96 - Teachings of Yajnavalkya

Yajnavalkya said: 

1-5. I shall enumerate the mixed castes and also the duties of the householders. A brahmin father and a kshatriya mother beget a Murdhabhishikta. Similarly

Brahmin father + Vaishya mother > Ambashtha 

 “                     “          + Shudra    “          > Nishada, Parvata

Kshatriya father + Vaishya     “          > Mahishya

“          “          +   Shudra  “          > Mleccha

Vaishya father +    Sudra                     “          > Karana

Kshatriya “ + Brahmin            “          > Suta

Vaishya        “          +         “                      “          > Vaidehaka

Shudra         “          +         “                      “          > Chandala (Lowliest of all) 

Vaishya Father + Kshatriya Mother > Magadha

Shudra         “          +  Vaishya “          > Kshattru

Shudra         “          +  Karani                 “          >Ayogava

Mahisya      “          + Karani                 “          > Rathakara

6-7. These mixed castes are unprivileged ones whether Anulomaja (higher caste father and lower caste another) or Pratilomaja (higher caste mother and lower caste father). On account of the intrinsic loftiness, they will have the rights of their original caste in the seventh generation if the duty has under gone change or in the fifth generation is the duty is the same. A householder shall perform every day the rites according to the Smrutis in the fire first lighted on the occasion of marriage. 

8-9. All rites laid down in the Vedas, except that of charitable gifts, shall also be performed in the marital fire. After answering the calls of nature and observing the requisite toilet and washing the teeth he should perform Sandhya in the morning. After the fire sacrifice he should recite the Surya mantras with due faith. 

10. He should understand the meaning of Vedic passages and the various Shastras. He should go to the temple of God for the acquisition and preservation of his desired objects. 

11-13. After taking bath he should perform Tarpana and worship the gods and the manes. According to capacity he shall read Vedas, Puranas and Itihasas. In order to achieve the full result of Japas and Yajnas (sacrifice) spiritual Vidya shall be practised. Oblations, Svadhahoma, study of Vedas and reception of guests should be duly observed. The great sacrifices for ghosts, manes, Brahman and human beings shall be duly performed.

14. For Chandalas and crows, cooked rice should be strewn on the ground. Cooked rice should be offered with water every day to the manes and human beings. 

15-16. Vedic study shall be invariably pursued every day. Food shall not be cooked for one's own use exclusively. All children, elderly people, pregnant women, invalids, girls shall be fed duly and thereafter guests should be fed. Then the couple should partake of what is left over. With Pranagni homa (ritualistic taking in of a few grains) he should take his meal without finding fault with the food served.

17. Only after feeding the boys should he take in moderate quantities wholesome food after due digestion. The earlier part of the meal and the later one should be taken after drinking water.

18. The food should be taken in relishingly in a covered place. Charity should be given according to capacity to the guests and to people us all castes. 

19. No such thought shall be entertained as "This guest is not worthy of bowing to", "This is the same as that one" with regard to guests. Even by reducing other expenses, alms should be given to mendicants and persons of good rites. 

20-21. Whoever happens to come should be fed. A great bull should be consecrated and a Vedic scholar shall be fed thereby once in a year. Snatakas (those who perform ritualistic ablutions after sacrifices) preceptors, kings, friends, boys eligible for marriage, persons in anguish-all these shall be honoured and respected. All wayfarers are guests. A Shrotriya is a person who has mastered the Vedas. 

22. These two (the guest and Vedic Scholar) should be honoured if a householder wishes to attain Brahmaloka. A householder shall never yearn for another man's food unless invited and unless it is what is not censurable. 

23. He shall avoid the misuse of speech, hands and feet and over-eating. When the guest and the Vedic Scholar are fully satiated, he shall accompany them up to the boundary of the village. 

24-25. The remaining part of the day he shall spend in the company of good men, friends and relations. After performing the evening prayer, offering of ghee in the fire, etc., he should take food. Consulting the learned he should decide what is to be done for his own progress. He must get up in the Brahma muhurta (before sunrise). A brahmin should be honoured with money, gifts, etc. 

