Garudapurana 2.4

The glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa — [Chapter] 4
Śrī Kṛṣṇa said: / Whatever taint has been committed by men, knowingly or unknowingly, / for the purification of that sin, an expiation must be performed by men.

A discerning person should first perform the ten ablutions beginning with ashes; / according to his ability, he should also perform the six-year substitute penances and the like.

Or half of that, or half of that, or even half of that half; / according to his capacity, he should then make the ten gifts—hear them:

Cow, land, sesame, gold, clarified butter, cloth, grain, jaggery, / silver, and salt: these they know as the ten gifts.

To those who have arrived at the expiation rite, a man should give these ten; / then, to cross the river Vaitaraṇī,

on the path to the gate of Yama, filled with pus and blood, / he should give a Vaitaraṇī cow; one with black teats and a black body is called a Vaitaraṇī cow.

Sesame seeds, iron, gold, cotton, salt, / the seven grains, land, and cows—each one is considered purifying.

These eight great gifts should be given to an eminent twice-born / by a sick person; hear from me the gifts for the feet:

Parasol, shoes, clothes, a signet-ring, a water-pot, / a seat, a vessel—these are known as the eightfold pada-gift.

A vessel of sesame, a vessel of clarified butter, a bed furnished with accessories— / all this should be given, as well as whatever is dear to oneself.

A horse, a chariot, a buffalo, a fan, and clothing / should be personally given to Brahmins, preceded by [invoking] Brahman.

Other gifts too, O bird, he should satisfy according to his own capacity; / he by whom expiation is performed, and the ten gifts on earth,

the gift of the Vaitaraṇī cow, and likewise the eight gifts, / the vessel of sesame, the vessel of clarified butter, and the gift of a bed,

and the pada-gift according to rule, does not go into the belly of hell. / Even independently, wise men desire the gift of salt,

because this saline taste arose from the body of Viṣṇu. / When a sick person's breath does not depart on the surface of the earth,

Salt should then be given, as it is the opening of the gate of heaven. / Whatever gifts are given by men themselves,

all of them wait in front [of them]. / That man, O bird, by whom atonement has been performed with all its parts,

having reduced sins to ashes, is honored in the heavenly realm. / Because the milk of cows is nectar, O best of birds,

therefore one who gives a cow attains immortality. / Having given the eight gifts, indeed, one dwells in the abode of the Gandharvas.

In that terrible abode by which a person is scorched, / through the gift of an umbrella excellent shade is produced on the path, bestowing contentment.

He easily crosses the sharp Asipatravana hell, / and goes mounted on a horse if he gives a pair of shoes.

Through the gift of food and a seat, he indeed enjoys comfort on the path. / In a waterless region, the giver would be happy on account of a water pot.

The messengers of Yama, exceedingly terrible, dreadful, and dark-brown, / do not torment [him], out of courtesy, because of the gift of clothes and ornaments.

A vessel of sesame given to a brahmin, O winged one, / certainly destroys the three kinds of sin arising from speech, mind, and body.

Upon the gift of a vessel of clarified butter, a man dwells in the world of Rudra. / Having given to a twice-born a bed equipped with all furnishings,

he mounts a celestial chariot crowded with various apsarases. / Having sported for sixty thousand years in the palace of Indra,

fallen from Indra's world, he becomes a king in this world. / [One who gives] a young [horse] endowed with all equipment, free of blemish,

who gives a horse to a brahmin, abides in the heavenly world. / As many hairs as there are on the horse, O lord of birds,

so many splendid and abundant worlds they attain. / Fitted with four horses and equipped with all implements,

having given a chariot to a twice-born, one obtains the fruit of a Rājasūya sacrifice.

And having given to an eminent twice-born a female buffalo with abundant milk, colored like a fresh raincloud, / having a contented calf, beautiful hips, and marked with a golden ornament—what wonder is it that he conquers elevation in the worlds?

Through the gift of a palm fan, he is fanned by the wind on the path; / through the gift of clothing, he becomes radiant, fortunate, and prosperous.

He who offers to a brahmin a house supplied with beverages, food, and utensils— / his lineage does not fail, and he attains the highest heaven.

Here, O best of birds, there is weight or lightness of result / according to the distinction of faith and lack of faith, from the greatness or smallness of the gift.

Therefore, by whomever gifts of water as well as beverages were made here, / then, O bird, he obtains corresponding delight in misfortune.

By whomever foods were given with a mind purified by faith, / he too obtains satisfaction then, even without food.

If one should perform renunciation according to rule when death is near, / he does not return again; he becomes fit for becoming Brahman.

If a mortal near death is led toward a sacred ford, / liberation occurs on reaching the sacred ford; if he dies traveling on the road, / at every step there is [merit] equal to a sacrifice for him, without a doubt.

If he should take up the observance of fasting according to rule when death arrives, / he too does not wander again in saṃsāra, O bird.

The answer has thus been stated to the fourth question, ‘What is the gift?’. / Hear the answer to the question: ‘What [is done] between death and cremation?’

Then, knowing life has departed, after bathing quickly, the son or relative / should wash that corpse with pure water, without hesitation.

Having clothed it in an unwashed garment, he should sprinkle the body with sandalwood paste; / then indeed, at the place of the deceased, he should perform the ekoddiṣṭa rite.

Prior to the performance of cremation, so that there may be fitness and the like: / there should be the seat and the sprinkling; these four should not be:

invoking and worship, and touching the vessel and immersing. / There should be the intention for gifts and food; the offering of the rice ball should always be.

The group of five items should not be: the line, the pouring of water, / one should give imperishable water; again these three should not be:

the recitation of svadhā, the blessing, and the forehead-mark, O best of birds; / he should give a pot with food made of black gram, and give an iron sacrificial fee.

The moving of the rice ball is prescribed; this triad is certainly not prescribed: / the covering, the dismissal, and likewise the recitation of svasti.

In these six impure śrāddhas, the rule is proclaimed for you; / they are six indeed: at the place of death, at the door, and likewise at the crossroads,

at the resting place, at the wood-pile, and likewise at the gathering [of bones], O bird. / At the place of death, [the deceased is] named Śava; the earth-deity is pleased.

At the door, he is Pāntha; by this the deity of the dwelling site is pleased. / At the crossroads, he is Khecara; by this the host of elementals and other deities are pleased.

At the resting place, he is designated Bhūta; by that the ten directions are pleased. / On the funeral pyre he is called Sādhaka, and at the gathering [of bones] he is called Preta.

Taking sesame, darbha grass, clarified butter, and firewood, the sons and others / certainly go while reciting the gāthā or the hymn of Yama:

‘Being brought day by day a cow, a horse, a man, an ox, / the son of Vivasvat is not satisfied, just as a foolish man is not [satisfied] with liquor.’

He should recite this gāthā or the hymn ‘Depart’ on the path; / all the relatives should go to the wilderness in the southern direction.

He should perform two śrāddhas on the path according to the rule previously stated, O bird. / Then, gently, on the surface of the earth, with the head facing south,

having placed the corpse on the pyre-ground, he should perform the śrāddha previously mentioned. / Grass, wood, sesame, clarified butter, and the rest the sons and others should carry themselves.

Any rite performed with things brought by a Śūdra becomes entirely fruitless. / Wearing the sacred thread over the right shoulder and facing the south,

an altar should then be made there according to the scriptures, O egg-born one. / Having divided the deceased's cloth into two, he should then cover him with one half;

the half for the dwelling in the cremation ground he should cast onto the ground itself. / Then, according to the rule previously stated, he should place a rice ball in the hand of the deceased.

Anointing with clarified butter should be performed on all the limbs of the corpse. / Hear that rule of the rice ball in the interval between death and cremation:

by the five previously mentioned rice balls comes the fitness of the corpse for being offered as an oblation; / otherwise, because of molestation, rākṣasas and others arise.

Then, having swept, smeared, furrowed, elevated the altar, / and sprinkled it, having established the fire there according to rule,

And after worshipping the deity named Kravyāda with flowers and unbroken grains, / a wise man should burn one who maintained the sacred fires according to Vedic rites.

