Garudapurana 2.28

The venerable Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa [chapter] 28. / Garuḍa said: / Out of compassion for all, tell me, O Madhusūdana, / by what gift or good deed one is freed from the state of a ghost.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa said: / Listen, and I will explain the gift that destroys all inauspiciousness. / 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?

Garuḍa said: / What was this that was told, O Lord? Tell it to me in detail, / the rite concerning the next world following the moment of passing, O God.

In this world of transmigration, O my Lord, Janārdana, tell me properly of the duty / as it should be performed by men, and also the post-mortem rite.

How do ghosts, having huge bodies, terrible forms, and being fearsome, / come into existence, O best of gods, and through which good and bad deeds?

Here, piśācas come into being—of what karma is this the fruit? / Tell me that, O Lord of Gods; I wish to know.

Why is [the dying person] placed upon the ground, and why the five gems in the mouth, / and beneath him sesame and darbha-grass, with both feet directed toward the south?

For what reason is a diagram smeared on the ground with cow-dung? / For what reason is Viṣṇu remembered, and the Viṣṇu-sūkta recited?

For what reason do his sons and grandsons stand before him? / For what purpose is the gift of a lamp, and for what purpose the worship of Viṣṇu?

For what purpose does the dying man make gifts to an eminent twice-born? / And why does he ask forgiveness from kin, friends, and enemies?

Sesame, iron, gold, cotton, and salt, / the seven grains, land, and cows—for what reason are these given?

And how does a creature die, and where does the dead go? / And how does the subtle transmigrating body then rest?

Should the son carry the corpse on his shoulder, and the grandson be the giver of fire? / For what reason, O God, Lord of Gods, and why the anointing with ghee?

And why the Yama-sūkta, and why should one face the northern direction? / [Why] water with a single garment, and gazing at the solar disc?

Barley, mustard, dūrvā grass, and chewing nimba upon a stone; / why should a man and woman wear their garments inverted?

Having returned home, food is to be eaten with family members; / and why should the son offer nine piṇḍas?

For what purpose is milk placed in a baked earthen pot in the courtyard, / having tied three sticks with a string at night at a crossroads?

At night, a lamp is offered day after day for a year; / for what purpose the offering of water for burning, and conversation with relatives?

O Blessed One, what happens through the nine rice-balls for the transitional body? / And how is the invocation of the vehicle [carried out] for gods and ancestors? / Why is this done, O God, [and] why should one offer the rice-ball?

What is given to him immediately after the offering of the rice-ball? / And for what purpose is the collection of bones, and the gift of a bed?

Why is there bathing on the second day, [and] on the fourth for a twice-born maintaining the sacred fire? / Why should the cleansing bath be performed on the tenth with all the people?

Why anoint with oil and bring the corpse-bearers to the house? / And they also should perform rubbing [with fragrant unguents] at a place with water.

The rice-ball that is on the tenth day—one should offer it with meat; / and why the rice-ball on the eleventh day, [and] how does the setting free of a bull take place?

Tell me why these sixteen ancestral rites [are performed] throughout the year, / and three hundred and sixty [rites] with food and water?

Day by day, a jar and food must be given for the satisfaction of the ghost. / When his time has arrived, mortal man dies, O Lord.

Yet I see no aperture; whence has that soul departed? / Whither do the elements go—earth, water, and likewise the mind?

Tell me, O Lord, [about] fire, wind, and ether; / and how do these five vital breaths depart to reach [their destination]?

The five thieves in the body, beginning with greed and delusion, / thirst, passion, and egoism—whither do they go, O Janārdana?

Merit or demerit, and whatever good deed [was done], / when the body has perished, whither do the various gifts go?

And why is the rite of sapīṇḍana performed, even when a full year has passed? / With whom does the ghost unite, [and] what is the rule in that matter?

Those who are cremated, and those who are uncremated, and the people on earth who are fallen, / and whatever other beings there are—what happens to them in the end?

Those who are sinners of wicked conduct, and those who have become degraded, / the suicide, the killer of a brahmin, the thief, the betrayer of trust,

the śūdra who drinks [the milk of] a brown cow, who recites a Vedic syllable, / or who wears the sacred thread—what is his state, O Mādhava?

When a brāhmaṇī wife of a brahmin is seduced— / frightened of that sin, explain that to me, O Lord of the universe. / Having been asked by me, tell all this indeed for the welfare of the world.

Thus, in the glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa, in the latter section, in the second part, in the section on dharma, in the Pretakalpa, in the dialogue between Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Garuḍa, the twenty-eighth chapter entitled "The Inquiry into the Fruits of the Various Gifts and Other Acts Performed at the Time of the Rites for the Dead".