221 - Dharmasara 

Brahma said: 

1. I shall briefly mention the essence of Dharma (Virtue and Righteousness), please listen, O Shankara. It is subtle. It quells all sins. It yields worldly enjoyment and salvation. 

2. It is grief that destroys learning, righteousness, strength, courage, happiness and zeal of every man. Hence, grief must be eschewed. 

3. One gets a wife according to one's actions. One finds one's surroundings according to one's actions. His kinsmen and relatives behave in accordance with his actions. It is the action of a man that prompts him to activities generating happiness and misery. 

4. Giving of gifts is the greatest virtue. Everything good is secured by making gifts. It is charity that enables one to attain heavenly kingdom. Hence, a man must make liberal gifts. 

5. Making of gifts with excellent and entire money gifts (dakshina) is on par with the saving of life of a terrified being. 

6. Dharma is acquired by means of austerities, practising celibacy, sacrifices and holy ablutions. Those who destroy the same go to hell. 

7. Persons desirous of performing Homas, Japas, holy ablutions and worship of deities and those who possess truthfulness, forgiveness and mercy attain heaven. 

8. There is no one making a gift of happiness or misery and there is no one who removes the same. Men experience happiness or misery brought about by his own actions. 

9. He who dedicates his life for the sake of virtue crosses all difficulties. If there is contentment, who is he who cannot sustain himself by means of fruits and roots? 

10. Every one sinks into misery due to association and intimacies. The same is caused by greed which cannot be warded off. 

11. Greed generates anger, malice results from greed; greed begets delusion, illusion, false prestige and rivalry. 

12. He who is free from lust, hatred, falsehood, anger, greed, delusion and haughtiness becomes calm and tranquil and he attains the highest region divested of sins. 

13. O Hara, the deities, the sages, the serpents, the Gandharvas and the Guhyakas honour a virtuous man and not a rich or lustful man. 

14. By means of unlimited valour, intelligence or manliness a man secures even things difficult to get. Hence, there is nothing to grieve over. 

15. This is the highest achievement that a man is merciful to all living beings, is able to curb all sense organs and has the notion that everything is transitory. 

16. If a man does not perform meritorious actions although he sees Death staring at him face to face, his life is as worthless as the teatlike sebaceous growth under the chin of a goat. 

17. The slayer of a child in the womb, the murderer of a brahmin, he who kills a cow or his own father and the wretch who defiles his own preceptor's bed can get rid of the sin by making a gift of a land possessing all good features. 

18. In my view, there is no other gift surpassing the gift of a cow. A cow acquired by lawful means, if handed over as a gift, makes the entire family cross all difficulties. 

19. O Vrushadhvaja, there is no gift better than the gift of food. It is food that sustains the world of mobile and immobile beings. 

20-21. The gift of a virgin, the gift of a bull, pilgrimage, high erudition, the gift of an elephant, horse and chariot or that of gems, jewels and lands-none of these is equal to even a sixteenth part of the gift of food. Vital airs, strength, splendour, valour, fortitude and power of memory take their origin from food. 

22. If a person digs wells, tanks and lakes or lays parks for the sake of the public, he raises the members of his family even to the twentyfirst remove and himself revels in the region of Vishnu. 

23. Even the very sight of good men purifies one. It is better than the holy places of pilgrimage. The benefit from a holy place is derived later but that from the contact of good men is immediately effective. 

24. Truthfulness, restraint, penance, purity, contentment, forgiveness, straightforwardness, wisdom, tranquillity, mercy and charity--these are eternal virtues.