He should avoid an outcaste's fire, a funeral pyre fire, and the fire of a fallen person. / [He prays:] "You are the maker of beings, the womb of the world; you are the guardian of the worlds.

Therefore, withdraw him; lead him to heaven, to immortality." / Having thus worshipped Kravyāda, he should offer the oblation of the body.

When the body is half burnt, he should then offer a libation of clarified butter: / "You were born from this [father]; may this [father] be born again from you,

for the heavenly realm, svāhā!" pronouncing the name. / Having thus offered the clarified butter oblation mixed with sesame seeds, accompanied by mantras,

one should then weep loudly; in this way happiness comes to him. / After the burning, having performed the ceremony of gathering the bones there,

he should offer a ghost-ball to soothe the agony of burning, O bird. / Then, having circumambulated, those who witnessed the departure of the pyre,

with the youngest leading, should go to bathe, reciting Vedic hymns. / Then, having reached the water and washed their clothes,

and putting them on again, the men should say to that man: / "We shall offer water with our clothes on." Then the men [should ask],

and he should say, "Do so!" If one who has died is less than a hundred years old, / the sons and other relatives, led by the eldest, wearing a single garment, without a topknot,

all wearing the sacred thread over the right shoulder, silent, should enter the water, / facing the direction of the ancestors, reciting: "May our sin be burnt away..."

And those taking the bath should not splash the water. / Then, coming to the bank, tying the topknot, taking straight kuśa grass,

holding water with sesame seeds with the tips facing south in both hands, / taking it in cupped hands toward the south, sorrowful, from the pitṛ-tīrtha part of the hand,

all, restrained in speech, should cast it upon the ground or on a stone, O bird, / once, thrice, or even ten times,

saying: "May they be satisfied," or "Let [him] be satisfied," "I offer satisfaction," "May it reach [him]," / and uttering: "O ghost, this [is for you], of such-and-such clan."

After the handful of water is offered, cleaning of the teeth must be performed. / All members of the clan give it up for nine days, O descendant of Kaśyapa.

Then, emerging from the water and putting on clothes, / having wrung out the bathing cloth once, they should sit upon pure ground.

One should not shed tears after giving the handful of water for the burning; / for the ghost, helpless, consumes the phlegm and tears shed by relatives.

Therefore, one should indeed not weep; the rites must be performed according to one's ability. / Then, when they are seated, a virtuous person versed in the Purāṇas

should dispel their grief, speaking of the impermanence of saṃsāra: / "In human existence, which is like the hollow trunk of a plantain tree, lacking substance, he who seeks substance

in that which is like a water-bubble, is utterly deluded. / If the body, composed of the five elements, has dissolved into the five elements

through the actions born of its own form, what lamentation can there be? / The earth will go to destruction, as will the ocean and the gods;

how then shall the mortal world, resembling foam, not meet destruction?" / Thus he should recite to them seated there on the soft grass.

Having heard this, they should return home, led by the children. / Chewing neem leaves, restrained at the door of the house,

sipping water, touching fire, water, cow-dung, white mustard seeds, / dūrvā sprouts, a bull, and other auspicious things,

and placing their foot slowly on a stone, they should enter. / According to Vedic rites, a wise man should burn one who maintained the sacred fires.

One should bury a child under two years old and not offer water for it. / A devoted wife who follows her husband [in death],

having bowed to her husband before the rite, should ascend the funeral pyre. / But a woman who falls from the pyre through delusion should perform the Prājāpatya penance.

There are three and a half crores of hairs on a human body; / for that many years does she dwell in heaven who follows her husband.

Just as a snake-catcher drags a snake out of a hole by force, / so she, drawing him up, rejoices with him alone.

There, devoted to her husband, praised by groups of apsarases, / she sports with her husband as long as fourteen Indras rule.

Even if the husband is a slayer of a brāhmaṇa, an ungrateful person, or a slayer of a friend, / the faithful woman who dies taking him purifies him.

The woman who ascends the fire when her husband dies, / behaving like Arundhatī, is glorified in the heavenly world.

As long as a woman does not burn herself when her husband dies, / so long she is not freed in any way from a female body.

