The Garuda Purana
King of Birds. The second section of this Purana (given here) deals with issues connected with death, particularly funeral rites and the metaphysics of reincarnation. Portions of the
Garuda Purana are used by some Hindus as funeral liturgy. Indeed, some consider it unlucky to read this text except during funerals.
Of interest are the intermediate states between birth and rebirth, which roughly correspond to the western concepts of Hell and Heaven. Since this was written during the
medieval era, it is possible that the writer of this text had contact with Christianity. Earlier Hindu texts do not elaborate about 'hell' and 'heaven,' at least not to this extent,
and the subject is completely absent in the oldest texts. Here, the torments of Hell are described in terms that would not be out of place in a Baptist revival tent (or Dante, for
that matter). In addition, the four-square city of Yama, the God of Death, is reminiscent
of the heavenly city in Revelation. However, these are way stations between incarnations
(or, as termed in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Bardos), not a permanent destination.
The Garuda Purana starts with the details of the afterlife. Following this is an account of
funeral procedures, including rituals, the astrological timing of the post-death
observances, and ritual gifts. Balancing the extended vision of Hell in the earlier part of
the document is a shorter account of the City of Yama. After that is an enumeration of
correspondences between the macrocosmos and the human body. The final part of this
text is an appeal to self-knowledge as the key to liberation, going beyond austerities and
study of the texts. "The fool, not knowing that the truth is seated in himself, is bewildered
by the Shastras,--a foolish goatherd, with the young goat under his arm, peers into the
well."
CONTENTS OF THE GARUDA PURANA
1. The Miseries of the Sinful in this World and the Other
2. The Way of Yama
3. The Torments of Yama
4. The Kinds of Sins which lead to Hell
5. The Signs of Sins
6. The Miseries of Birth of the Sinful
7. Babhruvâhana's Sacrament for the Departed One
8. The Gifts for the Dying
9. The Rites for the Dying
10. The Collecting of the Bones from the Fire
11. The Ten-Days' Ceremonies
12. The Eleventh-Day Rite
13. The Ceremony for all the Ancestors
14. The City of the King of Justice
15 The Coming to Birth of People who have done Good
16. The Law for Liberation
INTRODUCTION.
This Garuḍa Purâṇa Sârodhhâra (Extracted essence of the Garuḍa Purâṇa) was compiled
or written by one Navanidhirâma, son of Śrî Hari Nârâyaṇa, who lived in the city of
Jhunjhuṇû, which was ruled by a King Śrî Sûkhalâlajî. It was done for the helping of
those who cannot understand the difficult earlier works; but itself is not easy to
understand, and required much labour, the author informs us. It is entirely originally
written, he says, and comprises the results of very deep study of the sacred books, and is
the extracted essence of them on the subjects with which it deals.
It is used all over India at funeral ceremonies, but some are afraid to read it on other
occasions, thinking it inauspicious.
CHAPTERS I to VII deal with Hells.
CHAPTERS VII to XIII deal with Ceremonies for the dead.
CHAPTER XIV deals with Heaven.
CHAPTERS XV & XVI deal with Yoga and liberation.
The neo-theosophists, among the great good they have done to the world, have revived
the idea that Hell is a living reality, and not a superstitious fiction, created by a designing
priestcraft, to keep Humanity on its good behavior. Among the educated, with the
vanishing of the belief in an after-life, has vanished also the belief in Hell. But owing to
the labors of the Psychical Research Society and similar other bodies, there are few
educated persons now, who deny the existence of the afterlife, as they used to do some
thirty years back. But though the belief in after-life has revived, yet the cognate belief in
Heaven and Hell is still very vague. Our Hindu Puranas, however, among the great mass
of rubbish that they contain, have always been very clear on this question of Heaven and
Hell. Serious writers of law books also like Yâjñavalkya and Viṣṇu have described asseriously
the existences of various Hells, as they have done the various joys of Heaven.
No doubt, the subject of Hell is not a very savoury one, and nervous persons have always
fought shy of studying this unpleasant department of existence. But, pleasant or
unpleasant, the science does not take into account the human feelings. No one is forced to
study the subject, unless he feels strong enough to do so, as no one is bound to study
Medicine, unless he is prepared to face the scenes of the dissecting room.
The question then is, do these hells really exist? If so, where? This is a question of fact,
and must be decided like all questions of fact, on the evidence of reliable witnesses who
have, from personal experience, described this region. To a Hindu there is needed no
greater testimony than that of Yogi Yâjñavalkya who, in the Prâyaśchitta Adhyâya of his
law book, mentions 21 hells. The author of Viṣṇu Smṛiti also has followed in his
footsteps. Hell, then, according to Hindu seers, is a particular locality walled off from the
surrounding regions of space by the messengers of Yama, the ruler of Hell. Within this
particular space so specially guarded, no joy can enter. It is a region of pain--sharp.
intense and severe. Sinners clothed in their painful bodies (jâtana deha)--replica of their
physical bodies, though made of subtler matter, suffer the punishments deserved by their
sins. But there is one distinguishing mark between the Hindu idea of Hell and that of
votaries of Semitic creeds. The punishment in Hell is not eternal. It is Reformatory and
Educative. The hell punishment is not remembered by the soul when it is re-born, no
more than it remembers the joys of heaven. But the permanent educative effect remains
in that part of the sold--called the conscience. The natural fear, which certain souls feel at
the sight of temptation to sin, is the result of the finer development of conscience, in the
furnace of hell-fire. This is the permanent gain which the soul has acquired, and which it
will never lose through ages to come, by passing through the bitterness of the valley of
Yama--the merciful ruler of Hell.
Where is then this Hell situated? According to Hindu belief, its locality is in the astral
region of the physical South Pole, as the Heaven is situate in the astral region of the
physical North Pole. As a prison house is a prison only to the criminal, but not to the
visitor, who goes there on his mission of mercy and charity, so Hell is a place of
punishment and pain only to the sinners and not to those who go there on similar
missions. The readers of the Hindu Sacred literature will no doubt remember the beautiful
episode of Nachiketas going to Hell, and learning from its Ruler the secret of cosmic
evolution, miscalled the secret of death.
The twenty-two hells are described in the Viṣṇu Smṛiti.
(See Sacred Books of the East, Viṣṇu Smṛiti, pp. 140-141, verse 22, Lohachâraka).
After being thus purified by Hell-fire, the soul is re-born with keener conscience and
under circumstances where it can, if it so chooses, make better use of its faculties. Says
Yâjñavalkya in verse 218 of the Third Adhyâya that the lords of mercy place such souls
in very favourable circumstances afterwards. *
But if the soul so favourably placed, omits to do good action or commits evil deeds again,
and leaves its senses unrestrained, there is again a fall for that soul, as is mentioned in the
next verse. †
Is there any physical Hell also, or is it in the astral plane only? As Heaven is both
physical and astral, and as the Svarga is on the physical plane also, where the great ṛiṣis
like Vyâsa, Aśvathâman, Mârkaṇdeya and others are said to be still living in their
physical bodies, so there are physical hells also, though not known as Hells. What are
these prison houses in every well-governed community but physical hells? What is this
outcasting by the society, but making one feel the torture of hell, in fact Gautama in his
law book definitely calls this stage hell, and some say that Gautama did not believe, in
another form of hell.
Thus the fact of concrete existence of hell cannot be doubted. Leaving the testimony of
Hindu seers aside, in modern times we have the evidence of a hard-headed man of
science like Swedenborg, of a refined artist and poet like Dante, and the great sage
Râmkṛiṣna Paramahaṃsa.
Is there any means by which a man may save himself from the pains of hell? On this
point, our ancient authors held different opinions. One class of thinkers held the view that
sin could not be expiated by any act of man, however meritorious it be in its nature, but
one must suffer the full consequences of his sins. The later view, which has gained
ascendency now, is that for the intentional mortal sins--kâma kṛitamahâpâtaka,--there is
no penance, except the death penance, which can save the man from future troubles.
Several kinds of death penances are described in our law books, and in this age, a very
salutary rule is laid down by the paṇḍits that no death penance should ever be described,
if a sinner asks the paṇḍit for the appropriate penance of his sin. Thus in certain cases of
incest, the only operative penance is to embrace a red-hot iron image and die in that way.
Similarly, the penance for drinking spirituous liquors is death by drinking boiling liquors
or butter. But no Paṇḍit is allowed, by the rule of the present Iron age, to describe these
death penances to any sinner. The result therefore, is that according to the law, every
mortal sinner must pass through the period of purificatory process of hell. For minor sins,
the rule is different. The after-life consequences can be warded off by appropriate
penances. And here is a rich field which the Brâhmiṇ priestcraft of India, preying on the
gullibility of its votaries, has exploited to its extreme extent. For every sin, there is a
penance, and also a pilgrimage, with its concomitant result in the shape of so much fee
(dakṣiṇâ) to be paid to the Brâhmiṇ.
Penances have become a farce in Modern India. Like the dispensations of the Popes of
Rome, penances can be compounded by the payment of amounts ranging from a cowrie
shell to thousands of rupees to Brâhmiṇs. It is not that the gifts to a deserving man
washes away sins, for modern Hinduism has done everything in its power to throw in 'the
background that rational idea, but a gift to a Brâhmiṇ, however bad he may be, as the
saying goes that no one feeds a docile donkey, but a kicking cow, for the sake of her
milk. This presupposes that a kicking Brâhmiṇ has milk to give, which is far from the
truth.
The practice of Prâyaśchittas or penances is based upon a more rational basis. Repentance
for sin is the highest prâyaśchitta, the infliction of bodily pains is of secondary
importance. One who has performed such penance has exhausted the evil effects of his
sins and for him there is no penance.
Footnotes
iii:* "Afterwards freed from all sins, they are born in high families, where they enjoy
pleasures, and become accomplished in arts and sciences, and possessed of wealth."
iii:† Mandalik's Hindu Law, p. 265, verse 219.
GARUDA PURANA
HOMAGE TO THE BLESSED GANEṢA
CHAPTER I
An Account of the Miseries of the Sinful in this World and the Other
1. The tree Madhusûdana,--whose firm root is Law, whose trunk is the Vedas, whose
abundant branches are the Purâṇas, whose flowers are sacrifices, and whose fruit is
liberation,--excels.
2. In Naimiṣa, the field of the sleepless Ones, 1 the sages, Saunaka and others, performed
sacrifices for thousands of years to attain the Heaven-world.
3-5. Those sages once, in the morning,. having offered oblations to the sacrificial fire
respectfully asked this of the revered Sûta sitting there:--
The sages said: The happiness-giving path of the Shining Ones has been described by
you. We now wish to hear about the fear-inspiring Way of Yama; 1
Also of the miseries of the World of Change, 2 and the means of destroying its pains.
Please tell us correctly about the afflictions of this world and the other.
6. Suta said: Listen then. I am willing to describe the way of Yama, very difficult to
tread, happiness-giving, to the virtuously inclined, misery-giving to the sinful.
7. As it was declared to Vainateya 3 by the Blessed Viṣṇu, when asked; just so will I
relate it, to remove your difficulties.
8-9. Once, when the Blessed Hari, the Teacher, was sitting at ease in Vaikuṇṭḥa, the son
of Vinatâ, 3 having bowed reverently, inquired:--
Garuḍa said: The Path of Devotion, of many forms, has been described to me by you, and
also, O Shining One, has been told the highest goal of the devotees.
10. Now I wish to hear about the fearsome Way of Yama, along which is the travelling, it
is revealed, of those who turn away from devotion to Thee.
11. The name of the Lord is easily pronounced, and the tongue is under control. Fie, fie
upon the wretched men who nevertheless go to hell!
12. Tell me, then, O Lord, to what condition the sinful come, and in what way they obtain
the miseries of the Way of Yama.
13. The Blessed Lord said: Listen, O Lord of Birds, and I will describe the Way of Yama,
terrible even to hear about, by which those who are sinful go in hell.
14-16. O Târkṣya, those who delight in sin, destitute of compassion and righteousness,
attached to the wicked, averse from the true scriptures and the company of the good,
Self-satisfied, unbending, intoxicated with the pride of wealth, having the ungodly
qualities, lacking the divine attributes,
Bewildered by many thoughts, enveloped in the net of delusion, revelling in the
enjoyments of the desire-nature,--fall into a foul hell.
17. Those men who are intent upon wisdom go to the highest goal; the sinfully-inclined
go miserably to the torments of Yama.
18. Listen how the misery of this world accrues to the sinful, then how they, having
passed through death, meet with torments.
19. Having experienced the good or the bad actions, in accordance with his former
earning,--then, as the result of his 1 actions, some disease arises.
20. Powerful death, unexpectedly, like a serpent, approaches him stricken with bodily and
mental pain, yet anxiously hoping to live.
21-24. Not yet tired of life, being cared for by his dependents, with his body deformed
through old age, nearing death, in the house,
He remains, like a house-dog, eating what is ungraciously placed before him, diseased,
with failing digestion, eating little, moving little,
With eyes turned up through loss of vitality, with tubes obstructed by phlegm, exhausted
by coughing and difficult breathing, with the death rattle in his throat,
Lying encircled by his sorrowing relatives; though being spoken to he does not answer,
being caught in the noose of death.
25. In this condition, with mind busy with the support of his family, with senses
unconquered, swooning with intense pain he dies amidst his weeping relatives.
26. In this last moment, O Târkṣya, a divine vision arises,--all the worlds appear as one,--
and he does not attempt to say anything.
27. Then, at the destruction of the decayed senses and the numbing of the intelligence, the
messengers of Yama come near and life departs.
28. When the breath is leaving its place, the moment of dying seems an age, and pain like
the stinging of hundred scorpions is experienced.
29. Now he emits foam; his mouth becomes filled with saliva. The vital breaths of the
sinful depart by the lower gateway.
30-31. Then, two terrifying messengers of Yama are come, of fierce aspect, bearing
nooses and rods, naked, with grinding teeth,
As black as crows, with hair erect, with ugly faces, with nails like weapons; seeing whom
his heart palpitates and he releases excrements.
32. The man of the size of a thumb, crying out 'oh, oh,' is dragged from the body by the
servants of Yama, looking the while at his own body.
33. Having put round him a body of torment, and bound the noose about his neck, they
forcibly lead him a long way, like the king's officers a convict.
34-35. While thus leading him the messengers menace him, and recount over and over
again the awful terrors of the hells,--
'Hurry up, you wicked man. You shall go to the abode of Yama. We will lead you now,
without delay, to Kumbhîpâka and the other hells.'
36. Then hearing these words, and the weeping of his relatives; crying loudly 'Oh, oh,' he
is beaten by the servants of Yama.
37-38. With failing heart and shuddering at their threats, bitten by clogs upon the way,
afflicted, remembering his misdeeds,
Hungry and thirsty, roasting in the sun, forest-fires and hot winds, struck upon the back
with whips, painfully he walks, almost powerless, along a road of burning sand,
shelterless and waterless.
30-40. Here and there falling exhausted and insensible, and rising again,--in this way,
very miserably led through the darkness to the abode of Yama,
The man is brought there in a short time and the messengers show him the terrible
torments of hell.
41. Having seen the fearful Yama, the man, after a time, by command of Yama, swiftly
comes back through the air, with the messengers.
42. Having returned, bound by his past tendencies, desiring the body but held back with a
noose by the followers of Yama, tortured by hunger and thirst, he weeps.
43. He obtains the rice-balls given by his offspring, and the gifts made during the time of
his illness. Nevertheless, O Târkṣya, the sinful Denier does not obtain gratification.
44. The Śrâddha, 1 the gifts, and the handsful of water, for the sinful, do not uplift.
Although they eat the rice-ball offering, still they are tortured with hunger.
45. Those who are in the departed condition, deprived of the rice-ball offering, wander
about in great misery, in an uninhabited forest, until the end of the age.
46. Karma not experienced does not die away even in thousands of millions of ages; the
being who has not experienced the torment certainly does not obtain the human form.
47. Hence, O Twice-born, 1 for ten days the son should offer rice-balls. Every day these
are divided into four portions, O Best of Birds.
48. Two portions give nourishment to the five elements of the body; the third goes to the
messengers of Yama; he lives upon the fourth.
40. For nine days and nights the departed obtains rice-balls, and on the tenth day the
being, with fully formed body, acquires strength.
50. The old body being cremated, a new one is formed by these offerings, O Bird; the
man, the size of a hand (cubit), by this experiences good and evil on the way.
51-53. By the rice-ball of the first day the head is-formed; the neck and shoulders by the
second; by the third the heart forms:
By the fourth the back forms; and by the fifth the navel; by the sixth the hips and secret
parts; by the seventh the thigh forms;
Likewise next the knees and feet by two; on the tenth day hunger and thirst.
54. Dwelling in the body formed by the rice-balls, very hungry and pained with thirst, on
both the eleventh and twelfth days the departed eats.
55. On the thirteenth day the departed, bound by the servants of Yama, walks alone along
the road like a captured monkey.
56. The extent of the way of Yama measures eighty-six thousand Yojanas, 1 without
Vaitaraṇî, O Bird.
57. Two hundred and forty-seven Yojanas each day the departed travels, going by day
and night.
58-59. Having passed successively. through these sixteen cities on the way, the sinful
man goes to the place of the King of Righteousness 2:--
Saumya, 3 Sauripura, 4 Nâgendrabhavana, 5 Gândharva, 6 Shailâgama, 7 Krauncha, 8
Krûrapura, 9 Vichitrabhavana, 10 Bahwâpada, 11 Duḥkhada, 12 Nânâkrandapura, 13
Sutaptabhawana, 14 Raudra, 15 Payovarshana, 16 Shîtâdhya, 17 Bahubhîti 18:--before the
city of Yama, the abode of righteousness
60. Held by the nooses of Yama, the sinful, crying out "Oh, oh," having left his own
house, goes on the way to the city of Yama.
Footnotes
1:1 I.e., The superphysical beings, who do not sleep.
2:1 Yama is the Lord of death.
2:2 Saṁsâra: The three worlds in which men circle through births and deaths.
2:3 A name of Garuḍa, Vinatâ was the mother of Garuḍa.
3:1 The ambiguity of the pronouns in this work is unavoidable, They may be interpreted
only with the aid of common-sense.
6:1 Ceremony for the dead.
7:1 Members of the three higher castes take a "second birth" when invested with the
sacred thread; all birds are twice-born, in and from the egg.
8:1 A Yojana is between 8 and 9 miles.
8:2 Another form of Yama.
8:3 Calm place.
8:4 Town of Saturn.
8:5 Residence of the Lord of Serpents.
8:6 Place of Singers.
8:7 Inaccessible mountain.
8:8 Name of a mountain.
8:9 Town of cruelty.
8:10 A wonderful place.
8:11 Many calamities.
8:12 Misery-giving.
8:13 Town of varied cries.
8:14 Very hot place.
8:15 Savage.
8:16 Rains
8:17 Very cold.
8:18 Many horrors.
CHAPTER II.
An Account of The Way of Yama.
1. Garuḍa said: What is the path of misery in the world of Yama like? Tell me, O Keśava,
in what, way the sinful go there.
2. The Blessed Lord said: I will tell you about the Way of Yama, bestowing great misery.
Although you are my devotee, when you have heard it you will become agitated.
3. There is no shade of trees there, in which a man may take rest, and on this road there is
none of the foods by which he may support life.
4. No water is to be seen anywhere that he, extremely thirsty, may drink. Twelve suns
blaze, O Bird, as though at the end of a pralaya.
5. There the sinful soul goes along pierced by cold winds, in one place torn by thorns, in
another stung by very venomous serpents.
6. The sinful in one place is bitten by ferocious lions, tigers, and dogs; in another stung
by scorpions; in another burnt by fire.
7-8. In one place there is a very terrible forest of sword-like leaves, which is recorded as
two thousand yojanas in length and breadth,Infested with crows, owls, hawks, vultures,
bees, mosquitoes, and having forest-fires,--by whose leaves he is pierced and torn.
9. In one place he falls into a hidden well; in another from a lofty mountain; in another he
treads on razor-edges and on spear-points.
10. In one place he stumbles in the awful black darkness and falls into water; in another
in mud abounding in leeches; in another in hot slime.
11. In one place is a plain of hot sand, made of smelted. copper; in another a mound of
embers; in another a great cloud of smoke.
12-13. In some places are showers of charcoal, showers of stones and thunderbolts,
showers of blood, showers of weapons, showers of boiling water,
And showers of caustic mud. In one place are deep chasms; in others bills to climb and
valleys to descend.
14. In one place there is pitch darkness; in another rocks difficult to climb over; in others
lakes filled with pus and blood, and with excrement.
15-17. In the midst of the way flows the terribly horrible Vaitaraṇî River, which when
seen inspires misery, of which even an account arouses fear.
Extending a hundred yojanas, a flow of pus and blood, impassible, with heaps of bones
on the banks, with mud of flesh and blood,
Unfordable, impassible for the sinful, obstructed with hairy moss, filled with huge
crocodiles. and crowded with hundreds of dreadful birds.
18-20. When it sees the sinful approaching, this river, overspread with flames and smoke,
seethes, O Târkshya, like butter in the frying-pan:
Covered all over with dreadful throngs of insects with piercing stings, infested with huge
vultures and crows with adamantine beaks,
Filled with porpoises, with crocodiles, with leeches, fishes and turtles, and with other
flesh-eating water-animals.
21. Very sinful people, fallen into the flood, cry, O Brother, O Son, O Father!'--again and
again wailing.
22-23. Hungry and thirsty the sinful drink the blood, it is said. That river, flowing with
blood, carrying much foam,
Very dreadful, with powerful roaring, difficult to see into, fear-inspiring,--at the very
sight of it the sinful swoon away.
24. Covered with many scorpions, and with black snakes,--of those who have fallen into
the midst of this, there is no rescuer whatever.
25. By hundreds of thousands of whirlpools the sinful descend to the lower region. They
stay for a moment in the lower region, after the moment rising again.
26. O Bird, this river was created only that the sinful should fall into it. It is difficult to
cross and gives great misery, and its opposite cannot be seen.
27. Thus along the Way of Yama, of many kinds of pain, giving extreme misery, go the
sinful, crying and weeping and laden with misery.
28. Bound by the noose, some of them being dragged by hooks, and pierced from behind
with points of weapons, the sinful are led on.
29. Others are drawn along by a noose through the end of the nose, and also by nooses
through the ears; others, by the nooses of death being dragged along, are pecked by
crows.
30-32. Some go on the way neck, arms, feet and back bound with chains, bearing many
loads of iron,
And being beaten with hammers by the awful messengers of Yama; vomiting blood from
the mouth, which then they eat again,
Bewailing their own karmas these beings, becoming exhausted, full of very great misery,
go on towards the mansion of Yama.
