Garudapurana 2.27

Tārkṣya said: / How do the pretas dwell there? What kind of forms do they have? / And as great pretas and piśācas, by what fruits of actions [do they become so], O Lord? / Out of compassion for all, tell me, O Madhusūdana!

By what gift and by what auspicious deed one is freed from being a preta, / tell me that, O Lord of gods, if you desire my good.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa said: / You have asked well, O Tārkṣya, for the benefit of humankind; / be attentive and hear what I say regarding the characteristics of a preta.

For this is the most secret of secrets, not to be told to just anyone; / but because you are my devotee, O mighty-armed one, I tell it to you.

Long ago, in the Tretā age, my dear, there was a king named Babhruvāhana / in the delightful city of Mahodaya, devoted to dharma and endowed with great strength.

A sacrificer, a master of giving, glorious, friendly to brahmins, esteemed by the virtuous, / endowed with good character, conduct, and virtues, possessing compassion and generosity,

the mighty one always protected his subjects like sons; / constantly devoted to the dharma of the kṣatriya, that king punished those deserving punishment.

Once, that mighty-armed king went hunting with his army / and entered a dense forest filled with various trees,

frequented by hundreds of tigers and resounding with various birds. / Then in the midst of the forest, the king saw a deer from afar.

The deer was deeply pierced by him with a very strong arrow; / carrying off that arrow of his, it disappeared in the forest.

Following the trail of its blood in the undergrowth, the king pursued it; / then, in following the deer, he entered another forest.

His throat parched with hunger, faint from fatigue and heat, / the king reached a body of water and plunged in along with his horse.

Having drunk that cold water perfumed with the fragrance of lotuses, / Babhruvāhana then emerged from that clear water.

He approached a banyan tree with cool shade and delightful appearance, / a great, charming tree resounding with flocks of birds,

raised high like a banner for that entire forest. / Having approached that great tree, the lord of the earth sat down.

Then he saw a preta whose senses were agitated by hunger and thirst, / dishevelled, filthy, hunched, [rough,] fleshless, of terrifying appearance,

its feet mere bones bound with sinews, running this way and that, / surrounded on all sides by many other pretas.

Seeing that deformed, dreadful being, Babhruvāhana was astonished. / The preta also, seeing the king arrived in that dreadful forest,

then became glad at heart and approached him. / Then, O Tārkṣya, that king of pretas addressed these words to the king:

“I have abandoned the state of a preta! I have attained the highest state! / Through contact with you, O mighty-armed one, there is none more fortunate than I.”

The king said: / “You are black in colour and terrible of mouth; you appear just like a preta. / Tell me kindly how you are really in such a condition.”

Thus questioned by the king, he related his whole story:

The preta said: / “I will tell you everything from the beginning, O best of kings; / having heard the cause of my state as a preta, you ought to show mercy to me.

There is a city named Vaidiśa, endowed with all prosperity, / crowded with people of various lands, filled with various jewels, / accompanied by various merits, and filled with various trees.

There I lived formerly, always devoted to worship of the gods; / by caste I am a vaiśya named Sudeva, let it be known to you.

The gods were propitiated by me with oblations, the ancestors likewise with funerary offerings, / and brahmins were satisfied with various kinds of gifts.

Weddings and marriages were well arranged by me; / gifts were given by me in many ways to the poor, the helpless, and the distinguished.

All that became fruitless, my dear, because of my fate. / How my good deeds became fruitless, that I tell you.

I have no offspring, my dear, no friend, and no kinsman; / nor do I have any friend of a kind who would perform the funeral rites.

Because of that, the state of a preta has become firmly fixed for me, O best of kings: / the eleventh-day rite, the rite of the third fortnight, the six-monthly, and the annual, / and the other monthly rites—thus are the sixteen śrāddhas.

For whoever these preta-śrāddhas are not offered, O king, / his state as a preta remains firmly fixed, even if a hundred other śrāddhas are given.

Knowing this, O great king, deliver me from the state of a preta; / for the king is declared in this world to be the kinsman of all castes.

Therefore rescue me, O king of kings, and I will give you a jewel, / so that my attainment of good fortune may come about, O supreme among excellent kings.

So it should be done, O mighty-armed one, if mercy is desired for me; / and perform quickly all the funeral rites for yourself as well.”

The king said: / “How do people become pretas here even when funeral rites have been performed? / And by what actions do they become piśācas here? Tell me that.”

The preta said: / “Those who steal property of the gods, the property of brahmins, and the accumulated wealth of women and children, / O best of kings, enter the womb of a preta.

