"Vaisampayana said, 'After this, king Yudhishthira, endued with great
energy, and the foremost of eloquent men, addressed his grandsire lying
on his bed of arrows, in the following words.'
"'Yudhishthira said, "O thou of great intelligence, the Rishis and
Brahmanas and the deities, led by the authority of the Vedas, all applaud
that religion which has compassion for its indication. But, O king, what
I ask thee is this: how does a man, who has perpetrated acts of injury to
others in word, thought and deed, succeed in cleansing himself from
misery?"
"'Bhishma said, "Utterers of Brahma have said that there are four kinds of
compassion or abstention from injury. If even one of those four kinds be
not observed, the religion of compassion, it is said, is not observed. As
all four-footed animals are incapable of standing on three legs, even so
the religion of compassion cannot stand if any of those four divisions or
parts be wanting. As the footprints of all other animals are engulfed in
those of the elephant, even so all other religions are said to be
comprehended in that of compassion. A person becomes guilty of injury
through acts, words and thoughts[522]. Discarding it mentally at the
outset, one should next discard in word and thought. He who, according to
this rule, abstains from eating meat is said to be cleansed in a
threefold way. It is heard that utterers of Brahma ascribe to three
causes (the sin of eating meat). That sin may attach to the mind, to
words, and to acts. It is for this reason that men of wisdom who are
endued with penances refrain from eating meat. Listen to me, O king, as I
tell thee what the faults are that attach to the eating of meat. The meat
of other animals is like the flesh of one's son. That foolish person,
stupefied by folly, who eats meat is regarded as the vilest of human
beings. The union of father and mother produces an offspring. After the
same manner, the cruelty that a helpless and sinful wretch commits,
produces its progeny of repeated rebirths fraught with great misery. As
the tongue is the cause of the knowledge or sensation of taste, so the
scriptures declare, attachment proceeds from taste.[523] Well-dressed,
cooked with salt or without salt, meat, in whatever form one may take it,
gradually attracts the mind and enslaves it. How will those foolish men
that subsist upon meat succeed in listening to the sweet music of
(celestial) drums and cymbals and lyres and harps? They who eat meat
applaud it highly, suffering themselves to be stupefied by its taste
which they pronounce to be something inconceivable, undescribable, and
unimaginable. Such praise even of meat is fraught with demerit. In former
days, many righteous men, by giving the flesh of their own bodies,
protected the flesh of other creatures and as a consequence of such acts
of merit, have proceeded to heaven. In this way, O monarch the religion
of compassion is surrounded by four considerations. I have thus declared
to thee that religion which comprises all other religions within it."'"