33-34. And the stupid, thus going on the way, calling on son and grandson, incessantly
crying out, 'Oh, oh,' repents:--
'By great meritorious effort birth as a human being is gained. Haying obtained that, I did
not do my duty,--also, whatever have I done!
35. 'I made no gifts; no offerings to the fire; performed no penances; did not worship the
deities; did not perform service at a place of pilgrimage as prescribed;--O Dweller in the
Body, make reparation for whatever you have done!
36. 'I did not duly honour the assemblies of Brâhmiṇs; did not visit the holy river 1; did
not wait upon good men; never performed any benevolent acts;--O Dweller in the Body,
make reparation for whatever you have done!
37. ' Alas, I did not excavate tanks in waterless places, either for the benefit of men or for
the sake of animals and binds; did not even a little for the support of cows and brahmins;-
-O Dweller in the Body, make reparation for whatever you leave done!
38. 'I made no daily gifts and did not give food daily to the cow; did not value the
precepts of the Vedas and the Śâstras; did not listen to the Purâṇas, nor worship the
wise;--O Dweller in the Body, make reparation for whatever you have done!'
39. 'I did not follow the good advice of my husband; never preserved fidelity to my
husband; did not pay due respect to my worthy elders;--O Dweller in the Body, make
reparation for whatever you have done!
40. 'Not knowing my duty I did not serve my husband, nor after his death enter the fire.
Having become widowed I performed no austerities;--O Dweller in the Body, make
reparation for whatever you have done!
41. 'I did not emaciate myself by monthly fasts by the course of the moon, nor by detailed
observances. Owing to my bad deeds in former lives I got a woman's body, which is a
source of great misery.'
42. Thus having lamented many times, remembering the past incarnation, crying 'Whence
did I attain this human state?' he goes on.
43. For seventeen days he goes on alone with the speed of the wind. On the eighteenth
day, O Târkṣya, the departed reaches the City of Saumya.
44. Large numbers of the departed are in that excellent and beautiful city. The River
Puṣhpabhadrâ is there, and a fig-tree delightful to see.
41. In that city he takes rest, along with the servants of Yama. There he remembers the
enjoyment of wife, son and others, and is miserable.
46-47. When he bewails his wealth, his family and dependents all, then the departed
belonging there and the servants say this:
Where is your wealth now? Where are your children and wife now? Where are your
friends and relatives now? You only suffer the result of your own karma, you fool. Go on
for a long time!
48. 'You know that provisions are the strength of a traveller. You do not strive for
provisions, O Traveller in the Higher World! Yet you must inevitably go on that way,
where there is neither buying nor selling.
49. 'Have you not heard, O Mortal, of this way, which is familiar even to children? Have
you not heard of it from the twice-born, as spoken of in the Purâṇas?'
50. Thus spoken to by the messengers and being beaten with the hammers, he is forcibly
dragged by the nooses, falling down and getting up again and running.
51. Here he eats the monthly rice-balls given by his sons and grandsons through either
love or compassion, and thence goes on into Sauripura.
52. There is there a king named Jangama, who has the appearance of Death. Having seen
him he is overcome with fear and decides to give up efforts.
53. In that city he eats a mixture of water and food, given at the end of three fortnights,
and then passes on from that city.
54. Thence the departed speedily goes to Nagendrabhavana; and having seen the fearful
forests there he cries in misery.
55-56. Being dragged unmercifully he weeps again and again. At the end of two months
the afflicted leaves that city,
Having enjoyed there the rice-balls, water and cloths given by his relatives; being again
dragged with the nooses he is led onwards by the servants.
57-58. Upon the coming of the third month, having arrived at the city of the Gandharvas,
and there having eaten the rice-balls offered in the third month he moves on.
And in the fourth month reaches Śailâgama city, There stones rain down copiously upon
the departed.
59. Having eaten the rice-balls of the fourth month he becomes somewhat happy. In the
fifth month the departed goes thence to the city of Krauncha.
60. Remaining in the city of Krauncha, the departed eats the rice balls given by hand in
the fifth month, and then, having eaten it, goes to Krûrapura.
61. At the end of five and a half months the ceremony before the six-monthly is
performed. He remains, satisfied with the rice-balls and jars then given.
62-63. Having stayed, trembling and very miserable, for a time and having left that city,
threatened by the servants of Yama,
He goes to Chitrabhavana, over which kingdom rules a king named Vichitra, who is the
younger brother of Yama.
64-65. When he sees his huge form he runs away in fear. Then having come before him
some fishermen say:
'We have arrived, bringing a boat for you--who desire to cross the great Vaitaraṇî River--
if your merits are sufficient.'
66-67. 'It is said by the sages, who see the truth, that Vitarana is a gift, and this is called
Vaitaraṇî because it is crossed over by that.
'If you have made the gift of a cow, then the boat will come to you, otherwise not.'
Having heard their words, 'Oh heavens,' he exclaims.
68. Seeing him it seethes, seeing which he cries loudly. The sinful soul who has made no
gifts verily sinks in that.
69. Having fixed a skewer through his lips, the messengers, floating in the air, carry him
across like a fish upon a hook.
70. Having then eaten the rice-balls of the sixth month, he passes on. He goes on the way
lamenting, very greatly afflicted with the desire to eat.
71. At the approach of the seventh month he goes to the city of Bahwâpada. There he
enjoys what is given by his sons in the seventh month.
72. Having passed beyond that city, he arrives at the city of Duhkhada. Travelling in the
air he suffers great misery, O Ruler of Birds.
73. Having eaten the rice-balls which are given in the eighth month he moves on. At the
end of the ninth month he goes to the city of Nânâkranda.
74. Having seen many people crying in agony in various ways, and being himself faint of
heart, he cries in great misery.
75. Having left that city, the departed, threatened by the servants of Yama, goes, with
difficulty, in the tenth month, to Sutaptabhavana.
76. Though he there obtains the rice-ball gifts and water, he is not happy At the
completion of the eleventh month he goes to the city of Raudra.
77. There he enjoys what is offered in the eleventh month by his sons and others, and half
after the eleventh month he reaches Payovarṣaṇa.
78. There clouds team, giving misery to the departed, and them, he, in misery, obtains the
Śrâddha before the annual one.
70. At the end of the year he goes to the city of Śîtâḍhya, where cold a hundred times
greater than that of the Himâlaya afflicts him.
80. Hungry and pierced with cold, he looks about in the ten directions. 'Does there remain
any relative who will remove my misery?'
81. There the servants ask: 'What sort of merit have you?' Having eaten the annual riceballs
he plucks up courage again.
82. At the end of the year, coming nearer to the abode of Yama, having reached the city
of Bahubhîti, he casts off the body the measure of a hand.
83. The spirit the size of a thumb, to work out its karma, getting a body of torment, sets
out through the air with the servants of Yama.
84. Those who do not offer gifts for the dweller in the upper body, O Kâśyapa, thus go,
painfully bound in tight bonds.
85. Into the city of the King of Justice there are four gateways, O Bird, of which the way
of the southern gate has been declared to you.
86. How they go on this most dreadful path, afflicted with hunger, thirst and exhaustion,
has been told. What else do you wish to hear?
Footnotes
14:1 The Ganges.
CHAPTER III.
An Account of the Torments of Yama.
1. Garuḍa said: What are the torments like that the sinful suffers, having passed along the
way of Yama into the abode of Yama? Tell me this, O Keśava.
2. The Blessed Lord said: Listen, O Descendant of Vinatâ. I will tell it to you from the
beginning to the end. Even at the description of hell you will tremble.
3. Four and forty yojanas, O Kâśyapa, beyond the city of Bahubhîti, lies the great city of
the King of Justice.
4-5. The sinful man cries when he hears the mingled wails of 'Oh, Oh,' and having heard
his cry, those who walk about in the city of Yama.
All go to the door-keeper and report it to him. The doorkeeper Dharmadhwaja, always
stands there.
6. He, having gone to Chitragupta, 1 reports the good and evil deeds. Then Chitragupta
tells it to the King of Justice.
7. The men who are Deniers, O Târkshya, and always delight in great sin; these are all, as
is proper, well-known to the King of Justice.
8. Nevertheless, he asks Chitragupta about their sins. Chitragupta, although he is allknowing,
enquires of the Śravaṇas 1.
9. The Śravaṇas are the sons of Brâhmaṇ who wander in heaven, on earth, and in the
nether regions, hear and understand at a distance, and see a long way off.
10. Their wives have a similar nature, and are called, distinctively, Sravanîs. They know
accurately all that is done by women.
11. These report to Chitragupta everything that is said and done, openly and secretly, by
men.
12. These followers of the King of Justice know accurately all the virtues and vices of
mankind, and the karma born of mind, speech and body.
13. Such is the power of these, who have authority over mortals and immortals. Thus do
these truth-speaking Śravaṇas relate the actions of man.
14. To the man who pleases them by austerity, charity and truthful speech, they become
benevolent, granting heaven and liberation.
15. Knowing the wicked actions of the sinful, those truth-speakers, relating them before
the King of Justice, become dispensers of misery.
16. The sun and moon, fire, wind, sky, earth and water, the heart. Yama, day and night,
the two twilights, and Justice--know the actions of man.
17 The King of Justice, Chitragupta, Śravaṇas, the sun and others see fully the sins and
merits of the embodied being.
18. Then Yama, having assured himself concerning the sins of the sinful, summons them
and shows them his own very terrible form.
19-21. Very sinful people behold the terrifying form of Yama--huge of body, rod in hand,
seated on a buffalo,
Roaring like a cloud at the time of pralaya, like a mountain of lampblack, terrible with
weapons gleaming like lightning, possessing thirty-two arms,
Extending three yojanas, with eyes like wells, with mouth gaping with formidable fangs,
with red eyes and a long nose.
22. Even Chitragupta is fearful, attended by Death, Fever and others. Near to him are all
the messengers, resembling Yama, roaring.
23. Having seen him, the wretch, overcome with fear, cries 'Oh, Oh.' The sinful soul who
made no gifts trembles and cries again.
24. Then, by command of Yama, Chitragupta speaks to all those sinners, who are crying,
and bewailing their karmas.
25. 'O, you sinners, evil-doers, polluted with egoism, injudicious, why ever did you
commit sin?
26. 'O, you foolish people, why ever did you commit that misery-giving sin which is born
of lust, anger and association with the sinful.
27 'Hitherto you have committed sins with great delight, and thereby are now destined for
torment. It is no use turning your faces away.
28. 'The sinful actions done by you are very many, and those sins are the cause of
unavoidable misery.
29. 'It is known that Yama deals equally with the fool and the learned, the beggar and the
wealthy, the strong and the weak.'
30. Hearing these words of Chitragupta, the sinful then grieve over their karmas, and
remain silent and motionless.
31. The King of Justice, seeing them standing motionless like thieves, has fitting
punishment ordered for the sinful.
32. Then the cruel messengers, having beaten them, say, 'Go along, you sinner, to the
very dreadful terrifying hells.'
33. The messengers, Prachaṇḍa, Chaṇḍaka 1 and others, executors of the sentences of
Yama, having bound them with one noose, lead them towards the hells.
34. There is one big tree there, glowing like a blazing fire. It covers five yojanas and is
one yojana in height.
35. Having bound them on the tree by chains, head downwards, they beat them. They, for
whom there is no rescuer, cry, burning there.
36. Many sinful ones are hung on that silk-cotton tree, exhausted by hunger and thirst,
and beaten by the messengers of Yama.
37. 'Oh, forgive my faults'--with suppliant hands, those most. sinful people, helpless,
implore the messengers.
31. Again and again they are forcibly struck, by the messengers, with metal rods, with
hammers, with iron clubs, with spears, with maces and with big pestles.
39-40. Thus beaten they become still, swooning away. Then, seeing them quiet, the
servants address them thus:
'O, you sinners, you evildoers, why ever did you commit such wicked deeds? You did not
even make the easy water and food offerings at all.
41. 'You did not give even halt a mouthful of food to the dog or the crows, nor honour
your guests, nor make the water-offering to the forefathers.
42. You did not meditate well upon Yama and Chitragupta, nor repeat their mantra, along
with which torment cannot exist.
43. You never visited any places of pilgrimage, nor worshipped the deities. Though living
as a householder you did not even express compassion.
44. 'You did not do any acts of service. Suffer the fruits of your own sin! Because you are
devoid of righteousness you deserve to be beaten.
45. 'Forgiveness of faults is done by the Lord Hari 1 Îśwara. We only punish miscreants,
as we are ordered.'
46. Thus having spoken the messengers heat them mercilessly; and on account of the
beating they fall down like glowing charcoal.
47. In falling their limbs are cut by the sharp leaves, and they cry, fallen down and bitten
by dogs.
48. Then the mouths of those who are crying are filled with dust by the messengers; and,
being bound with various nooses some are beaten with hammers.
49. Some of the sinful are cut with saws, like firewood, and others thrown flat on the
ground, are chopped into pieces with axes.
50. Some, their bodies half-buried in a pit, are pierced in the head with arrows. Others,
fixed in the middle of a machine, are squeezed like sugar-cane.
51. Some are surrounded closely with blazing charcoal, enwrapped with torches, and
smelted like a lump of ore.
52. Some are plunged into heated butter, and others into heated oil, and like a cake
thrown into the frying-pan they are turned about.
53. Some are thrown in the way, in front of huge maddened elephants, and some with
hands and feet bound are placed head downwards.
54. Some are thrown into wells; some are hurled from heights; others plunged into pits
full of worms, are eaten away by them.
55. By the hard beaks of huge flesh-eating crows and vultures they are pecked in the
head, eyes and faces.
56. Others clamour: 'Give up, give up my wealth, which you owe me. In the world of
Yama I see my wealth being enjoyed by you.'
57. Thus disputing, the sinful, in the hell-region, are given pieces of flesh torn off with
pincers by the messengers.
58. Thus quarrelling, they are taken hold of by the messengers, by order of Yama, and
thrown into the dreadful hells, Tâmisra and others,
59. Hells full of great misery are there,--near to the tree,--in which there is great misery
indescribable in words.
60. There are eighty-four lakhs of hells, O Bird, the midst of which are twenty-one most
dreadful of the dreadful.
61-64. Tâmisra, 1 Lohaśaṇku, 2 Maharauravaśâlmalî, 3 Raurava, 4 Kuḍmala, 5
Kâlasûtraka, 6 Pûtimṛittika, 7
Saṅghâta, 8 Lohitoda, 9 Saviṣa, 10 Sampratâpana, 11 Mahâniraya, 12 Kâka, 13 Ûlu, 14
Sanjîvana, 15 Mahâpathin, 16
Avîchi, 17 Andhatâmisra, 18 Kumbhîpâka, 19 Sampratâpana, 20 and Tapana, 21--in all
twenty-one,
All formed of various afflictions and diseases of different classes, the various fruits of
sin, and inhabited by multitudes of servants.
65. The sinful fools, devoid of righteousness, Who have fallen into these, experience
there, until the end of the age, the various torments of hell.
66. Men and women suffer the torments of Tâmisra, Andhatâmisra, Raurava and other
hells, which are produced by secret association.
67. Thus he who was holding a family or gratifying his belly, having given up both, and
being departed, obtains appropriate fruit.
68. Having cast off his body, which was nourished at the expense of other creatures, he
goes alone to hell, provisioned with the opposite of happiness.
69. The man experiences in a foul hell what is ordained by his fate, like an invalid who
has been robbed of his wealth, the support of his family.
70: The individual, who was fond of supporting his family by unrighteous means alone,
goes to Andhatâmisra, which is the place of uttermost darkness.
71. Having experienced in due order the torments below, he comes here again, purified.
Footnotes
21:1 Name of the being who records the doings of men.
22:1 Lit. Listeners.
24:1 Both names mean fierce or violent.
26:1 Lit. He who takes away (sins).
28:1 Darkness.
28:2 Iron spears.
28:3 Very terrible silk-cotton tree.
28:4 Terrible.
28:5 Blossoming.
28:6 The thread of death.
28:7 Stinking clay.
28:8 Accumulation.
28:9 Iron weights.
28:10 Poisonous.
28:11 Burning.
28:12 The great exit.
28:13 Crows.
28:14 Owls.
28:15 Living together.
28:16 The great path.
28:17 Waveless.
28:18 Besetting darkness,
28:19 Based like a pot.
28:20 Burning.
28:21 Hot.
CHAPTER IV.
An Account of the Kinds of Sins which lead to Hell.
1. Garuḍa said: For what sins do they go on that great Way? Why do they fall into the
Vaitaraṇî? Why do they go to hell? Tell me this, O Keśava.
2. The Blessed Lord said: 'Those who always delight in wrong deeds, who turn away
from good deeds, go from hell to hell, from misery to misery, from fear to fear.
3. The righteous go into the city of the King of Justice by three gateways, but the sinful
go into it only by the road of the southern gate.
4. The Vaitaraṇî River is only on this very miserable way. I will tell you who the sinners
are who go by it.
5-12. Slayers of Brâhmiṇs, drinkers of intoxicants, slayers of owe, infanticides,
murderers of women, destroyers of the embryo, and those who commit secret sins,
Those who steal the wealth of the teacher, the property of the temple or of the twice-born;
those who take away the possessions of women, and those who steal the possessions of
children;
Those who do not repay their debts; those who misappropriate deposits; those who betray
confidence; and those who kill with poisonous foods;
Those who seize upon the fault and depreciate the merit, who are jealous of those who
have merit, who are attached to the wicked, who are foolish, who turn away from the
company of the good;
Those who despise places of pilgrimage, good men, good actions, teachers and Shining
Ones; those who disparage the Purâṇas, the Vedas, the Mîmâṁsâ, the Nyâya and the
Vedânta;
Those who are elated at seeing the miserable, who try to make the happy wretched, who
speak evil words, and are always evil-minded;
Those who do not listen to good counsel nor even to the word of the Śâstras, who are
self-satisfied, who are unbending, who are foolish, who thinks themselves learned;--
These, and many others, very sinful, devoid of righteousness, certainly go on the Way of
Yama, weeping day and night.
13. Beaten by the messengers of Yama, they go towards the Vaitaraṇî. I will tell you
what sinners fall into it.
14. Those who dishonour their mothers, fathers, teachers and preceptors and the
reverend,--these men sink in it.
15. Those who wickedly abandon their wives, faithful, of good qualities, of noble birth,
and modest, fall into the Vaitaraṇî.
16. Those who ascribe evil to the good, possessed of thousands of merits, and treat them
disrespectfully, fall into the Vaitaraṇî.
17. Who does not fulfil promises made to Brâhmiṇs, and who, having called them, says,
'There is nothing for you,'--of these two the stay is continued.
18-24. Who takes away what he gave; who repents of his gifts: who takes away another's
livelihood; who hinders others making gifts;
Who obstructs sacrifices; who prevents the telling of stories; who removes fieldboundaries;
who ploughs up pastures;
The Brâhmiṇ who sells liquors, and consorts with a lowcaste woman; who kills animals
for his own gratification, not for the prescribed sacrifices of the Vedas;
Who has put aside his Brâhmaṇic duties; who eats flesh and drinks liquor; who is of
unbridled nature; who does not study the Śâstras;
The Śûdra who studies the letter of the Vedas, who drinks the milk of the tawny cow,
who wears the sacred thread or consorts with Brâhmiṇ women;
Who covets the King's wife; who abducts others' wives, who is lustful towards virgins,
and who slanders virtuous women;--
These, and many other fools, fond of treading forbidden paths, anal abandoning
prescribed ditties, fall into the Vaitaraṇî.
23. Having come all along the path the sinful reach the abode of Yama, and having come,
by command of Yama, the messengers hurl them into that river again.
26. O King of Birds, they then hurl those sinners into the Vaitaraṇî, which is the foremost
among hells.
27. Who did not make gifts of black cows, nor perform the ceremonies for those who are
in the upper body; having suffered great misery in it, go to the tree standing on its bank.
28-30. Who give false witness; who perform false duties; who earn by cheating, and who
gain a livelihood by thieving;
Who cut down and destroy big trees, gardens and forests; who neglect vows and
pilgrimages, who destroy the chastity of widows;
The woman who despises her husband and thinks about another,--such and others at the
silk-cotton tree experience much beating.
31. Those who fall down, through being beaten, the messengers cast into hells. I will tell
you about the sinful who fall into them.
32. Deniers, those who break the laws of morality, the avaricious, those attached to senseobjects,
hypocrites, the ungrateful,--these certainly go to hell.
33. Those who destroy wells, tanks, ponds, shrines, or people's houses,--these certainly
go to hell.
34. Those who eat, having neglected their wives, children, servants and teachers, and
having neglected the offerings to the forefathers and the Shining Ones,--these certainly
go to hell.
35. Those who obstruct roads with posts, with mounds, with timber, with stones or with
thorns,--these certainly go to hell.
36. Those who, self-indulgent, do not worship Śiva, Śivâ, Hari, Sûrya, Gaṇeśa, the wise,
and the good teachers,--these certainly go to hell.
37-38. The Brâhmaṇi who places a harlot on his bed, goes to a low condition; begetting
offspring of a Śudra woman, he is certainly degraded from the Brâhmiṇ rank:
That wretched twice-born is not worthy of salutation at any time; those fools who
worship him certainly go to hell.
39. Those who are fond of quarrels, do not give up causing dissension among Brâhmaṇs
and cow-fights but delight in them,--they certainly go to hell.
40. Those who, through malignity, commit transgression at the time of conception, with
women who have no other refuge,---these certainly go to hell.
41. Those men who, blinded by passion, consort with women in the monthly courses, on
the four days of lunar change, in the day time, in water, on Śrâddha occasions, these
certainly go to hell.
42. Those who throw their bodily refuse into fire, into water, in a garden, in a road, or in
a cowpen,--these certainly go to hell.
43. Those who are makers of swords, and of bows and arrows, and those who are sellers
of them,--these certainly go to hell.
44. Vaiśyas who are dealers in skins; women who sell their hair; these who sell poisons;--
all these certainly go to hell.
45. Those who do not compassionate the helpless, who hate the good, who punish the
guiltless;--these certainly go to hell.
46. Those who do not feed the Brâhmaṇ guests, who have come full of hope to the house,
even though food is cooked;--these certainly go to hell.
47. Those who are suspicious of all creatures, and who are cruel to them, those who
deceive all creatures;--these certainly go to hell.
48. Those who assume observances, and afterwards, with senses uncontrolled, cast them
away again,--these certainly go to hell.
49. Those who do not respect the teacher who imparts the knowledge of the Supreme
Self, and the tellers of the Purâṇas,--these certainly go to hell.
