Mahabharata Anushasna Parva Chapter 62:4

Mahabharata Anushasna Parva (Dana Dharma Parva) Chapter 62:4 Maghavat said, 'O illustrious one, by what gift does one succeed in coming to Heaven and attaining to beatitude? O foremost of speakers, do thou tell me of that gift which is productive of high and inexhaustible merit. "'Bhishma continued, "Thus addressed by the chief of the celestials the preceptor of the deities, viz., Vrihaspati of great energy, said these words in reply unto him of a hundred sacrifices. 'Endued as he is with the merits that attach to the gift of earth, the region of felicity reserved for the person who makes gift of such earth as is auspicious and rich with every taste, never become exhausted. That king, O Sakra, who desires to have prosperity and who wishes to win happiness for himself, should always make gifts of earth, with due rites, unto deserving persons. If after committing numerous sins a person makes gifts of earth unto members of the regenerate class, he casts off all those sins like a snake casting off its slough. The person that makes a gift of earth is said to make gifts of everything, that is, of seas and rivers and mountains and forests. By making a gift of earth, the person is said to give away lakes and tanks and wells and streams. In consequence of the moisture of earth, one is said to give away articles of diverse tastes by making a gift of earth. The man who makes a gift of earth is regarded as giving away herbs and plants possessed of high and efficacious virtues, trees adorned with flowers and fruit, delightful woods, and hillocks. The merit that a person acquires by making a gift of earth is incapable of being acquired by the performance of even such great sacrifices as the Agnishtoma and others with plentiful gifts in the shape of Dakshina. The giver of earth, it has been already said, rescues ten generations of both his paternal and maternal races. Similarly, by taking away earth that was given away, one hurls oneself into hell and casts ten generations of both one's paternal and maternal lines into the same place of misery. That man who having promised to make a gift of earth does not actually make it, or who having made a gift takes it back, has to pass a long time, in great misery in consequence of being tied with the noose of Varuna at the command of Death. Those men have never to go to Yama who honour and worship those foremost of Brahmanas that pour libations every day on their domestic fire, that are always engaged in the performance of sacrifices, that have scanty means of livelihood, and that receive with hospitality every guest seeking shelter in their abodes. The king, O Purandara, should free himself from the debt he owes to the Brahmanas and protect the helpless and the weak belonging to the other orders. The king should never resume, O chief of the deities, earth that has been given away by another unto a Brahmana, O ruler of the celestials, that is destitute of the means of life.The tears that would fall from the eyes of such cheerless and destitute Brahmanas in consequence of their lands being taken back are capable of destroying the ancestors and descendants to the third generation of the resumer. That man who succeeds by his endeavours in re-establishing a king driven away from his kingdom, obtains residence in heaven and is much honoured by the denizens thereof.