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The following questions and answers are not included in the main text:

“What makes one learned? How does one attain an exalted status? What is one’s second self and by what does …

“By study of the Vedas one becomes learned. Asceticism raises one to an exalted status. Intelligence is his second self, …

“What is the Brahmins’ divine attribute? What is their virtuous practice resembling that of the pious, what is their human …

“Study of the Vedas is the Brahmins’ divine attribute. Their asceticism is like the virtuous practice of the pious, death …

“What is the divine attribute of kṣatriyas, what is their piety and impiety, and what is their human failing?”

“Arrows and weapons constitute their divinity, sacrifice is their piety and abandoning the distressed their impiety. Fear is their human …

“What is the Sāma of sacrifice, what is its Yajur and what can it not do without?”

“Life is the sacrificial Sāma, mind is its Yajur and it is the Ṛg which it cannot do without.”

Yudhiṣṭhira understood his actual meaning. By sacrifice he meant the spiritual sacrifice for obtaining pure knowledge. In the objective sacrifice …

The Yakṣa went on without pause. “What is of greatest value to cultivators, to those that sow, to those wishing …

“Rain is the most valuable thing for cultivators, for showers it is the seed, for those desiring prosperity it is …

“What person, although breathing, endowed with intelligence, respected by the world and enjoying sensual pleasures, is nevertheless said to be …

“The person who does not satisfy the gods, guests, servants, ancestors and his own self with offerings of sanctified food …

“What is weightier than the earth? What is higher than the sky? What is fleeter than the wind? And what …

“The mother is weightier than the earth. The father is higher than the sky. Mind is fleeter than the wind …

Yudhiṣṭhira understood that by serving the mother one was said to obtain the earth and by serving the father one …

The Yakṣa continued, “What does not close its eyes when sleeping? What does not move after birth? What has no …

“Fish do not close their eyes when sleeping. Eggs do not move after birth. A stone has no heart and …

“Who is the friend of an exile, of a householder, of a sick person and of a dying man?”