50. Those who betray their friends; those who cut short friendship; and those who destroy
hopes;--these certainly go to hell.
51. He who interferes with marriage, processions of the Shining Ones, 1 or bands of
pilgrims, dwells in a dreadful hell from which there is no return.
52. The very sinful man who sets fire to a house, a village or a wood, is captured by the
messengers of Yama and baked in pits of fire.
53. When his limbs are burnt with fire, he begs for a shady place, and then is led by the
messengers into the forest of sword-like leaves.
54. When his limbs are cut by its leaves, sharp as swords, then they say, 'Ah, ha! Sleep
comfortably in this cool shade!'
55. When, afflicted with thirst, he begs for water to drink, then the messengers give him
boiling oil to drink.
56. Then they say: 'Drink this liquid and eat this food.' As soon as he drinks it he falls
down, burning inside.
57. Getting up again somehow, he wails piteously. Powerless and breathless he is unable
even to speak.
58. Thus, it is declared, O Târkṣya, that there are many torments for the sinful. Why
should I explain them fully, when they are spoken of in all the Śâstras?
59. Being tortured thus, men and women by thousands are baked in dreadful hells until
the coming of the deluge.
60-62. Having eaten there their undecaying fruits they are born again. By order of Yama
they return to the earth and become unmoving and other creatures:
Trees, bushes, plants, creepers, rocks and grasses, these are spoken of as unmoving;
enveloped in great delusion,--
Insects, birds, animals and fish;--it is said that there are eighty-four hundred thousands of
fates of birth-fates.
63. All these evolve thence into the human condition; having come back from hell they
are born in the human kingdom amongst low outcastes, and even there, by the stains of
sin, become very miserable.
64. Thus they become men and women oozing with leprosy, born blind, infested with
grievous maladies, and bearing the marks of sin.
Footnotes
36:1 The images are carried round the streets on occasions.
CHAPTER V
An Account of the Signs of Sins.1. Garuḍa said: Tell me, O Keśava, by what sins particular signs are produced, and to
what sorts of birth such sins lead?
2. The Blessed Lord said: The sins on account of which the sinful returning from hell
come to particular births, and the signs produced by particular sins,--these hear from me.
3. The murderer of a Brâhmaṇ becomes consumptive, the killer of a cow becomes humpbacked
and imbecile, the murderer of a virgin becomes leprous,--all three born as
outcastes.
4. The slayer of a woman and the destroyer of embryos becomes a savage full of
diseases; who commits illicit intercourse, a eunuch; who goes with his teacher's wife,
diseased-skinned.
5. The eater of flesh becomes very red; the drinker of intoxicants, one with discoloured
teeth; the Brâhmaṇ who, on account of greed, eats what should not be eaten, becomes
big-bellied.
6. He who eats sweet foods, without giving to others, becomes swollen-necked; who
gives impure food at a Śrâddha ceremony is born a spotted leper.
7. The man who, through pride, insults his teacher, becomes an epileptic; who despises
the Vedas and the Śâstras certainly becomes jaundiced.
8. Who bears false witness becomes dumb; who breaks the meal-row 1 becomes oneeyed;
who interferes with marriage becomes lipless; who steals a book-is born blind.
9. Who strikes a cow or a Brâhmaṇ with his foot is born lame and deformed; who speaks
lies becomes a stammerer, and who listens to them becomes deaf.
10. A poisoner becomes insane; an incendiary becomes bald; who sells flesh becomes
unlucky; who eats fled of other beings becomes diseased.
11. Who steals jewels is born in a low caste; who steals gold gets diseased nails; who
steals any metal becomes poverty-stricken.
12. Who steals food becomes a rat; who steals grain becomes a locust; who steals water
becomes a Châtaka-bird 2; and who steals poison, a scorpion.
13. Who steals vegetables and leaves becomes a peacock; perfumes, a musk-rat; honey, a
gad-fly; flesh, a vulture; and salt, an ant.
14. Who steals betel, fruits and flowers becomes a forest-monkey; who steal shoes, grass
and cotton are born from sheeps' wombs.
15. Who lives by violence, who robs caravans on the road, and who is fond of hunting,
certainly becomes a goat in a butcher's house.
16. Who dies by drinking poison becomes a black serpent on a mountain; whose feature
is unrestrained becomes an elephant in a desolate forest.
17. Those twice-born who do not make offering to the World-deities, and who eat all
foods without consideration, become tigers in a desolate forest.
18. The Brâhmiṇ who does not recite the Gâyatrî 1, who does not meditate at twilight,
who is inwardly wicked while outwardly pious, becomes a crane.
19. The Brâhmiṇ who officiates for one unfit to perform sacrifice becomes a village hog,
and by too many sacrifices he becomes an ass; by eating without grace, a crow.
20. The twice-born who does not impart learning to the deserving becomes a bull; the
pupil who does not serve his teacher becomes an animal,--an ass or a cow.
21. Who threatens and spits at his teacher, or browbeats a Brâhmaṇ, is born as a
Brâhmiṇ-fiend in a waterless wilderness.
22. Who does not give to a twice-born according to his promise becomes a jackal; who is
not hospitable to the goody becomes a howling Fire-face. 2
23. Who deceives a friend becomes a mountain-vulture; who cheats in selling, an owl;
who speaks ill of caste and order is born a pigeon in a wood.
24. Who destroys hopes and who destroys affection, who through dislike abandons his
wife, becomes a ruddy goose for a long time.
25. Who hates mother, father and teacher, who quarrels with sister and brother, is
destroyed when an embryo in the womb, even for a thousand births.
26. The woman who abuses her mother-in-law and father-in-law, and causes constant
quarrels; becomes a leech; and she who scolds her husband becomes a louse.
27. Who, abandoning her own husband, runs after another man, becomes a flying-fox, a
house-lizard, or a kind of female serpent.
28. He who cuts off his lineage, by embracing a woman of his own family, having
become a hyena and a porcupine, is born from the womb of a bear.
29. The lustful man who goes with a female ascetic becomes a desert fiend; who consorts
with an immature girl becomes a huge snake in a wood.
30. Who covets his teacher's wife, becomes a chameleon; who goes with the king's wife
becomes corrupt; and with his friend's wife, a donkey.
31. Who commits unnatural vice becomes a village pig; who consorts with a Śûdra
woman becomes bull; who is passionate becomes a lustful horse.
32-33. Who feeds upon the eleventh-day offerings to the dead is born a dog. The
devalaka is born from the womb of a hen.
The wretch among twice-born who worships the deities for the sake of wealth is called a
devalaka and is unfit to offer oblations to ale deities and forefathers.
34. Those who are very sinful, having passed through dreadful hells produced by their
great sins, are born here upon the exhaustion of their karma.
35. The murderer of a Brâhmaṇ goes into the womb of an ass, a camel and a she-buffalo;
a drinker of intoxicants enters the wombs of a wolf, a dog and a jackal.
36. The stealer of gold attains the condition of a worm, an insect and a bird. Who goes
with his teacher's wife, goes to the condition of grass, bushes and plants.
37. Who steals another's wife, who misappropriates deposits, who robs a Brâhmiṇ, is
born as a Brâhmiṇ-fiend.
38-40. The Brâhmiṇ's possessions acquired by deception, enjoyed even in friendship,
afflict the family even for seven generations,--and by forcible robbery even as long as the
moon and stars exist:
A man may digest even iron filings, powdered stone, and poison; but where is the person
in the three worlds who can digest a Brâhmiṇ's wealth!
Chariots and troops supported by the wealth of a Brâhmiṇ crumble away in battle like
artificial river-banks of sand.
41-43. By appropriating temple property, by taking a Brâhmiṇ's possessions, and by
neglecting Brâhmiṇs, families become broken up.
He is called a neglector who, instead of making a gift to one who is well-read in the
Vedas and Śâstras and has resorted to him, gives it to some other,
But it is no neglect if the Brâhmiṇ is without Veda-knowledge; it would be like offering
to ashes instead of to the blazing fire near by.
44. Having neglected, O Târkṣya, and having experienced the results in the successive
hells, he is born blind and in poverty, becoming not a giver but a beggar.
45. Who takes away a plot of land, which was given by himself for another, is born for
sixty thousand years as a worm in excrement.
46. The sinner who takes back by force what has been given by himself, goes into hell
until the coming of the deluge.
47. Having given the means of subsistence and a piece of land, he should then protect it
firmly. Who does not protect, but robs, is born as a lame dog.
48. Who gives the means of support to Brâhmiṇs obtains fruit equal to that of a lakh of
cows; who robs Brâhmiṇs of their means of sup port becomes an ape, a dog and a
monkey.
49. These and other signs and births, O Lord of Birds, are seen to be the karma of the
embodied, made by themselves in this world.
50. Thus the makers of bad karma, having experienced the tortures mf hell, are born with
the residues of their sins, in these stated forms.
51. Then, obtaining for thousands of lives the bodies of animals, they suffer from
carrying burdens and other miseries.
52. Having experienced as a bird the misery of cold, rain and heat, he afterwards reaches
the human state, when the good and evil are balanced.
53. Man and woman having come together, he becomes an embryo in due course. Having
suffered the miseries from conception onwards to death, he again dies.
54. Birth and death are the lot of all embodied beings; thus turns the wheel in the four
kingdoms of beings.
55. As the wheel of time turns, so mortals revolve by my magic. They revolve at one time
of earth, at another in hell, held fast by the noose of karma.
56. He who does not mike gifts becomes poverty--stricken and through poverty he
commits sin; by the force of sin he goes to hell, and is again born in poverty and again
becomes sinful.
57. Karma which has been made, whether good or evil, must inevitably be suffered.
Karma not suffered does not fade away even in tens of millions of ages.
Footnotes
39:1 This refers to the custom among Brâhmiṇs of sitting in a row at meals, and rising
together. Whoever gives different food to one than to another is said to break the row
also.
39:2 A bird fabled to live only on rain-drops.
40:1 A sacred mantra repeated every day by the twice-born caste.
40:2 A class of evil spirits.
CHAPTER VI.
The Miseries of Birth of the Sinful.
1. Garuḍa said:--Tell me, O Keśava, how he who returns from hells is formed in the
womb of the mother, and what miseries he suffers in the embryonic condition.
2. Viṣṇu said: I will tell you how the mortal is born when the male and female elements
are bound together by the union of man and woman.
3. In the middle of the menstruation period, in the three days on which Indra incurs the
sin of Brâmicide, the body of the sinful begins to form.
4. The mother of one returning from hell is regarded on the first day as an outcaste
woman, on the second as the murderer of a Brâhmiṇ, and on the third as a washerwoman.
5. The creature, in obtaining a body, according to karma, the divine eye, enters the womb
of a woman, which is the receptacle of a man's seed.
6. In one night it becomes a lump; by the fifth night round; by the tenth day like the fruit
of the jujube tree, 1 and after that an egg of flesh.
7-8. By the first month the head, by the second the arms and other parts of the body are
formed; by the third occurs the formation of nails, hair, bones, skin, linga and other
cavities;
By the fourth the seven bodily fluids; by the fifth hunger and thirst arise; by the sixth,
enveloped by the chorion, it moves to the left of the womb.
9. The bodily substances are formed of the foods and liquids of the mother, and the
creature at the time of birth lies in the disgusting hollow of the loins, amid fœces and
urine.
10. All its limbs bitten constantly by hungry worms, it swoons away repeatedly through
excessive pain, as they are very tender.
11. Thus enveloped by the womb and bound outside by the sinews, it feels pain all over
its body, caused by the mother's eating many things--pungent, bitter, hot, salt, sour and
acid.
12. With its head placed in its belly and its back and neck curved, it is unable to move its
limbs,--like a parrot in a cage.
13. There he remembers, by divine power, the Karma generated in hundreds of previous
births,--and remembering, sobs for a long time, obtaining not the least happiness.
14. Having this insight he, with hands put together, bound in seven bonds, imploring and
trembling, adores in plaintive tones Him who placed him in the womb.
15. From the beginning of the seventh month, though he gains consciousness, he who is
in the womb trembles and moves about because of the parturition winds, like a uterine
worm.
16-23. The creature says, "I seek refuge in Viṣṇu; the husband of Śrî, the supporter of the
universe, the destroyer of evil, who is compassionate to those who come for shelter.
"I am bewildered by Thy magic, as regards body and son and wife; misled by my egoism
I am transmigrating, O Lord.
"I did good and evil actions for the sake of my dependents, and as s result I am
tormented, while they who enjoy the fruits escape.
"If I am released from this womb I will lay myself at Thy feet, and I will take the means
by which I may obtain liberation.
"Fallen into a well of fœces and urine, I am burnt by the fire of the belly, and anxious to
escape from it. When shall I get out?
"In Him alone, who has given me this experience, and is compassionate to the afflicted,
will I seek refuge. Let not this transmigration occur to me again.
"But no, I wish never to come out of the womb, where misery results from my sinful
actions.
"Because remaining even here in great misery, bearing the fatigue, resorting to Thy feet I
will keep myself aloof from the worlds of change."
24. The Blessed Lord said: He who has thus considered, and has been ten months in the
womb, endowed with insight, while praying, suddenly is cast out head downwards into
birth, by the winds of delivery.
25. Cast out forcibly, bending down his head, he comes out with anxiety and painfully
breathless and with memory destroyed.
26. Having fallen on the ground he moves like a worm in excrement. He is become
changed in condition, and cries loudly, deprived of knowledge.
27. If the state of mind which arises in the womb, during illness, on the cremation
ground, or upon hearing the Purâṇas were permanent--who would not be liberated from
bondage!
28. When he comes out of the womb, after experiencing his karma, then verily the man is
bewildered by the magic of Viṣṇu.
29. Then, when he is touched by that magic, powerless, he is unable to speak. He
experiences the miseries of infancy and childhood arising from dependence.
30. He is nourished by people who do not understand his wishes, unable to ward off what
is thrust upon him against his desire.
31. Lain upon a bed unclean and befouled by perspiration, he is unable to scratch his
limbs, to sit, rise or move.
32. Mosquitoes, gnats, bugs and other flies bite him, skinless and weeping and deprived
of understanding, just as insects bite little worms.
33. In this wise having experienced the miseries of infancy and of childhood, he reaches
youth and acquires evil tendencies.
34. Then he begins evil brooding, mingling in the company of the wicked; he hates the
scriptures and good men, and becomes lustful.
35. Seeing a seductive woman, his senses captivated by her blandishments, infatuated he
falls into great darkness, like a moth into a flame.
36. The deer, the elephant, the bird, the bee and the fish: these five are led to destruction
by one of the senses; how then shall the infatuated one not be destroyed, when he enjoys
the five kinds of objects by five senses.
37. He longs for the unobtainable, and on account of ignorance becomes angry and sorry,
and his pride and anger increase with the growth of his body.
38. The lover makes quarrels with rivals, to his own ruin and is destroyed by those
stronger than himself, as one elephant by another.
39. Who is more sinful than the fool who, attached to sense-objects, spends in vain the
human birth which was difficult to obtain.
40: After hundreds of lives one obtains human birth on earth; and even more difficult to
obtain is that as a twice-born: and who then only provides for and pampers the senses,
through foolishness lets slip the nectar from his hand.
41. Then, having arrived at old age, he is troubled with great diseases; and, death having
come, he goes to a miserable hell, as before.
42. Thus held fast in the ever-circling noose of karma, the sinful, bewildered by my
magic, are never released.
43. Thus I have related to you, O Târkṣya, how the sinful, deprived of the sacrifices for
the dead, go in hell. What else do you wish to hear?
Footnotes
46:1 That is, hard.
CHAPTER VII.
Babhruvâhana's Sacrament for the Departed One.
1. Sûta said: Having heard this, Garuḍa, trembling like a leaf of the holy fig-tree, again
questioned Keśava for the benefit of men.
2. Garuḍa said: Tell me by what means men who have committed sins unknowingly or
knowingly escape from the torments of the servants of Yama.
3-4. For those men who are immersed in the ocean of transmigration, of weak
intelligence, their reason clouded by sin, their self dimmed by attachment to senseobjects--
For their uplifting tell me, O Lord, the exact meaning of the Purâṇas; and the means by
which people attain a happy condition, O Mâdhava.
5. The Blessed Lord said: O Târkṣya, you have done well in asking for the benefit of
men, Listen attentively, and I will tell you all.
6. Hard indeed, as already said, is the fate of the sinful and those without sons; but never
so, O Lord of Birds, that of those who have sons and who are righteous,
7. If by any past action of his the birth of a son has been prevented, then some means
should be taken for obtaining a son.
8. Having listened to the Harivanśa, or performed the Śatachaṇḍî, or worshipped the
Blessed Śiva with devotion, the intelligent should beget a son.
9. The son saves his father from the hell called Put; therefore he was named "putra" by
the Self-existent himself.
10. Even a single son, if righteous, carries the whole family over. 'By the son he conquers
the worlds,' is the ancient saying.
11. The Vedas also proclaim the great importance of the son. Accordingly, having seen
the face of a son, one is released from the debt to the forefathers.
12. By the touch of his grandson a mortal is released from the three-fold debt. With the
help of sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons he goes from the worlds and obtains
heaven.
13. The son of a Brâhma marriage uplifts, but the illegitimate drags down. Knowing this,
O Best of Birds, one should avoid a woman of lower caste.
14. Sons having father and mother of the same caste are legitimate, O Bird. They alone,
by making Śrâddha-gifts are the means of their fathers' attaining heaven.
15. Need I say one attains heaven by means of the Śrâddha performed by a son, when a
Departed One went to heaven even when it was offered by another. Now listen.
16. Concerning this I will give you, from ancient history, an example of the efficacy of
gifts for the higher body.
17-19. Formerly, in the Treta age, Târkṣya, there reigned over the delightful city of
Mahodaya a king named Babhruvâhana, who was very powerful, and firm in
righteousness,
A sacrificer, Lord of Gifts, prosperous, a lover of Brâhmaṇs, valuing the good, endowed
with good character and of good conduct, compassionate, skilled,
Righteously protecting his subjects as though they were his own sons, always delighting
in Kṣattriya duties, and punishing the guilty.
20-21. Once, that powerful king, with his army, went hunting. He entered a thick forest,
full of various kinds of trees,
Crowded with various species of animals, and resounding with the cries of various birds.
In the midst of the forest the king saw a deer in the distance.
22. The deer, severely wounded by his very hard arrow, ran out of sight into the interior
of the forest, carrying the arrow with him.
23. The king, following the blood-stains on the grass, pursued the deer and came into
another forest.
24. That leader of men, hungry and with parched throat, fainting with the heat and with
fatigue, coming to a lake bathed in it with his horse.
25-27. Then, having drunk of that cool water, rendered fragrant by the-pollen of the lotus,
Babhruvâhana came out of the water refreshed,
And saw a delightful fig-tree, giving cool shade with its large spreading boughs,
sounding with many birds,
And standing like a big standard over the whole forest. The king approached and sat at its
root.
28. Now he beheld a Departed One, of terrible appearance, humpbacked and fleshless,
with hair erect, dirty, and with senses discomposed by hunger and thirst.
29-31. Seeing him deformed and dreadful Babhruvâhana wondered. The Departed One,
also seeing the king who had come to that dreadful forest,
And becoming filled with curiosity, came near to him. Then, O Târkṣya, this king of the
Departed spoke thus to the king:
"I have escaped the condition of the Departed and reached the highest condition, by being
in touch with you, O Great-Armed one,--I am highly blessed."
32-33. The king said: "O Black-complexioned and Gaping-mouthed, by what bad deeds
did you reach this state of the Departed, dreadful to see, and highly unhappy?"
"Tell me in detail the cause of your condition, dear. Who are you, and by what gifts will
your condition as Departed pass away?"
34-38. The Departed one said: "I will tell you everything from the beginning, O Best of
Kings. You will surely have compassion upon me when you have heard the cause of my
condition as Departed,
"There is a town named Vaidaśa, possessed of all prosperity, having many districts, and
abounding in precious stones of various kinds,
"Beautiful with palaces and mansions, and in which many religious acts are performed.
There, O Reverend Sir, I dwelt, always engaged in worship of the Shining Ones.
"By caste I am a Vaishya, by name Sudeva, please know. By fire-offering I pleased the
Shining Ones, and likewise the forefathers by food.
"I gladdened the twice-born by offering various gifts. I gave food of various kinds to the
poor, the blind and the wretched.
39-41. "All this, O King, through my evil fate has proved fruitless. How my good deeds
proved fruitless I will relate to you.
"I have no offspring, no companion, no relative and no friend like you, who will perform
for me the ceremonies for the-higher body.
"If the sixteen monthly Śrâddhas, O great king, are not performed, the condition as
Departed becomes firmly fixed, even if hundreds of annual Śrâddhas are performed for
him.
42-45. "Uplift me then, O Lord of Earth, by doing the ceremonies for my higher body. It
is said that in this world the king is the kinsman of all castes.
"Therefore, O Lord of Kings, help me over, and I will give you a most precious jewel, so
that my departed condition may be destroyed, and my higher state arise.
"In that manner please act, O warrior, if you desire my welfare. Suffering from the
misery of hunger and thirst, I cannot endure this departed condition.
"In this forest there is sweet and cool water, and pleasant fruits, but I am not able to grasp
them at all, although afflicted with hunger and thirst.
46-48. "If the great Nârâyaṇa rite is performed for me, O King, along with all the
ceremonies for the higher body, with Vaidic mantras,
"Then surely my condition as departed will unfailingly pass away. Vaidic mantras,
austerities, gifts, and compassion to all beings,
"Listening to holy scriptures, worship of Viṣṇu, association with the good,--these, I have
heard, are the destroyers of the departed condition.
49-50. "So I will tell you about the worship of Viṣṇu, the destroyer of the departed
condition. Bring two pieces of gold, honestly gained, and make one image of Nârâyaṇa
from them, O King.
"Dress it with a pair of yellow cloths, put on it various ornaments, bathe it in many
waters,--and placing it, you should worship thus.
51-56. "Place Śrîdhara 1 to the east of it, Madhusûdana 2 to the south, to the west
Vâmanadeva 3, to the north Gadâdhara, 4
"In the middle Pitâmaha 5 and also Maheśwara. 5 Worship these in turn with sandal-paste
and flowers, according to the rite.
"Then, having gone round them, make offerings in the fire to these deities. Make
offerings to the universal deities with clarified butter, curds and milk.
"Next, having bathed, calm and controlled in mind, the sacrificer should perform,
according to the rite, in front of Nârâyaṇa, the ceremony for the upper body.
"He must commence, as prescribed in the scriptures, by giving up anger and greed, and
perform all the ceremonies and the release of a bull.
"Then he must give thirteen sets of pots to Brâhmiṇs, and having made the gift of a bed,
consecrate a pot of water for the sake of the departed."
