Yudhishthira said o grandfather, O greatly wise one, conversant with all the scriptures, I wish to know those excellent ordinances by which mortals have to travel through their rounds of rebirth.

What is that conduct by following which O king, men succeed in acquiring high heaven and what is that conduct by which one sinks in Hell?

When renouncing the dead body that is as inert as a piece of wood or clod of earth people proceed to the other world, what are those which follow them there?

Bhishma said Yonder comes the illustrious and highly intelligent Brihaspati. Do you ask his blessed self. The subject is an eternal mystery.

None else is capable of explaining the matter. There is no speaker like Brihaspati.

Vaishampayana said While the son of Pritha and the son of Ganga were thus conversing with each other, there came at the spot from the sky the illustrious Brihaspati of purified soul.

King Yudhishthira, and all others, headed by Dhritarashtra, stood up and received Brihaspati with proper honours. Excellent was the worship they offered to the preceptor of the celestials.

Then approaching the illustrious Brihaspati, Dharma's royal son, Yudhishthira, asked him the question in proper form, desirous of knowing the truth.

Yudhishthira said O illustrious one, you are conversant with all duties and all the scriptures. Do you tell me what is truly the friend of mortal creatures?

Is the father, or mother, or son, or preceptor, or kinsmen, or relatives, or those called friends, that may be said to truly form the friend of a mortal creature? One goes to the next world, leaving his dead body that is like a piece of wood or a clod of earth. Who is it that follows him there?

Brihaspati said One is born alone, o king, and one dies alone; one crosses alone the difficulties one meets with, and one alone meets whatever misery falls to his lot.

One has really no companion in these deeds. The father the mother, the brother, the son the preceptor kinsmen, relatives and friends, leaving the dead body as if it were a piece of wood or a clod of earth, after having mourned for only a moment, all turn away from it and mind their own affairs.

Only virtue follows the body that is thus left by them all. It is therefore, plain, that virtue is the only friend and that virtues only should be sought by all.

A virtuous man would acquire that high end which is formed by Heaven. If sinful he goes to hell.

Hence, an intelligent man should always seek to acquire virtue through wealth acquired by fair means. Virtue is the one only friend whichcrcatures have in the next world.

Moved by cupidity, or stupefaction, or mercy, or fear, one shorn of knowledge is seen to do unfair deeds, for sake of even another, his judgement thus stupefied by cupidity.

Virtue, wealth, and pleasure, these three form the fruit of life. Onc should win these three by means of being free from impropriety and sin.

Yudhishthira said I have carefully heard the words spoken by your illustrious self, these words that are fraught with virtue, and that are highly beneficial, I wish now to know of the state of the body (after death.)

The dead body of man becomes subtile and unmanifest. It becomes invisible. How is it possible for virtue to follow it?

Brihaspati said Earth, Wind Ether, Water, Light, mind, Yama (the king of the dead), Understanding, the soul, as also day and Night, all together witness the merits of all living creatures. With these, virtue follows the creature (When dead.)

When the body becomes bereft of life, skin, bones flesh, the vital seed, and blood, leave it simultaneously.

Gifted with merit (and demerit) individual soul (after the destruction of this body) comes by another body. After the attainment by individual soul of that body the presiding deities of the five elements once more witness all his deeds, good and bad.

What else do you wish to hear? If gifted with virtue, individual soul enjoys happiness. What other subject, belonging to this or the other world shall I describe to you?

Yudhishthira said Your illustrious self has explained how virtuc follows individual soul. I wish to know how the vital seed is originated.

Brihaspati said The food that these gods, O king, who live in the body viz Earth, Wind, Ether, Water, Light and Mind, cat, pleases them. When those five elements become pleased, O monarch with Mind numbering as their sixth, their vital seed then becomes generated, O you of purified Soul.

When an act of union takes place between male and female, the vital seed comes out and causes conception. I have thus explained to you what you had asked. When else do you wish to hear.

Yudhishthira said You have, O illustrious one, said how conception takes piace. Do you explain how the individual soul that takes birth, grows.

Brihaspati said As soon as individual soul enters the vital seed, he becomes overwhelmed by the elements already mentioned. When individual soul become disunited therewith, he is said to attain to the other end (viz., death).

Gifted with these elements, the individual soul comes by a body. The deities that preside over those elements, witness all his deeds, good and bad. What else do you wish to hear.