The maternal family, the paternal family, and the family into which she was given— / these three lineages does she purify who follows her husband.

Afflicted when he is afflicted, joyful when he is pleased, untidy and emaciated when he is abroad, / who dies when her husband dies—that woman should be known as devoted to her husband.

A beloved [brāhmaṇa] wife ought not to go by mounting a separate pyre. / Kṣatriya women and others of the same caste may ascend even here.

Beginning from an outcaste woman up to a brāhmaṇa woman, the rule is the same / for all women who are not pregnant and not young children.

The rule of cremation has been declared by me in general, O bird. / Do you wish to hear any specific details of it?

Garuḍa said: / When a master has died abroad and his bones have been lost, / tell me, O Lord of the World, how should cremation be performed?

The blessed Kṛṣṇa said: / If the bones of a man who died abroad are not found, / I shall tell you the rite for their final state and destiny.

Listen, O Tārkṣya, to the supreme secret regarding bad deaths of the master:
Those creatures who died from starvation, or were killed by fanged beasts,

Who were caught in strangulation, who were emaciated, who were killed by a beak,
Or who committed suicide through poison, fire, a bull, brāhmaṇas, or cholera,

Hear the state of those who died by falling, hanging, or drowning,
Or by snakes, tigers, horned animals, plagues, stones, or water,

Or by brāhmaṇas, wild beasts, falling from trees, lightning,
Claws, iron, falls from a mountain, falls from a wall, or from a precipice,

On a bed, in mid-air, or at the hands of thieves or cāṇḍālas,
Or touched by a menstruating woman, a bitch, a śūdra, a washerman, and the like,

Or those who died contaminated from above, from below, or both,
Or who died from weapon-wounds, or were touched by a horse—

That should be known as an unnatural death, as well as whatever occurred without proper rites.
Having suffered the hells due to that sin, they share the state of a ghost.

One must not perform cremation for them, nor observe impurity, nor offer libations of water;
One should not perform the rite for the dead and the rest, nor carry out post-death ceremonies.

No offering of rice-balls is to be made; if one does it out of negligence,
It does not reach [the deceased] at all; it perishes in mid-air.

Therefore, by his sons, grandsons, and sapinḍas desiring welfare,
A Nārāyaṇa-bali must be performed, O bird, out of fear of worldly censure.

Only thus does purification come to them, not otherwise: so said Yama.
When the Nārāyaṇa-bali has been performed, fitness for post-death rites arises.

That rite brings about his purification; it cannot happen otherwise.
One should properly arrange the entire Nārāyaṇa-bali at a sacred ford.

One should have it performed before [the image of] Kṛṣṇa by brāhmaṇas, whereby the man becomes purified.
First, the libation should be made by brāhmaṇas learned in the Purāṇas and Vedas.

One should offer libation dedicated to Viṣṇu with all medicinal herbs mixed with unhusked barley grains;
It should be done with the Puruṣasūkta or with Vaiṣṇava mantras.

Facing the south, contemplating the ghost as Viṣṇu:
‘The Lord without beginning or end, holding the conch, discus, and mace,

The imperishable, lotus-eyed one—be the granter of liberation to the ghost.’
At the conclusion of the libation, free from passion and envy,

Having restrained the senses and mind, pure, intent on dharma,
One should perform eleven śrāddhas there with devotion.

Concentrated on each single procedure in the performance of all rites,
One should give water, unhusked rice, barley, wheat, and panic seeds,

Auspicious sacrificial food, a seal-ring, and an umbrella and turban;
One should give all grains, and milk mixed with honey.

One should give the eightfold gift accompanied by garments and shoes;
One should give [it] for [release from] all sins, without showing partiality in the assembly.

When the rice-balls are placed on the ground with fragrant paste, flowers, and unhusked grains,
Everything is to be given to the brāhmaṇas according to the rules of the Veda and scripture.

Libation [is made] in a conch, a rhinoceros horn, or copper, separately for each;
Endowed with meditation and focus, having knelt upon the earth,

One should offer the guest-water with a Vedic verse, intended separately for each:
Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Rudra, Yama, and the ghost as the fifth.

