mother knows the family in which the son is born and the
father who has begotten him. From the moment of conception the mother
begins to show affection to her child and takes delight in her. (For this
reason, the son should behave equally towards her). On the other hand,
the scriptures declare that the offspring belongs to the father alone. If
men, after accepting the hands of wives in marriage and pledging
themselves to earn religious merit without being dissociated from them,
seek congress with other people's wives, they then cease to be worthy of
respect.[1207] The husband, because he supports the wife, is called
Bhartri, and, because he protects her, he is on that account called Pati.
When these two functions disappear from him, he ceases to be both Bhartri
and Pati.[1208] Then again woman can commit no fault. It is man only that
commits faults. By perpetrating an act of adultery, the man only becomes
stained with guilt.[1209] It has been said that the husband is the
highest object with the wife and the highest deity to her. My mother gave
up her sacred person to one that came to her in the form and guise of her
husband. Women can commit no fault. It is man who becomes stained with
fault. Indeed, in consequence of the natural weakness of the sex as
displayed in every act, and their liability to solicitation, women cannot
be regarded as offenders. Then again the sinfulness (in this case) is
evident of Indra himself who (by acting in the way he did) caused the
recollection of the request that had been made to him in days of yore by
woman (when a third part of the sin of Brahmanicide of which Indra
himself was guilty was cast upon her sex). There is no doubt that my
mother is innocent. She whom I have been commanded to slay is a woman.
That woman is again my mother. She occupies, therefore, a place of
greater reverence. The very beasts that are irrational know that the
mother is unslayable. The sire must be known to be a combination of all
the deities together. To the mother, however, attaches a combination of
all mortal creatures and all the deities.'[1210]--In consequence of his
habit of reflecting long before acting, Gautama's son Chirakarin, by
indulging in those reflections, passed a long while (without
accomplishing the act he had been commanded by his sire to accomplish).
When many days had expired, his sire Gautama returned. Endued with
great wisdom, Medhatithi of Gautama's race, engaged in the practice of
penanc