Verse 16.17

Verse 16.17: “Honoured (but) in their own conceit, stiff, swayed by wealth, pride, and arrogance, they perform sacrifices which are the (mere) pageants of sacrifices, with ostentation, and NOT in the prescribed mode. (378)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

In that way (that of the prostitute) they assume greatness and get puffed up with extraordinary pride. In that state, they do not know how to bend down like a cast iron pillar or like piles of (mountain) rock rising high up in the sky. So also they are fully satisfied and convinced (in their mind) that they are the best-behaved persons, and consequently they treat all others as if (they are) more worthless than even grass. Over and above this they get so much intoxicated under the influence of liquor in the form of riches, Oh Dhananjaya, that they do not even look to what is proper and what is not.

How could such a mentality rooted in them be expected to take to sacrifices? There is no knowing what such demoniacal madmen would not do! Thus at times, out of mischievous tendencies, they do think of performing (sham) sacrifices, under the influence of liquor in the form of foolishness. They need neither Kunda (kuṇḍa—open receptacle in the ground), nor shed (maṇḍapa): they need neither altar (vedī) nor the usual assemblage of materials required for sacrifices: they are ever in opposition to the injunctions of Scriptures. They cannot bear even the breeze that carries with it the (sound of) names of Gods or Brahmins (uttered by any). Who would then like to go near such a place (of sacrifice)? Intelligent men stuff the skin of a dead calf by padding of grass, making it look like a live calf, stand it in front of the cow and then milk the cow; in that way under the pretext of issuing invitations to the sacrifice, they bring together a big concourse of people greedily and exact from them levies in the form of presents (ahera). In this way, they perform sacrifices at times with an eye to profit and desire and total ruin to several beings.