Verse 41

³⁷Welcoming what was asked of him, he went off to do what had to be done, and went down into the good water of the Kalindi, meditating on the Vast. ³⁸With half a muhurta of the twelfth day still left, the knower of dharma took thought with the brahmins about the breaking of the fast, caught as he was in a hard place between two duties. ³⁹There is a fault in passing over a brahmin, and a fault in not breaking the fast on the twelfth day. By doing what shall it go well with me, and no wrongdoing touch me? ⁴⁰I will break the vow with water alone. Brahmins say that the drinking of water is both eating and not eating. ⁴¹So the royal sage sipped water, and holding the Unfallen in his mind, best of the Kurus, he waited for nothing but the coming back of the brahmin.