अनुशासनिक पर्व — पूजनीय पुरुष

Yudhishthira said Who are worthy of being adored? Who are they to whom we should bow? How, Indeed, should we behave towards whom? What course of conduct, O grandfather, towards what classes of persons is considered faultless?

Bhishma said The humiliation of Brahmanas would humiliate the very celestials. By bowing to Brahmanas, one does not, O Yudhishthira, commit any fault.

They, indeed, deserve to be adored. They deserve to have our vows. You should bchave towards them as if they are your sons. Indeed, it is those wise men who upholds all the worlds.

The Brahmanas are the great causeways of Virtue about all the worlds. Their happiness consists in renouncing all kinds of riches. They are devoted to the vow of controlling speech.

They are agreeable to all creatures, and observe various excellent vows. They are the refuge of all creatures in the universe. They are the authors of all the regulations which govern the worlds. They are endued with great fame.

Penances are always their great riches. Their power consists in speech. Their energy emanates from the duties they observe. Knowing all duties, they are gifted with minute vision, so that they are cognizant of the subtlest consideration.

They are of righteous desires. They live in the observance of welldone duties. They are the causeways of Virtue. The four kinds of living creatures exist, depending upon them as their refuge.

They are the path or road along which all should go. They are the guides of all. They are the eternal upholders of all the sacrifices. They always upholds the heavy loads of fathers and grandfathers.

They never droop under heavy loads even when passing along difficult roads, like strong cattle. They are attentive to the requirements of manes and deities and guests. They are entitles to eat the first portions of Havya and Kavya.

By the very food they eat, they rescue the three worlds from great feat. They are, as it were, the Island for all worlds. They are the cyes of all persons gifted with sight.

The wealth they possess consists of all the branches of knowledge known by the name of Shiksha, and all the Shrutis. Gifted with great skill, they are conversant with the most subtile relations of things. They know the ends of all things, and their thoughts are always engaged upon the science of the soul.

They are gifted with the knowledge of the beginning, the middle, and the end of all things, and they are persons in whom doubts no longer exist on account of the certitude of their knowledge. They are fully aware of the distinctions between what is superior and what is inferior. They it is who acquire the highest end.

Shorn of altachments, purged of all sins, getting over all pairs of opposites, they are unattached to all worldly things. Deserving of every honour, they are always esteemed by persons gifted with knowledge and high souls.

They cast impartial looks on sandal paste and filth or dirt, on what is food and what is not food. They see with an equal eye their brown dresses of coarse cloth and fabrics of silk and animal skins.

They would live for days together without partaking of any food, and dry up their limbs by such abstention. They devote themselves earnestly to the study of the Vedas, controlling their senses.

They would make gods of those who are not gods, and not gods of those who are gods. Enraged, they can create other worlds and other Regents of the worlds than those who exist.

Through the curse of those great ones, the ocean become so saline as to be undrinkable. The fire of their anger yet burns in the forest of Dandaka, unquenched by time.

They are the gods of the gods, and the cause of all causes. They are the authority of all authorities. What man of intelligence and wisdom is there who would seek to humiliate them.

Amongst them the young and the old all deserve honours. They honour one another on account of distinctions in respect of penances and knowledge.

Even the Brahmana who is destitute of knowledge is a god and is a great instrument for purifying others. He amongst them, then, who is possessed of knowledge is a much higher god and like the ocean when full (to the brim).

Learned or unlearned, the Brahmana is always a great deity. Purified or not, Fire is ever a great god.

A blazing fire, even when it burns on a crematorium, is not considered as sullied on account of the character of the spot whereon it burns. Clarified butter looks beautiful whether kept on the sacrificial after or in a chamber.

So if the Brahmana be always engaged in evil deeds, he is still to be considered as deserving of honours. Indeed, know that the Brahmana is always a great god.