Their path consists of lust and wrath and cupidity and envy of
others and boastfulness. Subjugating lust and wrath, practising the vow
of Brahmacharya and becoming a complete master of his senses, the
Brahmana, exerting himself with endurance in the austerest of penances,
and observing the most rigid restraints, should live in this world,
calmly waiting for his time like one seeming to have a body though fully
knowing that he is not subject to destruction.'"
SECTION CCXXI
"Yudhishthira said, 'The three regenerate classes, who are given to
sacrifices and other rites, sometimes eat the remnants, consisting of
meat and wine, of sacrifices in honour of the deities, from motives of
obtaining children and heaven. What, O grandsire, is the character of
this act?'
"Bhishma said, 'Those who eat forbidden food without being observant of
the sacrifices and vows ordained in the Vedas are regarded as wilful men.
(They are regarded as fallen even here). Those, on the other hand, who
eat such food in the observance of Vedic sacrifices and vows and induced
by the desire of fruits in the shape of heaven and children, ascend to
heaven but fall down on the exhaustion of their merits.'[831]
"Yudhishthira said, 'Common people say that fasting is tapas (penances).
Is fasting, however, really so, or is penance something different?'
"Bhishma said, 'People do regard fast, measured by months or fortnights
or days, as penance. In the opinion, however of the good, such is not
penance.
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