57. The king said, "How is the pot for the departed to be prepared, and in accordance
with what: rites must it be given? Tell me, on account of my sympathy for all, about the
pot which gives release to the departed."
58-63. The departed said: "Oh Great King, you have done well in asking this. Please take
notice and l will describe that good gift by which the departed condition cannot exist.
"The gift which is named 'the pot for the departed,' is a destroyer of all evil. In all the
worlds it is difficult to obtain this dissipator of evil conditions.
"Having prepared a pot of refined gold, consecrated it to Brahmâ, Îśa 1 and Keśava 2, and
all the guardians of the quarters, filled it with clarified butter and worshipped before it
with devotion, give it to a twice-born. What good are a hundred other gifts from
you?"Brahmâ in the middle, likewise Viṣṇu, and Śaṅkara, eternal giver of happiness; in
the east and other directions, in the neck of it, the guardians of the universe, in order--
"These having duly worshipped, O King, with incenses, flowers and sandal-paste, one
should give away the golden pot, full of milk and clarified butter.
"This gift, O King, which is superior to all other gifts in removing great sins, should be
made with faith, for the release of the departed."
64-65. The Blessed Lord spoke on: His army, while he was thus conversing with the
departed, followed him up, with elephants, horses and chariots, O Kâśyapa.
On the arrival of the army the departed one, having given the great jewel to the king,
bowed to him, again implored him, and became invisible.
66-68. Having come out of the forest, the king returned to his city, and arrived there
remembering all that was said by the departed one.
He duly performed; O Bird, the rites and ceremonies for the dweller in the upper body,
and the departed, released by these sacred gifts, attained heaven.
By the Śrâddha, performed even by a stranger, the departed attain a happy state,--what
wonder then that when the son performs it the father should reach it!
60. He who hears, and he who causes others to hear this holy history, never go to the
departed condition, though they may. have acted sinfully.
Footnotes
58:1 Viṣṇu, a form of.
58:2 Another form of Viṣṇu, slayer of the demon Madhu.
58:3 The divine dwarf Viṣṇu.
58:4 The club-bearing Viṣṇu.
58:5 A name for Śiva.
59:1 Śiva.
59:2 Viṣṇu.
CHAPTER VIII.
An Account of the Gifts for the Dying.
1. Garuḍa said: Tell me, O Lord, all the rites for those in the other worlds who have done
good, and also how these rites should be performed by the sons.
2. The Blessed Lord said: O Târkṣya, you have done well in questioning me for the
benefit of mankind. I will tell you all about the rites proper for the righteous.
3-4. The good person, finding his body, in its old age, afflicted with diseases, and the
planetary conditions unfavourable, and not hearing the sounds of life,
And knowing his death to be near, should he fearless and alert, and should make
reparation for any sins committed knowingly or in ignorance.
5-8. When it is near the time to die he must perform his ablutions, and worship Viṣṇu in
the form of Śâlagrâma. He must worship with fragrant substances, with flowers, with red
saffron, with leaves of the holy basil, with incense, with lamps, with offerings of food
and many sweetmeats, and other things.
He should give presents to Brâhmiṇs, should feed them with the offerings, and should
recite the eight and the twelve syllabled mantras.
He should call to mind, and listen to, the names of Viṣṇu and Śiva. The name of Hari,
coming with the range of hearing, takes away the sins of men.
9. Relatives, coming near the diseased, should not mourn. My holy name should be
remembered and meditated upon repeatedly.
10-11. The Fish, the Tortoise, the Boar, the Man-lion, the Dwarf, Paraśurâma, Râma,
Kṛiṣṇa, Buddha, and also Kalkî 1:
These ten names should always be meditated upon by the wise. Those who recite them
near the diseased are called relatives.
12-16. Of him who gives voice to the auspicious name "Kṛiṣṇa" tens of millions of great
sins are quickly reduced to ashes.
Even the dying Ajâmila reached heaven by pronouncing the name Hari, which had been
given to his son. 2 How much more then is its effect when it is pronounced with faith!
Hari, meditated upon even by one who has evil thoughts, takes away sins: fire burns,
even though accidentally touched.
The sinful man is not able to sin while the power of the name Hari is uprooting the sins,
O Twice-born.
Yama said to his servants: "Bring the man who denies, but O messengers, do not bring
the man who meditates on the name Hari."
17-20. One should worship the Achyuta, Keśava, Nârâyaṇa, Kṛiṣṇa, Dâmodara,
Vâsudeva, Hari, Śrîdhara, Mâdhavam, Gopîkâvallabham, Râmachandra, the Lord of
Jânakî. 1
"O servants, do not go near those sinless people who take refuge in the lotus-eyed
Vâsudeva and Viṣṇu, who is the supporter of the earth, and carries in his hand the conch
and discus.
"Bring those sinners who always turn away from time nectar of the lotus-feet of Viṣṇu,--
which are served by the race of Paramahaṅsas, who know the true essence of things, and
are without possessions,--and those whose desires are bound up in the household, which
is the path to hell."
"Bring them whose tongues do not pronounce the qualities and name of the Lord, whose
minds do not meditate upon His lotus feet, whose heads never bow to Kṛiṣṇa, who do not
offer worship to Viṣṇu."
21-23. Know, then, O Lord of Birds, the hymning of Viṣṇu, which bestows welfare on
the universe, to be the best expiation for even great sins.
The performance of penances does not purify the wicked man, who has turned his face
away from Nârâyaṇa; just as even rivers cannot purify a liquor-pot.
By the name of Kṛiṣṇa one is riddened of sins, and never sees, even in dream, Yama nor
his servants.
24-25. The man, having a body of flesh, bones and blood,--who, towards the end gives
cows to the twice-born, uttering "Nandanandanam," never falls into the Vaitaraṇî.
Hence one should remember the name of Mahâ Viṣṇu, which effaces multitudes of sins,
and should read or listen to the Gîtâ and the Hymn of the Thousand Names.
26-27. The fast of the eleventh day, the Gîtâ, the water of the Ganges, the leaves of the
holy basil, the foot-water and names of Viṣṇu--all these are givers of freedom at the time
of death.
Then he must dedicate food, with clarified butter and gold, to a learned twice-born and.
also give cows with calves.
28-31. Whatever a man gives in his last days, little or much, if it is approved by his Son,
is exempt from decay, O Târkṣya.
In these last days a good son should make all the gifts. It is for the sake of this that the
wise pray for a righteous son in this world,
The sons, seeing their father lying upon the ground with eyes half-closed, should not
covet his earned wealth. 1
A good son will make such gifts as will prolong his father's life, and free him from
misery when he goes into the next world.
32-34. In disease and calamity two gifts rank above all others. They are indispensable--
the eight-fold gift of sesamum and other things.
Sesamum, iron, gold, cotton stuff, salt, the seven grains, a plot of ground, a cow,--every
one of these is said to purify.
The eight great gifts are the effacers of great sins, and should be given in the last days.
Hear now their good effects:
35-36. There are three kinds of holy sesamums generated from my sweat. Asuras,
Dânavas and Daityas 2 are gratified by the gift of these sesamums.
White, black and brown are the three kinds of sesamums. The gift of these removes the
sins gathered in speech, thought and action.
37-40. A gift of iron-ore should be made with the hands touching the ground,--then he
does not go within the domain of Yama, nor tread his path.
Yama holds in his hands, for the punishing of the sinful, an axe, a threshing-pestle, a rod,
a sword and a dagger.
This gift is considered propitiatory to these weapons of Yama. Therefore should be made
the gift of iron, which is the bringer of happiness in the world of Yama.
Because of this gift of iron, happiness is bestowed by these great messengers of Yama:--
Uraṇa, Śyâmasûtra, Śuṇdâmarka, Udumbara, Śeṣa and Bala.
41-44. Hear this great secret, O Târkshya, about this most supreme gift, by which are
pleased the dwellers in Bhû, Bhûvar and Swar worlds. 1
Brahmâ and others, sages, shining ones, and those who are in the assembly of the King of
Justice are gratified by the gift of gold, and become granters of boons.
Therefore a gift of gold should be made for the uplifting of the departed. He does not go
to the world of Yama, O child, but reaches heaven.
He dwells for a long time in the world of truth and is then reborn here as a king,
handsome, righteous, eloquent, prosperous, and of unexcelled strength.
45. By the gift of cotton-stuff one is freed from fear of the messengers. By the gift of salt
one is freed from the fear of Yama.
46-48. By gifts of inn, salt, cotton-stuff, sesamum and gold, Chitragupta and the others
who dwell in the city of Yama are propitiated.
And by gifts of the seven grains the standard-bearer of the King of Justice and others who
stand at the gates are propitiated.
Rices, barley, wheat, kidney beans, mâṣa, 1 panic seeds; dwarf-peas: these are called the
seven grains.
49-52. It has been observed by the sages that the gift of a plot of land of the size of a
cow's hide, in accordance with the rites, to a proper person, absolves one from
Brahmicide.
Not by vows, not by holy pilgrimages, not by any gifts but by the gift of land is a great
sin committed in kingship expiated.
He who gives to the twice-born land filled with grains goes to the abode of Indra and is
worshipped by divinities and demons.
All other gifts, O Kâśyapa, are producers of little fruit. The fruit produced by the gift of
land increases daily.
53-55. He who, having become a king, does not give land to the twice-born, is reborn for
many times as a beggar, without even a village hut.
The king who, through pride, does not make gifts of land, shall dwell in hell as long as
Śeṣa 2 supports the earth.
Therefore shall a king especially make gifts of land; though for others, I say, the gift, of a
cow is equal to a gift of land.
56-57. Towards the end, a cow should be given. He should give a cow to overcome death,
another to absolve himself of debts, another for the gaining of liberation.
With special rites, O Bird, should the gift of a cow for Vaitaraṇî be made. The cows
verily carry the man beyond three kinds of hells.
58-61. The sins committed in boyhood, in youth, in manhood, in old age and in previous
births;
The sins committed in the night, in the morning, in the forenoon and the afternoon, in the
twilight;--of action, speech and thought,
Having given even once a tawny cow, milkgiving, with the calf and other necessary
things, to a well-conducted and austere Brâhmiṇ, learned in the Vedas,--one is absolved
of all these sins. The giver is released by her at the end from the accumulated sins.
62-63. The gift of one cow while one is in full vigour of mind, the gift of a hundred cows
while suffering from diseases, the gift of a thousand when dying and bereft of mental
faculties,
And the gift of one hundred thousand cows after death 1, are equal. A gift made to a
deserving person, who has bathed at the sacred waters, increases a hundred thousand fold.
64. A gift made to a deserving person multiplies a hundred-thousand-fold. It brings
unending fruit to the giver and does not harm the recipient.
65-68. One who has studied the scriptures and made fire-offerings to the shining ones and
who does not eat food cooked by others is not polluted by receiving even the earth filled
with precious stones.
Mantras and fire, the removers of cold and poison, do not themselves partake of these
evil qualities. The cow given to an undeserving person leads the giver to hell,
And it troubles the recipient's people for a hundred generations. A gift should not be
made to an undeserving person by the wise who desire their own welfare.
One cow should be given to one only, and never to many. If he either sells it or shares it
his family will he troubled to the seventh generation.
69. I will tell you about the gilt of a cow, which is a means for crossing the Vaitaraṇî
River, of which I have spoken to you already.
70-76. One should decorate a black or reddish cow, tip its horns with gold, silver its feet,
and milk it into a bronze vessel;
Cover it with a pair of black cloths, hang a bell round its neck, and place the covered
bronze vessel upon some cotton-stuff,
Put there a golden image of Yama, and an iron rod; place clarified butter in the bronze
vessel and put all upon the cow;
Make a raft of sugarcanes, fastening it with silk threads; make a hole, fill it with water,
and in it place the raft:
Having placed the things which are born from the body of the sun in it, dedicate the cow
there in accordance with the scriptures. 1
Present the cloths, with ornaments to a Brâhmiṇ; properly worship with fragrances,
flowers, and coloured rice 2,
Take hold of the tail of the cow, place a foot in the boat, and, having honoured a
Brâhmiṇ, recite this mantra:--
77-82. "O Lord of the Universe, compassionate to those who seek refuge in Thee, Thou
art verily the saviour of those who are immersed in the ocean of existence, made
miserable by the waves of sorrow and remorse.
"O Best of the Twice-born, the very form of Viṣṇu, God upon earth, uplift me. I have
presented this gift to you. Salutations to Vaitaraṇî!
"I have presented this to you, being desirous of crossing that river, which is a hundred
yojanas in extent, and lies on the very dreadful way of Yama. Salutations to Vaitaraṇî.
"O Cow, look upon me, for the sake of my passing through the gateway of Yama on the
great path. Salutations to thee, Vaitaraṇî, Queen of the shining ones!
"May cows be in front of me; may cows be behind me; may cows be in my heart 1; and
may I dwell in the midst of cows.
"May she who is the Goddess of Prosperity for all creatures, who is the mainstay of the
shining ones, its the form of a cow remove my sins."
83-84. With hands together having invoiced, with these mantras, Yama in the form of a
cow, and having walked round all these things, he should give them to the Brâhmiṇ.
He who, with these rites, gives the Vaitaraṇî cow, goes by a righteous path into the
assembly of the King of Justice.
85-86. Whether the body is well or ill one should carry out the Vaitaraṇî observance. The
wise man, desiring to cross that river, should make a gift of a cow.
That river, O Bird, does not appear in the Great Way after the gift of a cow. 2 Therefore it
is necessary to give a cow at all sacred times.
87-88. At all the sacred bathing-places, like the Ganges, and in the dwelling-places of
Brâhmiṇs; at the eclipses of the sun and moon, at the crossing over 1, on the day of the
new moon.
At the equinoctial and solstitial points, at Vyatîpâta, 2 on Yuga days 3 and at other sacred
times,--the supreme gift of a cow should be made.
89. That verily is called the sacred time, in which faith is produced, and when a proper
person is present,--thence flows unending benefit.
90. Bodies are transitory; possessions are not eternal; death is always near;--one should
accumulate righteousness.
91-92. So one who desires his own welfare should make unending gifts, according to his
wealth, to a learned Brâhmiṇ.
The gift of even a little wealth, presented with one's own hand:--this is unending, and the
time is effectual.
93-94. He who has gifts as provision, goes happily on the Great Way. Otherwise--without
provision--the man suffers pain on the path.
All the gifts made by human beings in this world clear the way for them on the path of
the world of Yama.
95-96. By the power of great merit, birth as a human being is obtained. He who, having
gained it, follows righteousness, reaches the supreme goal.
The man who neglects righteousness, goes and comes in misery. The fruitfulness of birth
as a human being depends upon the pursuit of righteousness alone.
97-99. Wealth, sons, wife and fancily, body, kinsmen,--all these are transitory. Therefore
righteousness should be sought.
So long as a man is alive he has a father and other relatives; but when they have known
him to be dead, their affection soon fades away.
He should constantly remember that the true kinsman of the self is the Self. If not to the
living, much less will anyone give to the dead.
100. Knowing all this, one should give with one's own hand, while still alive. Life is
transient; and who can give afterwards?
101-102. The relatives turn away with averted faces leaving the dead body on the ground,
like a lump of wood or earth, but righteousness goes with him.
The wealth disappears from the house, and the relatives from the cremation-ground. The
good and evil karma he has made goes with him.
103-104. When his body has been destroyed by fire his karma remains and wherever he is
the man experiences it, be it good or bad.
Nobody has a relation in this changing ocean of sorrow. He is born by the attraction of
karma, and goes again upon its exhaustion.
105-106. Like creatures in a water-tank, and like the motion or sticks in a river is one's
contact with mother, father, son, brother, kinsman, wife and the others.
Whose are the sons, and the grandsons? Whose is the wife, or the wealth? In the world of
change nobody belongs to anybody. Therefore one should make gifts himself.
107-100. As long as one is in possession of wealth, so long should one make gifts to a
Brâhmiṇ; but when the wealth becomes another's one can have nothing to say.
On account of gifts made in a former birth much wealth is obtained in this. Hence should
wealth be given, by one knowing this, for the sake of righteousness.
Wealth is born of righteousness; by righteousness desire is conquered. Righteousness
verily is the cause of freedom. Therefore should righteousness be pursued.
110-111. Righteousness is supported by faith, not by large piles of wealth. The wise,
though in poverty, leave faith, and go to heaven. From him who offers to Me, with
devotion, a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water--from him, the self-subdued, I accept that,
presented with devotion.
112. Therefore, by all means, a gift should be made, and as prescribed. Whether it be
small or great does not count with me.
113-114. A righteous son is honoured even by the shining ones. He should cause his
ailing father to make gifts on earth.
If the wealth made by the father is given to the deserving by the sons--then, by that,
himself, his sets, grandsons and great-grandsons are ennobled.
115. What is given through the father has a hundred-fold merit; through the mother, a
thousand-fold; through the sister, ten-thousand fold; through the brother, incalculable.
116-118. For him who makes gifts there are no troubles and no torments of hell, and no
fear caused by the messengers of Yama at the time of death.
All those sinful-misers, O Bird, who, because of greed, do not make gifts at the time of
illness come to grief when dead.
Sons, grandsons, brothers, kinsmen and friends who do not make gifts on behalf of a
dying man are without doubt slayers of Brâhmaṇ.
Footnotes
62:1 The ten avatâras, descents or incarnations of Viṣṇu, which appeared in archaic and
ancient times, except Kalkî, who is still to come.
62:2 Ajâmila was a man of very evil life, who named his son Nârâyaṇa, and happened to
call him as he was dying.
63:1 Names of Vishnu.
65:1 They may expect ancestral property, but not that earned by the father.
65:2 Classes of non-human beings.
66:1 Physical, astral and lower mental worlds.
67:1 A kind of spotted grain.
67:2 The eternal serpent.
68:1 That is, given by another for one.
70:1 Probably the afore-mentioned cow, ghee, gold, silk, etc. are closely connected with
sacrifice and therefore with the sun.
70:2 Akṣata, whole rice coloured with turmeric and saffron, and used to honour persons
by sprinkling over them.
71:1 Note here, that the cow is merely a symbol.
71:2 Note the subjective character of the "river."
72:1 The passing of the sun from one constellation to another.
72:2 When the sun and moon are on opposite sides of either solstice, and the minutes
declination are the same.
72:3 Every month there is a day called Yuga--the last or last but one.
CHAPTER IX.
An Account of the Rites for the Dying.
1. Garuḍa said: You have spoken fully about the gifts for the diseased. Tell now, O Lord,
of the rites for the dying.
2. The Blessed Lord said: Listen, O Târkṣya, and I will explain the rites for one leaving
the body, and by what rites men after death reach a good condition.
3-5. When, by the effects of karma, the embodied leaves his ordinary body, then, near to
a holy basil tree one should make a ring with cowdung. 1
Next, having scattered sesamum seeds, he should strew darbha-grass, and then have the
Śâlagrâma stone placed on the cleaned platform.
Liberation is certain for the being who dies near the Śâlagrâma stone, which removes all
ills and sins,
6-9 Where is the shade of the holy basil tree, which removes the pain of being, there is
always liberation for the dying, difficult to obtain by gifts.
The house in which the holy basil tree is enshrined is like a holy bathing place,--the
servants of Yama do not come to it.
Yama is not able to see him who gives up his life while having a holy basil shoot, though
he have hundreds of sins.
The man who dies with a leaf of it in his mouth, upon a seat of sesamum and darbhagrass,
goes to the city of Viṣṇu, unfailingly, though he have no son.
10-13. Sesamums, darbha-grasses and holy basil are three holy things, and they prevent
an ailing man from going to a miserable condition.
Because the sesamum is produced from My sweat it is holy; hence Asuras, Dânavas and
Daityas run away from sesamum.
The darbha grasses, my riches, O Târkṣhya, are produced from my hairs; hence by the
mere touch of them men attain heaven.
Brahma is seated at the root of the kuśa-grass; in the middle of the kuśa is Janârdana; 1 at
the tip of the kuśa is Śaṅkaradeva 2--three shining ones are seated in the kuśa grass.
14-15. Hence kuśa, fire, mantras, holy basil; Brâhmiṇs and cows do not lose their purity
by being used again and again.
Darbha-grass becomes unclean with rice-balls; Brâhmiṇs, by eating the offerings for the
departed; mantras, cows and holy basil, when basely used; and fire, on a cremationground.
16-20. One should lay the dying man on the ground cleaned with cow-dung and spread
over with darbha-grasses; not support him in the air. 1
Brahmâ, Viṣṇu, Rudra 2 all the shining ones, and Sacrificial Fire stand upon the ring,---
therefore should one make a ring.
The ground must he pure everywhere, with no stain to be seen. If there is a stain it should
be cleaned away by further plastering.
Demons, goblins, elementals, spooks, and the followers of Yama enter an impure place,
and a cot above the ground.
Hence without this ring one should not perform oblations to the fire, Śrâddha, the feeding
of Brâhmiṇs, the worship of the Holy Ones; nor place the dying man upon the ground.
21-22. Next, placing him on the cleaned ground, one should put gold and jewels upon his
lips, and give him the Water of the Feet of Vishnu in the form of the Śâlagrâma.
He who drinks even a drop of the water of the water of the Śâlagrâma stone 3 is absolved
from all sins, and goes to the residence Vaikuṇṭḥa. 4
23-30. Then one should give him the water of the Ganges, which is the effacer of great
sins, and gives fruit of merit equal to bathings and gifts at all the sacred waters.
He who performs a thousand times the Chândrâyaṇa fast which purifies his body, and he
who drinks the water of the Ganges, are both equal.
Just as, O Târkṣya, a bundle of cotton is destroyed by falling into the fire, so, by his
drinking the water of the Ganges, is his sin reduced to ashes.
He who drinks the water of the Ganges, heated by the rays of the sun 1 is freed from all
births and goes to the abode of Hari.
By bathing in other rivers men are purified,--so also by merely touching, drinking or
calling upon the Ganges.
It sanctifies meritless men by hundreds and thousands. Therefore should one drink of the
Ganges, whose water helps one over the ocean of transmigration.
He who calls, "O Ganges, Ganges" while life is flickering in the throat, goes when dead
to the city of Viṣṇu, and is not born again on earth.
And the man who, when his life is leaving, contemplates with faith the Ganges, goes to
the highest goal.
31-33. Therefore he should contemplate, salute, keep in mind the Ganges, and drink its
water. Then he should listen, however little, to the Bhâgavata, 1 which is a giver of
liberation.
He who in his last moments repeats a verse, or half or quarter of a verse of the Bhâgavata
never returns hither from the world of Brahmâ.
