Garudapurana 2.36

The glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa—36. / Tārkṣya said: / Why is fasting [unto death] meritorious and the bestower of an imperishable state, / if, having abandoned one's own home, one dies indeed at a sacred place?

If, failing to reach a sacred place, he dies, or if death comes to him at home, / what state does he attain who has become a hut-dwelling ascetic?

He who takes renunciation either at a sacred place or even at home, / how should it be done for him, even if he has not met his death?

If mental faltering occurs after an observance has been made, O Lord, / through what does his accomplishment come about, whether through doing it or not doing it?

The Holy Kṛṣṇa said: / If anyone indeed meets death after undertaking fasting [unto death], / discarding the human body, he shines equal to me.

As many days as he may live once the fast has been undertaken, / they are equal to sacrifices complete with sacrificial fees.

If he dies having adopted renunciation either at a sacred place or at home, / he too obtains every day double the aforementioned fruit.

When severe disease arises, and fasting [unto death] is adopted and performed, / disease does not arise again, and he truly shines like a god.

If a man takes renunciation when he is afflicted, / he is not born again on earth in this cyclic existence, the ocean of sorrow.

Day after day, feeding of brāhmaṇas should be given, / a vessel of sesame according to one's capacity, the gift of a lamp, and worship of the gods.

For one of such conduct, sins both high and low are burned away; / upon death, he attains liberation just like all the great sages.

Therefore fasting [unto death] grants the abode of Vaikuṇṭha to mortals; / therefore, whether healthy or at the very end, one should accomplish the mark of liberation.

The man who abandons sons, wealth, and other things and departs for a sacred place, / for him the deities beginning with Brahmā become granters of contentment and prosperity.

He who turns toward a sacred place, having undertaken the vow of fasting [unto death], / should he die even along the way, he dwells in the realm of the sages.

If, having undertaken the vow of fasting [unto death], he dies even in his own home, / leaving his families behind, he wanders alone in heaven.

If a man gives up food and water in this manner, / and has drunk the water of my feet, he is not born again on earth.

Forest deities protect him who has gone to that sacred place and sits upon an animal skin; / the messengers of Yama, in particular, do not approach his side.

The man who attends on a sacred place, freed from all sins, / if he dies or is cremated there, he shares in the fruit of that sacred place.

Even if he constantly visits it, should he die elsewhere, / that wise man becomes a Veda-knowing twice-born in an auspicious land and family.

If a man lives on after having undertaken fasting [unto death], O Tārkṣya, / he should summon brāhmaṇas and give away all his possessions.

He should perform the complete cāndrāyaṇa fast, permitted by those twice-born; / thereafter he must not speak untruth, and should practice only dharma.

And whoever, having gone to a sacred place, comes back to his home, / he, permitted by the brāhmaṇas, should then perform an expiation.

Or having given gifts of gold, cattle, land, elephants, and horses, / if he reaches a sacred place at the time of death, he is fortunate.

Having set out from home for a sacred place when death is at hand, / at every step there is the gift of a cow, provided no injury occurs.

The sin that was committed at home is purified by bathing at a sacred place; / but if one commits a sin there, it is indeed like a coating of diamond.

He would suffer, there is no doubt about this, as long as the moon, sun, and stars endure; / yet gifts given there truly become imperishable.

When afflicted, gifts must be given even by impoverished men: / cows, sesame, gold, and especially the seven grains.

Seeing a generous man, all the dwellers of heaven are delighted, / always along with the sages, Dharma, and Citragupta.

As long as wealth is under one's own control, so long should one entrust it to a brāhmaṇa; / upon death, everything falls under the control of others—who will give it out of compassion?

The wealth that is placed in the hand of a brāhmaṇa by sons for the sake of the father, / by that, he has enriched himself along with his sons and great-grandsons.

What is given for a father is said to be a hundredfold; for a mother, a thousandfold; / for a sister, a hundred thousandfold; and what is given to a brother from the same womb is imperishable.

If out of greed they do not give, or out of negligence or delusion, / once dead, they all lament: 'Such misers, such sinners [are they]!'

Of wealth acquired with excessive hardship and by nature fickle, / there is only one beneficial course—giving; the others are calamities.

Death laughs at the protector of the body, and the earth laughs at the guardian of wealth, / just as an unchaste woman laughs at her own husband who is affectionate toward his son.

When indifferent, the righteous and gentle person, even having acquired vast wealth,
considers both himself and his riches as merely grass, O Tārkṣya.

He has no afflictions, and indeed no snare of delusion;
at the time of death, he has no fear arising from the messengers of Yama.

Seven thousand years [of heaven] by dying in water; eleven in fire; and sixteen in the air;
sixty in great battle; eighty in a cowshed; and by fasting [to death], O Kaśyapa, imperishable is the destination.

Thus in the venerable Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa, in the Uttarakhaṇḍa, in the second part, in the Dharmakāṇḍa, in the Pretakalpa, in the dialogue between Kṛṣṇa and Garuḍa, the thirty-sixth chapter, named "Ascertainment of the Destination of One Dead by Fasting."