their urine (abstaining from all other food the while). The merit that
one acquires by making a gift of a bull is equal to that which attaches
to the divine vow. By making a gift of a couple of kine one acquires, as
the reward thereof, a mastery of the Vedas. By making a gift of cars and
vehicles with kine yoked thereto, one acquires the merit of baths in
sacred waters. By making a gift of a cow of the Kapila species, one
becomes cleansed of all one's sins. Verily, by giving away even a single
cow of the Kapila species that has been acquired by legitimate means, one
becomes cleansed of all the sins one may have committed. There is nothing
higher (in point of tastes) than the milk which is yielded by kine. The
gift of a cow is truly regarded as a very superior gift. Kine by yielding
milk, rescue all the worlds from calamity. It is kine, again, that
produce the food upon which creatures subsist. One, who, knowing the
extent of the service that kine do, does not entertain in one's heart
affection for kine, is a sinner that is certain to sink in hell.[355] If
one gives a thousand or a hundred or ten or five kine, verily, if one
gives unto a righteous Brahmana even a single cow which brings forth good
calves at proper intervals, one is sure to see that cow approach one in
heaven in the form of a river of sacred water capable of granting the
fruition of every wish. In respect of the prosperity and the growth that
kine confer, in the matter also of the protection that kine grant unto
all creatures of the earth, kine are equal to the very rays of the sun
that fall on the earth.[356] The word that signifies the cow stands also
for the rays of the sun. The giver of a cow becomes the progenitor of a
very large race that extends over a large part of the earth. Hence, he
that gives a cow shines like a second sun in resplendence. The disciple
should, in the matter of making gifts of kine, select his preceptor. Such
a disciple is sure to go to heaven. The selection of a preceptor (in the
matter of the performance of pious deeds) is regarded as a high duty by
persons conversant with the ordinances. This is, indeed, the initial
ordinance. All other ordinances (respecting the gift of kine) depend upon
it.[357] Selecting, after examination, an eligible person among the
Brahmanas, one should make unto him the gift of a cow that has been
acquired by legitimate means, and having made the gift cause him to
accept it. The deities and men and ours