26-27. To the aged, grief-stricken and burden-bearers he should be a support leading the way. The common duties of the twice-born, the brahmins, vaishyas and kshatriyas are sacrifice, study of the Vedas, charity, etc. The additional duties of a brahmin are acceptance of fees, presiding over sacrifices and teaching of the Vedas. The special duties of a kshatriya are the administration of kingdom and the protection of the people. 

28. Usury, agriculture, trading and cattle-breeding are the duties of a vaishya. The duties of a shudra are service to the twice-born. A twice-born shall never neglect sacrifice 

29. The common qualities of the castes for the preservation of virtue constitute non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, purity, control of sense-organs, control of the mind, patience, straightforwardness, liberal-mindedness, equality and activities devoid of crookedness or deceit (roguery). 

30. Those who have food-grains in stock lasting for more than three years can perform the Soma sacrifice and drink the Soma juice. Those who have in stock food-grains lasting for a year shall perform the preliminary rites of Soma sacrifice. 

31. Every year, he shall perform the rites of Soma Sacrifice as well as Pashupratyayana, Grahaneshti and Chaturmasya¹ rites carefully.

1. Name of the three sacrifices, viz., Vaishvadeva, Varunapraghasa, and Shakamedha, performed in the beginning of the three seasons of four months each. (CSL, p. 422). 

32. If these rites are not possible, the twice-born shall perform the sacrifice Vaishvanari. No sacrifice shall be per formed with deficiency in the materials used. If the full complement of the materials are duly used, the sacrifice becomes fruitful. 

33. Isa sacrifice is performed utilising the money begged of a Shudra, the sacrificer becomes a Chandala. A person pilfering articles gathered for a sacrifice becomes a crow or a vulture. 

34. A person sustaining himself by gleaning rice grains has a better spiritual life than the one with a day's supply. He in turn is better than one with three days' supply. He is still better than one with a pot, full of grain who is himself better than one with a granary under his command. 

35. A brahmin never craves for wealth that would interfere with his daily study of the Vedas. He should not seek it from any and every place. If he is terribly harassed by hunger, he can seek money from a king, his pupil or a person of his clan. He should not earn by resorting to haughtiness, hypocrisy or cunning. 

36. A householder should preferably wear a white cloth. Hair, moustache and nails shall be kept always clean. He should not take food unless supervised by his wife. 

37. He should never speak unpleasant words. He should always be humble with the sacred thread on. While going round the idols in a temple he should hold the holy staff and water pot. 

38. He should never pass urine in riverbeds, shady groves, ashes, cowsheds, running water, facing fire, sun, moon, cows, water, women and brahmins, or at the evening hours. 

39. He should never gaze at fire, sun, a nude woman, a woman engaged in the sexual act, wine, faeces, etc. He should never sleep with his head to the west. 

40. He should never spit in water nor pour blood, urine, faeces or poison in water. Feet should not be shown to fire for warming, nor should be jump across fire. 

41. He should not drink water off his cupped palms nor should be waken up a sleeping person. He should not gamble with dishonest gamblers nor should he share the bed with a sick person. 

42. All adverse activities should be eschewed. So also, the smoke from a funeral pyre, river banks, the burning hair and husk and its ashes. He should never sit on a broken jar. 

43. He should never pull a suckling cow, never enter a place except by the proper door. He should never accept bees from a miserly king decrying scriptures. 

44-45. The annual Upakarma rite (Revising of Vedic study and expiatory rites) should be performed on the full moon day in the month of Shravana, on Hasta asterism or fifth day of the bright fortnight, or on Rohini asterism in the month of Pausha or on Ashtaka (7th, 8th or 9th) days. The Utsarga rite should be duly performed outside near a place where there is natural water. 

46. (There are thirty-seven Anadhyaya days (Holidays for Vedic Study) when any one of these-a disciple, a preceptor, a kinsman or a Rutvik dies three days are Anadhyaya, so also after the Upakarma and Utsarga rites, when a Vedic scholar of one's own branch of Veda dies. 

47. At the Sandhya hours, when thunder rumbles, when there is an earthquake, fall of a comet or a meteor, Vedic recital should be stopped and Aranyaka portion is read. 

48. The eighth, fourteenth and fifteenth days of the lunar half month, the eclipse days, the junctions of Rutus (seasons) and after taking a meal or accepting fees in a Shraddha, 

49. When any animal—frog, mungoose, dog, snake, cat or pig walks between the teacher and the pupil, when the owl falls or flies up (Anadhyaya for the day). 

