deed, and purity achieved by use of water. He that has
recourse to these three different kinds of purity, attains, without
doubt, to heaven. That Brahmana who adoreth the goddess Sandhya in the
morning and the evening, and who recites meditatively the sacred goddess
Gayatri who is the mother of the Vedas, sanctified by the latter, is
freed from all his sins. Even if he accepts in gift the entire earth with
her oceans, he doth not, on that account, suffer the least unhappiness.
And those heavenly bodies in the sky including the sun that may be
inauspicious and hostile towards him soon become auspicious and
favourable towards him in consequence of these acts of his, while those
stars that are auspicious and favourable become more auspicious and more
favourable in consequence of such conduct of his. And terrible Rakshasas
subsisting on animal food, or gigantic and fierce mien, all become unable
to prevail over a Brahmana who practiseth these purifications. The
Brahmanas are even like blazing fires. They incur no fault in consequence
of teaching, of officiating at sacrifices, and of accepting gifts from
others. Whether the Brahmana be cognisant of the Vedas or ignorant of
them, whether they be pure or impure, they should never be insulted, for
Brahmanas are like fires. As the fire that blazeth up in the place set
apart for the cremation of the dead is never regarded impure on that
account, so the Brahmana, be he learned or ignorant, is always pure. He
is great and a very god! Cities that are adorned with walls and gates and
palaces one after another, lose their beauty if they are bereft of
Brahmanas. That, indeed, O king, is a city where Brahmanas accomplished
in the Vedas, duly observing the duties of their order and possessed of
learning and ascetic merit, reside. O son of Pritha, that spot, be it a
wood or pasture land, where learned Brahmanas reside, hath been called a
city. And that place, O king, becometh a tirtha also. By approaching a
king that offereth protection, as also a Brahmana possessed of ascetic
merit, and by offering worship unto both, a man may purge off his sins
immediately. The learned have said that ablutions in the sacred tirthas,
recitation of the names of holy ones, and converse with the good and
virtuous, are all acts worthy of applause. They that are virtuous and
honest always regard themselves as sanctified by the holy companionship
of persons like themselves and by the water of pure and sacred con