"Yudhishthira said, 'After doing what acts does a man become liable to
perform expiation? And what are those acts which he must do for being
freed from sin? Tell me this, O grandsire.'
"Vyasa said, 'Having omitted to do those acts that have been ordained,
and done those that have been interdicted, and having behaved
deceitfully, a man becomes liable to perform expiation. The person in the
observance of the Brahmacharya vow, who rises from bed after the sun has
risen or goes to bed while the sun is setting, one who has a rotten nail
or black teeth, one whose younger brother weds first, one who weds before
his elder brother is wedded, one who has been guilty of the slaughter of
a Brahmana, one who speaks ill of others, one who weds a younger sister
before the elder sister has been wedded, one who weds an elder sister
after having wedded a younger one, one who falls away from a vow, one who
slays any one of the regenerate classes, one who imparts a knowledge of
the Vedas to a person unworthy of it, one who does not impart a knowledge
thereof to a person that is worthy of it, one who takes many lives, one
who sells flesh, one who has abandoned his (sacred) fire, one who sells a
knowledge of the Vedas, one who slays his preceptor or a woman, one
born in a sinful family, one who slays an animal wilfully, one who
sets fire to a dwelling house, one who lives by deceit, one who acts in
opposition to his preceptor, and one who has violated a compact,—these
all are guilty of sins requiring expiation. I shall now mention other
acts that men should not do, viz., acts that are interdicted by both the
world and the Vedas. Listen to me with concentrated attention. The
rejection of one's own creed, the practice of other people's creed,
assisting at the sacrifice or the religious rites of one that is not
worthy of such assistance, eating of food that is forbidden, deserting
one that craves protection, neglect in maintaining servants and
dependants, selling salt and treacle (and similar other substances),
killing of birds and animals, refusal, though competent, to procreate
upon a soliciting woman, omission to present the daily gifts (of handfuls
of grass to kine and the like), omission to present the dakshina,
humiliating a Brahmana,—these all have been pronounced by persons
conversant with duty to be acts that no one should do. The son that
quarrels with the father, the person that violates the bed of his
preceptor, one that neglects to produce offspring in one's wedded wife,
are all sinful, O tiger among men! I have now declared to thee, in brief
as also in detail, those acts and omissions by which a man becomes liable
to perform expiation.