The repeating of the Vedas and the Upaniṣads; the hymning of Viṣṇu and Śiva--these
bring liberation at death to Brâhmiṇs, Kṣattriyas and Vaiṣyas.
34-35. At the time when the breath is leaving the body, he should make a fast, O Bird.
Dissatisfied with worldly things the twice-born should take up relinquishment. 2
He who says, 3 while life is still flickering in his throat, "I have relinquished," goes at
death to the city of Viṣṇu, and is not born again on earth.
36-39. Then, of him who is righteous and has thus performed the rites, O Bird, the life
breaths easily pass out through the higher opening. The mouth, eyes, nostrils and ears are
the seven gateways through which go those of good deeds. Yogins go through an opening
in the head.
When the rising and descending life-breaths, which are joined, become separate, then,
becoming subtle, the life-breath departs from the inert body.
When the Lord of Breath departs, the body falls like a tree unsupported and stricken by
time.
40-41. The motionless body, left by the vital breath, becomes detestable and unfit to
touch; foul smells soon arise in it, and it is disliked by everybody.
How can men, who perish in a moment, be proud of the body, with its three conditions,--
worm, dung and ashes?
42-43. Earth is dissipated to earth; likewise water to water; fire is dissipated in fire; also
air in air.
And, similarly, ether to ether: and the Self that is in the bodies is happy, all-pervading,
eternally free, witness of the world, birthless and deathless.
44-45. The individual, possessing all the senses, surrounded with sense-objects of sound
and the rest, clinging to desire and love, environed by the sheath of karma,
Endowed with good tendencies, enters a new body created by his own karma, as does a
householder whose house has been burnt.
46-47: Then the messengers of the Shining Ones, resplendent with flashing plumes,
arrive, bringing a chariot wreathed with countless bells,
And they, knowing the true righteousness, wise, always beloved by the righteous, carry
him, who has performed the rites, away in their own chariot.
48. That great man, in a resplendent body, with shining garments and garlands, possessed
of gold and diamond ornaments, by virtue of gifts attains heaven, and is honoured by the
Holy Ones.
Footnotes
76:1 Cowdung is extensively used in India as a purifier and antiseptic.
77:1 Viṣṇu.
77:2 Śiva.
78:1 When the people of the house are aware that one is about, to die they remove him
from the couch to the ground.
78:2 Siva.
78:3 Water is poured over the stone, and thus consecrated to Viṣṇu.
78:4 The heaven of Viṣṇu.
79:1 Here is a mystical suggestion.
80:1 The Bhâgvata Purâṇa.
80:2 Sannyâsa, giving up attachment to worldly life and its objects.
80:3 That is, truly says.
CHAPTER X.
The Collecting of the Bones from the Fire.
1. Garuḍa said: Tell me, O Lord, the rites for burning the bodies of the good, and
describe also the greatness of the wife who is faithful.
2. The Blessed Lord said: Listen, O Târkṣya. I will tell you all about the ceremonies for
the upper body, by doing which sons and grandsons are released from the hereditary debt.
3. There is no need for numerous gifts, but one should perform the funeral ceremonies for
his parents; the son who does so obtains fruit like that of the Agniṣṭoma. 1
4-6. Then the son, abandoning sorrow, should have the shave, along with all his relatives,
in order to remove all sins.
The son who does not have the shave when the mother or father has died,--how can he be
called a son, the helper through the ocean of changefulness.
Therefore he must have the shave by all means, except the nails and the hair of the
armpits. Then, having bathed with his relatives he must put on clean cloths.
7-9. Then, bringing river water, he should bathe the corpse and next adorn it with sandalpaste,
garlands, or the clay of the Ganges;
Having covered it with new cloths he, with his sacred thread on the right shoulder, should
pronounce the family name, and dedicate rice-balls and presents,
At the place of death, in the name of the so-called dead, he should offer them. By this the
earth and its presiding deity become pleased.
10. Ḥe should wake offering at the threshold in the name of him who is become a
traveller; by this the evil ones amongst the tens of millions of elementals can do no harm.
11-13. Then the daughter-in-law 1 and others should go round it and worship it; then
along with the other relatives the son should bear it on his shoulder.
The son who bears his father on his shoulder to the burning-ground obtains the fruit of
the horse-sacrifice at every step.
He who carries his dead father on shoulder or back or hip pays off the debt of constant
parental kindnesses.
14. Then, half-way, after cleaning and sprinkling, he should make a halt. Having bathed
the corpse, he should make an offering for him.
15. Oblations should be made in order that goblins, demons and fiends, and others in the
various directions, shall not cause disturbance of that body which is to be sacrificed.
16-19. Then it should be taken to the burning-ground, and laid down with its head to the
north. Some place should be cleaned there, for the burning of the body, as follows:
Having swept the ground and washed it with cow-dung, having taken out some earth and
erected an altar and sprinkled it with water, and having placed the fire as prescribed,
And having worshipped with flowers and coloured rice the Shining One known as the
eater of flesh, 1 he should make an oblation as prescribed, beginning with 'loman,'--
"Oh, Thou, Supporter of Beings, Womb of the World, Nourisher of Creatures. This one
belonging to the changing world is dead; lead Thou him to heaven!"
20-22. Having thus prayed to the fire, he should make there a funeral pyre with sandal
wood, the holy bath wood, and with the wood of palâsha and aśwattha.
Having placed the departed on the funeral pyre, he should offer in the name of the
departed two rice ball; in the hand of the dead,on the funeral pyre. From the time he is
released on the funeral pyre the condition as departed begins.
Those who know the ways of the departed call him a seeker. An offering should be made
on the funeral pyre, either in this name, or in that of Departed.
23. Thus the dead gets the benefit of the offering of five rice-balls; otherwise the abovementioned
come to disturb.
24. The son, having dedicated five rice-balls to the departed, and having brought the
oblation with the grasses, should give them to the fire, if there is not Pañchaka. 1
25-27. Who dies in the Pañchaka does not attain a good condition. Burning should not be
done then; if it is done, another death occurs.
Beginning from the middle of Dhaniṣṭhâ, in the five Pañchaka mansions ending with
Revatî 2 is not a suitable time for burning. If burning takes place, evil occurs.
Harm befalls the house in which death takes place in the Rikṣa mansion, and some
trouble arises for the sons and family.
28. I will explain to you the rites for the warding off of all ills, in case burning takes place
in the middle of Rikṣa.
20-33. Then one should place near the corpse images, O Târkṣya, make of darbha grass,
and consecrated with the four Rikṣa mantras.
Purified gold should be used, and sacrifice performed with Rikṣa mantras, with the
mantra "Pretâjayata," and with leaf-vessels.
Then the burning along with the images should be done, and the son, on the day of the
offering of the rice-balls, should perform the pacificatory rites for him.
For warding off ills he should give a vessel full of sesamum, gold, silver, diamonds, and a
bronze vessel filled with clarified butter, in order.
Who, after having thus performed the pacificatory ceremonies, does the burning,--no
harm befalls him; and the departed goes to the supreme condition.
56-50. Whether half or wholly burnt, his skull should be split open, in the case of
householders with a piece of wood, in that of ascetics with a cocoanut.
His son, so that he may attain the world of the forefathers, having split open the
brahmarandra 1 should make an oblation of clarified butter with this mantra:
"Thou art born from him; 2 may he be born again from you. He is an offering to the
heaven-world. O Fire, blaze forth!"
Thus having made an oblation of clarified butter, with mantras and sesamum offerings,
he should weep loudly, that he may become happy
60-61. When the burning is finished the women should bathe, then the sons, and offer
water mixed with sesamum, in the name of the family.
He should eat the leaves of the nimba-tree and recount the virtues of the dead. They
should walk home, the women in front and the men behind.
62. Having bathed again at home, he should give food to a cow and eat-from a leaf-plate-
-but not any food already in the house.
63. Having cleaned the place of death with cow-dung, he should keep a lamp burning
there, turned to the south, up to the twelfth day.
34-66. For three days, at sunset, O Târkṣya, he should offer, at the cross-roads or on the
burning-ground, milk and water in an earthen pot.
Holding the unbaked earthen pot, filled with milk and water, bound with-three sticks, he
should repeat this mantra:
"Thou hast been burned with the fires of the burning-ground. Thou hast been forsaken by
relatives. Here is milk and here water; bathe and drink!"
67. On the fourth day the collection 1 should be made, by those who maintain household
fires, and by those who do not. If there is nothing to prevent, on the second or the third
day he should do as follows:
68-78. Having gone to the burning-ground, having bathed and become pure, having put
on a woollen garment, and wearing the sacred ring, 1
The son should make the grain oblation to the denizens of the burning-ground, and walk
round three times, repeating the mantra beginning with "Yamâyatva."
Then having sprinkled milk over the place of the funeral pyre, O Lord of Birds, he should
sprinkle water, and begin to pick up the heap of bones.
Having placed them on palasha leaves, he should sprinkle them with milk and water, and,
having put them into an earthen pot, perform Śrâddha as prescribed.
Having prepared a triangular plot of ground, and cleansed it with cow-dung, he, facing
south, should offer three rice-balls, in the three directions.
Having collected the ashes from the pyre, taking a three-legged stool he should place on
it a jar with mouth uncovered, containing water.
Then he should make, for the departed, an oblation of cooked rice with curds and
clarified butter, water and sweetmeats, as prescribed.
He should take fifteen steps in the northerly direction and, digging a hole there, place in
it, O Bird, the jar of bones.
Then he should offer over it a rice-ball, which destroys the pain of burning, and, taking
the vessel from the hole, carry it to a tank of water.
Then he should several times sprinkle the bones with water and milk, and worship them
well, with sandal-paste and saffron.
Having put them into a leaf-box, touched with it his heart and head and walked round it
saluting it; he should drop it into the middle of the Ganges.
79-84. He whose bones sink in the water of the Ganges within ten days, never returns
from the world of Brahma.
As long as a man's bones float on the water of the Ganges,--for so many thousands of
years he remains in the heaven-world.
When the wind which has touched the waves of the Ganges touches the dead, his sin is at
once destroyed.
Having worshipped, with great austerities, the divine Ganges, for the uplifting of his
forefathers, Bhagîratha 1 brought her down from the world of Brahmâ.
In the three worlds is celebrated the purifying fame of the Ganges, who led to heaven the
sons of Sagara 2 who had been reduced to ashes.
Those men who die after committing sins attain the heaven-world by their bones falling
into the Ganges.
85-86. There was a certain hunter, a destroyer of all sorts of creatures who, killed by a
lion in a great forest, went to the place called hell.
When his bones were dropped into the Ganges by a crow he ascended the divine chariot
and went to the abode of the Shining Ones.
87. Hence the good son should himself drop the bones in the Ganges. After the bones are
collected he should perform the ten-days' ceremonies.
88-90. Now, if anybody meets his death in an uninhabited place, or in a wood, or from
dangerous thieves, and if his body is not found, then, on the day this is heard of--
Having made an effigy of darbha grass, one should burn it alone, as explained above, and
then collect its ashes and drop them into the water of the Ganges,
And from the same day the ten-days' ceremonies should be performed and that date
should be noted, for the performance of the annual Śrâddha.
91. If a woman dies in the fulness of pregnancy, her womb should be cut open, and the
child drawn out and placed on the ground, and she alone be burned.
92-93. If a child dies on the bank of the Ganges, it should simply be thrown into the
Ganges; if in another place, it should be buried in the ground, up to twenty-seven months
old.
Older than that it should be burned and its bones strewn on the Ganges. A gift of a waterpot
should be made, and food should be given to children.
94-98. If the embryo perishes, there are no rites. If an infant dies, one should give milk. if
a child dies, then one should offer a jar, milk-porridge and eatables.
If a youth dies, one should have young children fed. If a youth who has taken the vow
dies, one should have Brâhmiṇs, along with children, fed.
When one who has passed five years dies, whether vowed or not, one should offer ten
rice-balls, along with milk-food and lumps of sugar.
On the eleventh and twelfth days one should perform the ceremonies for a youth, but
without the rites of releasing a bull and of the great gift.
If the father is living, there is not joint rite for the youth, but on the twelfth day one
should perform the ceremony for him alone.
99. Marriage, with women and Śûdras, is declared to take the place of vows. Previous to
the taking of vows, with all the castes, rites are done according to age.
100. He who is little attached to action, who is little bound by sense-objects, and he who
is young in age of body, requires but scanty rites.
101. In boyhood and in youth the cot, the bull and other sacrifices should be performed;
and the gifts of land, the great gift and the gift of a cow should be made.
102-107. With all ascetics there is no burning, no water rites; and the ten-days'
ceremonies should not be performed for them by their sons.
A man, by the mere holding of the staff, becomes Nârâyaṇa 1; because of carrying the
three-fold staff they never go into the condition of the departed.
Those who know are always free, by realisation of their own true nature, hence they do
not expect rice-balls to be given.
Therefore rice-balls and water should not be offered to them, but one should perform the
annual Śrâddha at the sacred waters, and Śrâddha at Gayâ, with devotion to the
forefathers.
The Haṅsa, Paramahaṅsa, Kutîchaka, Bahûdaka; these are Sannyâsins, 2 O Târkṣya, and
when dead, they must be buried in the ground.
If the Ganges, or other, is not available, it is declared that they should be buried in the
ground. Where great rivers exist, they should be thrown into them.
Footnotes
83:1 A certain sacrifice.
84:1 His son's wife--the wife of the son performing the rite.
85:1 The fire-deva.
86:1 A certain astrological position; 5 days in each month.
86:2 The fifth Nakṣatra.
87:87-34
87:87-35
88:88-41
88:88-42
88:88-46
89:89-48
89:89-53
90:1 An opening at the top of the head.
90:2 The funeral pyre is lighted from the sacred household fire.
91:1 Of the bones.
92:1 A finger-ring of kusha grass, put on the third finger of right hand.
93:1 A great king who is said to have brought down the Ganges from heaven to earth.
93:2 There is a legend to the effect that the 80,000 sons of Sagara were reduced to ashes
by Viṣṇu, and that they, the ancestors of Bhrigu, were released and purified by him in the
Ganges.
96:1 Viṣṇu.
96:2 These names are given to advanced stages of human development.
CHAPTER XI.
An Account of the Ten-Days' Ceremonies.
1. Garuḍa said: Tell me, O Keśava, what good results follow from the performance of the
ten-days' rite, and who should perform it if there is no son.
2 The Blessed Lord said: Listen, O Târkṣya, and I will tell you about the ten-days'
ceremony; having done which, a good son is released from the hereditary debt.
3-8. The son, taking calm courage, should offer rice-balls to the father, refraining from
tears,
Because the departed has inevitably to drink the bitter tears let fall by his relatives, and
they should not weep when sorrow is useless.
Although there be sorrowing day and night for thousands of years, the man who is dead
may never be seen.
Death is certain for those who are born, and birth is certain for the dead. This is inevitable
and therefore a wise man should not grieve over it.
There is no way out, either human or divine; the being who has come under the sway of
death must be born again here.
If there were a way of averting the inevitable, then Nala, Râma and Yudiṣhṭhira would
not have experienced miseries.
9-11. Nobody should form an excessive attachment to anybody; the body is only a dream,
what then of other persons’?
As a traveller, resorting to some shady place, rests awhile and then departs again; so is
the coming together of beings.
The good things eaten in the morning are destroyed by evening; how can there be
permanence in a body which is sustained by these foods?
12-17. Having considered this, which removes misery, and given up sorrow arising from
ignorance, the son should perform the rites.
If there is no son the wife, should perform them, and if no wife the brother; or a
Brâhmiṇ's pupil or a proper kinsman should perform them.
The ten-days' ceremonies, for the man who has no son, should be performed by the sons
or grandsons of his younger or his elder brother, O Bird;
Manu declared that if, of brothers of the same father, only one has a son, they are all
considered, on account of that son, to have a son.
If a man has several wives, but only one of them has a son, all of them have a son, on
account of that son.
For all who have no sons a friend may offer the rice-balls. The rites must not be
neglected. If there is nobody else, the family priest may do them.
18. A man or a woman who performs the rites for a friend, by this sacrament for the
helpless departed, obtains the fruit of tens of millions of sacrifices.
19-21. The ten-days' ceremony for the father should be performed by the son, O Bird.
Even if the eldest son dies, the father should not, through excessive affection, perform it.
Although there be many sons, only one shall perform the ten-days' ceremony, the riceball
offerings, and the other sixteen Śrâddhas,--
Only by one these ceremonies, even if the wealth has been divided. But the annual
Śrâddha should be performed severally if the wealth has been divided.
22-24. Therefore should the eldest son perform with devotion the ten-days’ ceremony, 1
eating one meal, sleeping on the ground, devoted to Brâhmaṇ, 2 and pure.
The son obtains such fruit from the performance of the rite for the father and mother, as is
obtained by going round the shrines seven times.
The son who performs the rites for one year, beginning with the ten-days' ceremony,
obtains such fruit as is acquired by performing the Śrâddha at Gayâ.
25-30. Having gone to a well or a tank, in a garden, at a sacred bathing-place, or in a
temple, between nine and twelve noon, he should bathe without reciting mantras.
Being purified, seated facing southward at the root of a tree, he should make an altar 1
there, cleansed with cow-dung.
He should place on it, over leaves, a twice-born 2 made of darbha and kuśa grasses, and
having worshipped it with water for the feet and other things, should bow to it, saying the
"Atasî."
Then having spread kuśa grass in front of it, as a seat for the rice-ball, and having placed
upon it a ball prepared in the family-name of the departed,
Made of cooked rice or of barley meal,--the son should make the offering. He should
dedicate Usîra-root; sandal paste, the flowers of the Bhṛiṅgarâja, incense, a lamp,
eatables, mouth-perfumes and presents.
Crow-food, milk and water, and handfuls of castor-oil in a pot: "May all this, that has
been given by me to the departed in his earthly name, persist."
31-33. Food, cloths, water, wealth or other things, if given in the name of the departed,
confer eternity upon the dead.
Therefore, from the first day onwards, one should pronounce the name of the departed
woman or man, in accordance with the sapiṇḍa rite.
33. In the same way that on the first day a rice-ball is given as prescribed, so should the
nine rice-balls be given.
34-36. On the ninth day all the authorised kinsmen at the proper time should besmear
themselves with oil, wishing the dead to reach heaven.
Having bathed in the open, taking with them panic grass and parched grain, and having
the women go in front, they should proceed to the place of the dead,
And say: "May his family increase like the panic grass, and radiate like the parched
grain," and then leave in the house the mixed-panic grass and grain.
37-38. On the tenth day a ball of flesh should be given, O Lord of Birds, or a ball of
mâṣa, since flesh is forbidden in the Kali Yuga at the ceremony for the forefathers.
On the tenth day he should shave, as also should the other relatives. The son who
performs the ceremony must again have a complete shave.
39. During the ten days he should feed a twice-born with seasoned foods. Having
meditated upon Hari, he should, with hands together, pray for the release of the departed.
40. There is no reason for fear for those who bow to Govinda, the Eternal, clad in yellow
robes, as beautiful as the atasî flower.
41-42. "O Beginningless and Endless Deva, O Bearer of the conch, discus and mace,
Indestructible, Lotus-eyed, be Thou the giver of release to the departed."
Every day at the conclusion of the Śrâddha he should prayerfully repeat this incantation.
Having bathed, gone home, and given food to the cow, he may eat.
Footnotes
99:1 One each day. 99:2 Celibate. 100:1 A square flat mound a few inches high.
100:2 A rough image, symbolical of the deceased twice-born person.
CHAPTER XII.
An Account of the Eleventh-day Rite.
1. Garuḍa said: O Lord of the Holy Ones, tell me about the eleventh-day rite also, and, O
Ruler of the universe, explain the ceremony of the dedication of the bull.
2. The Blessed Lord said: In the early morning on the eleventh day one should go to a
water-reservoir, and perform diligently all the funeral ceremonies.
3. He should invite Brâhmiṇs, well-read in Vedas and Śâstras, and bowing their heads,
with hands folded together, pray for the release of the departed.
4. Even a preceptor should become purified by bathing, and performing the Sandhyâ and
other ceremonies 1; one should do the eleventh-day ceremony, as prescribed.
5. One should perform the tenth-day Śrâddha in the family name, without mantras; and
on the eleventh day, offer a rice-ball to the departed, with mantras.
6-10. One should make a golden image of Viṣṇu, a silver one of Brahmâ, a copper one of
Rudra, and an iron one of Yama, O Bird.
To the west there should be a pot filled with Ganges water for Viṣṇu; and upon it one
should place Viṣṇu, clad in yellow robes.
To the east there should be a pot of milk and water for Brahma; and there one should
place Brahmâ, clad in white robes.
To the north there should be a pot of honey and clarified butter for Rudra, and there one
should place Rudra, clad in red robes.
To the south there should be a pot of rain-water for Yama; and upon it one should place
Yama, clad in black robes.
11-13. The son, having made a circle in the middle, and placed therein kuśa-grass, facing
southward, with the sacred thread over the right shoulder 1, should make the wateroffering.
He should make water-offering, with Vaidic mantras, to Viṣṇu, to the creator 2, to Śiva
and to Justice, 3 perform the offering to the fire and then the eleventh-day Śrâddha,
And he should next make a gift of a cow for the helping along of his forefathers: "this
cow is given by me. May it please Thee, O Mâdhava."
12-15. His clothes, his ornaments, his conveyances,--these, which he has used,--a brass
vessel filled with clarified butter, the seven grains which he liked,
Sesamum and the rest, the eight great gifts: if one does not offer these in his last days,
they should be brought to his bedside and he should have them given.
16. Having washed the feet of a Brâhmiṇ he should honour him with cloths and other
things, and give him cooked food, sweetmeats, flour-cakes and milk.
17-.19. Then the son should place upon the bed a golden image, and having worshiped it,
give the bed as prescribed, for the sake of the dead.
"This bed is given by me to you, O Brâhmiṇ, for the sake of the departed, with the image
of the departed, and the other things."
With these words it should be given to a Brâhmiṇ preceptor who has a family; so going
round him he should salute him and present it.
20. By this gift of the bed, and Śrâddhas of the ninth and other days, and by the rite of the
dedication of a bull, the departed goes to the highest condition.
21-30. On the eleventh day the rite of the dedication of a bull should be performed as
prescribed. He should not use a cow which is crippled, ill or too young, but one having
well-marked characteristics.
That which has red eyes, a reddish colour, red horns, neck and hoofs, white belly and
black back is suitable for a Brâhmiṇ;
A glossy and red complexion is suitable for a Kṣattriya; yellow colour for a Vaiśya; black
is suitable for a Śûdra.
One with all limbs red-brown, with tail and feet white, is called a reddish bull, and
increases the satisfaction of the forefathers.
