four orders, and for making them righteous and modest.  If chastisement could not inspire fear, then ravens and beasts of prey would have eaten up all other animals and men and the clarified butter intended for sacrifice.  If chastisement did not uphold and protect, then nobody would have studied the Vedas, nobody would have milked a milch cow, and no maiden would have married.[38] If chastisement did not uphold and protect, then ravage and confusion would have set in on every side, and all barriers would have been swept away, and the idea of property would have disappeared.  If chastisement did not uphold and protect, people could never duly perform annual sacrifices with large presents.  If chastisement did not uphold and protect, no one, to whatever mode of life he might belong, would observe the duties of that mode as declared (in the scriptures), and no one would have succeeded in acquiring knowledge.[39] Neither camels, nor oxen, nor horses, nor mules, nor asses, would, even if yoked thereto, drag cars and carriages, if chastisement did not uphold and protect.  Upon chastisement depend all creatures.  The learned, therefore, say that chastisement is the root of everything.  Upon chastisement rests the heaven that men desire, and upon it rests this world also.  Thither where foe-destroying chastisement is well applied, no sin, no deception, and no wickedness, is to be seen.  If the rod of ’chastisement be not uplifted, the dog will lick the sacrificial butter.  The crow also would take away the first (sacrificial) offering, if that rod were not kept uplifted.  Righteously or unrighteously, this kingdom hath now become ours.  Our duty now is to abandon grief.  Do thou, therefore, enjoy it and perform sacrifices.  Men that are fortunate, living with their dear wives (and children), eat good food, wear excellent clothes, and cheerfully acquire virtue.  All our acts, without doubt, are dependent on wealth; that wealth again is dependent on chastisement.  Behold, therefore, the importance of chastisement.  Duties have been declared for only the maintenance of the relations of the world.  There are two things here, viz., abstention from injury and injury prompted by righteous motives.  Of these, two, that is superior by which righteousness may be acquired.[40] There is no act that is wholly meritorious, nor any that is wholly wicked.  Right or wrong, in all acts, something of both is seen.  Subjecting animals to castration, their horns again are cut off.  They are then made to bear weights, are tethered, and chastised.  In this world that is unsubstantial and rotten with abuses and rendered painful, O monarch, do thou practise the ancient customs of men, following the rules and analogies cited above.  Perform sacrifices, give alms, protect thy subjects, and practise righteousness.  Slay thy foes, O son of Kunti, and protect thy friends.  Let no cheerlessness be thine.  O king, while slaying foes.  He that does it, O Bharata, does not incur the slightest sin.  He that takes up