Agnipurana 38

English (machine translation) 38

Language: English

38.7 — 4 parts
38.19 — 3 parts
38.30 — 3 parts
38.41 — 4 parts
38.50 — 6 parts

38.1

Agni said: / I shall explain the fruit and further [benefits] in the construction of an abode for Vāsudeva and other deities. / Even desiring to build a divine dwelling and the like destroys sins of a thousand births.

38.2

For those who build an abode in thought, sins of a hundred births are destroyed. / Men who rejoice in a house being built for Kṛṣṇa,

38.3

they too, released from sins, go to the world of Acyuta. / Having caused a house of Hari to be built, a man quickly leads

38.4

ten thousand past and future families to the world of Viṣṇu. / Seeing a temple of Kṛṣṇa made by the builder, the ancestors,

38.5

adorned and freed from the torments of hell, dwell in the world of Viṣṇu. / A temple of the deity destroys a flood of sins such as the slaying of a brahmin.

38.6

The fruit which is not obtained through sacrifices is obtained by making a dwelling [for God]. / When an abode for God is built, one obtains the fruit of bathing at all sacred fords.

38.7

Whatever fruit and benefits belong to those slain in battle for the sake of the gods and the like, / an abode built even in deceit or with dust bestows heaven.

38.7.p1

[Footnote]

38.7.p2

[Footnote 1: "gṛhādikam" is the reading in the two manuscripts Ga and Gha.]

38.7.p3

[Footnote 2: "nandanti" is the reading in the two manuscripts Kha and Ga; "valganti" is the reading in manuscript Ña.]

38.7.p4

[Footnote 3: "hṛṣṭāḥ" is the reading in the two manuscripts Kha and Ga.]

38.8

One who builds a single temple goes to heaven; one who builds three houses attains the world of Brahmā; / one who builds five houses attains the world of Śambhu; through eight houses there is residence in Hari.

38.9

One who makes sixteen temples, however, attains worldly enjoyment and liberation. / Having caused a house of Hari to be built—small, medium, or superior—

38.10

he attains, in order, heaven, the world of Viṣṇu, and liberation. / Whatever a wealthy man would obtain by making a superior temple of Viṣṇu,

38.11

a man without wealth obtains that same religious merit merely with the smallest [shrine]. / Having acquired wealth by work, even with a little, a temple of the gods [may be built].

38.12

Having caused [a temple] of Hari to be made, he attains great and supreme merit. / With a hundred thousand, a thousand, a hundred, or with half of that, for Hari

38.13

one who causes an abode to be made goes where the Garuḍa-bannered [Lord] resides. / Those who in childhood, playing with dust, make an abode of Hari,

38.14

of Vāsudeva, they too go to his realm. / At a sacred ford, in a sacred shrine, in a sacred field, and likewise in the eighth,

38.15

the builder of a temple of Viṣṇu obtains three times the fruit stated [elsewhere]. / Those who smear the abode of Viṣṇu with arrangements of bandhūka flowers,

38.16

and with whitewash plaster, go to the city of the Lord. / A man who restores Hari's abode that has fallen,

38.17

or is falling, or has half fallen, obtains double the fruit. / The one who rebuilds what has fallen and protects what has fallen

38.18

of Viṣṇu's temple, that man partakes of Viṣṇu's realm. / As long as the pile of bricks remains in the temple of Hari,

38.19

its builder is indeed honored along with his family in Viṣṇu's realm.

38.19.p1

[Footnote]

38.19.p2

1. "ṣoḍaśāgārakārī tu" is the reading in manuscript ga.

38.19.p3

2. "svalpenaiva" is the reading in manuscript kha. / [Page 110]

38.19_2

He alone is meritorious and worthy of worship in this world and in the next.

38.20

He who causes a shrine of Kṛṣṇa Vāsudeva to be made / is born a performer of good deeds; his family is purified by him alone.

38.21

The builder of a house of Viṣṇu, Rudra, the Sun, the Goddess, and others partakes of renown. / What is the use of his stores of wealth guarded by that fool,

38.22

acquired with hardship, who does not cause a shrine of Kṛṣṇa to be made? / One whose wealth cannot be enjoyed by ancestors, Brahmins, and gods,

38.23

nor for the enjoyment of relatives—his acquisition of wealth is futile. / Just as death is certain for mortals, so the destruction of wealth is certain.