The bull whose face, legs and tail are white, and which is the colour of lac dye is called
dark.
That which has a red colour, with white face and tail, and brown hoofs and horns is called
dark-coloured.
That which has one colour over all its limbs and tail and hoofs is called dark-brown, and
is the uplifter of the ancestors.
That which is dove-coloured and has a tilaka-mark 1 on its forehead is called deep-brown,
and is entirely beautiful in all its limbs.
That which is dark over all its body, and red in its eyes, is called very dark--of which five
varieties are known.
This should by all means be dedicated, and should not be used for domestic purposes. It
exists in the world on this account,--so runs an ancient saying.
31-35. One should desire for many sons, of whom one perchance may go to Gayâ, or
marry a virgin Gaurî or dedicate a dark bull.
He alone should be considered a son who performs the dedication of a bull and the Gayâ
Śrâddha---who does not do so verily is like unto excrement.
Any one whose ancestors are tormented in Raurava and other hells helps them all out for
twenty-one generations by the dedication of a bull.
Even the forefathers who have gone to heaven desire the dedication of a bull: "which son
in our lineage will perform the dedication of a bull,
"By whose dedication, all of us will go to the highest condition? Among all sacrifices, the
bull-sacrifice is the certain giver of release to us."
36. Therefore, for the release of the forefathers, one should perform the bull-sacrifice. He
should do everything with diligence according to the prescribed rite.
37. Having cast the positions of the planets and worshipped them with their respective
mantras, the ailing man should make the fire-offering, according to the Śâstras, and
worship a bull.
38-42. Having brought together a young bull and cow, he should bind them together with
a marriage string in accordance with marriage rites, and then tether them to a post;
And should bathe the bull and young cow with the water from the pot of Rudra, and,
having worshipped them with fragrances and garlands, walk round them.
He should [mark] the right side with the trident of Śiva and the, left side with a discus.
Having released the bull, the son, with hands folded together, should recite this mantra:--
"Thou art Justice in the form of a bull. Thou wert formerly created by Brahma. On
account of your being released, help over this ocean of existence!"
Having thus bowed to it, with this mantra, he should release the bull and the young cow.
"I shall always be the grantor of boons to you, and will give release to the departed."
43. Therefore this should be done. Its fruit comes even during life. The man who has no
son, doing it himself, goes easily to the highest condition.
44-45. In the month of Kârtika 1 and in other auspicious months, when the sun is going
north, in the bright fortnight, or the dark on the twelfth and following days,
In the two eclipses, at a sacred bathing place, at the equinoctial and solstitial points, one
should perform the dedication of a bull.
46-49. At the hour when the sun enters an auspicious constellation, and in a pure place, a
Brâhmiṇ who knows the rites and has the auspicious signs should be invited.
By recitation, by fire-offerings, likewise by gifts, the purification of the body should be
done. As in the former case, all the rites should be done; such as the fire-offering and the
rest;
And having placed a Śâlagrâma one should do the Vaiṣṇava Śrâddha, and then perform
the Śrâddha for himself and give gifts to the twice-born.
He who does this, O Bird, whether having a son or not, by the performance of the
dedication of a bull obtains the fruit of all his desires.
50. That condition which is obtained by the performance of the release of a bull, is not
reached by oblations to the fire and other sacrifices, nor by manifold gifts.
51-53. The sins which are committed in infancy, in childhood, in youth, in manhood and
in old age are destroyed, without doubt, by the dedication of a bull.
The betrayer of friends, the ungrateful, the drinker of intoxicants, he who goes with his
teacher's wife, the slayer of a Brâhmiṇ, the stealer of gold are all absolved by the
dedication of a bull.
Therefore should one perform the bull sacrifice with all diligence, O Târkṣya; there is no
merit in all the three worlds equal to that from the dedication of a bull.
54. If a woman, having a husband and a son, predeceases both, the dedication of a bull
should not be performed,--one should present a milk-giving cow.
55-56. He who burdens a bull on the shoulder or on the back, falls into a dreadful hell, O
bird! until the coming of the deluge.
The man who cruelly strikes a bull with his fists or with sticks, suffers the torments of
Yama until the end of the age.
57-59. Having thus carried out the dedication of a bull, one should perform the sixteen
Śrâddhas. I will tell you what should be done prior to sapiṇḍîkaraṇa ceremony.
That at the place of death; at the threshold; half-way on the road; at the funeral pyre; in
the hand of the corpse; and at the collection of the bones;--these six, and the ten piṇḍas
given in the ten days:--
These first sixteen are called impure. And next I will tell you about the second, the
middle, sixteen:--
30-64. One should offer the first rice-ball to Viṣṇu, the second to the blessed Śiva; one
should present the third to the retinue of Yama.
The fourth to king Soma, the fifth to the bearer of oblations to the Shining Ones, 1 and the
sixth to the bearer of oblations to the forefather; the seventh one should present to Death;
The eighth one should give to Rudra, 1 the ninth to Puruṣa, 2 the tenth to the departed, and
the eleventh reverently to Viṣṇu;
The twelfth one should give to Brahmâ, the thirteenth to Viṣṇu, the fourteenth to Śiva,
the fifteenth to Yama;
The sixteenth rice-ball, O bird, one should give to Puruṣa: These are called the middle
sixteen by men who know the truth.
65-67, One should give rice-balls in each one of the twelve months, on the fortnight, the
third fortnight, before the six months, and also before the year,--
This is the last sixteen, I have declared to you. Having had food cooked, O Târkṣya.
The forty-eight Śrâddhas destroy the condition of the ghost-life. He for whom this series
is performed becomes a member of the assembly of the forefathers.
68-69. The three sixteens should be performed so that the departed may join the assembly
of the forefathers; if deprived of Śrâddhas the ghost remains as preta always.
If the performance of the three sixteens of Śrâddhas is not carried out, either by himself
or another, then he certainly does not join them.
70-72. Therefore the three sixteens should be performed by the son, as prescribed, or if
the wife does them for the husband there is uninterrupted prosperity.
She who does the funeral ceremonies on the death of her husband, and the annual and the
fortnightly is called by me, "the Faithful."
This faithful wife lives for the good of her husband: the life is fruitful of her who
worships her dead lord.
73-78. Also, for any one who, owing to carelessness, is killed by fire, or by water, one
should perform the sacrament and other rites as prescribed.
If he is killed through recklesness or wilfully, or by a serpent, then me should worship a
serpent on the fifth day of each fortnight.
One should form a picture of a hooded serpent upon the ground with ricepowder, and
worship with white sweet-smelling flowers and sandalpaste.
One should offer a serpent incenses and lights, much strew rice and sesamum, and should
dedicate 1 uncooked rice-flour, 2 eatables and milk.
One should offer a serpent made of gold, according to his means, and a cow, to a twiceborn.
Then one should, with hands together "may the King of Serpents be pleased;"
And should further perform for them the rite Nârâyaṇa-bali, by which they are absolved
of all sins and obtain residence in heaven,
79. Thus, having done all the rites, one should give every day a jar with food and water
until the end of the year, or rice-balls with water regularly.
80. Having done this on the eleventh day he should then offer the rice-balls for all the
ancestors, 1 and when free from pollution he should have made a gift of a bed and other
gifts.
Footnotes
103:1 For an account of these ceremonies, see the Daily Practice of the Hindus by Mr.
Sris Chandra Vasu, Panini Office, Allahabad.
104:1 It is usually worn ever the left shoulder under the right arm, for this ceremony, he
mast change it.
104:2 Brahmâ.
104:3 Dharma or Yama.
106:1 Orthodox Hindus place a mark on the forehead to show caste and other things.
108:1 Including the latter part of October and the first part of November.
110:1 That is Fire.
111:1 Śiva.
111:2 The primeval man; Viṣṇu.
112:1 The food is placed near the image, and passes of the hands are made as though a
influence it towards the image.
112:2 Made into a ball, usually with sugar and cocoanut.
113:1 This ceremony is performed on the twelfth day, as it were in anticipation of the
annual event. It is the ceremony for all the ancestors together.
CHAPTER XIII.
An Account of the Ceremony for all the Ancestors.
1. Garuḍa said: Tell pre, O Lord, about the method of [performing] the Sapiṇḍa rite. the
removal of pollution, and the gift of accessories.
2. The Blessed Lord said: Listen, O Târkṣya, and I will explain to you the entire Sapiṇḍa
rite, by which the condition of preta is left behind and the soul enters the class of the
pitṛis.
3-5. Those whose piṇḍas have not been mixed together with the ancestors called Śiva and
the rest, 1 are not uplifted by the various gifts made by the sons.
If the son is always impure, they are never purified; without the Sapiṇḍa rite the impurity
does not depart.
Therefore the Sapiṇḍa, at the end of the pollution period, should be performed by the son.
I will tell you about the ending of pollution to be observed by all.
6-9. A Brâhmiṇ becomes pure in ten days, a Kṣattriya in twelve days; a Vaiśya in fifteen
days, a Śûdra in a month.
The Sapiṇḍa relatives 1 are purified from the death pollution in ten days; the Sâkulya
relatives 2 in three nights, and the gotrajâs 3 are purified merely by bathing.
Those who are related within the fourth degree to the deceased are purified in ten nights,
those in the fifth degree, in six nights; the sixth, four days; the seventh, three days;
The eighth, a single day; the ninth, a quarter of a day; the tenth, merely till bathing;--so
long lasts the pollution of death and birth [according to the distance of degrees from the
deceased].
10-11. If a person dies in a foreign land and one hears of his death, then the impurity lasts
for the remaining portion of ten days on which he hears the news;
If after the lapse of ten days, he is polluted for three nights. If after a year, he becomes
pure even by bathing.
12. If a second pollution comes daring that from the first death, then the purification from
the first pollution includes that from the second.
13. If a boy who has not yet cut his teeth dies, purification is immediate; before tonsure,
one night, it is said; before the investiture with the thread, three nights; and afterwards,
ten nights.
14-16. If a girl dies between birth and tonsure, purification is immediate, in all the castes
alike; Up to betrothal a single day, and from that to old age three nights are authoritative;
If after the betrothal ceremony three days for both families, it should be understood; if
after marriage, only the husband's family.
17-18. If the embryo dies before sixth month; in as many days the embryo lived months,
purity is regained.
After this the women are polluted, according to the caste. If the embryo dies, purification
of the Sapiṇḍa relatives is immediate.
19. During the Kali Age--it is authoritatively declared in the Śâstras--ten days'
purification for all the castes, after births and deaths.
20-22. Blessing the worship of the Shining Ones, reception of guests, salutation, lying on
a bed, and touching others should not he done during the death pollution.
Sandhyâ prayers, giving, reciting, fire-offering, religious study, offering to the
forefathers, feeding of Brâhmiṇs and the observance of vows should not be done during
the death pollution.
He who during pollution performs the daily, the occasional and the specially desired
ceremonies--of him the regular and other ceremonies already done are lost.
23. For one observing vows, engaged in mantras or in fire-offerings, or a twice-born
intent upon Brâhmaṇ, an ascetic or a king there is verily no pollution.
24-26. Food prepared before marriage festivals and sacrifices, and before the pollution by
birth or death, can be eaten; so Manu declared.
Whoever, during pollution, accepts through ignorance, suffers no evil, but the giver even
though it be to a mendicant that he gives, suffers evil.
Whoever, hiding his pollution, gives food to a twice-born, and the Brâhmiṇ who knowing
it, accepts it,--are both subjected to suffering.
27. Therefore, for the purifying from pollution, one should perform the Sapiṇḍa
ceremony for the father, who then goes to the world of the forefathers to join the
multitudes of forefathers.
28-30. The truth-knowing sages hare declared that the Sapiṇḍa ceremony should be on
the twelfth day, the third fortnight, the sixth month or at the end of the year.
But I say, O Târkṣya, following the scriptural ordinances, that for the four castes the
Sapiṇḍa should be on the twelfth day.
The twelfth day is preferable because of the endless variety of conditions in the Kali Age,
and because of the shortened life of men, and the impermanence of the body.
31-33. If a Brâhmiṇ house-holder dies, then investiture with the sacred thread, the
fulfilment of vows, marriage and other ceremonies should not be done,
Until the Sapiṇḍa has been performed the mendicant should not accept alms; and guestofferings
should not be accepted. The daily and the occasional ceremonies should be
discontinued.
By the omission of rites sinfulness arises; therefore one should perform the Sapiṇḍa
ceremony on the twelfth day, whether he be without fire or with fire.
34. The fruit which accrues from visiting all the sacred bathing-places; the fruit which
accrues from performing all sacrifices: that fruit is obtained by doing the Sapiṇḍa
ceremony on the twelfth day.
35. Hence, having bathed, and having cleaned with cow-dung the place of death, the son
should perform the Sapiṇḍa ceremony, as laid down in the scriptures.
36-30. Then he should worship the world-deities with foot-water, oblations, 1 and
âchamana. 2 Next, having given rice-balls to other departed ones, he should sip water.
He should offer three rice-balls in order to his grandfather and others, in the forms of
Vasu, Rudra and Arka, and the fourth rice-ball to the dead.
He should worship with sandal-paste, leaves of the holy basil, incenses, lamps, agreeable
fools, mouth-scents, good cloths and presents.
Having divided the rice-ball for the departed into three parts with a thin bar of gold, he
should mix them severally with the three rice-balls given to the grand father and the
others.
40. It is my decision, O Târkṣya, that the Sapiṇḍa ought to be done; the mother's with the
grandmother's and the father's with the grandfather's.
41-43. If the father dies while the grandfather still lives, three rice balls should be offered
to the great grandfather and his predecessors.
The father's rice-ball, divided into three parts should be mixed with their rice-balls. If the
mother dies before the grandmother--
Then he should perform the mother's Śrâddha in the same way as the fathers; or should
mix the rice-ball with both mine and great Lakṣmî's.
44. The husband should perform the Sapiṇḍa ceremony for his, wife, if she has no son;
he should do the Sapiṇḍa for her along with the mother-in-law and others.
45. "The Sapiṇḍa rite for women should be done with that for the husband, his father and
grandfather"--that, O Târkṣya, is not my opinion; because the wife being already half the
body of her husband requires no Sapiṇḍa ceremony with regard to her husband.
46. If, O Kâśyapa! husband and wife ascend the same funeral pyre, then, having put
grasses between them, he should perform it with that of the mother-in-law and father-inlaw.
47. Only one son should perform the rites; first the offering of a rice-ball and other things
for the father, and after that, having bathed again, the rite for the mother.
49-51. Having done the Sapiṇḍa, O Târkṣya, he should make the offering of water to the
forefathers. He should utter "Let there be Swadhâ," along with Vaidic mantras.
Afterwards he should always have a guest fed until he says "hanta." 1 By this the
forefathers, the sages, the Shining Ones and the Dânavas are pleased.
As much as a mouthful is called "alms," four mouthfuls is "abundance," and four
abundances is called "hantakâra."
52-53. During the Sapiṇḍa he should worship the feet of a twice-born with sandal-paste
and coloured rice, and make to him a gift, for his continued satisfaction.
He should have maintenance for a year, clarified butter, food, gold, silver, a good cow, a
horse, an elephant, a chariot and a plot of ground given to a preceptor.
54. Then he should worship with mantras--after saying "Hail to thee"--the planets, Devi, 2
and Vinîyakam 3, with saffron, coloured rice and eatables.
55. The preceptor should then, with mantras, sprinkle water, and having bound a thread
upon the hand, should present the coloured rice also consecrated with mantras.
50-57. Then he should have Brâhmiṇs fed with various pleasant sweetened foods, and he
should give them presents, and twelve pots with water and food.
After the feeding of the twice-born, water, a weapon, scales, and a rod should be touched
severally by the castes, who are respectively thus purified.
58. The Sapiṇḍa ceremony having been thus performed, the cloths worn during the rite
should be cast off; and white cloths having been donned, the gift of a bed should he
made.
59-64. All the Devâs, 1 headed by Indra, extol the gift of a bed. Therefore a bed should be
given, during life or else after death.
Made of the choicest wood, delightful, painted in beautiful colours, strong, canopied with
silken cloth, ornamented with gold leaves,
Having beautiful pillows stuffed with swans' down, together with a coverlet made
fragrant with the scent of flowers,
Well-bound with bright bands, broad and pleasant: such a bed as this being made, it
should be placed on the ground covered with cloth.
An umbrella, a row of silver lamps, an oxtail fan, a seat, a vessel, a water-pot, a mirror,
and a canopy of five colours,
And all the other accompaniments of the bed he should place round it, in their proper
places.
65-66. On it he should have placed a golden Hari, together with Lakṣmî, with all the
ornaments, weapons and clothes.
And, in the case of women, having placed them on the bed, he should have the red dye,
saffron, clothes, ornaments, and all the other necessary things.
67-68. Then a Brâhmiṇ, with his wife adorned with fragrances and flowers, with ear and
finger ornaments and golden necklaces,
Wearing a turban and an upper cloth and jacket, should be seated by him on the
comfortable bed, in front of Lakṣmî and Nârâyaṇa.
69-71. He should worship Hari and Lakṣmî with saffron and flower-garlands, and adore
the Guardians of the World, the Planetary Spirits and Vinâyaka.
Facing north, and holding flowers in his palms, he should pronounce this mantra,
standing in front of the Brâhmiṇ:
"Just as, O Kṛiṣṇa, your bed is the ocean full of milk, may this likewise be not empty in
my future births."
72-74. Thus he should place the handsful of flowers before the Brâhmiṇ and the image of
Hari, and then the bed-gift with its accompaniments, according to the rite.
He should give it to him who observes vows, is a teacher, and tells about Brâhmiṇ, and
say, "O Brâhmiṇ, receive these. How seldom does any one so give!"
He should rock the twice-born and Lakṣmî and Hari, seated on the bed, and then, having
walked round and bowed, give them leave.
75. If he is rich he should give a very beautiful house, furnished with all the necessaries,
so that he may sleep happily on the bed,
76. If a living man makes with his own hand the gift of a bed, there should be performed,
while he is still living, on full moon day the dedication of a bull.
77. This bed should be given to one only, and never to several. Divided or sold it drags
down the giver.
78. Having given a bed to a deserving person, he may obtain the fruit of his desires. The
father, and the son giving it, rejoices here and hereafter.
79-80. At the celestial house of Indra, and at the abode of Yama, he will arrive without
doubt through the potency of the gift of a bed.
He will reside there free from trouble, seated in the best of chariots, waited upon by
numbers of celestial damsels, until the coming of the deluge.
81. The merit from all the sacred bathing places, and on all the days of the changes of the
moon: even superior to these is the merit arising from the gift of a bed.
82-86. Having this made the gift of a bed, the son should have Padadâna given. Listen to
my words, and I will tell you the method of it.
An umbrella, shoes, clothes, a signet ring, a water-pot, a seat, a set of five vessels--are
called the seven kinds of padas.
This pada becomes complete with a staff, a copper vessel, uncooked rice, foods,
valuables, and sacred threads.
Having, according to his means, obtained these thirteen padas he should give, them to
thirteen Brâhmiṇs on the twelfth day.
By this padadâna the righteous go to a good condition, and this padadâna gives
happiness to those who have gone on the way of Yama.
87-93. There is there intense heat, by which the man is scorched, but the gift of an
umbrella makes pleasant shade above his head;
And on the path in the world of Yama, full of great thorns, those who gave shoes go
riding horses.
The miseries of cold and heat and wind are dreadful there, O Bird, but by the power of
the gift of clothes he goes happily along the way.
The messengers of Yama, very terrible, fierce and brown-black, do not trouble on the
road him who made the gift of a signet ring.
It is enveloped in great heat, is windless and without water; through the gift of a water pot
he, when thirsty, drinks water.
Who, for the dead, gives a water-vessel made of copper, certainly enjoys the fruit which
is obtained by thousands of gifts of wells.
Through properly giving to a twice-born a seat and a vessel, leisurely going on the path
he comfortably enjoys his provisions,
94-95. Having thus given, on the day of the Sapiṇḍa ceremony, this gift, as prescribed, he
should have many Brâhmiṇs fed, also chaṇḍalâs and other outcasts.
Then, after the Sapinda and before the annual ceremony, a water-pot with rice-balls
should be given every month.
911. There is no re-doing of what is done excepting the rites for the departed, 1 O Bird;
but, for the sake of the departed it may be done again, as a means of unfading
satisfaction.
97-99. Now I shall tell you the rules concerning the monthly, the annual and the
fortnightly ceremonies, and of dying on lunar days.
If one dies at the full moon his rites fall on the fourth day. If one dies on the fourth day
his rites fall on the ninth.
If one dies on the ninth day, his day is the fourteenth. In these cases one should perform
the fortnightly Śrâddha on the twentieth day.
100-105. When in one month [Kṣayamâsa] two saṅkrântis occur, in the irregular month,
the month being double, the Śrâddha is not performed. 1
When there are two months in one month, of those two, the two fortnights and the thirty
days are the same [both must be performed.] For the first half day take the former [the
dark]; for the second half,
the latter. Thus are understood by the wise the two months which are in the irregular
month.
The Sapiṇḍa ceremony, O bird, should be done when there is no sankrânta; similarly the
monthly and the first annual Śrâddhas.
If there is an additional month in the middle of a year, then in the thirteenth month the
annual ceremony for the departed occurs.
When there is no sankrânta, rice-balls are not used; when there is sankrânta, rice-balls are
proper. Thus the annual Śrâddha should be done in both months.
106. Thus, at the end of the first year one should perform the annual Śrâddha, and in that,
in addition, the twice-born should be fed.
107-110. After a year one should always offer three rice-balls at the Śrâddha. The
ceremony for one only should not be done; by it one becomes the destroyer of his
forefathers.
The Śrâddha at a sacred bathing-place, the Śrâddha at Gaya, the Gajachchhâyam, for the
fathers--these he should not do during the year, nor at eclipses, nor on yuga days.
If the son performs the Śrâddha at Gayâ, O Lord of Birds, it should be done after a year,
with devotion to the forefathers.
The forefathers are freed from the ocean of existence by the Śrâddha at Gayâ and, by
favour of the Viṣṇu, they go to the supreme state.
111-113. He should worship the feet of Viṣṇu with the shoots of the holy basil, and in
proper order offer rice-balls round them.
He who offers, on the head of Gayâ, a rice-ball of the size of even a śamî leaf helps over
seven clans and one hundred and one fatuities.
He who, delighting the family, having gone to Gayâ, performs the Śrâddha and gives
satisfaction to the forefathers, his life is fruitful.
