Manava Dharmashastra 3.94

3.94

'upāsanaṃ' tadabhyāsaḥ | yo brāhmaṇo'nayaiva buddhyā tatra tatropatiṣṭheta yathā'tithiravaśyaṃ bhojanaṃ labheta tasyeyaṃ nindā | yastacchīlaḥ ‘parasya’ saṃbandhinaṃ ‘pāka’mannamupāste, na tu kadācit | tena karmaṇā pretya paśutāṃ balīvardādijātiṃ vrajati prāpnoti | annādidāyinastadgṛhe dantitāṃ gardabhatāmaśvatāṃ vā prāpnoti | gṛhasthasyaiṣa doṣaḥ, utpannasthālīpākasya |

Those foolish householders who wait upon the food cooked by others, become, after death, on that account, cattle belonging to the givers of food.—(104).

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Waiting upon’ means attending repeatedly. Some Brāhmaṇas wander from house to house with a view to the fact that at such and such a house the guest is sure to be fed; and it is this that is deprecated in the present verse.

One who is in the habit of waiting upon the food cooked for others,—rand not one who happens to do it only once by the way,—‘on that account’—by reason of that act—‘after death, cattle’—are born as a bull, &c., in the house of the ‘givers of food;’ i.e., are born as his elephant, mule or horse.

This is a defect only in the Householder, who has established his own domestic hearth.—(104)