Garudapurana 2.8

The glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa [Chapter] 8. / Garuḍa said: / Master, who has authority here in all the funeral rites? / Of how many kinds are the rites said to be? Tell me all this.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa said: / A son, a grandson, a great-grandson, or his brother, the offspring of a brother, / or the offspring of a sapiṇḍa, or kinsmen, O bird, are eligible for the rites.

In the absence of all these, the offspring of a samānodaka [is eligible]. / Even when both families are extinct, the rites are to be performed by women, O bird.

And the king may voluntarily have the rites performed for one whose kin is severed: / the preliminary rites, the intermediate rites, and likewise the final rites.

Every year, O bird, according to the rule of the ekoddiṣṭa rite, / a śrāddha should be performed there; hear from Me its fruit.

Brahmā, Indra, Rudra, the Nāsatyas, the Sun, Agni, the Vasus, the Maruts, / the Viśvedevas, the hosts of ancestors, birds, humans, beasts,

reptiles, the hosts of Mothers, and whatever else is designated as living beings: / performing the śrāddha endowed with faith, he propitiates the entire world.

They, being satisfied, gratify him with sons, wives, and wealth. / The authority and the division of rites have been described to you in brief.

Garuḍa said: / If not even one among those mentioned should be the authorized person, O best of gods, / what should be done then, O Viṣṇu, by a prudent person?

Śrī Kṛṣṇa said: / When there is no authority, and if there is no certainty, / a man should offer the śrāddha for his living self while he is still alive.

Having observed a fast, having bathed well, attached to Kṛṣṇa, and concentrated in mind, / he should worship Viṣṇu, the Lord of all, the agent and the enjoyer.

Together with sacrificial fees and with sesame seeds, three water-cows / he should offer to the ancestors, chanting 'svadhā', being well-composed:

chanting 'svadhā, obeisance to Agni, carrier of the funeral offerings', / and chanting 'svadhā, obeisance to Soma accompanied by the ancestors'.

With a sacrificial fee, he should offer the third accompanied by dakṣiṇā, / chanting 'svadhā, obeisance to Yama and the Āṅgirasa'.

Placing [the gifts] between those two, he should consecrate the brāhmaṇas with mantras and feed them: / having placed the first in the north, he should place the second in the south;

having placed the third in the middle, thereafter [perform] the invocation and other rites. / Having first worshipped the Viśvedevas with invocation and other rites,

he should say to them: 'I feed you, O vipra, as the Vasus; I feed you next, O vipra, as the Rudras; / I feed you, O vipra, as the Sūryas.'

The remaining rites of invocation and the rest he should perform like those for the ancestors. / Then he should give a cow in the north to a twice-born intended for the Vasus,

in the south-east for the Rudra, and in the south for the Sūrya twice-born; / and he should present a vessel of sesame seeds to the Viśvedevas.

Saying 'May there be welfare' and likewise giving imperishable water, he should then dismiss those twice-born, / remembering Viṣṇu, the all-pervading eight-syllabled God.

Then he may remember at will Kuleśānī, Śiva, and Nārāyaṇa. / Then on the fourteenth day he should go to whichever excellent river is found.

Garments and pieces of iron, muttering 'Victory unto You', / facing south, he should ignite the fire there himself.

Making an effigy of Brahmā out of fifty kuśa blades, he should burn it, / having offered the funeral-ground fire sacrifice concluding with the final oblation.

He should remember the fireless ground, or Yama and Rudra. / Having offered an oblation in the principal place, he should thereafter invoke him.

He should then cook another offering mixed with mung beans in the fire, / and a second one mixed with sesame and rice, with a pavitra ring.

He should offer the one saying: 'Oṃ, obeisance to you, O Earth', / and immediately after, the second saying: 'Oṃ, obeisance to Yama.'

Then saying: 'Oṃ, obeisance to Rudra, obeisance to the Lord of the cremation ground', / in the blazing, ignited fire upon the inherently terrible ground,

he should offer seven handfuls of water to the seven named Yamas: / to Yama, to Dharmarāja, to Mṛtyu, and to Antaka;

To Vaivasvata, to Time, and to the Destroyer of all life, / sevenfold, along with the exclamation of svadhā, obeisance, and the praṇava.

‘Let this water with sesame seeds be for you, [name], of such-and-such lineage!’ / Then he should offer the ten rice-balls, along with argha-water and flowers:

‘May incense, lamp, oblation, and fragrant paste be imperishable for all!’ / Having given the gifts of the ten rice-balls, he should meditate on the gentle face of Viṣṇu.

And he should perform the monthly [śrāddha] month by month, and then the sapiṇḍīkaraṇa rite. / Then at the end of the period of impurity he should perform it, whether for himself or for another who has died.

Knowing the impermanence of strength, health, wealth, and life-span, he should perform it. / All this living-śrāddha has been narrated to you by me, O bird.

Thus ends the eighth chapter, named ‘The Determination of the Performer of Śrāddha and the Living-Śrāddha,’ in the Pretakalpa of the ritual section, the second part of the Latter Section of the glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa, in the dialogue between Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Garuḍa.