Those who have intercourse with an ascetic woman, a woman of the same gotra, or a forbidden woman, / and those who steal lotuses become great pretas.

Those who steal coral and diamonds, and those who steal clothes, / likewise those who steal gold, and those who flee the front line in battle,

ungrateful men, atheists, cruel men, and rash men, / those who have abandoned the five sacrifices, and those who delight in [claiming false] grand gifts,

those who betray their master, those who betray friends and brahmins, / and those who commit sins at sacred sites, O king, are born into the womb of a preta; / these and others, O great king, are born into the womb of a preta.”

The king said: / “How are they released from the state of a preta here, both you and they? / And how also should I perform the funeral rites for myself? / By what procedure should that be done? Tell me all this.”

The preta said: / “Hear in brief, O king of kings, the procedure related to Nārāyaṇa: / listening to true scripture, the worship of Viṣṇu, and the company of good men

bring about the destruction of birth as a preta—so I have heard; / therefore I will explain to you the worship of Viṣṇu that destroys the state of a preta.

Procuring two [tolas of] gold, O king, one should fashion an image / of the god Nārāyaṇa adorned with all ornaments,

covered with a pair of yellow garments, smeared with sandalwood and agallochum. / One should bathe it with various waters, consecrate it, and then worship it.

In the east the god Śrīdhara, in the south Madhusūdana, / in the west the god Vāmana, and in the north Gadādhara;

having worshipped the Grandfather in the center, and likewise the god Maheśvara, / one should worship each separately according to the rule with perfumes, flowers, and the rest.

Then, having performed circumambulation and propitiated the deities in the fire / with ghee, curd, and milk, and likewise the All-gods, O king,

then the patron, bathed, humble, and composed, / [should perform] according to rule his own funeral rite before Nārāyaṇa.”

he should begin, humble of mind, free from anger and greed. / He should perform all the śrāddhas, and likewise the release of the bull.

Garments, umbrellas, sandals, / rings, and pearls, along with vessels, seats, and food, [should be given] to thirteen brahmins,

and jars containing food and water must indeed be given for the benefit of the ghost. / Then, having given the gift of a bed, he should present the jar for the ghost.

He should worship the holy name ‘Nārāyaṇa’ enclosed within a casket. / Having acted thus in accordance with the rule, he will then attain the fruits of good and evil.

The king said: / How should one prepare the ghost-jar, and in what manner should one give it? / For the sake of compassion toward all, tell [me of] the jar that grants liberation to ghosts.

The ghost said: / You have asked well, O Great King; listen, and I shall tell you, / through which firm gift the condition of a ghost will not arise.

The gift named the ‘ghost-jar’ destroys all inauspiciousness; / hard for all worlds to obtain, it brings about the destruction of an evil fate.

Having fashioned a jar made of refined gold, endowed with Brahmā, Śiva, and Keśava together with the world-guardians, / its hollow filled with milk and ghee, bow down in devotion and give it to a brahmin: what need have you of hundreds of other gifts?

Having duly worshipped Brahmā in the center, and likewise Viṣṇu, Śiva—the unchanging Śaṅkara— / and the world-guardians in order in the directions starting with the east and on its neck, O King,

with incenses, flowers, and sandalwood, / one should then give the golden jar containing milk and ghee.

This gift, greater than all gifts, destroys great sins; / it should be performed with faith, O King, for the cessation of the state of a ghost.

The Blessed Lord said: / While he of restrained mind was thus conversing with the ghost, / an army crowded with elephants, horses, and chariots arrived right behind his footsteps.

Then, when the army arrived, the ghost gave a great jewel to the king, / bowed, prayed again, and vanished from sight.

Emerging from that forest, the king too went to his own city. / Having reached his own city, all that had been spoken by the ghost,

the post-mortem rites and the rest, he performed according to the rule, O Bird. / By the bestowing of his merit, the ghost was freed and went to heaven.

Even a ghost attained a good state through a śrāddha given by another; / how much more wonderful is it that a father goes [there] through what is given by a son!

Whoever hears or recites this sacred history, / both do not incur the condition of a ghost, even though endowed with sinful conduct.

Thus ends the twenty-seventh chapter, named ‘Ascertainment of the Cause of the State of a Ghost and the Means for its Cessation in the Conversation between Babhruvāhana and the Ghost’, in the dialogue between Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Garuḍa, in the Pretakalpa of the Dharmakāṇḍa, in the second part of the latter section of the venerable Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa.