"'Yudhishthira said, "Who deserve to be worshipped? Who are they unto whom
we should bow? How, indeed, should we behave towards whom? What course of
conduct, O grandsire, towards what classes of persons is regarded
faultless?"
"'Bhishma said, "The humiliation of Brahmanas would humiliate the very
deities. By bowing unto Brahmanas one does not, O Yudhishthira, incur any
fault. They deserve to be worshipped. They deserve to have our
salutations. Thou shouldst behave towards them as if they are thy sons.
Indeed, it is those men endued with great wisdom that uphold all the
worlds. The Brahmanas are the great causeways of Righteousness in respect
of all the worlds. Their happiness consists in renouncing all kinds of
wealth. They are devoted to the vow of restraining speech. They are
agreeable to all creatures, and observant of diverse excellent vows. They
are the refuge of all creatures in the universe. They are the authors of
all the regulations which govern the worlds. They are possessed of great
fame. Penances are always their great wealth. Their power consists in
speech. Their energy flows from the duties they observe. Conversant with
all duties, they are possessed of minute vision, so that they are
cognizant of the subtlest considerations. They are of righteous desires.
They live the observance of well-performed duties. They are the causeways
of Righteousness. The four kinds of living creatures exist, depending
upon them as their refuge. They are the path or road along which all
should go. They are the guides of all. They are the eternal upholders of
all the sacrifices. They always uphold the heavy burdens of sires and
grandsires. They never droop under heavy weights even when passing along
difficult roads like strong cattle. They are attentive to the
requirements of Pitris and deities and guests. They are entitled to eat
the first portions of Havya and Kavya. By the very food they eat, they
rescue the three worlds from great fear. They are as it were, the Island
(for refuge) for all worlds. They are the eyes of all persons endued with
sight. The wealth they possess consists of all the branches of knowledge
known by the name of Siksha and all the Srutis. Endued with great skill,
they are conversant with the most subtle relations of things. They are
well-acquainted with the end of all things, and their thoughts are always
employed upon the science of the soul. They are endued with the knowledge
of the beginning, the middle, and the end of all things, and they are
persons in whom doubts no longer exist in consequence of feeling certain
of their knowledge. They are fully aware of the distinctions between what
is superior and what is inferior. They it is who attain to the highest
end. Freed from all attachments, cleansed of all sins, transcending all
pairs of opposites (such as heat and cold, happiness and misery, etc.),
they are unconnected with all worldly things. Deserving of every honour,
they are always held in great esteem by persons endued with knowledge and
high souls. They cast equal eyes on sandal-paste and filth or dirt, on
what is food and what is not food. They see with an equal eye their brown
vestments of coarse cloth and fabrics of silk and animal skins. They
would live for many days together without eating any food, and dry up
their limbs by such abstention from all sustenance. They devote
themselves earnestly to the study of the Vedas, restraining their senses.
They would make gods of those that are not gods, and not gods of those
that are gods. Enraged, they can create other worlds and other Regents of
the worlds than those that exist. Through the course of those high-souled
ones, the ocean became so saline as to be undrinkable. The fire of their
wrath yet burns in the forest of Dandaka, unquenched by time. They are
the gods of the gods, and the cause of all cause. They are the authority
of all authorities. What man of intelligence and wisdom is there that
would seek to humiliate them? Amongst them the young and the old all
deserve honours. They honour one another (not in consequence of
distinctions of age but) in consequence of distinctions in respect of
penances and knowledge. Even the Brahmana that is destitute of knowledge
is a god and is a high instrument for cleansing others. He amongst them,
then, that is possessed of knowledge is a much higher god and like unto
the ocean when full (to the brim). Learned or unlearned, Brahmana is
always a high deity. Sanctified or unsanctified (with the aid of
Mantras), Fire is ever a great deity. A blazing fire even when it burns
on a crematorium, is not regarded as tainted in consequence of the
character of the spot whereon it burns. Clarified butter looks beautiful
whether kept on the sacrificial altar or in a chamber. So, if a Brahmana
be always engaged in evil acts, he is still to be regarded as deserving
of honour. Indeed, know that the Brahmana is always a high deity."'"