e's high
achievements. By abstention from cruelty one acquires health and freedom
from disease. By serving Brahmanas with reverence one attains to kingdom
and sovereignty, and the high status of a Brahmana. By making gifts of
water and other drinks, one acquires eternal fame in consequence of high
achievements. By making gifts of food one acquires diverse articles of
enjoyment. One who gives peace unto all creatures (by refraining from
doing them any injury), becomes freed from every region. By serving the
deities one obtains a kingdom and celestial beauty. By presenting lights
at places which are dark and frequented by men, one acquires a good
vision. By giving away good and beautiful objects one acquires a good
memory and understanding. By giving away scents and garlands, one
acquires fame that spreads over a large area. Those who abstain from
shaving off their hair and beards succeed in obtaining excellent
children. By observing fasts and Diksha and baths, O Bharata, for twelve
years (according to the ordinance), one acquires a region that is
superior to that attainable by unreturning heroes. By bestowing one's
daughter on an eligible bridegroom according to the Brahma form, one
obtains, O best of men, male and female slaves and ornaments and fields
and houses. By performing sacrifices and observing fasts, one ascends to
Heaven, O Bharata. The man who gives away fruits and flowers succeeds in
acquiring auspicious knowledge. The man who gives a thousand kine with
horns adorned with gold, succeeds in acquiring heaven. Even this has been
said by the very deities in a conclave in heaven. One who gives away a
Kapila cow with her calf, with a brazen pot of milking with horns adorned
with gold, and possessed of diverse other accomplishments, obtains the
fruition of all his wishes from that cow. Such a person, in consequence
of that act of gift, resides in heaven for as many years as there are
hairs on the body of the cow and rescues in the next world (from the
misery of hell) his sons and grandsons and all his race to the seventh
degree.[314] The regions of the Vasus become attainable to that man who
gives away a cow with horns beautifully decorated with gold, accompanied
with a brazen jar for milking, along with a piece of cloth embroidered
with gold, a measure of sesame and a sum of money as Dakshina. A gift of
kine rescues the giver in the next world when he finds himself falling
into the deep darkness of hell and restrain