rutasravas,--these great
Rishis, by adoring Vishnu with concentrated minds with the aid of Richs,
and by penances, succeeded in attaining to success through the grace of
that great deity endued with intelligence. Many undeserving men, by
adoring that good deity, obtained great distinction. One should not seek
for advancement by achieving any wicked or censurable act. That wealth
which is earned by righteous ways is true wealth. Fie on that wealth,
however, which is earned by unrighteous means. Righteousness is eternal.
It should never, in this world, be abandoned from desire of wealth. That
righteous-souled person who keeps his sacred fire and offers his daily
adorations to the deities is regarded as the foremost of righteous
persons. All the Vedas, O foremost of kings, are established on the three
sacred fires (called Dakshina, Garhapatya, and Ahavaniya). That Brahmana
is said to possess the sacred fire whose acts exist in their entirety. It
is better to at once abandon the sacred fire than to keep it, abstaining
the while from acts. The sacred fire, the mother, the father who has
begotten, and the preceptor, O tiger among men, should all be duly waited
upon and served with humility. That man who, casting off all feelings of
pride, humbly waits upon and serves them that are venerable for age, who
is possessed of learning and destitute of lust, who looketh upon all
creatures with an eye of love, who has no wealth, who is righteous in his
acts, and who is destitute of the desire of inflicting any kind of harm
(upon any one), that truly respectable man is worshipped in this world by
those that are good and pious.'"'"[1521]

SECTION CCXCIV

"'"Parasara said, 'The lowest order, it is proper, should derive their
sustenance from the three other orders. Such service, rendered with
affection and reverence, makes them righteous.[1522] If the ancestors of
any Sudra were not engaged in service, he should not still engage himself
in any other occupation (than service). Truly, he should apply himself to
service as his occupation. In my opinion, it is proper for them to
associate, under all circumstances, with good men devoted to
righteousness, but never with those that are wicked. As in the Eastern
hills, jewels and metals blaze with greater splendour in consequence of
their adjacence to the Sun, even so the lowest order blazes with
splendour in consequence of their association with the good. A piece of
white cloth assumes that