SECTION CCXCIII
"Parasara said, 'Nobody in this world does good to another. Nobody is
seen to make gifts to others. All persons are seen to act for their own
selves. People are seen to cast off their very parents and their uterine
brothers when these cease to be affectionate. What need be said then or
relatives of other degrees?[1517] Gifts to a distinguished person and
acceptance of the gifts made by a distinguished person both lead to equal
merit. Of these two acts, however, the making of a gift is superior to
the acceptance of a gift.[1518] That wealth which is acquired by proper
means and increased also by proper means, should be protected with care
for the sake of acquiring virtue. This is an accepted truth. One desirous
of acquiring righteousness should never earn wealth by means involving
injury to others. One should accomplish one's acts according to one's
power, without zealously pursuing wealth. By giving water, whether cold
or heated by fire, with a devoted mind, unto a (thirsty) guest, according
to the best of one's power, one earns the merit that attaches to the act
of giving food to a hungry man. The high-souled Rantideva obtained
success in all the worlds by worshipping the ascetics with offerings of
only roots and fruits leaves. The royal son of Sivi also won the highest
regions of felicity by having gratified Surya along with his companion
with offerings of the same kind. All men, by taking birth, incur debts to
gods, guests, servants, Pitris, and their own selves. Everyone should,
therefore, do his best for freeing himself from those debts. One frees
oneself from one's debt to the great Rishis by studying the Vedas. One
pays off one's debts to the gods by performing sacrifices. By performing
the rites of the Sraddha one is freed from one's debts to the Pitris. One
pays off one's debt to one's fellowmen by doing good offices to them. One
pays off the debts one owes to one's own self by listening to Vedic
recitations and reflecting on their import, by eating the remnants of
sacrifices, and by supporting one's body. One should duty discharge all
the acts, from the beginning, that one owes to one's servants. Though
destitute of wealth, men are seen to attain to success by great
exertions.[1519] Munis by duly adoring the deities and by duty pouring
libations of clarified butter on the sacred fire, have been seen to
attain to ascetic success. Richika's son became the son of Vishwamitra.
By adoring the deities who have shares in sacrificial offerings, with
Richs (he attained to success in after life). Usanas became Sukra by
having gratified the god of gods. Indeed., by hymning the praises of the
goddess (Uma), he sports in the firmament, endued with great
splendour.[1520] Then, again, Asita and Devala, and Narada and Parvata,
and Karkshivat, and Jamadagni's son Rama, and Tandya possessed of
cleansed soul, and Vasishtha, and Jamadagni, and Viswamitra and Atri, and
Bharadwaja, and Harismasru, and Kundadhara, and Srutasravas,--these great
Rishis, by adoring Vishnu with concentrated minds with the aid of Richs,
and by penances, succeeded in attaining to success through the grace of
that great deity endued with intelligence. Many undeserving men, by
adoring that good deity, obtained great distinction. One should not seek
for advancement by achieving any wicked or censurable act. That wealth
which is earned by righteous ways is true wealth. Fie on that wealth,
however, which is earned by unrighteous means. Righteousness is eternal.
It should never, in this world, be abandoned from desire of wealth. That
righteous-souled person who keeps his sacred fire and offers his daily
adorations to the deities is regarded as the foremost of righteous
persons. All the Vedas, O foremost of kings, are established on the three
sacred fires (called Dakshina, Garhapatya, and Ahavaniya). That Brahmana
is said to possess the sacred fire whose acts exist in their entirety. It
is better to at once abandon the sacred fire than to keep it, abstaining
the while from acts. The sacred fire, the mother, the father who has
begotten, and the preceptor, O tiger among men, should all be duly waited
upon and served with humility. That man who, casting off all feelings of
pride, humbly waits upon and serves them that are venerable for age, who
is possessed of learning and destitute of lust, who looketh upon all
creatures with an eye of love, who has no wealth, who is righteous in his
acts, and who is destitute of the desire of inflicting any kind of harm
(upon any one), that truly respectable man is worshipped in this world by
those that are good and pious.'"[1521]