Yudhishthira said Living off skin, bone and flesh, and becoming destitute of all those elements, in what does individual soul reside, O illustrious one, for enjoying and suffering happiness and imisery?

Brihaspati said Endued with all his acts, individual soul quickly enters the vital seed, and availing of the menstrual flow of women, takes birth in time, O Bharata.

After birth individual soul receives woe and death from the messengers of Yama. Indeed, he goes through misery and a painful round of rebirth.

Endued with life, O king, individual soul in this world, from the moment of his birth, enjoys and suffers his own (pristine deeds), depending upon virtue (and its reverse).

If individual soul according to the best of his power, follows virtue from the day of his birth, he them succeeds in enjoying uninterruptedly, when reborn, happiness.

If, on the other hand, without following virtue without interruption, he acts sinfully, he reaps happiness at first as the reward of his virtue and suffers misery after that.

Endued with sin, individual soul has to go the dominions of Yama and suffering great misery there he has to take birth in an intermediate order of being.

Listen to me as I tell you, what the different acts are by doing which individuals soul, Stupefied by folly, has to take birth in different orders of being, as declared in the Vedas, the scriptures, and the histories, Mortals have to go to the dreadful regions of Yama.

There are, again, places in those regions that are worse than those which are occupied by animals and birds. In those regions, O king there are places which are fraught with every merit and which are worthy on that account of being the habitations of the very celestials.

Creatures, fettered by their deeds, suffer various kinds of misery. Indeed, there are places of these kinds in the abode of Yama which is equal to the region of Brahman himself in merits.

If a twice born person having studied the four Vedas, becomes stupefied by folly and accepts a gift from a fallen man, he has then 10 take birth in the order of asses.

I shall after this tell you what those acts and dispositions are on account of which a person acquires an end that is fraught with great misery and terror.

He has to live as an ass for fifteen years, Shaking off his assinine form, he has next to take birth as an ox and which state he has to live for seven years.

Throwing off his bovine forın, he has next to take birth as a Rakshasa of the twice born order. Living as a Rakshasa of the twice born order for three months, he then regains his status of a Brahmana.

A Brahmana, by officiating at the sacrifice of a degraded person, has to take birth as a vile worm. In this form he has to live for fifteen years, O Bharata.

Freed from his worm birth, he is next born as an ass. As an ass he has to live for five years, and then as a hog, in which state also he has to reinain for as many years.

After that he is born as a cock, and living for five years in that form, he is born as a jackal and lives for as many years in that state. He is then born as a dog, and living thus for a ycar he regains his manhood.

That foolish disciple who offends his preceptor by injuring him, has certainly to undergo three changes in this world.

Such a person, o king, has in the first instance to become a dog. He has then to become a beast of prey, and then an ass. Living his assinine form he has to wander for sometime in great, misery as a spirit. After the expiration of that time, he is born as a Brahmana.

That sinful disciple who even in thought knows the wife of his preceptor, has, on account of such a sinful heart, to undergo many dreadful shapes in this world.

First taking birth in the canine order he has to live for three years. Throwing off the canine forin when death comes, he is born as a vile vermin.

In this form he has to live for a year. Renouncing that form he succeeds in regaining his status as a human being of the twice born order.

If the preceptor kills, without reason, his disciple who is even as a son to him, he has on account of such a wilful deed of sin on his part, to take birth as a beast of prey.

That son who disregards his father and mother, O king, is born after renouncing his human form as an ass.

Assuming the assinine form he has to live for ten years. After that he is born as a crocodile, in which form he has to live for a year. After that he regains the human forin.

That son with whom his parents become angry has on account of his evil thoughts towards them, to take birth as an ass.

As an ass he has to live for ten months. He is next born as a dog and has to remain as such for fourteen months. After that he is born as a cat and living in that form for seven months he regains his human form.

Having spoken ill of parents one is born as a Sarika. Striking them one is born, O king as a tortoise.

Living as a tortoise for ten years, he is born as a porcupine. After that he has to take birth as a snake, and living for six months in that form he regains human form.

That man who, while living upon the food that his royal master supplies, commits deeds injurious to the interests of his master, stupefied by folly, has, after death, to take birth as a monkey.

For ten years he has to live as a monkey, and after that for five years as a mouse. After that he is born as a dog, and living in that form for six months he succeeds in regaining his human form.

