Garudapurana 1.85

The glorious Garuḍa Purāṇa [Chapter] 85. / Brahmā said: / Having bathed at the Pretaśilā and other spots, one should offer a funeral ball with [the water of] the Varuṇā, which is nectar, / reciting these mantras and invoking the highest ancestors:

“Those who have died in our family and have no destiny, / all those I shall invoke onto the darbha grass with water mixed with sesamum.

Those who have died in the paternal lineage and those who have died in the maternal lineage, / for their deliverance, I offer this funeral ball.

Those in the maternal grandfather’s family who have no destiny, / for their deliverance, I offer this funeral ball.

Those whose teeth had not yet grown, and those who perished in the womb, / for their deliverance, I offer this funeral ball.

Whatever kinsmen lack name and lineage, / in one’s own lineage or in another’s lineage, who have no destiny, / for their deliverance, I offer this funeral ball.

Those who died by hanging, and those who were slain by poison or weapons, / and those who committed suicide—to them I offer a funeral ball.

Those who died in conflagration, and those who were slain by lions or tigers, / or by fanged or horned beasts—to them I offer a funeral ball.

Those who were cremated, and others who were not cremated, / and those who were killed by lightning or thieves—to them I offer a funeral ball.

Those who have gone to Raurava, Andhatāmisra, and Kālasūtra, / for their deliverance, I offer this funeral ball.

Those who have gone to the dreadful Asipatravana and to Kumbhīpāka, / for their deliverance, I offer this funeral ball.

For others in places of torment dwelling in the realm of the dead, / for their deliverance, I offer this funeral ball.

Those who have entered the womb of animals—birds, insects, reptiles— / or who exist in the womb of trees—to them I offer a funeral ball.

Those who are situated in countless torments, led by the decrees of Yama, / for their deliverance, I offer this funeral ball.

Those wandering through thousands of other births through their own karma, / for whom human birth is difficult to attain—to them I offer a funeral ball.

Those who are kinsmen or not kinsmen, or who were kinsmen in another birth, / may they all attain perpetual satisfaction through the offering of the funeral ball.

Whatever ancestors of mine exist in the form of a ghost, / may they all attain perpetual satisfaction through the offering of the funeral ball.

Those who were born in my father’s family and likewise in the family of my mother, / and other deceased kinsmen of teachers, in-laws, and relatives;

those in my family who were deprived of funeral balls, destitute of sons and wives, / those ruined by omission of rites, those blind from birth, and the lame;

the deformed and miscarried fetuses, known and unknown in my family— / may the funeral ball offered by me to them remain imperishable.

May the gods, Brahmā, Īśāna, and the rest, be my witnesses: / having reached Gayā, liberation of the ancestors has been performed by me.

I have come to Gayā, O God, for the ancestral rite, O Mace-bearer! / Therefore, be my witness today: I am free from the three debts.”

The Mahānadī, Brahmasaras, the imperishable banyan tree, Prabhāsa, Udyanta, Gayāśiras, / Sarasvatī, the Dharma river, and Dhenupṛṣṭha—these are reached in the sacred field at Gayā.

Thus ends the eighty-fifth chapter, named ‘The Glory of Gayā’, in the Conduct Section of the first part in the first section of the glorious and great Garuḍa Purāṇa.