he truth and abstains from doing injury to any creature goes to
heaven.'

"Yudhishthira enquired, 'Which, O snake, is the higher of the two, truth
or alms-giving? Tell me also the greater or less importance of kind
behaviour and of doing injury to no creature.'

"The snake replied, 'The relative merits of these virtues, truth and
alms-giving, kind speech and abstention from injury to any creature, are
known (measured) by their objective gravity (utility). Truth is
(sometimes) more praiseworthy than some acts of charity; some of the
latter again are more commendable than true speech. Similarly, O mighty
king, and lord of the earth, abstention from doing injury to any
creature is seen to be important than good speech and vice-versa. Even
so it is, O king, depending on effects. And now, if thou hast anything
else to ask, say it all, I shall enlighten thee!' Yudhishthira said,
'Tell me, O snake, how the incorporal being's translation to heaven, its
perception by the senses and its enjoyment of the immutable fruits of
its actions (here below), can be comprehended.' The snake replied, 'By
his own acts, man is seen to attain to one of the three conditions of
human existence, of heavenly life, or of birth in the lower animal
kingdom. Among these, the man who is not slothful, who injures no one
and who is endowed with charity and other virtues, goes to heaven, after
leaving this world of men. By doing the very contrary, O king, people
are again born as men or as lower animals. O my son, it is particularly
said in this connection, that the man who is swayed by anger and lust
and who is given to avarice and malice falls away from his human state
and is born again as a lower animal, and the lower animals too are
ordained to be transformed into the human state; and the cow, the horse
and other animals are observed to attain to even the divine state.[3] O
my son, the sentient being, reaping the fruits of his actions, thus
transmigrates through these conditions; but the regenerate and wise man
reposes his soul in the everlasting Supreme Spirit. The embodied spirit,
enchained by destiny and reaping the fruits of its own actions, thus
undergoes birth after birth but he that has lost touch of his actions,
is conscious of the immutable destiny of all born beings.[4]'

[3] More literally, the state of the gods. It may appropriately
be remarked here that the ordinary Hindu gods, of the post-Vedic
period, like the gods of Ancie