50. When the sound of the barking dogs, howling jackals, braying asses, hooting owls, crying children or groaning sick patients is heard (Vedic Study is stopped). Where there is excreta, dead body or a Shudra nearby or cremation ground or a fallen sinner (cessation of Vedic study). 

51. In an unclean place, on the highway, when there is thunder and lightning, when the man is having the hand still wet after taking meals, in the middle of two watery places, in the middle of the night or when there is a sandstorm (Anadhyaya). 

52. When the quarters burn (when the sun blazes), when dust is raised during snowfall, when the preceptor is running, when there is foul smell of something rotting, when a "very important person" visits the house, 

53. When mounting a mule, camel, cart, elephant, horse, boat, tree or a hill. These are the thirty-seven Anadhyayas or cessation of Vedic Study for special reasons for the nonce. 

54. What is prohibited by the Vedas should not be performed. The preceptor's or king's shadow shall not be treaded on. Another man's wife should not be transgressed. Blood, faeces, urine, spit or vomited matter, etc. should not be treaded on. 

55. Brahmins Serpents, Kshatriyas and the Atman should never be slighted. Leavings of food partaken, excreta, etc. should be kept far even from the extremity of the foot.

56. The acts enjoined by Vedas and Smrutis should be performed in faith. No one should be hit in vulnerable parts. No one should be censured or beaten. Only a son and a disciple can be beaten. 

57. All virtues should be practised; nothing contrary to them. A householder should never have verbal disputes with his mother, father or a guest. 

58. Without offering the five pindas he shall not take bath in another man's pond or well. A bath is better taken in a river, fountains and natural puddles and eddies. 

59. The use of another man's bed and personal belongings should be avoided. Unless there is danger to life, food offered by a miser, enemy or a man without sacred fire should he refused. 

60-64. Food offered by these people should never be eaten: --a bamboo-worker, a calumniated person, a person practising usury, a person acting as priest of prostitutes and their flock, physicians to the low class people, eunuchs, professional stagers of plays, cruel, fierce, fallen Vratyas, haughty people, persons partaking of other people's leavings after food, persons who misuse sacred texts, henpecked husbands, village priests, wicked kings, washermen, ungrateful, hangsmen, liars, backbiters, wine-merchants, bards, goldsmiths, etc. Meat should not be taken without consecration. Food mixed with hair or germs should not be taken. Food cooked more than twelve hours before, partaken by another, sniffed at by a dog, sprinkled over by a sinner, touched by a woman in her monthly course, squeezed or kneaded by others should be avoided. Insufficient food should also be avoided for unlimited quantity of food should also be avoided). Similarly, food sniffed at by a cow or a bird or trampled by anyone should be avoided. 

65. Among Shudras, these persons can serve food: Dasas¹, Gopalas², Kulamitras, Ardhasirins, Napita³ and one who has dedicated himself to the task.

1. Perhaps a fisherman.

2. A cowherd.

3. A barber.

66. Food cooked a day before can be taken if it has been seasoned with oil or ghee. No food prepared with wheat or barley should be taken after the lapse of a day unless it is fried in oil or ghee. 

67. Milk of a camel, a single-hoofed animal (such as mare) and that of women should be avoided. The flesh of carnivorous animals, birds, Datyuha (gallinule), and parrots should be avoided. 

68-71. After eating Sarasas, single-hoofed animal's flesh, swans, cranes, storks, swallows, unconsecrated Krusaras, Samyavas, Payasas [all puddings], Apupas, Shashkulis (fried macaronis)¹ the flesh of Kurara Jalapada, Khanjarita, Chasa (Jay) and other birds, fish, red-footed animals, the man should atone for the sin by fasting three days.

1. A wag-tail.

72. By eating garlic and onion one becomes sinful and as atonement one should perform Chandrayana. If one takes meat after worshipping deities and manes in Shraddha one does not acquire sin. 

73. If one kills animals otherwise (and cats their flesh) he will fall into hell and remain there for as many days as there are hairs on that animal. Eschewing flesh a devotee attains God Hari after due prayer.