Yudhishthira said O best of the Bharatas, when a person commits sin from want of discrimination, how may he be purified by it? Tell me all about it.

Bhishma said In this connection I shall recite to you the old narrative, spoken highly of by the Rishis, of what the twice-born Indrota, the son of Shunaka, said to Janamejaya.

There was, in days of old, a highly energetic king, called Janamejaya, who was the son of Parikshit. On one occasion from want of discrimination, that king became guilty of Brahmanicide.

Upon this, all the Brahmanas together with his priests cast him off. Burning day and night with grief, the king retired into the forest.

Deserted by his subjects too, he adopted this course for acquiring great merit. Reduced by repentance, the king practised the most rigid austerities.

For purifying himself of the sin of Brahmanicide he asked many Brahmanas, and travelled from one country to another over the whole Earth.

I shall now tell you the story of his expiation. Burning with the recollection of his sin, Janamejaya wandered about.

One day, in course of his peregrinations, he met Indrota, the son of Shunaka, of rigid vows, and approaching him touched his feet.

Seeing the king before him, the sage reproved him, saying,-You have committed a great sin. You have been guilty of foeticide. Why have you come here.

What have you to do with us? Do not touch me! Go, go away! Your presence does not give us pleasure!

Your body smells like blood. You look like a corpse. Though impure, you appear as pure, and though dead you move like a living being!

Dead within, you are of impure soul for you always wish to commit sin. Though you sleep, and wake, your life, however, is spent in great misery.

Useless is your life, O king. You live most miserably. You have been created for ignoble and sinful acts.

Fathers wish for sons for obtaining various kinds of blessings, and hoping they would perform penances and sacrifices, adore the gods, and practise renunciation.

See all your ancestors have fallen into hell for your acts. All the hopes your fathers had placed upon you have been frustrated,

You live in vain, for you, always entertain hatred and malice towards the Brahmanas,-by worshipping whom other men acquire long life, fame, and heaven.

Leaving this world, you shall have to fall (into hell) with head downwards and remain in that posture for numberless years for your sinful deeds.

There you will be tortured by vultures and peacocks having iron beaks. Returning thence into this world, you will be born again in a wretched order of creatures.

If you think, o king, that this world is nothing and that the next world is nothing and that the next world is but a shadow, the attendants of Yama in the infernal regions will convince you, removing your scepticism.