attachments, one may obtain absorption into Brahma.There is no need of attending to any other thing. A Brahmana can easilyattain to Brahma by the path of Renunciation. The indications of aBrahmana are purity, good behaviour and compassion unto all creatures.'”