Of all duties prescribed in the scriptures, the discipline of yoga is held to be the highest and most sacred. Yet, not everyone is fit to undertake its practice or to receive the offerings made in rites such as śrāddha. Listen with attention, for now the qualities and actions that make one unfit are revealed. Those considered unfit include the gambler and the drunkard, the one suffering from consumption, the herdsman, the ill-favored, the village messenger, the trader in goods, the singer, and the merchant. Also among them are those who set fire to houses, poisoners, those who eat from communal vessels, sellers of soma, sea voyagers, dealers in animal skins, oil merchants, and makers of counterfeit goods. Further, one who quarrels with his father, whose wife is unchaste at home, who is cursed, a thief, or one who earns his living by crafts, are all ineligible. The matchmaker, one who performs forbidden acts on holy festival days, betrayers of friends, professional beggars, atheists, and those devoid of Vedic knowledge are also unworthy. The list continues: the insane, eunuchs, slanderers, those who kill fetuses, violators of the teacher’s bed, physicians who live by their practice, messengers, and those who go to other men’s wives. Those who sell the Veda, vows, or austerities, and those who give gifts to atheists, ingrates, or slanderers—such gifts are lost and yield no merit. Offerings made to merchants, or to those who misappropriate deposits, gamblers, or those who revile the Veda, bring no fruit in this life or the next. Similarly, a merchant or an artisan devoid of righteousness, or one who deceives in trade by disparaging goods when buying and praising them when selling, is unfit for śrāddha. Those who dwell in falsehood, or are merchants, should never be recipients of śrāddha rites. An offering made to a twice-born who has remarried is as useless as ashes; it bears no fruit. The presence of certain people at the rite is inauspicious: a one-eyed man destroys the merit of sixty donors, a eunuch that of a hundred, a leper as long as he is seen, and a man afflicted with an evil disease destroys the merit of a thousand donors. Thus, if the donor is foolish, he loses the merit of his gift. One who eats with his head covered or facing south also forfeits the fruit. Eating with sandals on, or giving with disrespect, causes the offering to be appropriated by the Lord of the Asuras. Care must also be taken that dogs and demons do not witness the rite. To protect against this, a circle should be drawn with sesame seeds, for sesame is said to belong to the demons, and the circle to the dogs. If a boar sees the rite, it destroys the merit; a cock does so by showing partiality. If the offering comes into contact with a menstruous woman, or is given in anger, or at the urging of a friend, neither the ancestors nor the gods are pleased, and heaven is not attained. Yet, on beautiful riverbanks, in streams, lakes, and secluded places, the ancestors are pleased by the offerings made. During these rites, one should not shed tears, speak improper words, or harbor jealousy while eating. When the leftward rite is performed properly, with darbha grass in hand, the funeral offering to the ancestors should be made, for this truly pleases the forefathers. Beginning with the Anumati rite, offerings should be made to Brahmins in the fire according to rule; for the ancestors, offerings should be placed on the ground, on a winnowing basket, or on a darbha grass mat. A wise person performs śrāddha in the forenoon of the bright fortnight; in the dark fortnight, it should be done in the afternoon, always observing the rule concerning the Rohiṇī star. Those great souls—endowed with yoga and energy—are always to be honored as ancestors, for they perceive place and time. Through constant devotion to the ancestors, one attains the highest yoga; through meditation, they reach liberation, abandoning both good and bad actions. Once, for the sake of sacrifice, the great-souled Kaśyapa, having bewildered the world, withdrew the secret of yoga and hid it in a cave. Later, having withdrawn the secret nectar—the supreme yoga—Sanatkumāra, the best among knowers of yoga, declared this great and eternal dharma. This is the supreme secret of the gods and the ultimate goal of the sages. Through devotion and effort, especially by those devoted to the ancestors, it is always attained. In brief, the yoga that is the highest goal may be fully attained by the devotee of the ancestors through steadfast effort; there is no doubt that all can be achieved thereby. Thus, it has been explained to you: to whom śrāddhas should be given, which gifts yield the greatest fruit, where śrāddha is inexhaustible, and in which holy places and rivers one attains heaven. Bṛhaspati declares: whoever, after hearing this ordinance of śrāddha, harbors envy, that person, covered in darkness, falls into a terrible hell as an unbeliever. Even if one is afflicted with great disease, yet is self-restrained and free from the Vedic stages of life, he does not attain the Kumbhīpāka hell; but those who cut the tongue or steal certainly reach it. Those who are hostile to yoga become like clods and sink in the ocean, remaining there as long as the earth exists. Therefore, the dharma of śrāddha should always be performed by the faithful. One should never slander, and especially never slander yogins; for by slander, one becomes a worm and revolves in that state. Whoever slanders yoga—the cause of liberation for those who meditate—goes to a terrible hell, and so does the one who listens to such slander; of this, there is no doubt. All of hell, dreadful to behold, is covered in darkness; by slandering the lords of yoga, one surely reaches that state. Even hearing reproach of the lords of yoga, those of restrained self, causes one to sink for a long time in the Kumbhīpāka hell—this is certain. By mind, action, or speech, one should never harbor hatred toward yogins, for after death, the result is experienced both here and elsewhere—without doubt. One who has not crossed to the far shore does not attain the Supreme Self, but wanders through the three worlds according to his actions. Even if he masters the Rig, Yajur, and Sama Vedas with all their branches, without transformation he remains stuck. But he who has crossed beyond change, beyond nature, beyond the three qualities and their limits, beyond the twenty-four principles—he alone is truly said to have crossed to the end, to have reached the goal. Just as one withdraws all the elements back into the Self, so does the knower of yoga, by yoga’s power, withdraw everything into the true Self at dissolution. He moves by the path of all-pervading power, beyond the reach of others. The true knower of yoga, who truly knows the Veda and attains what is to be known, is called by the wise a true knower of the Veda, one who has crossed to the very end of the Veda’s wisdom.