Verse 23

²³Seeing him falling out of the sky with his car and with Taksaka, Brhaspati, son of Angiras, said to that king: ²⁴This king of serpents does not deserve to be killed by you, lord of men. He has drunk the deathless drink, and so he does not grow old and does not die. ²⁵The living and the dying of a creature, and where it goes, come by its own work alone. Other than that, king, there is no giver of happiness and pain to another. ²⁶From snakes, thieves, fire and lightning, from hunger and thirst and sicknesses and the rest, king, a creature comes to the five; and in that it is eating the work it has already set going. ²⁷So let this sacrifice be stopped, king; it is a rite of harming. Snakes that had done nothing have been burned by these men, and what is laid out for people is what they undergo.

²⁸Spoken to in this way, he said: let it be so, honouring the great sage's word. He came away from the snake sacrifice and did worship to the lord of speech.