Garudapurana 2.34

The glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa, [chapter] 34.
The blessed Kṛṣṇa said:
Listen, O Tārkṣya, according to proper rule, to the definition of dharma and adharma;
good deeds and bad deeds run in front of running men.

In the Kṛta age they praise asceticism, in the Tretā the attainment of knowledge, / in the Dvāpara sacrifice and giving, and in the Kali age giving alone.

For excellent householders, dharma has been taught by the wise: / indeed, for those who perform Vedic sacrifices and charitable works according to their ability, there is no sin.

He by whom a tree has been planted, or mines, wells, and reservoirs [dug], / will journey along the path of Yama with the greatest comfort.

Those by whom warmth from fire is given to a twice-born afflicted by cold, / being freed from distress, attain comfort, satisfied in all their desires.

Gold, gems, pearls, and the like, as well as garments and ornaments— / all this has been given by him by whom the earth has been given.

Whatever living creatures are given by human beings on earth, / these stand near them on the path to the realm of Yama.

Whatever various condiments, solid foods, and drinks / a son offers in accordance with rule, that reaches the deceased spirit.

One's self indeed has the name of ‘son’; a son is a protector in the abode of Yama. / He delivers his father from the terrible [realm]; therefore he is called a son (putra).

Therefore, the śrāddha should be given by a son as long as he lives; / the deceased spirit, crossing over, indeed attains pleasures then.

The handful of water that is offered by his kin to the burning deceased spirit, / by that, assuming the form of a spirit, he goes gratified to the abode of Yama.

For three days milk is offered in an unbaked earthen vessel; / having bound three sticks with cords, [it is placed] at night at a crossroads for his gratification.

On the first day, on the second, and likewise on the third, O bird, / the deceased spirit, bearing a body of wind, drinks the milk suspended in the air.

On the fourth day the gathering [of bones] must be performed, or on the fourth for one who maintained a sacred fire; / having gathered the bones, he should then offer a handful of water.

Neither in the forenoon, nor at midday, nor in the afternoon, nor at the twilights: / only when the first watch [of the day] has passed should he offer handfuls of water.

When it has been given by the son, all those members of the gotra, benevolent kinsmen, / belonging to his own caste and to other castes, should offer a handful of water in a river.

A Brahmin should not go quickly to offer a handful of water; / only when the women have returned should [the custom] always be followed according to worldly practice.

When a Śūdra has met his death, if a Brahmin brings wood to the funeral pyre / or follows behind, he becomes impure for three nights.

And when the three nights are completed, he should go to a river flowing to the ocean; / having performed a hundred breath-controls and consumed clarified butter, he is purified.

A Śūdra goes everywhere; a Vaiśya among three; the next [a Kṣatriya] among two; / [a Brahmin] goes among his own castes to offer a handful of water to a deceased spirit.

After the handful of water has been offered, one should then clean one's teeth; / all the members of the gotra abandon [this] for nine days, O descendant of Kaśyapa.

The best among the twice-born likewise go to offer a handful of water; / at whatever place a person has died, whether on the road or in a house, / no departure from that place is prescribed anywhere by the wise.

The women should walk ahead, and the newly collected [bones] behind; / sipping of water is to be performed by those standing upon a stone.

One should look upon barley, mustard seeds, and dūrvā grass in a full vessel, / make them taste neem leaves, and perform an oil-bath.

The members of the gotra must not cook, nor should one eat food from that house; / one should eat from an earthen vessel and avoid [eating from] a vessel turned upward.

The virtues of the deceased should be recalled; one should utter the hymn to Yama; / and one should contemplate the good and bad deeds accumulated from past actions.

Only through the body he has obtained does he experience his good and bad deeds; / in the form of wind he wanders, and as wind he ascends upward.

By the ritual acts of the ten days a hut is certainly constructed; / through the ninefold and the sixteen śrāddhas a person goes to that hut.

With sesame seeds and darbha grass on the ground, the hut becomes metallic, as it were; / [one places] five gems in his mouth, by means of which the soul ascends.