Then they should be established in separate jars accompanied by the five gems,
Along with garments, sacred threads, kidney-beans separately, and gifts.

One should perform five śrāddhas for the deities according to rule;
Then one should make a stream of water separately over each rice-ball,

In a conch, in a copper vessel, or, if unobtainable, in an earthen one,
Taking water with sesamum accompanied by all medicinal herbs.

A copper vessel filled with sesamum, with gold and a priestly fee,
One should give to the foremost brāhmaṇa, and likewise the eightfold gift.

Intending Yama, one should then give sesamum, iron, and a priestly fee.
Having thus offered the Viṣṇu-bali according to one's ability and the rule,

He quickly delivers him; no doubt should be entertained here.
Now hear from me the special rule for one who died from a snakebite:

Having made a serpent of a bhāra weight of gold, and likewise a cow,
Giving them to a brāhmaṇa according to rule, one obtains release from the debt to the father.

Having thus offered the serpent-bali, he is freed from the affliction caused by the serpent.
Afterwards, an effigy should be made, accompanied by all medicinal herbs.

Hear, O Kaśyapa, the distribution of the stalks of the palāśa:
Having spread out a black antelope skin, one makes a human form of kuśa grass.

The collection of bones is declared to consist of three hundred and sixty stalks;
Arranging those stalks separately on these limbs:

One should place forty on the region of the head, ten on the neck,
Twenty on the chest, and likewise twenty on the belly,

One hundred on the two arms, and twenty on the region of the hips,
One hundred on the two thighs, and thirty on the two shanks,

Four on the penis, six on the two testicles,
And ten on the toes; in this way one should arrange the bones.

A coconut in the place of the head, a bottle-gourd at the palate,
The five gems in the mouth, and a plantain on the tongue;

A reed should be given for the entrails, sand for the nose,
Earth for the fat, and yellow orpiment and realgar;

Mercury in place of the semen, brass in place of the feces,
Realgar on the body, and cooked sesamum at the joints;

Barley flour for the flesh, and honey for the blood,
A mass of matted hair for the hair, and a deer skin for the skin;

Palm-leaves for the two ears, and guñjā seeds for the two breasts,
A lotus for the nose, and a lotus at the region of the navel;

An eggplant on the two testicles, and a carrot should be auspicious for the penis;
Ghee should be given at the navel, and tin is prescribed for the loincloth;

A pearl on the tip of the breasts, saffron as the ointment,
With perfumes of camphor and agallochum, and auspicious fragrant garlands;

A garment of silk thread should be placed on the heart,
Ṛddhi and Vṛddhi herbs as the two arms, and a cowrie-shell for the two eyes;

Pomegranate seeds in the teeth, campaka flowers on the fingers,
Red lead in the corners of the eyes, and offerings such as betel;

Having made the deceased endowed with all medicinal herbs, and performed worship as enjoined,
For one who maintained sacred fires, one should place the sacrificial implements in order according to rule.

Reciting ‘May the waters purify me’, ‘The head’, and ‘This of mine, O Varuṇa’,
Having purified the deceased with water from a śālagrāma stone,

Dedicated to Viṣṇu, a well-behaved, milch cow should be given; / sesame seeds, iron, gold, cotton, salt,

seven kinds of grain, land, and cows are remembered each as purifying. / Then he should give a vessel of sesame and likewise the gift of sandals.

A Vaiṣṇava śrāddha should be performed for the liberation of the ghost; / then he should effect the liberation of the ghost, contemplating Viṣṇu in his heart.

Having thus made an effigy, he should burn it according to the rule. / For its purification, the performer of the rites, such as a son, should perform an expiation:

three Kṛcchra penances, or six, twelve, or even fifteen, / according to the occasion of the expiation, as handed down by the brāhmaṇas.

In case of inability, he should perform a substitute rite such as the gift of a cow or gold; / in case of his own unfitness, the wise man should thus perform purification.

Whatever is given by an impure person, or designated for an impure state, / does not reach [the deceased]; all of it perishes in the mid-air.