38.24

A fool clings to life and to wealth, though it is unsteady. / When wealth is neither for giving nor for enjoyment by embodied beings,

38.25

nor for fame, nor for righteousness—then what virtue is there in ownership of it? / Therefore, having obtained wealth, whether through destiny or through human effort,

38.26

one should give it properly to the foremost twice-born and cause monuments to be built. / Because it is greater than gifts and superior to monuments,

38.27

therefore a wise man should cause a temple and so forth of Viṣṇu and others to be built. / When Hari's abode is established by the best of men endowed with devotion,

38.28

the entire triple world with its mobile and immobile beings would be established— / past, present, and future, gross, subtle, and other,

38.29

all arising from Viṣṇu, from Brahmā down to a clump of grass. / For that god of gods, all-pervading and great-souled,

38.30

having established an abode of Viṣṇu, one is not born on earth again. / As is the fruit in building an abode of Viṣṇu, so it is for the gods,

38.30.p1

[Footnote]

38.30.p2

1. "tathaiva ca" is the reading in manuscript ga.

38.30.p3

2. "sarveśasya" is the reading in manuscript kha. / [Page 111]

38.31

whose essence is Śiva, Brahmā, the Sun, the Lord of Obstacles, Caṇḍī, Lakṣmī, and others. / The merit from making an image is greater than [that from] making an abode for a deity;

38.32

in the consecration and ritual worship of an image, there is no end to the fruit. / Merit from a wooden [image] is greater than from an earthen one; greater in one made of brick than in a wooden one;

38.33

greater fruit would be from a stone one than from a brick one; and greater from gold and the like. / Sin committed across seven births is destroyed from the very beginning [of construction].

38.34

[The builder] of a deity's temple goes to heaven; he does not go to hell. / Having lifted up a hundred ancestral lines, a man leads them to Viṣṇu's realm.

38.35

Yama spoke to Yama's soldiers regarding the makers of a deity's temple. / Yama said: / "Men who perform image worship and the like are not to be brought to hell;

38.36

those who do not build deities' temples and the like are to be brought within your range. / Spread out according to rule; let my order be maintained.

38.37

Living beings will never disobey your command, / except only those who have taken refuge in the eternal Father of the universe.

38.38

They must be avoided by you; they have no dwelling here. / And in this world, those who are devoted to the Lord, their minds fixed on him, dedicated to him,

38.39

who always worship Viṣṇu—they are to be abandoned far away by you. / Whoever standing, sleeping, walking, rising, stumbling, or stationary

38.40

praises Govinda—they are to be abandoned far away by you. / Those who worship the god Janārdana through obligatory and occasional rites

38.41

are not to be looked upon by you; absorbed in him, they attain his state.

38.41.p1

[Footnote]

38.41.p2

1. "āneyāstvaviśeṣata" is the reading in manuscript ga.

38.41.p3

2. "niyamo me 'nupālyatām" is the reading in manuscript kha.

38.41.p4

3. "jantavaḥ kvacid" is the reading in manuscript kha. / [Page 112]

38.41_2

Those who, with flowers, incense, garments, and very dear ornaments,

38.42

worship—those men who have entered Kṛṣṇa's temple are not to be seized. / Those who perform plastering and who are devoted to sweeping

38.43

in Kṛṣṇa's temple are to be spared, and so are their sons and their family. / And by whom Viṣṇu's temple was caused to be made, born in his family

38.44

a hundred men must not be looked upon by you with evil intent. / He who causes a deity's temple of Viṣṇu to be made of wood or stone,

38.45

or even of clay, is freed from all sins. / What great fruit belongs to one sacrificing with sacrifice day by day,

38.46

that fruit he attains who causes Viṣṇu's shrine to be made. / A hundred future ancestral lines and likewise a hundred past ones,

38.47

he, causing the Lord's abode to be made, leads to the realm of Acyuta. / Viṣṇu consists of the seven worlds; he who makes a house for him

38.48

delivers imperishable worlds and attains imperishable [worlds]. / As many years as the arrangement of the brick structure remains,

38.49

for that many thousands of years is its builder's stay in heaven. / The maker of an image goes to Viṣṇu's realm; the installer is dissolved into Hari; / but the one who performs the consecration of a deity's house and image is in [our] purview."

38.50

Agni said: / Directed by Yama, they did not bring those who performed consecration and other rites of Hari. / Hayaśīrṣa explained to Brahmā the procedure for consecration of the gods.

38.50.p1

Thus ends the thirty-eighth chapter, named "Description of the Glorification of Temples of the Gods and Other Matters," in the venerable first Great Purāṇa of Agni.