When the flower has perished, she does not retain the embryo; / therefore, with reverence, one should scatter sesame seeds and darbha grass upon the ground.

Whether he is born among beasts, among stationary things, or wherever else, / wherever the creature is born, the śrāddha reaches him right there.

Just as an arrow released by an archer aiming at a target strikes it, / so the śrāddha performed in dedication to someone reaches him.

As long as a body has not been produced, so long there is no satisfaction through śrāddhas; / afflicted with the distress of hunger, he is satisfied through the ten-day [rites].

He for whom no rice-ball was offered wanders in the sky: / dwelling in water for three days, in fire for three days, / in the sky he dwells for three days, and for one day in the dwelling.

And when the body has been burned in the fire, he is satisfied with water alone, / with an oil-bath, with water, and at home with cakes and kṛśara.

On the first day, the third, the fifth, or the seventh, / and on the ninth and eleventh—this is called the new (navaka) śrāddha.

At the door of the house, in a cremation ground, at a holy bathing-place, or in a temple of the gods: / wherever the first rice-ball is offered, one should complete all of them there.

The śrāddha on the eleventh day is declared to be common [to all]; / a bath for purification is prescribed for the members of all four castes.

Having performed [the rite] of the eleventh day and bathed again, one becomes pure; / he who gives a bed to a Brahmin, as prescribed, grants liberation to the deceased spirit.

When there is no member of the gotra, another person also may perform the rite; / a wife or any man, if willing, performs it for a woman.

The rice-ball that is offered on the first day according to rule— / with that very same food and other materials one should cause all the śrāddhas to be performed.

One should cause the ten-day śrāddha to be performed without mantras, using the name and gotra; / having discarded the garments with which the śrāddha was performed, one should enter the house.

Whether not of the same gotra or of the same gotra, whether a woman or a man, / whoever performs it on the first day should complete the ten days.

By means of the ten rice-balls, a body is certainly formed for the soul, / just as growth takes place over ten months for an embryo in the womb.

As long as the ritual impurity lasts for him, so long the offering of rice-balls and water [continues]; / this very rule is taught for all four castes.

Where the ritual impurity lasts three nights, there one should cause three [balls] to be offered at first, / four on the second day, and likewise three on the third.

In two separate shallow earthen bowls one should offer milk and water for one day; / and on the fourth day one should perform the śrāddha dedicated to a single ancestor.

By the ball of food [offered] on the first day, the head is produced; / on the second day, the eyes, ears, and nose are produced.

On the third day, the cheeks, mouth, and neck are produced; / on the fourth, in the same manner, the chest, belly, and stomach.

On the fifth day are produced the hips, back, and anus; / on the sixth, the two thighs are known [to form], and on the seventh occurs the emergence of the ankles.

When the eighth day arrives, the shanks are formed, O bird; / and on the ninth the feet are known to form; on the tenth, powerful hunger [arises].

The ball of food that is [offered] on the eleventh day one should offer with flesh; / cooked food must be given for him: dishes of rice and pulse, cakes, and milk; / after washing the feet of the brahmins, [one should offer] the water-offering, incense, and lamps.

There are the twelve monthly śrāddhas, and likewise on the eleventh [day], / and the forty-fifth-day [śrāddha], and two śrāddhas in the sixth month: these are the sixteen [śrāddhas].

Month by month one should make the offering on the lunar day on which the day of death falls; / that first [period] is known as a month: so know those who know the Veda.

The śrāddha [performed] on the corpse's hand, at the place of death, and on the seat of the twice-born: / that indeed is the first śrāddha; it should take place on the eleventh day.

That lunar day on which a person dies is [observed] in the monthly śrāddha; / but on the empty [tithis] and at the forty-fifth day, that [same] lunar day is not observed.

For one who dies on the full moon, the fourth is deficient for him; / and for one who dies on the fourth, the ninth is deficient for him.

And for one who dies on the ninth, the fourteenth is an empty [tithi] for him; / these empty [tithis] are to be known by one skilled in funeral rites.

The śrāddha that is [performed] on the eleventh day is declared to be the 'navaka'; / one should cast the food at a crossroad and perform ablutions again.

Beginning from the eleventh day, the food of a water-pot accompanied by water / should be given day after day for a year to an eminent twice-born [brahmin].

In the human body there exists a collection of bones; / in all bodies, their number is three hundred and sixty.

Those bones are indeed nourished by the water-pot; / for this reason the pot is given, and satisfaction is produced for the ghost.

On whichever day a living being dies in a forest or in an inaccessible place, / whenever the cremation may take place, the period of impurity [is counted] from the day of death.

A vessel of sesame seeds, food, and so forth, and what consists of perfume, incense, and the like / should be given on the eleventh day; thereby a twice-born becomes pure.

A kṣatriya [becomes pure] on the twelfth day, and a vaiśya on the fifteenth; / the purification of a śūdra is [completed] in a month, both in impurity from death and in impurity from birth.

[If hearing of it] within three months, there is three nights [of impurity]; within six months, a pakṣiṇī; / before a year, a single day; when [the year] is completed, one is pure upon offering water; / by this very progression, purification applies to all castes.

Beginning from the eleventh day, onwards year after year, / having worshipped the Viśvedevas, one should offer a single ball of food.

Just as all the hosts of stars are covered by the rays of the sun, / even so all is covered; nowhere does he become a ghost.

Eminent twice-born [brahmins] always praise the gift of a bed; / since life is impermanent, who indeed will make the gift afterwards?

A father is a relative only so long as a mortal remains alive; / when he is dead, knowing him to be dead, affection ceases in an instant.

The self alone is indeed the kin of the self—knowing this again and again, / reflecting, 'Even while alive,' one should continuously remember one's own welfare.

What son gives a bed furnished with a mattress to a twice-born for those who have died? / Knowing all this thus, one should have it given with one's own hand.

Therefore, obtaining a bed, firm, made of hardwood, / charming with ivory and the like, adorned with gold bands, / [and] having installed upon it a golden Hari accompanied by Lakṣmī,

one should prepare a jar filled with clarified butter; / that is known by the wise, O Garuḍa, as the 'sleep jar' for [his] satisfaction.

Betel, saffron powder, camphor, aloe-wood, sandalwood, / a lamp, shoes, an umbrella, a chowrie, a seat, and a vessel,

and seven kinds of grains, according to one's capacity, one should place at the sides, / as well as whatever else is useful for one lying in bed.

A flagon, a water-pot, a mirror, and a five-coloured canopy— / having thus prepared the bed, one should offer it to a brahmin.

Worshipping [it, which is] a giver of heavenly bliss, [and offering it] to him with his wife, / having honoured [them] with very handsome garments, one should clothe [them] in cloth.

With ornaments for the ears, neck, fingers, and arms—various ornaments— / [one should give] a house equipped with household utensils, accompanied by a cow.

Then the water-offering should be given with five gems, fruits, and unbroken grains of rice:

"Just as the bed of Kṛṣṇa is never empty of the Daughter of the Ocean, / even so may my bed not be empty, birth after birth."

Having thus given the spotless bed, and having asked for forgiveness, one should dismiss [the brahmin]; / and likewise this rule is proclaimed for the eleventh day.

When a relative has died, whatever relative gives for the sake of dharma, / hear from me the particular rule being declared in this matter:

Whatever was used by him in his own home previously, / the clothing that touched his limbs, the vessels, the mount, / and whatever was dear to him—all that one should arrange.

The wise person should place an auspicious golden human figure upon the bed; / having worshipped [it], the bed of the deceased should be given as prescribed.

In the abode of Indra and likewise in the abode of Yama, / all comfort waits upon the creature through the power of the gift of a bed.

Fierce-faced minions of Yama do not torment him; / that man is not afflicted anywhere by heat or cold.

Through the power of the gift of a bed, the ghost is freed from bondage; / even if joined with sin, he goes to the heavenly realm.

Mounted upon an excellent celestial chariot, attended upon by hosts of apsarases, / he remains free from sin until the dissolution of all beings.

The navaka, the sixteen śrāddhas, the bed, and likewise the annual rite— / the woman who performs [these] for her husband obtains endless welfare.

She [acts] for the benefit of her husband while living, not when dead; / living, that chaste and truthful woman delivers her beloved.

In the case of the bed of a woman, one should give curd and rice, gold, saffron, collyrium, / clothing, ornaments, and a bed: all this indeed one should have given,

and whatever in this world is beneficial to women, / ornaments that touch the body, and articles of enjoyment and the like.

Having assembled all of that, he should place each in its proper place, / and worship the World Guardians, the planets, the Goddess, and Vināyaka.

Then, clad in white garments, with a hollowed hands full of flowers, / the wise man should recite this mantra before the brāhmaṇa:

“This image of the deceased, equipped with all implements / and endowed with every jewel, is presented to you, O brāhmaṇa.

The Self is Śambhu, Śivā is Gaurī, and Śakra is accompanied by the multitude of gods; / therefore, through the gift of the bed, may this very Self be pleased.”

It should be given to an ācārya, a brāhmaṇa who is a householder; / when it has been received, the brāhmaṇa should pronounce: “Who has given it?”

Then, having performed circumambulation and bowed down, he should dismiss [him]. / By this rule, O Bird, he should give the gift to only one.

A cow, a house, a bed, and women must not be given to many; / for when these fees are divided, they cause the giver to fall.

Hear the fruit of him who gives in this manner, O Tārkṣya: / he is honoured in heaven for a full celestial hundred years.

Whatever merit [is earned] at Vyatīpāta, on the full moon of Kārttika, during the two solstices, / whatever merit at Dvārakā, and during an eclipse of the moon or sun,

and whatever at Prayāga, Naimiṣa, Kurukṣetra, and on Arbuda, / at the Gaṅgā, the Yamunā, and the confluence of the Sindhu and the ocean—

the gift that is given on those occasions: even greater than that is this; / it does not equal a sixteenth part of this gift of a bed.

Wherever that living being is born, there indeed he enjoys that fruit; / upon the exhaustion of his karma, he goes to earth as a man of auspicious appearance,

very wealthy, knowing dharma, skilled in all the treatises; / when dead, that bull among men goes once more to Vaikuṇṭha.

Having mounted a celestial flying chariot, surrounded by apsarases, / ah, he rejoices with the ancestors in the offerings made to gods and ancestors.

A śrāddha performed on the Aṣṭakās, likewise on the day of the new moon, / on Maghā, and on whichever occasions of ancestor worship there may be—

hear, O Tārkṣya, according to proper rule: if the ancestors are in the state of ghosts, / the śrāddhas do not reach them without the sapindification rite.

Sapindification must be performed when the year is completed, there is no doubt; / having first performed the initial [rites] for purifying the corpse, and indeed the sixteen [śrāddhas],

for the purification of the rank of the ancestors, he should join [him] with fifty [days?]; / if prosperity occurs, he may perform it earlier; for a śūdra, it may be done according to his own wish.

At present, for one who maintains a sacred fire, sapindification must be done on the twelfth day; / as long as he does not perform it, that fire-possessor remains a ghost; / therefore, by one who maintains a sacred fire, sapindification should be performed on the twelfth day.

The scattering of bones, the Gayā śrāddha, and the śrāddha of the dark fortnight— / one should not perform these within the year without sapindification.

If there are many co-wives and one has a son, / all of them are considered to have a son through that single son.

A son who possesses a sacred fire must not perform the ancestral sacrifice without sapindification; / by such conduct he would become a sinner and even a killer of his father.

A woman who gives up her life when her husband has died— / one should perform her sapindification along with the husband alone.

Even an improper wife who was married, whether a vaiśyā or a kṣatriyā— / whichever wives of the father there are, a son should perform their sapindification.

When a śūdrā woman is married to a brāhmaṇa by mistake, / her śrāddha is performed as a single-ancestor rite; she is united only with that.

