Garudapurana 1.221

The glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa — 221 / Brahmā said: / I shall speak the essence of dharma in brief; listen, O Śaṅkara! / It bestows worldly enjoyment and liberation, is subtle, and destroys all sins.

Learning, dharma, strength, firmness, happiness, and zeal— / grief surely takes these away from men; therefore, one should abandon grief.

Wives are from karma, worlds are from karma, relations and kinsmen are from karma; / in this world actions impel a person toward happiness and sorrow.

Giving is the supreme dharma; through giving everything is attained. / Through giving come both heaven and kingship; therefore a man should make gifts.

On the one side, they say, is giving accompanied by complete and excellent gifts; / on the other side is the protection of the life of a creature terrified by fear.

Through ascetic heat, celibate studenthood, sacrifices, or again bathing— / those who destroy dharma surely go to hell.

And those who are devoted to fire-offerings, silent recitation, bathing, and worshipping the deities, / endowed with truth, forbearance, and compassion—those men go to heaven.

There is no giver of happiness and sorrow, nor is there any taker-away; / they experience only their own deeds, both sorrows and joys.

Those whose life is for the sake of dharma cross over difficulties. / Who that is contented cannot subsist on fruits and roots?

Everyone indeed plunges into difficulties for the sake of pleasure; / this indeed must be the extremely arduous work of greed.

From greed arises anger; from greed hostility proceeds; / from greed come delusion, deceit, arrogance, and envy.

Free from passion, hatred, falsehood, anger, greed, delusion, and pride, / he who is peaceful, rid of sin, goes to the supreme world.

Deities, sages, nāgas, gandharvas, and guhyakas, O Hara, / honor the righteous person in this world, not one who is rich in wealth nor one who is lustful.

Whether through infinite strength and valor, through intellect, or through human effort, / a mortal receives what cannot be obtained—what lamentation can there be in that?

Compassion toward all living beings, restraint of all the senses, / and constant awareness of the impermanence of all things—this is considered the highest good.

A man who does not practice dharma even while seeing death before him— / his birth is useless, like the fleshy teat on the neck of a goat.

The killer of an embryo, the killer of a brāhmaṇa, the killer of a cow, the killer of a father, and he who defiles the guru's bed / are released from sins by donating land endowed with all good qualities.

There is no gift higher than the gift of a cow: this is my conviction. / A cow that is given having been acquired by righteous means redeems an entire family.

There is no gift higher than the gift of food, O Bull-bannered [Śiva]! / By food is maintained all this moving and unmoving world.

The giving of a maiden in marriage, the release of a bull, pilgrimage to sacred places, and likewise Vedic learning, / gifts of elephants, horses, and chariots, jewels, gems, and tracts of land—

all these are not worth a sixteenth part of the gift of food. / From food come the life-breaths, strength, and vitality; and from food come vigor, fortitude, and memory.

One should cause wells, stepwells, tanks, and the like to be made, and also pleasure-gardens; / having uplifted three times seven generations of one's family, one is honored in the world of Viṣṇu.

The sight of virtuous men is meritorious, surpassing even a sacred ford; / a sacred ford bears fruit in time, [but] association with virtuous men bears fruit immediately.

Truthfulness, self-restraint, ascetic heat, purification, contentment, patience, straightforwardness, / spiritual knowledge, tranquility, compassion, and charity: this is the eternal dharma.

Thus ends the two hundred and twenty-first chapter, named 'The Discourse on the Essence of Dharma', in the Ācārakāṇḍa of the first section entitled Pūrvakhaṇḍa of the glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa.