Yudhishthira said Do you, O foremost one of Kuru's family, describe to me once again the excellent ordinances about gifts, with especial reference, O you of great wisdom, to the gift of earth.

A Kshatriya should make gifts of earth to a pious Brahmana; such a Brahmana should accept the gift with due rites. None else, however save a Kshatriya can make gifts of Earth.

You should now tell me what those objects are that persons of all classes can freely give if actuated by the desire of acquiring merit. You should also tell me what has been said in the Vedas on this subject.

Bhishma said There are three gifts that pass by the same name and that yield equal merits. Indeed, these three confer the fruition of every desire. The three objects whose gifts are of such a character are kine, earth, and knowledge.

That person, who tells his disciple words of good meaning drawn from the Vedas, acquires merit equal to that which is acquired by making gifts of earth and kine.

Likewise are kine praised. There is no object of gift higher than they. Kine are supposed to confer merit forthwith. They are also, O Yudhishthira, such that a gift of them cannot but yield great merit.

Kine are the mothers of all creatures. They grant every sort of happiness. The person, who seeks his own prosperity, should always make gifts of kine.

No one should kick at kine or pass through the midst of kine. Kine are goddesses and homes of auspiciousness. Therefore they always deserve worship.

Formerly, the deities, while tilling the earth whereon they celebrated a sacrifice, used the a god for striking the bullocks yoked to the plough. Hence, in cultivating earth for such a purpose, one may, without incurring censure or sin, apply the goad to bullocks. In other acts, however, bullocks should never be struck with the goad of the whip.

When kine are grazing or lying down, no one should tease them in any way. When thirsty and they do not get water, kine, by merely loO king at such a person, can destroy him with all his relatives and friends.

What creatures can be more sacred than kine when with the very dung of kine aitars, whereon Shraddhas are performed in honour of the departed manes, of those whereon the deities are adored, are cleansed and sanctified.

That man who, before eating himself, gives every day, for a year only a handful of grass to a cow belonging to another, is considered as practising a vow or observance which bestows the fruition of every desire.

Such a person acquires children and fame and wealth and prosperity, and removes all evils and bad dreams.

Yudhishthira said What should be the marks of those kine that deserve to be given away? What are those kine that should be looked over in the matter of gifts? What should be the characters of those persons to whom should kine be given? Who, again, are those to whom kine should not be given?

Bhishma said A cow should never be given to one who is not pious in conduct, or one that is sinful, or one that is covetous, or one who is a liar, or one who does not make offerings to the departed manes and celestials.

A person, by making a gift of ten kine to a Brahmana learned in the Vedas, poor in earthly riches, possessed of many children, and owning a domestic fire, attains numerous regions of great happiness.

When a man performs any meritorious act, assisted by what he has got in gift from another, he acquires portion of that merit.

He who procreates a person, he who rescues a person, and he who assigns the means of livelihood to a person, are considered as the three fathers.

Services dutifully done to the preceptor destroys sin. Pride destroys even great fame. The possession of three children removes the reproach of childlessness, and the possession of ten kine removes the reproach of poverty.

To one who is devoted to the Vedanta, who is gifted with great learning, who has been filled with wisdom, who has a complete mastery over his senses, who observes the restraints laid down in the scriptures, who has withdrawn himself from all worldly attachments, to him who says agreeable words to all creatures, to him who would never do an evil act even when actuated by hunger, to one who is mild or possessed of a peaceful disposition, to one that is hospitable to all guests, to such a Brahmana, should a man, possessed of similar conduct and having children and wives, assign the means of livelihood.

The merit of the gift of kine to a worthy person is exactly equal to the sin of robbing a Brahmana of what belongs to him. Under all circumstances anything belonging to Brahmana should be avoided and his wives kept at a distance. a