The other ten sons who are born in the four castes: / they are to be joined with those respective [mothers] in the sapindification rite always.

The śrāddha that is on the Anvaṣṭakās, and the śrāddha whose purpose is prosperity— / in sapindification, the woman's rice-ball must be offered separately from the father's.

The sapindification of the mother is to be done together with the paternal grandmother, / and of the father with the paternal grandfathers: this, O Tārkṣya, is my opinion.

If a woman dies childless, the husband should perform the sapindification; / he should unite her with the three generations beginning with his mother, in accordance with dharma.

If there is no son and no husband, O Tārkṣya, the sapindification of women / should be caused to be performed at a time of prosperity by brothers, coparceners, or husband's brothers.

For women destitute of husband and son, who have neither a gotra kinsman nor a husband's brother, / it should be given as a single-ancestor rite by the brothers together with another.

If through ignorance or an obstacle sapindification has not been performed, / he should then cause the ninefold, the sixteen śrāddhas, and the annual śrāddha to be performed.

It must not be performed when there is no cremation; the wise man should cause it to be performed when cremation has taken place; / having made an effigy of darbha grass, he should burn the body with fire.

It should be performed by the son for the father; a father should not perform it for his son; / sapindification must not be performed for a son out of excessive affection.

Even when there are many sons, one alone should perform the ritual: / the new śrāddhas, the sapindification, and the other sixteen śrāddhas.

They should be performed by one alone, even when the property is undivided; / for the funeral rite is performed by one, as declared by the sages.

When they are divided, the rite, beginning with the annual one, must be performed separately; / each son must perform it individually by himself.

For him to whom these sixteen preta śrāddhas are not given, / the state of being a ghost remains permanent, even if hundreds of śrāddhas are performed.

A brother, a brother’s son, a sapinda, or indeed a disciple / should perform the sapindification when one is devoid of a son, O Lord of Birds.

For all who are without sons, the wife should perform the sapindification, / or she may cause an officiating priest or the household priest to do it.

When the father has died, if an eclipse should occur within the year, / a pārvaṇa śrāddha must not be performed by the sons, nor a nāndīmukha śrāddha.

A sacred place śrāddha, a Gayā śrāddha, and other ancestral śrāddhas— / one should not perform these within the year upon the death of primary elders.

At the constellation of the two twins, during the shadow of an elephant, on the initial days of manvantaras, and on the initial days of yugas, / the ancestral rice-ball must not be offered without sapindification.

A gift offered to the Sacrifice Person, and likewise whatever is given to the gods and others— / some say that it must be performed even within the incomplete year.

Whatever is offered to the ancestors, too, devoid of water offerings and rice-balls, / all that must indeed be done; this alone is the declared rule.

The gods of the gods are the ancestors, and the ancestors of the ancestors are the ṛṣis; / the gods are the ancestors of the ṛṣis: through that, indeed, the father triumphs.

The Lord of Sacrifice is the sovereign of the ancestors, gods, and men; / whatever is given to the Lord of Sacrifice is given to all embodied beings.

The son who causes a śrāddha to be performed within a year when the father has died / falls from the dharma accumulated over seven lifetimes; of this there is no doubt.

The ancestors, having become ghosts, deprived of the rites of rice-ball and water, / all wander about, driven by the wind, afflicted by hunger and thirst.

When the father has fallen into the state of a ghost, the ancestral rite is suspended; / but if the death of the mother should occur, the father's rite is not suspended.

If the mother has died, the father remains, and the paternal grandmother is living, / the sapīṇḍana rite must indeed be performed only together with the paternal grandmother.

True, true, again true—listen to my word! / For those mortal men on earth whose rice-ball has not been united,

what is offered in various ways by their sons does not reach them at all: / neither an offering of food dedicated to them, nor a śrāddha, nor a handful of water.

Thus ends the thirty-fourth chapter, entitled "Ascertainment of Post-Mortem Rites and Related Matters," in the dialogue between Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Garuḍa in the Pretakalpa of the Dharmakāṇḍa, the second section of the Uttarakhaṇḍa of the glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa.