Skandapurana 4.40.41.2

4.40.41.2

The hedgehog and monitor lizard are also praised, and [certain] known deer and birds; / By those desiring long life and heaven, meat is to be abandoned with great effort. // 15 // That killing of animals which is for the purpose of sacrifice leads to heaven, never any other; / One should avoid all stale food, except that which is saturated with unbroken fat. // 16 // At the risk of life, in a sacrifice, in a śrāddha, for medicine, or at the request of a vipra, / Eating meat in this manner without greed, one does not incur fault. // 17 // There is not such sin for one seeking a livelihood through hunting, / As that which occurs in the hereafter for one who indulges in meat out of greed. // 18 // Beasts, trees, deer, and medicinal plants were created by Brahmā for the sake of sacrifice; / A vipra who slaughters [them] is not a slayer, and their destiny too is auspicious. // 19 // For the sake of the ancestors, gods, and sacrifices, and also for the madhuparka offering: / In those cases, even killing is non-injury; elsewhere, the injury is exceedingly hard to cross over. // 20 // The fool weak in knowledge who harms living creatures for his own nourishment, / That person of wicked conduct has no happiness here nor anywhere in the next world. // 21 // The eater, the consenter, the cook, the buyer, the seller, the slaughterer, / The deliverer, and the cause of death—these eight are remembered as killers. // 22 // He who sacrifices every year with a horse-sacrifice for a hundred years, / And he who does not eat meat: of these two, the latter is superior. // 23 // Just as oneself, so another should be regarded by one desiring happiness; / Pleasures and pains are equal: as in oneself, so in another. // 24 // Whether happiness or whatever else is done to another, / All that which was done will indeed afterwards happen to oneself. // 25 // There is no wealth without trouble; for one devoid of wealth, whence rituals? / For one devoid of rituals, whence dharma? For one devoid of dharma, whence happiness? // 26 // Happiness is indeed desired by all, and that arises from dharma; / Therefore dharma must be performed here with effort by all four classes. // 27 // Transmundane rites should be performed with wealth acquired through righteous means; / And a gift should be given according to rule, at the proper time, to a worthy recipient, with sincerity. // 28