A person by worshipping a Brahmana obtains happiness; while by abstaining
from such worship, he obtains grief and misery. The Brahmana is, with
respect to all creatures, the giver of what they prize or covet and the
protector of what they already have. It is through the Brahmanas that the
Pitris and the deities become gratified. The Brahmana, O Matanga, is said
to be foremost of all created Beings. The Brahmana grants all objects
that are desired and in the way they are desired?[248] Wandering through
innumerable orders of Being and undergoing repeated rebirths, one
succeeds in some subsequent birth in acquiring the status of a Brahmana.
That status is really incapable of being obtained by persons of
uncleansed souls. Do thou, therefore, give up the idea. Do thou name some
other boon. The particular boon which thou seekest is incapable of being
granted to thee.'
"Matanga said, 'Afflicted as I am with grief, why, O Sakra, dost thou
afflict me further (with such speeches as these)? Thou art striking one
that is already dead, by this behaviour. I do not pity thee for having
acquired the status of a Brahmana thou now failest to retain it (for thou
hast no compassion to show for one like me). O thou of a hundred
sacrifices, the status of a Brahmana as thou sayest be really
unattainable by any of the three other orders, yet, men that have
succeeded in acquiring (through natural means) that high status do not
adhere to it (for what sins do net even Brahmanas commit).
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