That man who misappropriates what is deposited with him in trust, has to undergo a hundred births. He at last takes birth as a vile worm.

In that order he has to live for fifteen years, O Bharata. Upon the exhaustion of his sin in this way, he succeeds in regaining his human form.

That man who has malice towards others, has, after death, to take birth as a sharngaka. That wicked man who becomes guilty of breach of trust has to take birth as a fish.

Living as a fish for eight years he is born, O Bharata, as a deer. Living as a deer for four months he is next born as a goat.

After the expiration of a full year, he renounces his goatish body, and is then born as a worm. After that he succeeds in regaining his human form.

That shameless insensate man who, through stupefaction, steals paddy, barley sesame, Masha, Kulattha, oil seeds, oats Kalaya, Mudga, wheat, Atasi, and other kinds of corn, is born as a mouse.

After leading the life for sometime, he is next born as a hog. As soon as he is born as a hog he has to die of diseasc.

On account of his sin, that foolish man has next to take birth as a dog, O king. Living as a dog for five years, he then regains his human form.

Having committed an act of adultery with the wife of another man, one is born as a wolf. After that he has to assume the forms of a dog and jacka! and vulture. He has next to take birth as a snake and then as a Kanka (a bird of prey) and then as a crane.

That sinful wight who out of foolishness, knows his brother's wife, has to take birth as a male Coel and to live in that form for a whole year, O king.

He who, through lust, knows the wife of a friend, or the wife of preceptor, or the wife of his king, has after death to take the form of a hog.

He has to live in this form for five years and then to assume that of a wolf for ten years. For the next five years he has to live as a cat and then for the next ten years as a cock.

He is next born as an ant, for three months and then as a worm for a month. Having undergone these births, he has next to live as a vile worm for fourteen years. When his sin becomes exhausted by such punishment, he at last regains the human form.

When a marriage is about to take place a sacrifice or an act of gifts is about to be made, O you of great power the man who puts in any impediment has to take birth in his next life as a vile worm.

Assuming such a form he has to live, O Bharata, for fifteen years. When his sin is exhausted by such suffering, he regains the human form.

Having once bestowed his daughter in marriage upon a person, he who seeks to bestow her again upon a second husband, is compelled, O king, to take birth among vile worms.

Assuming such a form, O Yudhishthira, he has to live for thirteen years. Upon the exhaustion of his sin by such sufferance, he regains the human form.

He who eats without having performed the rites in honour of the celestials or those in honour of the departed Manes or without having offered (even) oblations of water to both the Rishis and the departed Manes has to take birth as a crow.

Living as a crow for a hundred years, he next assumes the forin of a cock. His next change is that of a snake for a month. After this he regains the human form.

He who disregards his eldest brother who is like a father, has, after death, to take birth as a crane.

Having assumed that form he has to live in it for two years. Renouncing that form at the conclusion of that period, he regains the human forin.

That Shudra who knows a Brahmani woman has after death, to take birth as hog.

As soon as he takes birth in that order he dies of disease, O king. The wretch has next to take birth as a dog, O king, on account of that sinful deed.

Renouncing his canine form he regains, upon the exhaustion of his sin, the human form. The Shudra who begets offspring upon a Brahmani woman, leaving off his human form, is born again as a mouse. man

The who becomes guilty of ingratitude, O king, has to go to the regions of Yama and there to suffer very painful and severe treatment at the hands of the emissaries, provoked to fury of the grim king of the dead.

Clubs with heavy hammers and mallets sharppointed lances heated jars, dreadful sword blades heated sands, thorny Shalmalisthese and many other engines of torture such a man has to suffer in the regions of Yama, O Bharata,

O chief of Bharata's race, having suffered such dreadful treatment in the regions of the grim king of the dead, the ungrateful person has to return to this world and take birth among vile vermin.

He has to live as a vile vermin for a period of fifteen years, O Bharata. He has then to enter the womb and dic prematurely before birth.

After this that person has to enter the womb a hundred times successively. Indeed, having undergone a hundred rebirths, he at last is born as a creature in some interinediate order between man and inanimate nature.

Having suffered misery for a great many years, he has to take birth as hairless tortoise.

A person who steals curds is born as a crane. One becomes a monkey by stealing raw fish. That intelligent man who steals honey, is born as a gadfly.

By stealing fruits or roots or cakes, one becomes an ant. By stealing Nishpava, one becomes a Halagolaka.

By stealing Payasa, one becomes, in his next birth, a Tittiri bird. By stealing cakes, one becomes a screechowl.

That littlewitted man who steals iron has to take birth as a cow. That man who steals white brass, is born as a bird of the Harita spccies.

By stealing a silver vessel, one becomes a pigeon. By stealing a golden vessel, one has to take birth as a vile veriin.

By stealing a piece of silken cloth, one becomes a Krikara. By stealing a piece of cloth made of red silk, one becomes a Vartaka.

By stealing a picce of muslin, one becomes a parrot. By stealing a piece of cloth that is of fine texture one becomes a swan after renouncing his human body.

By stealing a piece of cotton cloth, one becomes a Krauncha bird after renouncing his human body, and O Bharata, stealing a shoulder sheet of cloth, garment made of sheep wool and a piece of linen, one is born as a hare. By stealing different sorts of colouring matter, one is born as a peacock.

By stealing a piece of red cloth one is born as a bird of the Jivajivaka species. By stealing unguents (such as sandalpaste) and perfumes in this world, the avaricious man, O king, is born as a mole. Assuming the form of a mole one has to live in it for fifteen years.

After the exhaustion of his sin by such suffering he regains the human form. By stealing milk, one becomes a crane.

That inan, king, who through stupefaction of the understanding, steals oil, is born, after renouncing this body, as an animal who lives upon oil as his form.

That wretch who, himself wellarmed, kills another while that other is unarined, for getting his riches or out of hostile feelings, has, after renouncing his human body, to take birth as an ass.

Assuming that assinine form, he has to live for a period of two years and then he is killed by a weapon, Renouncing his assinine body, he has to take birth, in his next life, as a deer always anxious (for fear of being killed.)

Upon the expiration of a year from the time of his birth as a deer, he is killed by a weapon. Thus renouncing his form of a deer, he next takes birth as a fish and dies on account of being dragged up in a net, on the expiration of the fourth month. He has next to take birth as a beasts of prey. He has to live in that form, for ten years and then he takes birth as a bird in which form he has to live for five years.

Actuated by the change that is occasioned by time, he then renounces that form and, his sin having been exhausted, he regains the human form.

That man of little understanding who slays a woman has to go to the regions of Yama and to suffer various kinds of pain and misery. He then has to pass through full twentyone transformations.

After that, О king, he has to take birth as a vile vermin. Living as a vermin for twenty years, he regains the human form.

By stealing food, one has to take birth as a bee. Living for many months in the company of other bees, his sin become exhausted and he regains the human form. By stealing paddy, one becomes a cat.

That man who steals food mixed with sesame cakes is in his next birth born as a mouse large or small according to the largeness or smallness of the quantity stolen.

He bites human beings every day and, therefore, becomes sinful and passes through a varied round of rebirths. That foolish man who steals clarified butter has to take birth as a gallinule.

That wicked man who steals fish has to take birth as a crow. By stealing salt one has to take birth as an imitating parrot.

That man who misappropriates trust property, has to suffer a diminution in the period of his life and dying has to take birth ainong fishes.

Having lived for sometime as a fish, he dies and regains the human form. Regaining, however, the human form he becomes short lived.

Indeed having perpetrated sins, O Bharata, one has to take birth in an order intermediate between that of humanity and vegetables. Those people do not know the principles of virtue who take their own hearts for their guide.

Those men who commit various sinful deeds, and then scck to expiate them by continuous vows and observances of piety, enjoy happiness and suffer misery and live in great anxiety of heart.

Those sinful men who yield to the influence of cupidity and stupefaction, are surely born as Mlechchhas who are uriworthy of being associated with.

Those men, on the other hand, who abstain from sin all their lives, become free from disease of every sort gifted with beauty of form, and possessed of riches.

Women also when they act in this way attain to births of the same kind. Indeed, they have to take births as the males of the animals I have mentioned.

I have told you all the faults of the misappropriation of others' properties. I have described to you very briefly the subject, O sinless one.

In connection with some other subject, O Bharata, you will again hear of those faults. I heard all this O king, Formerly from Bhrahman himself, and I asked all about it in a proper way, when he described it in the midst of the celestial Rishis. I have told you truly and in detail all that you had asked me. Having listened to all this,.o king, do you always set your heart on virtue.