Truth should never be sacrificed. The
marriages of men should never be obstructed. No injury should be
inflicted on those houses in which the deities, the Pitris, and guests
are worshipped. Amongst creatures, Brahmanas deserve to be exempted by
you in your plundering excursions. By giving away even your all, you
should worship them. He who incurs the wrath of the Brahmanas, he for
whose discomfiture they wish, fails to find a rescuer in the three
worlds. He who speaks ill of the Brahmanas and wishes for their
destruction, himself meets with destruction like darkness at sunrise.
Residing here, ye shall acquire the fruits of your valour. Troops shall
be sent against those that will refuse to give us our dues. The rod of
chastisement is intended for the wicked. It is not intended for
self-aggrandisement. They who oppress the god deserve death, it is said.
They who seek to aggrandise their fortunes by afflicting kingdoms in
unscrupulous ways, very soon come to be regarded as vermin in a dead
body. Those robbers again that would conduct themselves by conforming to
these restraints of the scriptures, would soon win salvation although
leading a plundering life.'
"Bhishma continued, 'Those robbers, thus addressed, obeyed all the
commands of Kayavya. By desisting from sin, they obtained great
prosperity. By behaving himself in such a way by thus doing good to the
honest and by thus restraining the robbers from bad practices, Kayavya
won great success (in the next world).
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