111-115. O Lord of birds, the forefathers hear a song sung by the Holy Ones in Kalâpa,
the garden of Ikṣvâku, the son of Manu:--
"Are there none in your family, treading the good path, who, having gone to Gayâ, will
offer us rice-balls, with devotion?"
116-119. The son who thus performs the rites for the other world, O Târkshya, is happy
and becomes liberated, like the son of Kauśika.
The seven sons of Bharadwâja, having experienced a series of births, were liberated by
the favour of the forefathers, O Târkshya, although they killed a cow.
The seven hunters in the country of Daśârṇas; the deer on the mountain of Kâlinjira; the
Chakravaka birds in Śaradvîpa: and the swans in the Mânasa lake
Were born as Brâhmiṇs learned in the Vedas, on the field of the Kurus, and all these sons
of the twice-born attained liberation through devotion to the forefathers.
120. Therefore a man should make every effort in devotion to the forefathers, for by
devotion to the forefathers he becomes happy either in this or the other world.
121. Thus I have told you, O Târkṣya, all the ceremonies, concerning the deceased,
giving merit to and satisfying the desires of the son, and giving liberation to the
forefathers.
122. Any man who is poor, but hears this account, even he, absolved from sins, obtains
the fruit of gifts.
123-126. He who performs, according to the rite, the Śrâddha offerings described by me,
and also hears the Garuḍa Purâṇa,--listen to the fruit for him:--
The father gives good sons; the grandfather, wealth of cows and his great-grandfather
becomes the giver of riches.
The great-great-grandfather gives foods in abundance: all these, gratified by the Śrâddha,
granting the son's desires,
Go on the way of righteousness to the mansion of the King of Justice, and there they
remain, highly respected, in the assembly of Righteousness.
127. Sûta said: Having heard the result of the after-death gifts and their mighty greatness,
thus declared by the Blessed Viṣṇu, Garuḍa went into raptures.
Footnotes
114:1 The grandfather, his father and grandfather are considered as corresponding to
Vasu, Rudra and Âditya. Rudra is Śiva.
115:1 Cousins up to the seventh, on the male line,--all males and unmarried females.
115:2 Cousins up to the fourteenth, on the male line,--all males and unmarried females.
115:3 Cousins up to the forty-second, on the male line,--all males and unmarried females.
118:1 Consisting of rice, darbha grass, and flowers, with water.
118:2 See "Daily Practice of the Hindus" for an account of âchamana.
120:120-48 .
120:1 A benediction which the recipient makes when he has had enough.
120:2 The consort of Śiva.
120:3 Gaṇeśa.
121:1 A high class of superhuman beings.
125:1 If other ceremonies have been badly done they may not be re-performed; but this
may.
126:1 "The ceremonies are performed according to the lunar months, but there are to be
only twelve of the monthly ones in a year. Astrological calculations are done with solar
months. Hence there is an intercalary month of 30 days every three years. The sankrânta
is a solar month, the passing of the sun through one zodiacal constellation. The difference
of solar and lunar months is about 11 days in the year; hence an additional irregular
month occurs once in 27 months. In this long month; the malamasa, or irregular portion,
is the first half, while the second half is regular. The kṣaya-mâsa is a name for a month
which occurs every 149th year, in which there is no sankrânti,--thus there are only 12
months in that year, not 13, although it is a year of intercalary month. In this case the
intercalary is added and (?) treated as such, but the regular mouth is dropped. It is
November, December, January or February which is thus dropped, but the intercalary is
always associated with one of the other eight. The month preceding month which is
dropped has its two fortnights taken as belonging to the regular and the dropped month
respectively. If a man dies in the second fortnight in this case the annual ceremony
belongs to the month which was dropped. lf, on the other hand, a main has died and his
month is dropped the preceding month is taken for the annual Śrâddha. If a man dies in
the adigmâsa, then his annual Śrâddha must be done in the dark half on the same day on
which he died; if his death occurred during the first half of the day, and on the same day
in the bright half if he died during the second half of the day.
CHAPTER XIV.
An Account of the City of the King of Justice.
1-2. Garuḍa said: what is the extent of the world of Yama? What is it like? By whom was
it made? What is the assembly like, and with whom does Justice reside?
The righteous go by righteous ways to the mansion of Justice; tell me about those
righteous ones and the ways, O Treasure-house of Compassion.
3-5. The Blessed Lord said: Listen, O Târkṣya, I will tell you about that shining city of
Justice, which is accessible to Nârada and others find is reached by the very meritorious.
Between the south and south-west is the city of the son of Vivaswata, all built of
diamonds, resplendent, impregnable by Holy Ones or Demons.
It is declared to be four-angled, with four gateways, surrounded by high ramparts and
measuring a thousand yojanas.
6-9. In that city is the very lovely dwelling of Chitragupta, which extends to the number
of twenty-five yojanas,
Surrounded with shining ramparts of iron, up to ten [yojanas] heights, with hundreds of
streets decorated with flags and banners,
Abounding in chariots, resounding with songs and music, decorated by skilful painters
and constructed by divine architects,
Beautiful with gardens and parks, and sounding with the songs of various birds; habited
in every part by celestial damsels and choristers.
10-15. Chitragupta, seated on his most wonderful throne in that assembly, considers the
lives of men individually.
He is never mistaken in distinguishing between good and evil deeds, or by whom good or
evil deeds have been done
And by order of Chitragupta he experiences all of them there. To the east of the abode of
Chitragupta is the great house of Fever.
To the south are those of Rheumatism and skin diseases, and smallpox likewise. To the
west are those of the Snare of Death, Dyspepsia, and Biliousness also.
To the north there is consumption and Jaundice likewise; to the north-west, Headache; to
the south-east, Syncope.
To the south-west, is Dysentery; to the north-west cold and heat--with these and other
diseases it is surrounded.
16-23. Chitragupta records the good and evil of men. Twenty yojanas before the abode of
Chitragupta,
In the middle of the city, is the very resplendent mansion of the king of justice. It is
shining with jewels, and splendid like lightning, flame and the sun.
It is certainly two hundred yojanas in extent, and measures fifty yojanas in height.
It is supported by thousands of pillars, decorated with emeralds, ornamented with gold,
and is full of palaces and mansions,
Pleasing to the mind with cupolas of the splendour of the autumnal sky; with beautiful
crystal stairways and walls beautified with diamonds,
And with windows of strings of pearls, decorated with flags and banners; rich with the
sounds of bells and drums; and embellished with golden fringes,
Filled with various wonders; with hundreds of golden doors; beautiful with trees, plants
and creepers without thorns.
With these and other embellishments decorated always--it was created by the architect of
the Universe by the power of his own Yoga.
24-28. In that there is a divine assembly place which is a thousand yojanas in extent,
splendid like the sun, full of light, and in every way satisfying; 1
With no extreme heat and no extreme cold; most ravishing to the mind with no sorrows
and no old age there, and no trouble of hunger and thirst.
All there are in a condition of happiness, whether they be human or divine; the eatables
are tasteful and plentiful, and enjoyable in every way.
The water, both hot and cold, are sweet; the sounds and other things there are pleasant;
and trees always bear the fruit desired.
That assembly, O Târkṣya, has no bondage, is enchanting, is a fulfiller of desires, and
was created by the Architect of the Universe by doing tapas 2 for a long time.
29-30. Those who have done great tapas, are of good vows, truth-speaking, tranquil,
renouncing, accomplished, and purified by good actions go there.
All there have bodies of light, and are adorned with shining garments, and remain there
ornamented with their own meritorious actions.
31-33. There the Lord of Justice, on a throne pure and incomparable, ten yojanas in
extent, bedecked with all kinds of jewels--
Sits, the Best of the Good, his head dignified with the regal umbrella, ornamented with
ear-rings, prosperous, made splendid with a large crown.
Adorned with all ornaments, splendid as a blue cloud, and fanned by celestial damsels
bearing in their hands fans of hair.
34-40. Multitudes of celestial choristers and numerous groups of celestial damsels, round
about, serve him with songs, music and dances.
He is waited up by Mṛityu 1 with a noose in his hand, by kâla 1 still more powerful, and
by Chitragupta, the recorder of fate,
Surrounded by various servants equal to him in prowess, bearing awful nooses and rods,
ready to do his bidding,
Who are the Agniṣvâttha, Pitṛis, 2 the Somapâs and the Uṣmapâs, the powerful Barhiṣads
formed and formless, O Bird,
Aryamâs and others, hosts of progenitors, and others having forms,--all these wait upon
the King of Justice, with the sages:
Atri, Vaśiṣṭha, Pulaha, Dakṣa, Kraturatha, Aṅgiras, Jâmadagnya, and also Bhṛigu,
Pulastya, Agastya, Nârada,--
These, and many others in the assembly of the King of Progenitors, impossible to
enumerate, either by their names or their deeds.
41-45. Those who expound with accurate commentaries, the Dharmaśâstras, 1 serve the
King of Justice by order of Parameṣṭhin. 2
The kings of the Solar Race, also of the Lunar Race,--these knowers of righteousness wait
upon the King of Justice in the assembly.
Manu, Dilîpa, Mândhâtâ, Sagara, Bhagîratha, Ambarîṣa, Anaraṇya, Muchakunda, Nimi,
and Pṛithu,
Yayâti, Nahuṣa, Puru; Duṣmanta, Śibi, Nala, Bharata, Śântaṇu, Pâṇdu, and also
Sahasrârjuna,--
These royal sages, meritorious, famous, well-read in the Vedas, having performed many
horse sacrifices, are in the assembly of Righteousness.
46-47. Righteousness alone prevails in the assembly of the King of Justice. There is there
no favouritism, no untruthfulness, and no jealousy.
All those assembled are knowers of the scriptures; all are devoted to righteousness; and in
that assembly they continually wait upon Vaivasvata 3
48-49. Such, O Târkṣya, is the assembly of the great-souled King of Justice. The sinners,
who go by the southern path, do not behold it.
There are four ways leading into the city of the King of Justice: The way for the sinful
has already been described to you.
50. Those who go into the mansion of righteousness by the three gateways, eastern and
others, are those of good deeds. By their merits they go into it. Hear about them:--
51-55. There is an eastern way, abounding in all enjoyments, covered with the shade of
Pârijâta trees, and paved with jewels,
Busy with numerous chariots; splendidly lined with swans, bounded by trees and
pleasure-gardens, having the essence of nectar.
By that go the holy Brâhmiṇ-sages, the stainless royal sages, and multitudes of celestial
damsels, choristers, magicians and great serpents,
And worshippers of the deities, and the devotees of Śiva, those who give rest-houses in
the summer, and who give fuel in winter,
Those who shelter ascetics 1 in their houses during the rains, and make them gifts; those
who speak consolation to the mentally distressed, and certainly those who give a
hermitage,
And those who delight in truth and righteousness; those free from anger and greed; those
devoted to father and mother, those taking pleasure in the service of their Teacher.
Those who make gifts of land, of houses, of cows; those who impart learning; those who
tell and listen to the Purâṇas;--are travellers on the path--
These, and others of good deeds, enter by the eastern gate. Skilful in goodness, and of
purified intelligence, they go to the Assembly of Righteousness.
59-61. The second, the northern way, is filled with hundreds of great chariots and with
palanquins, and is paved with yellow sandal-wood;
It is full of swans and water-fowl, and beautiful with Brâhmany ducks, and there is there
a delightful tank full of the essence of nectar.
On this way go those who are learned in the Vedas, also those who honour guests, those
who are worshippers of Dûrgâ 1 and Bhanu, 2 and those who bathe at the sacred waters at
the changes of the moon,
Those who die in the pursuit of righteousness, and those who die of vow of starvation,
those who die in Benares, those who die in the protection of cattle, those who are
accidentally drowned in the sacred waters;
Those who die for the sake of Brâhmiṇs, in the service of the master, at the sacred waters
and on holy ground, by the will of the Shining Ones; those who die in the practice of
Yoga;
Those who always honour the deserving, and those who delight in making great gifts,--
these, entering by the northern gate, reach the Assembly of Righteousness.
65-73. The third, the western way, is beautified with jewelled mansions, and splendid
with ponds, always filled with the essence of nectar,
Is filled with maddened elephants sprung of the family of Airâvata 1 and with jewels of
horses sprung from Uchchaiḥśravâ. 2
By this way go the self-reliant, those who contemplate the good scriptures, those entirely
devoted to Viṣṇu, those who repeat the Gâyatrî-mantra,
Those who turn away from injury to others, from the wealth of others, and from calumny;
those faithful to their wives; the good; those who maintain household fires; those who
repeat the Vedas;
Observers of the vow of celibacy; forest dwellers; the austere; devotees of the feet of Śrî;
those intent upon renunciation; those who look equally upon gold, stone and earth;
Those who have attained knowledge and dispassion; those intent upon the welfare of all
beings; those who keep vows to Śiva and Viṣṇu; those who perform the rites of Brahmâ,
Those who are rid of the three-fold debt; those who always take pleasure in the five
sacrifices; those who perform Śrâddha for the forefathers; those who perform the
Sandhyâ at the proper times;
Those who abstain from the company of the wicked, devoted to the society of the good;--
these, accompanied by numbers of celestial damsels, ascend the best of chariots.
They drink nectar, and go to the mansion of righteousness, and entering by the western
gate, go to the Assembly of Righteousness.
74-76. Yama, seeing them come, rising and coming forward, repeatedly bids them
welcome.
Then, assuming his four arms, holding his conch, discus, mace and sword, he speaks and
acts in a hind and friendly way to those who delight in meritorious deeds.
He offers them the throne, and bows to them; washes their feet, and then honours them
with sandal-paste and other things.
77-81. "O’ You Assembled! Salute with deepest reverence the knower. He, departing
from my dominion, will go to the world of Brahmâ.
"O, Best of the Wise, who avoid the pains of hell; you have by your merits attained
divinity, the state of happiness.
"He who, attaining the human state, difficult to reach, never acts wisely, he goes to a
dreadful hell. Who is more foolish than he?
"He who, in the impermanent body, amid perishable wealth and other things, stores up
unchanging righteousness, he alone is a wise man. "Therefore should righteousness be
accumulated, with every effort.
Go you to the holy place which abounds in all enjoyments."
82-85. They, having heard the words of Justice, and having saluted him and the assembly,
and being honoured by the immortals and extolled by the leaders of the sages,
Go along the highest path, accompanied by multitudes of chariots; then those in that
assembly of righteousness rise up with great respect
Having spent there 1 some ages, and enjoyed superhuman pleasures, they obtain, as a
result of their merits, holy human birth,
Wealthy and wise, expert in all the scriptures. Then again they go to the highest condition
by their own good conduct.
86. All this about the abode of Yama has been told you upon your asking. The man who
hears this with devotion goes to the assembly of the King of Justice.
Footnotes
133:1 Taking any form desired.
133:2 Meditation with an effort to produce physical effects.
134:1 Forms of Death.
134:2 A class of progenitors.
135:1 Scriptures teaching the duties of life.
135:2 Brâhmaṇ.
135:3 Yama, the son of Visvasvat.
136:1 Those who have renounced the world.
137:1 The consort of Śiva.
137:2 The Sun.
138:1 The divine elephant.
138:2 The divine horse.
140:1 That is in Heaven world.
CHAPTER XV.
An Account of the Coming to Birth of People who have done Good.
1-2. Garuḍa said: The righteous man having enjoyed heaven, is born in a stainless family.
Now tell me how he is produced in the womb of the mother.
I wish to hear what, in this body, the man of good deeds thinks. Tell me, O Treasurehouse
of Compassion!
3-4. The Blessed. Lord said: You have asked well, O Târkṣya. I will tell you that supreme
secret, even by knowing which one becomes all-knowing.
I will tell you the real nature of that body which possesses the attributes of the universal
Egg,--the object of concentration of Yogins.
5-6. Hear how the Yogins perform the meditation upon the six chakras 1 within it, and
likewise meditation upon the nature of Chit and Ânanda in the Brahmarandhra,
And how he of good deeds is born in the house of the pure and prosperous. I will tell you
also about the rites and observances of the parents.
7-10. After menstruation the women should be avoided for four days. Their face should
not be seen during that time, lest sin should arise in the body.
Having bathed, and washed her clothes, a woman becomes pure on the fourth day. From
the seventh day she becomes fit to perform the rites of worship to the forefathers and the
Shining Ones.
During the seven days the embryo continues impure. Here the sons gradually enter during
the eighth day.
Sons are born on even nights, daughters on odd. Keeping away from, her during the first
seven days, on even nights he enters.
11-12. Sixteen nights are declared to be common for women. 1 On the fourteenth night
the seed remains there certainly.
Then is produced the righteous son, a store of auspicious qualities. That night is never
obtained by vulgar people.
13. On the firth. day women should eat sweet foods. Pungent, acid, astringent and hot
things should be entirely avoided.
14-18. The husband, like a husbandman, having sown the seed of great potentiality in the
field which is productive of grain, reaps a good harvest.
The man, having chewed betel, 1 put on flowers and sandal-paste, and clean clothes, and
with righteous thoughts in his mind, should unite with his good wife.
According to the thoughts in his mind at the time of union will be the nature of the one
who enters the womb.
The intelligence joined with the seed remains always in the sperm, When desire, thought
and sperm become united,
Then the man obtains semen, and in the interior of the womb the formation of ovum takes
place, by the union of sperm and germ [cells]
19. The good son who enters the womb is the giver of the highest bliss. For him there are
numerous rites, such as the Punsavana. 2
20-23. The meritorious soul obtains birth in a high family. At the time of his birth
Brâhmiṇs receive much wealth.
He grows up in his parents' house, endowed with learning and modesty, becoming skilful
in all the sciences, by association with the wise.
In his youth he is divinely handsome, wealthy and benevolent, arising as the result of
great merit, austerities, and pilgrimages to sacred waters, formerly done.
Then he constantly strives to discriminate between the self and the not-self. By
adhyâropa 1 and apavâda 2 he meditates upon Brâhmaṇ.
24. For the understanding of the dissociation of Brâhmaṇ from that with which he is
associated, I will tell you the attributes of earth and the others, which are of the genus
"Not-self."
25-30. Earth, water, fire, air and ether--these are called the stable elements. This body is
made up of the five elements.
Skin, bones, nerves, hair and flesh,--these are the five attributes of earth, O Lord of birds,
declared to you by me.
Saliva, urine, sperm, marrow, and blood, the fifth,--are said to be the five attributes of
water. Now hear those of fire:--
Hunger, thirst, sloth, sleep and sexual desire--are called the five attributes of fire by
Yogins everywhere, O Târkṣya.
Bending, running, jumping, stretching and moving,--these are declared the five attributes
of air.
Speech, thought, vacuity, delusion and mental instability--the five attributes of ether, may
be understood by you with effort.
31. Mind, reason, individualisation, analysis--these four are called the Internal Means,
and have the flavour of past karma.
32. Ears, skin, eyes, tongue and nose are the sense organs. The organs of speech, hands,
feet, the organs of generation and of excretion are the organs of action.
33. Dik, Vâta, Arka, Prachetas, the two Aśvins, Vahni, Indra, Upeudra, Mitra, are
declared to be the duties of the organs of sense and action,
34-35. Iḍâ, 1 Pingalâ, 2 Suṣumnâ, 3 thirdly, and also Gândhârî, 4 Gajajihva, 5 Pûṣâ, 6
Yaśasvinî, 7
Alambuṣa, 8 and Kuhû, 9 and Saṅkhinî, 10 the tenth as well--are situated in the interior of
the body, and are the ten principal Naḍîs. 11
36-39. Prâṇa, Apâna, Samâna, Udâna, and Vyâna also,--Nâga, Kûrma, Kṛikala,
Devadatta and Dhanañjaya 12:--
In the heart, Prâṇa; in the anus, Apâna; in the navel, Samâna; in the region of the throat,
Udâna; and distributed all over the body, Vyâna:
Vomiting is called Nâga; opening and shutting the eyes is known as Kûrma; the cause of
hunger is to be known as Kṛikala; Yawning, Devadatta;
Dhanañjaya, all-pervading, does not leave even the corpse, and carries all over the body
the nourishment which is obtained by eating mouthfuls of food.
40-43. The air called Vyâna carries the essential part in all the Nâḍîs. Food, as soon as
eaten, is split into two by that air.
Having entered near the anus it separates the solid and liquid portions, placing the water
over the fire, and the solid over the water,
The Prâna standing under the fire, inflames it slowly. The fire, inflamed by the air,
separates the substance from the waste.
The Vyâna air makes the essence go all over, and the waste, forced through the twelve
gateways, is ejected from the body.
44. Ears, eyes, nostrils, tongue, teeth, navel, nails, anus, generative organs, head, trunk,
hair--are called unclean places.
45. Thus the airs, having derived their power from the self, perform their own functions,
affecting people, just as does the rising of the sun.
46. Now hear, O Bird, the two-fold nature of the body of man. One is Vyâvahârika, and
the second Pâramârthika.
47-52. On the Vyâvahârika there are thirty-five millions of hairs of the body, seven
hundred thousands of hairs of the head, it is said, and twenty nails;
There are said to be thirty-two teeth usually, O son of Vinatâ; the flesh is said to be one
thousand palâs 1 and blood one hundred palâs;
Fat is ten palâs; skin is seven palâs, marrow is twelve palâs; the "great blood" is three
palas;
Seed is known to be two kuḍavas; ovum one kuḍava; and bones in the body are said to be
three hundred and sixty;
The nâḍîs, both dense and subtle, number tens of million; bile is fifty palâs; phlegm is
half of that;
The waste materials are not measurable, as they are constantly changing. The body which
possesses these attributes is Vyâvahârika. 2
53. All the worlds, mountains, continents, oceans, suns and planets are in the
Pâramârthika 3 body.
54. In the Pâramârthika body, there are six chakras in which are said to be located the
attributes of the egg of Brahmâ.
55. I will tell you about these, which are the objects of meditation of Yogins. By
pondering upon them one becomes the enjoyer of the nature of Vairâja. 4
56-59. Below the feet is called Atala; above the feet, Vitala; at the knees know it as
Sutala; at the thighs Mahâtala;
At the hips, Talâtala; at the secret part Rasâtala; at the loins Pâtâla; these are declared to
be the seven worlds:
Bhûloka, at the middle of the navel; above it the Bhuvarloka; in the heart, Svarloka; at the
throat it should be known as Maharloka;
Janaloka, in the region of the mouth; Tapolaka, at the forehead; Satyaloka in the
Brahmarandhra--these are the fourteen worlds.
60-61. Meru is situated in the triangle 1; Mandara is in the inverted triangle; Kailâśa is in
the right triangle; Himâchala, in the left triangle.
Niṣada is in the upper lines Gandhamâdana in the lines on the right; Ramaṇa in the lines
on the left;--the seven great mountains.
