Garudapurana 2.47

The glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa: Chapter 47. / Garuḍa said: / O Blessed One, Lord of the gods of gods, out of supreme compassion please declare / the gift, the majesty of the gift, and the measure of the Vaitaraṇī.

The blessed Kṛṣṇa said: / That great river on the path of Yama named Vaitaraṇī / is bottomless, impassable for sinners, and terrifying merely upon sight.

Abundant with waters of pus and blood, filled with mud of flesh, / and seeing the sinners arrived, she is surrounded with varied horrors.

Its water boils rapidly, like ghee in a vessel; / it is filled with worms, surrounded by beings with adamantine beaks,

with porpoises, alligators possessing diamond-hard shears, / and other aquatic creatures that are violent, tearing flesh.

The twelve Ādityas rise there as at the end of a cosmic cycle; / thus the mortal sinners indeed burn there, weeping.

Lamenting repeatedly, "Alas, brother! Son! Father!", / the creatures wander, sink, and fall into exhaustion.

The great river is seen and filled with four classes of living beings; / they cross over by the gift of a cow, but otherwise they fall in.

Those foolish men who despise me, the teacher, the guru, / and other elders—their dwelling is indeed there.

Those fools who abandon a devoted wife, good-natured, / wedded, and steadfast in dharmas—their dwelling is perpetual.

Having slain those who have placed their trust—masters, friends, ascetics, / women, children, the crippled, and others—they fall indeed; / and weeping, the sinners are cooked in the midst of it.

Whoever approaches a peaceful, hungry brāhmaṇa to cause him hindrance / is eaten there by worms until the universal dissolution.

Having promised an object to a brāhmaṇa, he who does not give it, / or having called him says "there is nothing"—his dwelling is indeed there.

An arsonist, a poisoner, a false witness, a drinker of liquor, / a destroyer of sacrifices, one who has intercourse with a queen, and a slanderer,

a disruptor of sacred recitations, an embezzler of what was personally given, / a breaker of a field's embankment, and a ravisher of another's wife,

a brāhmaṇa who sells liquids, likewise one who is the husband of a śūdra woman, / and he who breaks the pond of cattle that are tormented by thirst,

a defiler of maidens, one who regrets having given a gift, / a śūdra who drinks the milk of a brown cow, and a brāhmaṇa who eats meat—

these live [there] constantly; do not doubt it at all. / The miserly, the atheist, and the vile person shall dwell in it, O bird.

He who is always impatient, always angry, considering his own word authoritative, / constantly cutting off the speech of others, shall dwell in the Vaitaraṇī for a long time.

The sinful man who is arrogant, boasting of himself, / ungrateful, and an afflicter of embryos—he sinks into the Vaitaraṇī.

If at any time, through the conjunction of good fortune, there should be a desire to cross, / listen, O Kaśyapa, to that by which she becomes favorable.

On an auspicious solstice, equinox, vyatīpāta, daybreak, / lunar or solar eclipse, passage of the sun into a new zodiac sign, or new-moon day,

or at other auspicious times, an excellent gift is given. / Whenever there is faith toward giving, surely

that very moment is the time for giving, since wealth is unstable, / bodies are impermanent, and possessions are never eternal.

Death is constantly close at hand; an accumulation of dharma must be made. / One should make an auspicious Vaitaraṇī [cow], either black or reddish-brown,

with gold[-capped] horns, silver hooves, a bronze milking vessel, / covered with a pair of black garments, and endowed with the seven grains.

Upon the top of a droṇa measure of cotton, seated in a copper vessel, / one should make a golden Yama equipped with an iron rod, / having bound a raft made of sugar-cane stalks with very sturdy ties.

Having placed that cow, born from the body of the sun, upon the raft, / a twice-born should arrange it along with an umbrella and sandals.

He should present rings and clothing to the brāhmaṇa. / Taking hold of kuśa grass with water, he should recite this mantra:

“Having heard of that Vaitaraṇī river at the terrifying gate of Yama, / wishing to cross it, I give this Vaitaraṇī [cow] to you; salutations!”

“May cows be in front of me; may cows be beside me; / may cows be in my heart; may I dwell in the midst of cows.”

“O best of twice-born, having the form of Viṣṇu, save me, O earthly deity! / Accompanied by a sacrificial fee, the Vaitaraṇī [cow] is given by me to you; homage [to you]!”

Dharmarāja, the lord of all, and the little cow called Vaitaraṇī— / having circumambulated everything, he should offer it to the brāhmaṇa,

grasping the tail of the cow and placing the twice-born in front: / “O little cow, wait for me at the terrifying gate of Yama!”

“For delivering [me] across, O goddess of gods, homage be to you, O Vaitaraṇī!” / He should follow after him as he departs, and escort everything to his house.

When this is done, O son of Vinatā, that river becomes easy to cross. / Whatever human gives [this] on earth attains all desires.

By the power of good deeds, there is happiness both here and in the hereafter. / [A gift given] when healthy is multiplied a thousandfold; when afflicted, equal to a hundredfold;

the gift given indeed for the dead out of sight is remembered as [merely] equal [to the gift itself]. / Therefore, one should give with one's own hand; once dead, who will give to whom?

Of those devoid of the duty of giving, miserable, living on earth, / with an unstable body, one should perform stable action;

inevitably the life-breaths will depart like fleeting guests.

Thus this entire mockery of the host of living beings has been spoken to you, O king of birds. / For the liberation of the deceased, one should perform that funeral rite for the welfare and auspiciousness of the world.

Sūta said: / Thus instructed by the almighty Viṣṇu, O twice-born, / Garuḍa, having heard the account of the deceased, reached satisfaction.

He asked Keśava again about all the religious observances, pilgrimages, and the like, / meditating in his mind upon the lord of all, the cause of all causes.

[The Lord said:] “O sages, all this—the origin and the like of living beings, / death, birth, the state of the departed, and the funeral rite—

has indeed been spoken by me in full as the cause for liberation. / Gain is theirs, victory is theirs—whence can there be defeat for them / in whose heart Janārdana, dark as a blue lotus, resides?

Dharma conquers, not unrighteousness; truth conquers, not falsehood; / patience conquers, not anger; Viṣṇu conquers, not the asuras.

Viṣṇu is mother, Viṣṇu is father, Viṣṇu is kin and kinsmen; / those whose intellect is firm in this way will not suffer a bad state.

Lord Viṣṇu is auspiciousness; he who has Garuḍa on his banner is auspiciousness; / the lotus-eyed one is auspiciousness; Hari is the abode of auspiciousness.

Hari is the Bhāgīrathī, O twice-born; the twice-born are the Bhāgīrathī and Hari; / the Bhāgīrathī, Hari, and the twice-born are the essence in the three worlds.”

Thus, having drunk the nectar of Vaiṣṇava speech uttered from Sūta's mouth, / adorned with the meaning of all scriptures, the sages reached satisfaction.

They praised each other and Sūta, who sees the meaning of all things; / Śaunaka and the other sages experienced incomparable joy.

Whether impure or pure, or fallen into any condition, / whoever remembers the lotus-eyed one is pure externally and internally.

Thus ends the forty-seventh chapter, entitled “Description of the Ripening of Actions and the Like,” in the dialogue between Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Garuḍa in the Pretakalpa of the Dharma section, in the latter section of the glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa.