[772]
If he who slays is thereby made pure,
and the slain, for his part, attains a heavenly place (sagga),
then let the brahmins (bhovādī, "sayers of bho") slay their fellow sayers of bho —
and those as well who put their faith in their word.
Neither wild deer, nor beasts of the herd, nor cows —
none among them begs for its own slaughter;
struggling, longing only to live on here,
yet at the sacrifices men slay living creatures and beasts.
At the sacrificial post (yūpa) and the binding of the victim,
fools lead men on with speeches of many colours:
"This post will milk for you every desire in the world beyond;
it will be everlasting in the life to come."
And if at the post there were gem and conch and pearl,
grain, riches, silver, and gold,
in its dry timbers and its green alike,
and if it could milk every desire of the triple heaven (tidiva),
then would the companies of masters of the three Vedas (tevijja) sacrifice in throngs,
and the brahmins would let no other man offer sacrifice at all.
But whence at the post should come gem and conch and pearl,
grain, riches, silver, and gold?
Whence, in its dry timbers or its green,
should it milk every desire of the triple heaven?
Crafty and rapacious, fools sunk in greed,
they lead men on with speeches of many colours:
"Take up the fire, and give your wealth to me;
then shall you be happy, with every desire fulfilled."
Entering the shelter of that fire-oblation (aggihutta),
they lead men on with speeches of many colours;
and when hair and beard and nails have been shorn away,
with their Vedas they wring from him his wealth.
As crows that come upon an owl in some lonely place
and, many together, fall upon the solitary bird,
so they, tricksters, devour his food and, having worked their deceits,
pluck him bare and cast him off upon the path of sacrifice.
Thus indeed is he cheated by the brahmins —
one man alone, while many band together;
despoiling him by device upon device,
they carry off his visible wealth in exchange for the unseen.
Like men commissioned by kings [to gather revenue],
they seize what is his and carry off his wealth.
Such men as these, the peers of robbers, no true men,
though worthy of death, Ariṭṭha, go unslain in the world.
"Thou art Inda's right arm" — so saying,
at the sacrifices they cut the palāsa staff;
yet if that were true, Maghavā's arm were severed —
by what strength, then, does Inda conquer the asuras?
Nay, that is empty: Maghavā is whole of limb,
a slayer none may slay, supreme, a god most excellent.
These brahmanical mantras are hollow things —
a deception to be seen for oneself, here in the world.
Mālāgiri, Himavā, and Vijjhā,
Sudassana, Nisabha, and Kākaveru —
these and the other mighty mountains, men say,
were built up as altar-piles by performers of sacrifice.
But of whatever sort are the bricks
of which, they say, the performers of sacrifice built their altar-piles,
of that sort mountains are not:
they are of another kind — unshaken, manifestly rock.
Bricks do not turn to stone even with long lapse of time,
nor does iron or copper arise within them;
yet men, extolling this sacrifice, declare
that performers of sacrifice built them up as altar-piles.
A reciter of the Vedas, endowed with the virtue of mantras,
an ascetic — such a one they here have called "devoted to begging" (yācayogī);
as he was pouring out water upon the ocean's shore,
the sea swallowed him up — therefore, say they, it is undrinkable.
Yet rivers bear away more than a thousand men
versed in all the Vedas and endowed with mantras,
and their waters are not thereby corrupted in taste:
why then should the ocean, the measureless, be undrinkable?
And whatever wells there are here in this world of the living,
dug by diggers of wells, their waters salt —
not through the swallowing of any brahmin
is the water in them undrinkable: "of double taste" men call it.
Of old, at the very beginning, who was wife to whom?
Mind it was that first begot the human being;
even by that origin none is inferior [by birth] —
even so, they say, was the apportionment of stations ordained.
Even a caṇḍāla's son, having mastered the Vedas,
might recite the mantras, skilful and intelligent,
and his head would not split into seven pieces:
these mantras were made for self-destruction.
Wrought by speech, wrought in greed, grasped and held,
hard to be loosed, launched upon the path of poetry,
on crooked ground the mind of fools lies fixed,
and those of little wisdom trust therein.
In strength no human prowess is found to equal
the lion, the tiger, and the leopard;
the human estate must be looked on as like the ox's:
for their birth alone is unequal, while all else is the same.
And if a king who has conquered the earth,
with courtiers about him obedient to his word,
could of himself alone overcome the host of his foes,
his subjects would dwell ever in happiness.
The mantras of the khattiyas (warrior-nobles) and the three Vedas
are, as to their meaning, one and the same;
yet without deciding what their meaning is,
one knows it not — as a path hidden by the flood.
The mantras of the khattiyas and the three Vedas
are, as to their meaning, one and the same:
gain and loss, fame and disrepute —
all these alike are the lot (dhammā) of all the four [castes].
Just as householders, for the sake of wealth and grain,
cause many works to be done upon the earth,
even so today the companies of masters of the three Vedas
cause many works to be done upon the earth.
With householders these stand upon a level:
ever eager, yoked to sensual pleasures (kāmaguṇa),
they cause many works to be done upon the earth —
they, of little wisdom, those knowers of double taste.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.