the Pitris and the deities are also gratified.
There is nothing superior to a Brahmana possessed of Vedic lore. Without
the Brahmana, all would be darkness. Nothing would be known. The four
orders would not exist. The distinction between Righteousness and
Unrighteousness, Truth and Falsehood, would cease. On a well-tilled
field, an abundant harvest can be reaped. Even so, one may reap great
merit by making gifts unto a Brahmana possessed of great learning. If
there were no Brahmanas endued with Vedic lore and good conduct for
accepting gifts, the wealth possessed by wealthy people would be useless.
The ignorant Brahmana, by eating the food that is offered to him,
destroys what he eats (for it produces no merit to him who gives it). The
food that is eaten also destroys the eater (for the eater incurs sin by
eating what is offered to him). That ought to be properly termed an
eatable which is given away to a deserving man, in all other cases, he
that takes it makes the donor's gift thrown away and the receiver is
likewise ruined for his improperly accepting it. The Brahmana possessed
of learning becomes the subjugator of the food that he eats. Having eaten
it, he begets other food. The ignorant who eats the food offered to him
loses his right to the children he begets, for the latter become his
whose food has enabled the progenitor to beget them. Even this is the
subtle fault that attaches to persons eating other people's food when
they have not the puissance to win that food. The merit which the giver
acquires by making the gift, is equal to what the taker acquires by
accepting the food. Both the giver and the acceptor depend equally upon
each other. Even this is what the Rishis have said. There where Brahmanas
exist, possessed of Vedic lore and conduct, people are enabled to earn
the sacred fruits of gifts and to enjoy them both here and hereafter.
Those men who are of pure lineage, who are exceedingly devoted to
penances, and who make gifts, and study the Vedas, are regarded as worthy
of the most reverent worship. It is those good men that have chalked out
the path by treading on which one does not become stupefied. It is those
men that are the leaders of others to heaven. They are the men who bear
on their shoulders the burden of sacrifices and live for eternity.'"'"

SECTION CXXII

"'Bhishma said, "Thus addressed, the holy one replied unto Maitreya,
saying 'by good luck, thou art endued with knowledge. By good luc