Yudhishthira said Where do those foolish, wretched, and sinful men go, O king, who steal misappropriate such articles as belong to Brahmanas? or

Bhishma said I shall, about it, O Bharata, recite to you the conversation between a Chandala and a low Kshatriya.

This Kshatriya said You seem, O Chandala, to be old in years, but your conduct appears to be like that of a boy! Your body is besmeared with the dust raised by dogs and asses, but without minding thal dust you are anxious about the little drops of milk that have fallen upon you persons.

It is plain that such acts as are censured by the pious are ordained for the Chandala. Why, indeed, do you seek to wash off the spots of milk from your body.

The Chandala said Formerly, O king, certain kine belonging to a Brahmana were stolen, While they were being carried away, some milk from their udders dropped upon a number of Soma plants that grew by the roadside. Those Brahmanas who drank the juice of the plants thus bedewed with milk, as also the king who celebrated the sacrifice in which that Soma was drunk, had to sink in hell. Indeed, for having thus appropriated something belonging to a Brahmana, the king with all the Brahmanas who had helped him had to go to hell.

All those men also, Brahmanas and Kshatriyas, who drank milk or clarified butter or curds, in the palace of the king who had stolen the Brahmana's kine, had to fall into hell.

The stolen kine also, shaking their bodies, killed with their milk the sons and grandsons of those who had stolen them, as also the king and the queen although the latter treated the animals, with great care and attention.

As for myself, O king, I used to live the life of a celibate in that place where these kine were placed after they had been stolen away. The food I had got by begging became sprinkled over with the milk of those kine.

Having taken that food, O Kshatriya, I have, in this life, become a Chandala. The king who had stolen the kine belonging to a Brahmana came by a wretched end.

Hence, one should never steal or appropriate anything belonging to a Brahmana. Mark, to what state I am reduced on account of my having eaten food that had been sprinkled over with milk belonging to a Brahmana.

It is for this reason that Soma plants should never be destroyed by wise men. They who sell the Soma plant are held in low esteem by the wise.

Indeed, O son, they who purchase Soma and they who sell it, both sink in the hell called Raurava after death.

That man who, possessing a knowledge of the Vedas, duly sells Soma, becomes in his next life a usurer and speedily meets with destruction.

For threehundred times he has to sink into hell and become changed into an animal which subsists upon human excreta. Serving a low person, pride, and rape upon a friend's wife, if weighed against one another in a balance, would show that pride, which is above all restraints, is the heaviest. Mark this dog, so sinful and disagreeably pale and lean.

It is through pride that living creatures come by such a miserable end. As for myself, I was born in a large family in a former birth of mine, O lord, and I was a perfect master of all branches of knowledge and al the sciences. I knew the immensity of all these faults, but moved by pride, I became blinded and ate the i meat attached to the vertebral columns of animals. On account of such conduct and such food, I have come by this state. Mark, the। reverses engendered by Time! Like a person whose cloth has caught fire at one end, or who is pursued by bees, see, I am running, filled with fear, and smeared with dust! The householders are rescued from all sins by a study of the wise. O Kshatriya, a sinful Brahmana becomes rescued from all his sins by a study of the Vedas, if he becomes a forestreclusc and abstains from attachment of every kind. O chief of Kshatriyas, I am, in this life, born in sinful caste.

I cannot see clearly how I may succeed in purifying myself from all sins. On account of some meritorious deed of a former life, I have not lost the memory of my previous births.

O king, I throw myself on your mercy! I ask you. Do you remove my doubt. By what auspicious course of conduct should I wish to acquire my liberation? O foremost of men, by what means shall I succeed in getting rid of my Chandalahood.

The Kshatriya said Know, O Chandala, the means by which you may be able to acquire liberation. By renouncing your life for the sake of a Brahmana, you may come by a desirable end.

By throwing your body on the fire of battle as a libation to the beasts and birds of prey for the sake of a Brahmana, indeed, by renouncing your life thus, you may achieve liberation. By no other means will you succeed in acquitting it.

Bhishma said Thus accosted, that Chandala, O scorcher of enemies, poured his lifebreaths as a libation on the fire of battle for the sake of protecting a Brahmana's riches and as the result of that act attained to a very desirable end.

Hence, O son, you should always protect the property of the Brahmanas, if, O chicf of Bharata's race, you wish, O you of mighty arms, an end consisting of eternal happiness. Hence, O son, you should always protect the property of the Brahmanas, if, O chicf of Bharata's race, you wish, O you of mighty arms, an end consisting of eternal happiness.