ulate bulls and bore their noses and
cause them to bear heavy burthens and bind them and put them under
diverse kinds of restraint, and that eat the flesh of living creatures
after slaying them? Men are seen to own men as slaves, and by beating, by
binding, and by otherwise subjecting them to restraints, cause them to
labour day and night. These people are not ignorant of the pain that
results from beating and fastening in chains.[1160] In every creature
that is endued with the five senses live all the deities. Surya,
Chandramas, the god of wind, Brahman, Prana, Kratu, and Yama (these dwell
in living creatures). There are men that live by trafficking in living
creatures! When they earn a living by such a sinful course, what scruples
need they feel in selling dead carcases? The goat is Agni. The sheep is
Varuna. The horse is Surya. Earth is the deity Virat. The cow and the
calf are Soma. The man who sells these can never obtain success. But what
fault can attach to the sale of oil, or of Ghrita, or honey, or drugs, O
regenerate one? There are many animals that grow up in ease and comfort
in places free from gnats and biting insects. Knowing that they are loved
dearly by their mothers, men persecute them in diverse ways, and lead
them into miry spots abounding with biting insects. Many draft animals
are oppressed with heavy burthens. Others, again, are made to languish in
consequence of treatment not sanctioned by the scriptures. I think that
such acts of injury done to animals are in no way distinguished from
foeticide. People regard the profession of agriculture to be sinless.
That profession, however, is certainly fraught with cruelty. The
iron-faced plough wounds the soil and many creatures that live in the
soil. Cast thy eyes, O Jajali, on those bullocks yoked to the plough.
Kine are called in the Srutis the Unslayable. That man perpetrates a
great sin who slays a bull or a cow.[1161] In days of yore, many Rishis
with restrained senses addressed Nahusha, saying, "Thou hast, O king,
slain a cow which is declared in the scriptures to be like unto one's
mother. Thou hast also slain a bull, which is declared to be like unto
the Creator himself.[1162] Thou hast perpetrated an evil act, O Nahusha,
and we have been exceedingly pained at it." For cleansing Nahusha,
however, they divided that sin into a hundred and one parts and
converting the fragments into diseases cast them among all
creatures.[1163] Thus, O Jajali, did thos