62-65. Jambu is in the place of the bones; Sâka is situated in the marrow; the Kuśa
continent is situated in the flesh; the Krauncha continent in the nerves;
The Śâlmalî continent is in the skin; Gomeda, in the mass of hair; Puṣkara, in the place of
the nails;--and next the oceans:
In the urine the Kṣâra ocean; the Kṣîra ocean in the milk; the Sura ocean is situated in the
phlegm; in the marrow, the Ghṛita ocean;
The Rasa ocean in the juices; the Dadhi ocean is known to be in the ova; the Swâdu
ocean in the region of the soft palate; you should know son of Vinatâ.
66-68. The sun is situated in the Nâda chakra; the moon is in the Bindu chakra; Mars is
situated, it should be known, in the eyes; Mercury is in the heart, it is declared;
Jupiter is in the Viṣṇu-sthâna, it should be known; Venus is situated in the seed; Saturn is
in the navel; Râhu, in the face, it is declared;
Ketu is situated in the lungs;--in the body is the circle of the planets. In all these forms
one should meditate on his own body.
69-71. Always at dawn, sitting steadily cross-legged, one should meditate upon the six
chakras, in the order of the Ajapâ. 1
The Gâyatrî called Ajapâ is the giver of liberation to the sages; by merely thinking upon
it one is released from all sin.
Listen, O Târkṣya, and I will explain the best method of Ajapâ, by doing which the
individual always gives up his separateness.
72-73. Mûlâdhâra, Swâdhishthâna, Maṇipûraka, Anâhatam, Viśuddhi and also Âjñâ,--are
spoken of as the six chakras.
One should meditate in order upon the chakras, at the root of the generative organ; in the
region of the pelvis; in the navel; in the heart; in the throat; between the eyebrows; at the
top of the head.
74-75. The mûlâdhâra is four-petalled and resplendent, with letters from va to sa; the
Svâdhiṣṭhâna resembles the sun, is six-petalled, and has the letters from ba to la; the
Maṇipûraka is red in colour and has ten petals, from da to pha; the Anâhata is twelvepetalled,
from ka to tḥa, and is golden-coloured;
The viśuddhi lotus is sixteen-petalled, with the vowels, and has the light of the moon; the
Mâtra 1 lotus is two-petalled, has the letters ha and kṣa, and is red in colour; the one at the
top of the head is the most resplendent, this lotus has a thousand petals, and is the seat of
truth and bliss, ever auspicious, light-possessing and eternal.
76. One should meditate, in order, in the chakras, on Gaṇeṣa, on Vidhi, 2 on Viṣhṇu, on
Śiva, on Jîva, on Guru, and on Parambrahmaṇ, all-pervading.
17-80. It is said by the wise that the subtle movements of the breath in one day and night
number twenty-one thousand six hundred.
It goes out with the sound of "ha," and enters again with the sound of "sa." The individual
is, indeed, always repeating the mantra. "Haṁsa, haṁsa,"--
Six hundred for Gaṇeśa; six thousand for Vedhas 1; six thousand for Hari 2; six thousand
for Hara. 3
A thousand for the Jîvâtman; a thousand for Guru; a thousand or the Chidâtman;--thus
one should understand the respective numbers of the repetitions.
81-82. Aruṇa and other sages, who know the succession of Teachers, meditate upon the
deities presiding over the chakras, who are rays of Brahmaṇ.
The sages, Śuka and ethers, teach it to their pupils; therefore a wise man, after meditating
upon the path of the Great Ones, should always meditate thus.
83. Having worshipped mentally in all the chakras, with unwavering mind, he should
repeat the Ajapâ-gâyatrî according to the instructions of the Teacher.
84-88. He should meditate in the Ranḍhra, with the thousand-petalled lotus inverted,
upon the Blessed Teacher within the Haṁsa, whose lotus-hand frees from fear.
He should regard his body as being washed in the flow of nectar from His feet. Having
worshipped in the five-fold way he should prostrate, singing His praise.
Then he should meditate on the Kuṇḍalinî, as moving upwards and downwards, as
making a tour of the six chakras, placed in three-and-a-half coils.
Then he should meditate on the place called Suṣumnâ, which goes out of the Randhra;
thereby he goes to the highest state of Viṣṇu.
Then he should always meditate, between four o'clock and sunrise, on my form, selfillumined,
eternal and ever-blissful.
89. He should bring his mind to a state of steadiness, not by efforts alone, but under the
instruction of a teacher, without whom he falls.
90. Having done the inward-sacrifice he should perform the outward-sacrifice. Having
done the purificatory ablution, and the Sandhyâ, he should worship Hari and Hara.
91-94. For those who are attached to the body facing-inward 1 does not come about. For
then devotion is easier, and that gives liberation.
Tapas, and Yoga, and others, are also ways to liberation, but for those who are attached to
the world of change the path by devotion to me is far superior.
This is the conclusion of the all-knowing Brahma and others, after having conned the
Vedas and the Śâstras for three periods.
Sacrifices and other righteous duties purify the mind. The devotion to me has a form of
fruit from which the obtainer never falls away.
95. The good man who follows this, O Târkṣya, by the union due to devotion to me, goes
to eternal liberation.
Footnotes
141:1 Certain centres in the etheric and higher bodies, which revolves like wheels when
set in motion by meditation; hence the name chakra.
142:1 Sixteen are favourable, but the fourteenth of them is best, if some other cause doer
not render it inauspicious.
143:1 To augment the virile power.
143:2 A rite performed when living conception is observed.
144:1 False ascription, and ...
144:2 refutation, two sorts of arguments.
145:1 The left hand nâḍî.
145:2 The right hand one.
145:3 The central one.
145:4 This goes to the left eye.
145:5 This goes to the right eye.
145:6 This goes to the right ear.
145:7 This goes to the left ear.
145:8 This goes to the mouth.
145:9 This goes to the liṅgam.
145:10 This gees to the mûla.
145:11 An inner nerve, channel for the vital breath.
145:12 Various forms of the vital breath.
147:1 Pala is a little more than an ounce (6/5 oz.)
147:2 Individual and common physical body.
147:3 Universal and spiritual body.
147:4 Viraj means "to shine."
148:1 The triangle in the triangle. Meru is the sacred mountain or pakk.
149:1 The saying of "Haṁsa."
150:1 That is, the Âjñâ.
150:2 Brahmâ.
151:1 Brahmâ.
151:2 Viṣṇu.
151:3 Śiva.
152:1 Their meditation is unsuccessful, because they are thinking of outer things.
CHAPTER XVI.
An Account of the Law for Liberation.
1-4. Garuḍa said: I have heard from you, O Ocean of compassion, about the
transmigrating of the individual, through ignorance, in the worlds of change. I now wish
to hear about the means for eternal liberation.
O Lord, O Ruler of the Shining Ones, compassionate to those who seek refuge,--in this
terrible world of change, in the unsubstantial, in all deep miseries,
The endless multitudes of individuals, placed in various kinds of bodies, are born and die-
-of them no end is known.
Always miserable in this world, no one is ever known to be happy. O Lord of Liberation,
tell me by what means they may obtain release, O Lord.
5-7. The Blessed Lord said: Listen, O Târkṣya, and I will explain to you what you have
asked, even by the hearing of which a man is released from the world of change.
There is a Shining One, Śiva, who has the nature of Supreme Brâhmaṇ, who is partless,
all-knowing, all-doing, Lord of all, stainless and secondless,
Self-illumined, beginningless and endless, beyond the Beyond, without attributes, Being
and Knowing and Bliss. That which is considered the individual is from a part of Him.
8-10 These, like sparks of a fire, with beginningless ignorance, separated and encased in
bodies by beginningless karma,
Are fettered by forms of good and evil, giving happiness and misery,--with nationality of
body, length of life, and fortune born of karma.
In every life obtained. They have also, O Bird, a higher and more subtle body, the liṅga,
lasting until liberation.
11-13. The unmoving things, worms, goats, birds, animals, men, the righteous, the thirtythree
deities, and also the liberated, according to their order,
Having worn and cast aside the four sorts of bodies thousands of times, one becomes a
man by good deeds, and if he becomes a knower 1 he attains liberation.
The embodied, in the eighty-four hundred thousands of bodies before attaining human
birth, can obtain no knowledge of the truth.
14-16. Through millions of myriads of thousands of births some time a being obtains
human birth, through the accumulation of merit.
He who, having obtained a human body, difficult to get, and a step to liberation, does not
help himself over,--who in this world is more sinful than he?
The man who, having obtained this highest birth and superior senses, does not understand
what benefits the soul is a slayer of Brâhmaṇ.
17-19. Without a body, nobody obtains the object of human life; therefore should he
guard his body as wealth and perform meritorious deeds.
He should always guard his body, which is the means to everything. Living, he should
make every effort to protect it, in view of welfare.
A village again, a field again, wealth again, a house again, good and evil actions again--
the body never again. 1
20-21. The wise always adopt means for the preservation of the body; even those
afflicted with diseases such as leprosy do not wish to give it up.
It should be guarded for the sake of duty; duty for the sake of knowledge; knowledge for
the sake of Yoga-meditation,--then he is soon released.
22-23. If he does not guard himself against harm who else will? Therefore should he look
after his own benefit.
He who does not take precautions against the diseases of hell while here; afflicted with
disease and having gone to a country where there is no medicine, what will he do?
24-25. Old age comes on like a tigress; life goes like water from a broken pot; diseases
attack like foes. Therefore should he strive for the best.
So long as misery does not come, so long as calamity does not befall, so long as the
senses are not decayed, so long should he strive for the best.
26-32. So long as the body lasts, so long should truth be pursued,--the stupid man digs his
well when the corner of his house is already afire.
The time of death is not known by those who are variously embodied in the world of
change. Alas! a man, between happiness and misery, does not know his own benefit.
Though seeing those just born, the afflicted, the dead, those whom calamity has befallen,
and the miserable, people are never afraid, having drunk the liquor of delusion.
Riches are like unto a dream; youth is like a flower, life is fickle as lightning,--where is
there a discerning one who is at ease?
Even a hundred years of life is very little, and half of it is sleep and idleness, and even
that little is unfruitful owing to the miseries of childhood, disease and old age.
He does not do what ought to be done; when he should be awake he sleeps; where he
should fear he confides. Alas! what man is not stricken.
How shall the individual who has taken a body, which is like foam on water and is
attached to passing objects, be free from fear?
33-35. He who does not know what is good for him thinks the harmful beneficial, the
impermanent permanent, and the evil good;
Though seeing, he falters; though hearing, he does not understand; though reading, he
does not know; bewildered by the divine magic.
This universe is immersed in the boundless ocean of death,--though grasped by the
crocodiles of death, disease and old age, he does not understand.
36-38. Time, though wearing away with every moment, is unnoticed, just as an unbaked
pot placed in water disappears imperceptibly.
Air may be enclosed, ether may be split; waves may be bound,--life cannot be made
permanent.
Earth is burnt away by time; even Meru is reduced to powder; the water of the ocean is
dried away--what shall be said of the body?
39-41. The wolf of death forcibly slays the lamb of a mortal, who prates of "my
offspring; my wife; my wealth; my relatives."
"This has been done; this is to be done; this other is done or not done." Him who is thus
prating death overpowers.
"It must be done to-morrow; it must be done to-day; in the morning or in the afternoon,"-
-death does not consider whether it leas been done or not done.
42. Thou shalt encounter the enemy, death, whose, coming is shown by age, who has an
army of dreadful diseases--wilt thou not see the saviour?
43-44. Death preys upon the man afflicted with the needles of thirst, bitten by the serpent
of sense-objects, and baked in the fire of desire and repulsion.
Death attacks children, young men, the old, those in the embryo condition,--such is this
world of creatures.
45-48. This individual, leaving his own body, goes to the abode of Yama. What is the
good of association with wife, mother, father, son and others?
The world of change is verily the root of misery. He who is in it is afflicted with misery.
He who abandons it becomes happy,--otherwise never.
This world of change, which is the source of all misery, the seat of all calamities, and the
refuge of all sins, should be abandoned at once.
A man bound in fetters of iron or wood may be released, but from the fetters of son and
wife can never be freed.
49-51. So long as the being makes attachments pleasant to the mind, so long shall the
dagger of sorrow pierce his heart.
People are destroyed every day by the desire for great wealth. Alas! Fie upon the foods of
the senses, which steal away the senses of the body.
Just as the fish, covetous of flesh, does not see the iron hook, so the embodied, covetous
of pleasure, does not see the torments of Yama.
52-55. Those men who do not understand what is good and what is not good for them,
who constantly pursue evil courses, and are intent on the filling of the belly, are destined
for hell, O Bird.
Sleep, sexual pleasure, and eating are common to all creatures. Who possesses
knowledge is called a man, who is devoid of it is called a beast.
Foolish men are tormented at break of day by nature's calls; when the sun is in the
meridian by hunger and thirst; in the night by passion and sleep.
All those beings who are attached to their bodies, wealth, wife and other things, are born
and die deluded by ignorance, alas!
56-57. Therefore should attachment be shunned always, It is not possible to give up
everything. therefore should friendship with the great be cultivated, as a remedy for
attachment.
Attachment to the good, discrimination, and purity of the eyes--the man who has not
these is blind. How shall he not tread evil ways?
58. All those deluded men who turn away from the duties of their respective castes and
orders, and do not understand the highest righteousness, perish fruitlessly.
59-60. Some are intent upon ceremonies, attached to the practice of vows; with self
enveloped in ignorance the imposters go about.
The men who are attached to the ceremonial alone are satisfied with mere names, deluded
by the repetitions of mantras, oblations and other things, and by elaborate rituals.
61-62. The fools, bewildered by My magic, desire to obtain the invisible by single meals,
fasts and other restraints, and by the emaciation of the body.
Of those who have no discrimination, what liberation can there be by bodily tortures
alone? What great serpent is killed by beating the anthill alone? 1
63. The hypocrites, putting on appearances, and wearing quantities of matted hair, and
using antelope skins, wander about like knowers, and even delude people.
64. He who is attached to the pleasures of the worlds of change, saying "I am a knower of
Brâhmaṇ," and is devoid of both rites and Brâhmaṇ should be shunned like a low
outcaste.
65-69. Donkeys walk about among people, in forests and among houses, quite naked and
unashamed. Are these free from attachment?
If men are to be liberated by earth, ashes and dust, does the dog which always live among
earth and ashes become liberated?
The jackals, rats, deer and others, which feed upon grass, leaves and water, and always
live in forests,--do these become ascetics?
The crocodiles, fishes and others, which from birth to death, dwell in the waters of
Ganges,--do these become Yogins?
Pigeons at times eat stones, and Châtaka birds do not drink water from the earth,--are
these observers of vows?
70. Therefore this class of practices is a thing which makes pleasure for people, O Lord
of Birds,--direct knowledge of the Truth is the cause of liberation.
71-73. Fallen into the great well of the six philosophies, 1 O Bird, the brutes do not
understand the chief good; bound in the snare of animalism.
They are tossed hither and thither in the dreadful ocean of Vedas and Śâstras; caught in
the six waves they remain sophists.
He who knows the Vedas, the Śâstras and the Purâṇas, but does not know the chief
good,--of that imitator all this is as the speech of a crow.
71-76. "This is known; this must be known,"--thus bewildered by anxiety they read the
scriptures day and night, turning away from the highest truth.
The fools, decorated with garlands of poetry constructed of forms of speech, miserable
with anxiety, remain with senses bewildered.
76-77. Men trouble themselves variously, but the highest truth is otherwise; they explain
in different ways but the best purport of the Śâstras is otherwise.
They talk of the highest experiences, not realising them themselves. Some have ceased
preaching, being engrossed in egotism.
78-82. They repeat the Vedas and the Śâstras, and argue with one another, but they do not
understand the highest truth,--like the spoon the flavour of the food.
The head bears flowers, the nostril knows the smell. They read the Vedas and the Śâstras,
but find impossible the understanding of the truth.
The fool, not knowing that the truth is seated in himself, is bewildered by the Śâstras,--a
foolish goatherd, with the young goat under his arm, peers into the well.
Verbal knowledge cannot destroy the illusions of the world of change,--darkness never
disappears by talking of a lamp.
Reading, to a man devoid of wisdom, is like a mirror to the blind; hence, for those who
have understanding, Śâstras are only a potter to the knowledge of the truth.
83-84. "'This is known; this must be known,"--he wishes to hear everything. If one lives
for a thousand celestial years he cannot reach the end of the Śâstras.
The Śâstras are numerous; life is brief; and there are tens of millions of obstacles;
therefore the essence should be understood,--like the swan taking the milk in the water.
85-86. Haring practised the Vedas and the Śâstras, and having known the Truth, the wise
man should abandon all the scriptures; just as one rich in grains abandons the straw.
Just as there is no use for food to one who is satisfied with nectar, so is there not use for
the scriptures, O Târkṣya, to the knower of the Truth.
87-88. There is no liberation by the study of the Vedas, nor by the reading of the Śâstras.
Emancipation is by knowledge alone, not otherwise, O son of Vinatâ.
The stages of life are not the cause of liberation, nor are the philosophies, nor are
actions,---knowledge only is the cause.
89-90. The word from the Teacher gives liberation; all learning is masquerade. Among
thousands of woods the Sañjîvana 1 is best.
The non-dual, verily declared auspicious, is beyond efforts of action, and to be obtained
by the word of the Teacher, not by the study of tens of millions of texts.
91. Knowledge is said to be of two kinds: study and discrimination. The study is of Śabda
Brâhmaṇ; Para Brahmaṇ is reached by discrimination.
92. Some prefer the Non-dual 2; other prefer the Dual 3 but they do not understand the
One Reality, beyond the Dual and Non-dual.
93-94. Two phrases make for bondage and liberation: "Mine" and "Not-mine." The being
saying "Mine" is bound; saying "Not-mine" is released.
That is the karma that does not bind, that the knowledge that gives release; other karma is
worrying, other knowledge is skilful chiselling.
95-97. So long as actions are performed; so long as the impressions of the world of
change remain, so long as the senses are fickle; so long how can there be realisation of
Truth?
So long as there is pride of body; so long as there is the sense of "mineness," so long as
there is excited striving; so long as there is imagination of plans;
So long as there is not stability of mind; so long as there is no meditation upon the
Śâstras, so long as there is no love for the Teacher; so long how can there be realisation
of Truth?
98-99. So long as one does not reach Truth, so long should he do austerities, vows,
pilgrimage to sacred waters, recitations, oblations, worship and reading of the prescribed
texts of the Vedas and Śâstras.
Therefore, if one desires liberation for himself, O Târkṣya, he should every effort,
always, and under all circumstances he attached to Truth.
100. One who is tormented by the three miseries and the rest, should resort to the shade
of the tree of Liberation, whose flowers are righteousness and knowledge, and fruits are
heaven and liberation.
101. Therefore from the mouth of the Blessed Teacher the Truth of the self should be
known. By knowledge the being is easily released from the awful bondage of the worlds
of change.
102. Listen! I will tell you now about the final actions of the knower of the Truth, by
which he obtains liberation, which is called the Nirvâṇa of Brâhmaṇ.
103-107. His last days approaching, the man, rid of fear, should cut off, with the sword of
unattachment, the desires connected with the body.
Courageously wandering from home, performing ablutions in the water of the holy
bathing places, sitting alone on a pure seat prepared as prescribed,
He should practise mentally upon the supreme three-fold pure Word of Brahmâ. He
should, with breath controlled, restrain his mind, not forgetting the Brahma Bîja. 1
With reason for charioteer he should withdraw the senses from the sense-objects by the
mind, and should fix his mind, drawn away by karmas, with understanding, upon the
pure.
"1 am Brâhmaṇ, the Supreme Abode; I am Brâhmaṇ, the Highest Goal,"--having realised
this and placed the self in the self he should meditate.
108. He who, when leaving the body, utters the one-syllabled Brâhmaṇ, "Oṁ,"
remembering me, goes to the Highest Goal.
109-110. The hypocrites, devoid of knowledge and unattachment, do not go there. I will
tell you about the wise, who go to that goal.
Free from pride and delusion, with the evils of attachment conquered, always dwelling in
the Higher Self, with desires overcome, released from the contracts known as pleasure
and pain, they go, undeluded, on that eternal path.
111-114. He who bathes in the water of the Mânasa, 1 which removes the impurities of
attraction and repulsion, in the lake of knowledge, in the waters of Truth,--he verily
attains liberation.
He who, firm in non-attachment, worships me, thinking of no other, full-visioned, with
tranquil self,--he verily attains liberation.
He who, expecting to die, leaning his home, dwells at a sacred bathing-place, or dies in a
place of liberation, he verily attains liberation.
Ayodhyâ, 2 Mathurâ, 3 Gayâ, 4 Kaśî, 5 Kañchi, 6 Avantikâ, 7 Dwârâvatî, 8--these seven
cities should be known as the givers of liberation.
115. This eternal way of liberal in al has been described to you, O Târkṣya,--hearing it
with knowledge and dispassion one attains liberation.
116. Knowers of Truth attain liberation; righteous men go to heaven; sinners go to an evil
condition; birds and others transmigrate.
117. Thus in sixteen chapters I have related to you the extracted essence of all the
scriptures. What else do you wish to hear?
118-120. Sûta said: Having thus heard, O King, these words from the mouth of the Lord,
Garuḍa, repeatedly prostrating himself, said this, with hands folded together:--
"O Lord, O God of Gods, having heard these words of nectar I have been helped over the
ocean of existence, O Lord, O. Protector!
"I stand freed from doubts. My desires have been completely fulfilled." Having said this,
Garuḍa became silent and lost in meditation.
121. May Hari, the remembrance of whom removes evil, who gives the condition of
happiness for the sacrifice of worship, and who gives liberation for supreme devotion to
Him,--protect us.
Footnotes
155:1 That is, One who knows the Self.
156:1 Meaning that one may re-obtain these things after losing them--but not the body.
161:1 There is supposed to be a serpent living in the ground beneath the ant-hill.
162:1 Nyâya, Vaiśeṣika, Sâṅkhya, Yoga, Mîmânsâ, Vedânta.
165:1 The plant brought by Hanumat to restore Lakṣman when killed by Indrajit.
165:2 Adwaita philosophy. Eternal inseparateness and non-duality.
165:3 Dwaita. Separateness of the individual and universal self.
167:1 Bîja is a seed; a mantra governing a work such as an Upaniṣad Oṁ.
168:1 A holy lake in the Himâlayas, also a mystical place.
168:2 Perhaps Oudh.
168:3 Muttra.
168:4 Gayâ.
168:5 Benares.
168:6 Conjeeveram.
168:7 Ujjain.
168:8 Dwârakâ.
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