ver succeeds in ascending to heaven. Verily, the man who
converts the Sraddha into an occasion for treating his friends, becomes
dissociated from heaven even like a bird dissociated from the perch when
the chain tying it breaks.[408] Therefore, he that performs a Sraddha
should not honour (on such occasions) his friends. He may make gifts of
wealth unto them on other occasions by collecting them together. The Havi
and the Kavi offered at Sraddhas should be served unto them that are
neither friends nor foes but are only indifferent or neutral. As seed
sown on a sterile soil does not sprout forth, or as one that has not sown
does not get a share of the produce, even so that Sraddha the offerings
in which are eaten by an unworthy person, yields no fruit either here or
hereafter.[409] That Brahmana who is destitute of Vedic study is like a
fire made by burning grass or straw; and becomes soon extinguished even
like such a fire. The offerings made at Sraddhas should not be given to
him even as libations should not be poured on the ashes of the
sacrificial fire. When the offerings made at Sraddhas are exchanged by
the performers with one another (instead of being given away unto worthy
persons), they come to be regarded as Pisacha presents. Such offerings
gratify neither the gods nor the Pitris. Instead of reaching the other
world, they wander about even here like a cow that has lost her calf
wandering about within the fold. As those libations of ghee that are
poured upon the extinguished ashes of a sacrificial fire never reach
either the gods or the Pitris, after the same manner a gift that is made
to a dancer or a singer or a Dakshina presented to a lying or deceitful
person, produces no merit. The Dakshina that is presented to a lying or
deceitful person destroys both the giver and the receiver without
benefiting them in any respect. Such a Dakshina is destructive and highly
censurable. The Pitris of the person making it have to fall down from the
path of the deities. The gods know them to be Brahmanas who always tread,
O Yudhishthira, within the bounds set up by the Rishis who are conversant
with all duties, and who have a firm faith in their efficacy. Those
Brahmanas that are devoted to Vedic study, to knowledge, to penances, and
to acts, O Bharata, should be known as Rishis. The offerings made at
Sraddhas should be given unto those that are devoted to knowledge.
Verily, they are to be regarded as men who never speak ill of