Garudapurana 1.52

The glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa — 52
Brahmā said: / Next, O twice-born ones, I shall declare the rule of expiation. / The slayer of a brāhmaṇa, the drinker of liquor, the thief, and the violator of the Guru's bed —

these are the major sinners, and he who associates with them is the fifth. / The gods have proclaimed minor sins to be cow-killing and the like.

A slayer of a brāhmaṇa should live in the forest for twelve years after building a hut; / or he should practice starvation, or fall from a precipice;

or he may enter a blazing fire, or plunge into water himself; / or he may properly surrender his life for the sake of a brāhmaṇa or a cow.

And by giving food to a learned man, he expels the sin of slaying a brāhmaṇa. / Or, having bathed at the final ablution of a horse sacrifice, a twice-born is freed;

or he should give all his possessions to a brāhmaṇa who knows the Veda. / At the world-renowned confluence of the river Sarasvatī,

purified, having bathed thrice daily and fasted for three nights, a twice-born is freed. / Having bathed at the Setubandha, a man is freed from the slaying of a brāhmaṇa.

Having bathed likewise at Kapālamocana in Vārāṇasī, [he is freed]. / A drinker of liquor, however, a best among twice-born, having drunk fire-colored liquor,

or milk, clarified butter, or cow's urine, is freed from that sin. / A stealer of gold is freed when struck by kings with an iron club.

Wearing rags, a twice-born man should perform in the forest the observance for slaying a Brahmin. / A Brahmin who, deluded by lust, has mounted the wife of his guru

should embrace a heated, glowing [image of] a woman made of black iron. / And those who have approached the wife of their guru should perform the observance for a Brahmin-slayer.

Or he should perform five, or again four, cāndrāyaṇa penances. / But whichever twice-born man forms a connection with a fallen person

should perform the observance of that very person to remove that sin, / or, alert, he should perform the taptakṛcchra penance for a year.

Giving away all one's possessions according to rule purifies all sins; / and a cāndrāyaṇa penance performed according to rule, and also an atikṛcchra penance,

and going to holy places such as Gayā destroys sin. / Reaching the new-moon day, whoever worships Bhava

and feeds Brahmins is freed from all sins. / Having fasted on the fourteenth day of the dark fortnight, concentrated in mind,

to Yama, to Dharmarāja, to Death, and to Antaka, / to Vaivasvata, to Kāla, and to the Destroyer of all beings,

one should offer seven handfuls of water accompanied by sesame seeds to each. / Having bathed in a river in the forenoon, one is freed from all sins.

Celibacy, sleeping on the ground, fasting, worshiping twice-born men— / during these observances, calm, with controlled mind, one should perform [these].

Having fasted on the sixth day of the bright fortnight, concentrated in mind, / one should worship the Sun on the seventh day; one is freed from all sins.

Fasting on the eleventh day, having fully worshiped Janārdana / on the twelfth day of the bright fortnight, one is freed from the great sins.

Austerity, recitation, visiting holy places, worshiping gods and Brahmins / at times such as eclipses destroy great sins.

A person who, though endowed with all sins, / gives up life according to rule at holy places is freed from all sins.

A woman who enters the fire along with [her husband] uplifts her husband, / whether he is a slayer of a Brahmin, ungrateful, or corrupted by great sins.

For a devoted wife who is eager to serve her husband, / no sin exists in this world or in the next.

Likewise, the fortunate Sītā, famed in the three worlds, / the queen-wife of Rāma, son of Daśaratha, conquered the lord of the rākṣasas.

One who has bathed at Phalgu tīrtha and others obtains the fruit of all good conduct. / Thus the Blessed Viṣṇu spoke to me formerly, O you of restrained observances!

Thus ends the fifty-second chapter, named 'The Description of Atonements,' in the Ācārakāṇḍa of the first section called the Pūrvakhaṇḍa of the glorious and great Garuḍa Purāṇa.