28 - The Education of the Sons (continued). Madálasá’s Exhortation.

Madálasa enunciates to Alarka the special duties of the four castes and of the four periods of a bráhman’s life and the duties commands those four castes and periods, which must be strenuously maintained. 

Jada spoke.

1 Having listened to that his mother’s exhortation, Alark also further questioned his mother both about the duties the four classes, and about tho daties appertaining to the four periods of a bráhman’s life. 

Alarka spoke.

2       “Thou hast expounded, gracious lady, this the duty relating to the system of kingly government. I wish to hear the duty which concerns the four classes and the four periods of brahman’s life.”

Madálasá spoke.

 3 “A bráhman’s duty is held to be threefold-liberality, study sacrifice. There is no other fourth duty. His duty is regardless 4 of his position. Irreproachable sacrificial and educational occupations, and the acceptance of gifts from the purified-this is fitly proclaimed his threefold means of livelihood.

5 Liberality, study, sacrifice - this is declared to be the threefold duty of a kshatriya also: protection of the earth, and subsistence by weapons are his means of livelihood. Liberality, study, sacrifice-that indeed is the threefold duty of a vaishya also: merchandise, and the tending of cattle, and agriculture

7 are his means of livelihood. Liberality, and sacrifice, obedience to dvijas, I have declared to be the threefold duty of the shúdra also; and his means of livelihood are a handicraft,

8 obedience likewise to dvijas, nourishing them, buying and selling. These are said to be the duties of the four classes. 

“Hear also the connexions among the four periods of a bráhman’s life.

9 A man who has not erred from the duty of his own class gains perfect felicity: he goes to hell after death,

10 if he has served what is forbidden. And as long indeed as a dvija is not invested with the sacred thread, so long, my son, he acts, speaks and eats unrestrainedly. 

11      “When duly invested with the sacred thread, he becomes a brahma-ch’árin in his guru’s house, and he should dwell there. 

12 I relate his duty; hear it of me. Private study, attendance on fire, bathing, and wandering about for alms, and always eating that food after informing his guru and obtaining

13 permission from him. He should be diligent in the guru’s business; there should be thorough evoking of his affection; and when summoned by him, he should read intently, his mind,

 14 withdrawn from everything else. After acquiring one, two or all the Vedas from his guru’s mouth, he is authorized to give the

15 guru his fee with words of eulogy. But let him enter on the griha-stha period when desirous of the period of family life; or, by his own wish, on the vána-prastha period and on the

16 fourth period. Or let the dvija await his decease there in the guru’s honse, obedient to the guru’s son if the guru be

17 dead, or to the guru’s disciple, if there be no son. Obedient, free from self-conceit, let him pass through the period of a brahma-ch’árin. 

“Next when he has desisted therefrom, through desire for a

18 a griha-stha’s status, let him then rightly marry a wife, sprung from the family of a different* Rishi, his equal, free from sickness, not deformed, for the sake of a griha-stha’s

*A-samana. His family and hers should not be descended from the same Rishi. This indicates exogamy.

19 status. And having gained money by his own toil, let him duly please the pitris, gods and guests by faith; and also nourish

20 those who resort to him, his dependants and children, and his female relatives, and the afflicted, the blind, and the out-cast, the birds and the cattle, * to the utmost of his power

*For pašhavas read ch’a pashums? 

21 with gifts of food. This is the duty of a griha-stha; sexual intercourse also at the proper season: but he should not, to the utmost of his power, neglect the performance of the five

22 sacrifices. And let the man himself, being zealous to the best of his power, together with his dependants, eat the remains of the food consumed by the pitris, the gods, the guests and paternal kinsmen.

23     “Now I have declared this griha-stha period distinctly. I describe to thee the duty of the vana-prastha: be it heard.

24 Having seen the succession of his offspring, and the stoop of his body, let the wise man enter upon the vána-prastha period.

25 for the purpose of purifying his soul. In it there is the enjoyment of the forest, and attraction by penances, sleeping on the ground, sacred study, ceremonies for the pitris

26 gods and guests, the homa oblation, the three daily ablutions, † the wearing matted hair and a bark dress, and diligence in meditation unceasingly, the use of forest unguents.

† at dawn, noon, and sunset.

 27 This is the vána-prastha period, for the purification of sin and beneficial to the soul. But after that comes another, the last, period of the bhikshu.

28     “But hear from me the nature of the fourth period, which with its peculiar duties has been described, my darling, by

 29 high-souled men conversant with its duties. †† Renunciation of every association, sacred study, abstinence from anger control over the senses, no long dwelling in one habitation

†† For yaḥ sva-dharmo ‘sya read sva-dharmo yasya? 

 30 abstaining from undertakings, and eating food obtained by begging once a day, also desire for the awakening of know

 31 ledge of the soul, and gazing at the soul. Now I have acquainted thee with this duty in the fourth period. 

“Hear from me the common duty of the other classes and of

32 the periods of life. Truthfulness, purity and harmlessness, freedom from envy, and patience, morcy, generosity,* and contentment is the eighth virtue. 

       * For akarpyanyam read akarpanyam? 

33     “These duties have been succinctly described to thee concerning the classes and the periods of life: and a man should

34 stand wholly within these his own peculiar duties. And the man, who, overstepping his own duty named according to his own class or period of life, should behave otherwise,

35 should be punished by the king. And the king who overlooks men, who after forsaking their own duties commit sin,

36 loges his pious acts. Therefore,, a king must vigorously punish all the classes that behave contrary to their special duties, and he must keep them within their own occupations.”