commit a sin by saying an untruth, if that untruth be said to save the wealth and prosperity of others or for the religious purposes.  Having promised to pay, one becomes bound to fulfil his promise.  Upon failure, let the self-appropriator be forcibly enslaved.  If a person without fulfilling a righteous engagement acts with impropriety, he should certainly be afflicted with the rod of chastisement for having adopted such behaviour.[339] A deceitful person, falling away from all duties and abandoning those of his own order, always wishes to betake himself to the practices of Asuras for supporting life.  Such a sinful wretch living by deceit should be slain by every means.  Such sinful men think that there is nothing in this world higher than wealth.  Such men should never be tolerated.  No one should eat with them.  They should be regarded to have fallen down in consequence of their sins.  Indeed, fallen away from the condition of humanity and shut out from the grace of the gods, they are even like evil genii.  Without sacrifices and without penances as they are, forbear from their companionship.  If their wealth be lost, they commit even suicide which is exceedingly pitiable.  Among those sinful men there is no one to whom thou canst say, ‘This is thy duty.  Let thy heart turn to it.’  Their settled convictions are that there is nothing in this world that is equal to wealth.  The person that would slay such a creature would incur no sin.  He who kills him kills one that has been already killed by his own acts.  If slain, it is the dead that is slain.  He who vows to destroy those persons of lost senses should keep his vows.[340] Such sinners are, like the crow and the vulture, dependent on deceit for their living.  After the dissolution of their (human) bodies, they take rebirth as crows and vultures.  One should, in any matter, behave towards another as that other behaves in that matter.  He who practises deceit should be resisted with deceit while one that is honest should be treated with honesty.’”

SECTION CX

“Yudhishthira said, ’Creatures are seen to be afflicted by diverse means and almost continually.  Tell me, O grandsire, in what way can one overcome all those difficulties.’

“Bhishma said, ’Those members of the regenerate class that duly practise, with restrained souls, the duties that have been laid down in the scriptures for the several modes of life, succeed in overcoming all these difficulties.  They that never practise deceit, they whose behaviour is restrained by salutary restrictions, and they that control all worldly desires, succeed in overcoming all difficulties.  They that do not speak when, addressed in evil language, they that do not injure others when themselves injured, they that give but do not take, succeed in overcoming all difficulties.  They that always give hospitable shelter to guests, they that do not indulge in malice, they that are constantly engaged in the study of the