r purpose) without an
invitation and if one does not, on that account, receive proper worship
from the sacrificer, one's life becomes shortened. One should never go
alone on a journey to foreign parts. Nor should one ever proceed alone to
any place at night. Before evening comes, one should come back to one's
house and remain within it. One should always obey the commands of one's
mother and father and preceptor, without at all judging whether those
commands are beneficial or otherwise. One should, O king, attend with
great care to the Vedas and the science of arms. Do then, O king,
carefully attend to the practice of riding an elephant, a steed, and a
war-chariot. The man who attends to these with care succeeds in attaining
to happiness. Such a king succeeds in becoming unconquerable by foes, and
sway his servants and kinsmen without any of them being able to get the
better of him. The king that attains to such a position and that
carefully attends to the duty of protecting his subjects, has never to
incur any loss. Thou shouldst acquire, O king, the science of reasoning,
as also the science of words, the science of the Gandharvas, and the four
and sixty branches of knowledge known by the name of Kala. One should
every day hear the Puranas and the Itihasas and all the other narratives
that exist, as also the life-stories of all high-souled personages. When
one's spouse passes through functional period, one should never have
congress with her, nor even summon her for conversation. The man endued
with wisdom may accept her companionship on the fourth day after the bath
of purification. If one indulges in congress on the fifth day from the
first appearance of the functional operation, one gets a daughter. By
indulging in congress on the sixth day, one happens to have a son. The
man of wisdom should in the matter of congress, attend to this rule
(about odd and even days). Kinsmen and relatives by marriage and friends
should all be treated with respect. One should, according to the best of
one's power, adore the deities in sacrifices, giving away diverse kinds
of articles as sacrificial Dakshina. After the period ordained for the
domestic mode of life has been passed, one should, O king, enter the life
of a forest recluse. I have thus told thee all the indications, in brief,
of persons who succeed in living long.[484] What remains untold by me
should be heard by thee from the mouths of persons well-versed in the
three Vedas,