It was by the aid of penances that the Grandsire created food, fruit and roots. It is by penances that persons crowned with ascetic success behold the three worlds, with rapt souls. Whatever things there are that are apparently unattainable are sure to be won by the aid of penance. Without doubt, the Rishis obtained their six fold divine attributes through penance. A person that drinks alcoholic stimulants, one that appropriates the possessions of others without their consent, one guilty of foeticide, one that violates one's preceptor's bed, are all cleansed by penance properly practised.
Penances are of many kinds.
They exhibit themselves through various outlets. Of all kinds of penances, however, that one may practise after abstaining from pleasure and enjoyment, abstention from food is the highest and best. The penance involved in abstention from food is superior, O king, to even compassion, truthfulness of speech, gifts, and restraining the senses. There is no act more difficult to accomplish than gift. There is no mode of life that is superior to serving one's mother.