Mahabharata Anushasna Parva Chapter 104:6

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Mahabharata Anushasna Parva (Dana Dharma Parva) Chapter 104:6

At daytime both calls of nature should be answered with face turned towards the north. At night, those calls should be answered facing the south. By so doing one does not shorten one's life. One that wishes to live long should never disregard or insult any of these three, however weak or emaciated they may appear to be, viz., the Brahmana, the Kshatriya, and the snake. All three are endued with virulent poison. The snake, if angry, burns the victim with only a glance of its eyes. The Kshatriya also, if angry, burns the objects of his wrath, as soon as he sees him, with his energy. The Brahmana, stronger than any of these two, destroys not only the objects of his wrath but his whole race as well, not by vision alone but by thought also.[[1]] The man of wisdom should, therefore, tend these three with care.

One should never engage in any disputation with one's preceptor. O Yudhishthira, if the preceptor becomes angry, he should always be pacified by due honours being paid to him. Even if the preceptor happens to be entirely wrong, one should still follow and honour him. Without doubt, calumnious sayings against the preceptor always consume the lives of those that utter them. One should always answer a call of nature at a spot far removed from one's habitation. One should wash one's feet at a distance from one's habitation. One should always throw the remnants of one's dishes and plates at a spot far removed from one's habitation. Verily, he who desires his own good should do all these. One should not wear garlands of red flowers. Indeed, they who are possessed of wisdom should wear garlands of flowers that are white in hue. Rejecting the lotus and the lily, O thou of great might, one may bear on one's head, however, a flower that is red, even if it be an aquatic one.[[2]] A garland of gold can under no circumstances become impure. After one has bathed, O king, one should use perfumes mixed with water.[[3]] One should never wear one's upper garment for covering the lower limbs or the lower garments for covering the upper ones. Nor should one wear clothes worn by another. One should not, again, wear a piece of cloth that has not its lateral fringes.[[4]] When one goes to bed, O king, one should wear a different piece of cloth. When making a journey also on a road, one should wear a different piece of cloth. So also, when worshipping the deities, one should wear a different piece of cloth.[[5]] The man of intelligence should smear his limbs with unguents made of Priyangu, sandalwood, Vilwa, Tagara, and Kesara.[[6]] In observing a fast, one should purify oneself by a bath, and adorn one's person with ornaments and unguents. One should always abstain from sexual congress on days of the full moon and the new moon. One should never, O monarch, eat off the same plate with another even if that other happens to be of one's own or equal rank.

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References

  1. The Brahmana is more powerful than the other two, for while the other two cannot injure except when they have their foe within sight, the Brahmana can do so even by not seeing his enemy.
  2. The custom in India, with especially all orthodox Brahmanas, is to wear a single flower on the head, inserted into the coronal lock. This flower may be a red one, it is said, after the prohibition in the previous verse about the wearing of garlands made of red flowers.
  3. What is stated here is that dry perfumes should not be used, but those which are pounded with water and made into a paste.
  4. The cloth worn by a Hindu has two lateral fringes which contain a lesser number of threads than the body of the cloth.
  5. It has been said that Hinduism is a vast system of personal hygiene. These directions about change of attire are scrupulously observed by every rigid Hindu to this day. No change seems to have taken place in the daily habits of the people.
  6. Priyangu is the Aglaia Roxburghiana. Vilwa is the Egle marmelos. Tagara is the Taberuaemontana coronaria, Linn. Kesara is probably the Eclipta alba, Hassk.