whatsoever it be that he does, he burdens himself with no guilt; and whosoever should, now and here, convert with a sharply ground axe every living thing on this earth to a single boneless mass, to one mass of pulp, would, on that account, be no way guilty, do no wrong. And whoso should on the southern bank of the Gunga take his way, laying waste and murdering, would, on that account, have no guilt; and whoso should on the northern bank of the Gunga take his way, distributing alms and making presents, would, on that account, have no merit. By means of generosity, gentleness, self-renunciation, one does nothing meritorious, nothing good.'"
And there now follows the astounding, yea, frightful
477th Sutra,
which, in its striking brevity, runs—
"Rather … on account of the Eater …"
The meaning of these few words, wrapped as they are in deepest mystery, the worshipful Vajaçravas discloses to us as follows:
"Far removed from any such idea as that of divine punishment threatening the robber and homicide, 'rather' is the opposite the case; namely, that he grows like to God himself, which becomes clear from those passages in the Veda, where the highest God is glorified as the "Eater," such as—
"The Warrior and the Brahman both, He eats for bread,
When he with brew of death them sprinkles o'er."
"As the world has its beginning in Brahman, so also its passing away; Brahman causing it ever to go forth anew and ever destroying it. So that God is not only the creator but also the devourer of all created beings, of whom here only 'Warriors' and 'Brahmans' are mentioned as the highest in rank—and who therefore represent all the others.