Having effected purification, the funeral rites such as cremation must be performed. / But one who performs cremation and the other rites without doing penance,

hear in turn the expiation for that, whether done intentionally or unintentionally: / [if one has] lit the fire, offered water, bathed, touched, carried, spoken [with them],

cut the rope, or shed tears, one is purified by a taptakṛcchra penance. / If someone carries any one of these ghosts, or burns them,

or performs the water libation with a mat, they must perform the sāntapana kṛcchra. / For a slight cause one should assign a light penance, and for a great one, a great penance.

Garuḍa said: / Tell me, O Lord, O faithful one, the characteristics / of the kṛcchra, the taptakṛcchra, and also the sāntapana, of all three.

The Blessed Kṛṣṇa said: / For three days [eating] in the morning, for three days in the evening, for three days eating unasked-for food, / and fasting for three days—this is declared to be the kṛcchra.

One should drink heated milk, ghee, and water, one on each successive day, / followed by a one-night fast; this is declared to be the taptakṛcchra.

Consuming cow urine, cow dung, milk, curd, ghee, and kuśa-grass water, / one should fast on the next day, performing the sāntapana kṛcchra.

This rite for one who died a bad death has been related to you by me, O bird. / One should know him as dead at that time, like a lamp that has gone out.

Then one should perform cremation with fire, and observe impurity for three days. / For ten days pit-piṇḍas must be offered, beginning with the deceased.

Then one should perform the rite in this way, and then the departed spirit attains liberation. / But if, after the cremation of an effigy has been done under the illusion that he was dead, he

returns, he must perform a bath in a tub of ghee, / and the rites of passage such as the birth ceremonies must be performed again.

A man should marry according to the rule the very wife he had married before. / When the fifteenth year has passed, O bird, or the twelfth,

having made an effigy of a traveler whose fate is unknown, one should burn it. / Hear the special procedure in the case of the death of a menstruating woman or a woman in childbed.

When a woman in childbed has died, sacrificial priests proceed in this way: / taking water in a jar, and likewise the five products of the cow,

having consecrated the waters with auspicious words, she then attains purification. / Having first bathed her according to rule with water from a hundred-holed vessel,

and then bathing her with that [water], one should perform the cremation, O Lord of Birds. / But having bathed a dead menstruating woman with the five cow-products,

and covering her with another garment, one should cremate her according to rule. / I shall declare the rite of cremation for one who has died during the pañcaka; listen to me.

Beginning with the second half of Dhaniṣṭhā, this group of five asterisms / ending with Revatī is always blameworthy and always inauspicious.

Cremation must not be performed there; it brings sorrow to all living beings. / Water is not offered in these; it would always be inauspicious.

Everything must be done after the pañcaka, otherwise / grief will arise for his sons and gotra-kin.

Harm indeed occurs to the house of one who dies in these asterisms. / Or, if cremation is performed in the middle of these asterisms according to rule,

for mortals it should be preceded by oblations. / The rite must be diligently performed by brāhmaṇas with mantras according to rule.

Then near the place of the corpse, effigies should be placed: / four made of darbha grass, consecrated with the mantras of the asterisms.

Then the cremation should be carried out together with those effigies. / Then, at the end of the impurity period, peaceful and prosperity rites should be performed by the sons.

A man who dies in the pañcaka asterisms does not attain a good state; / for his sake one should give sesame seeds, a cow, gold, and ghee.

One should cause gifts to be given to brāhmaṇas, which destroy all obstacles: / food, shoes, an umbrella, a gold coin, two garments,

and a sacrificial fee is given to a brāhmaṇa, which frees [him] from sin. / This rite which removes the pañcaka has been recounted to you by me, / as well as the funeral rites according to the year [of death] and the journey to Saṃyaminī.

Thus ends the fourth chapter in the Pretakalpa in the latter section of the venerable Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa, in the dialogue between the Blessed Kṛṣṇa and Garuḍa, entitled 'The Determination of the Cremation Rite, the Characteristics of Kṛcchra, the Return of One Cremated [in Effigy], the Rite for Death of a Menstruating Woman, and the Penance for Death in Pañcaka'.