he king and the queen
although the latter treated the animals with great care and attention. As
regards myself, O king, I used to live in the observance of the vow of
Brahmacharya in that place where these kine were placed after they had
been stolen away. The food I had obtained by begging became sprinkled
over with the milk of those kine. Having taken that food, O thou of the
royal order, I have, in this life, become a Chandala. The king who had
stolen the kine belonging to a Brahmana obtained an infamous end. Hence,
one should never steal or appropriate anything that belongs to a
Brahmana. Behold to what state I am reduced in consequence of my having
eaten food that had been sprinkled over with milk belonging to a
Brahmana! It is for this reason that Soma plants become unsaleable by a
person possessed of wisdom. They who sell the Soma plant are censured by
the wise. Indeed, O son, they who purchase Soma and they who sell it,
both sink in the hell called Raurava when, departing from this world,
they repair to the region of Yama. That man who, possessing a knowledge
of the Vedas, duly sells Soma, becomes in his next life a usurer and
quickly meets with destruction. For three hundred times he has to sink
into hell and become transformed into an animal that subsists upon human
ordure. Serving a person that is vile and low, pride, and rape upon a
friend's wife, if weighed against one another in a balance, would show
that pride, which transcends all restraints, is the heaviest. Behold this
dog, so sinful and disagreeably pale and lean! (He was a human being in
his former life). It is through pride that living creatures attain to
such a miserable end. As regards myself, I was born in a large family, in
a former birth of mine, O lord, and I was a thorough master of all
branches of knowledge and all the sciences. I knew the gravity of all
these faults, but influenced by pride, I became blinded and ate the meat
attached to the vertebral columns of animals. In consequence of such
conduct and such food, I have come to this state. Behold the reverses
brought about by Time! Like a person whose cloth has taken fire at one
end, or who is pursued by bees, behold, I am running, penetrated with
fear, and smeared with dust! They that lead the domestic mode of life are
rescued from all sins by a study of the Vedas, as also by gifts of other
kinds, as declared by the wise.[451] O thou of the royal order, a
Brahmana that is sinful in conduct,