History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c71.s1.249

v5.c71.s1.249

A question may naturally be asked: why should it be accepted that penances destroy sin (as stated in Yāj III 226). The answer is: what¹⁶⁵ actions are grave sins or minor sins or not sins at all is laid down by the śāstra (śruti and smṛtis) For example, it is not clear to ordinary people why being an officer over mines or making friends of low people or being a servant of a śūdra should be a sin at all But the smṛtis say so. If the smṛtis are to be relied upon for determining what acts are sinful, then it follows as a matter of course that the same smṛtis which speak of penances as removers of sins must also be accepted and that no other means for determining the efficacy of penances can be appealed to So also the Bhagavadgītā (IV 37) states that the fire of spiritual knowledge consumes all (accumulated, sañcita) actions (and their consequences).