Garudapurana 3.14

Garuḍa Purāṇa 14
Śrī Garuḍa said:
Tell of the incarnations of Hari, and likewise of Lakṣmī and the gods;
tell the distinction among their qualities to me, your disciple, O faithful to vows!

Śrī Kṛṣṇa said:
The Blessed One who is the primordial form, infinite, full of qualities among Brahmā and the rest, independent,
ancient, whose body is complete, my own Self—none are ever like him, O best of birds!

His foot is complete, the sole of his foot is complete, his nails are complete, his waist and neck are complete,
his thighs are complete, and his belly is complete; having attained these as complete, he also took a complete chest.

His shoulders are fully complete, and all his arms are complete, his hair, beard, and teeth are complete;
his body hair is complete, and likewise his pores are complete, and likewise his penis.

His scrotum is complete, and the hair on his scrotum, his armpits, eye, and ears—all these are complete.
How can I describe the primordial form of Hari? Whatever strength is complete in his entire body,

so much strength is indeed present in each single hair and so forth, because he alone is complete.
He alone is the creator of everything, he alone is the destroyer, and he is the enjoyer of the essence.

Hari does not consume the non-essential part at all; hear well of the essences, O king of birds, which I shall explain:
the essence of grapes and sugarcane, the essence of coconut, the essence of mango, and also the essence of jackfruit,

the essence of orange, the essence of betel nut, the essence of dates, [and] of plantain fruit;
Nārāyaṇa constantly receives the essence of the seed-form, he who is foremost among devotees, compassionate;

the essence of betel, the essence of acacia, the essence of flowers, and also the essence of sandalwood,
the essence of wheat, and the essence of barley, the essence of black gram, and the essence of peas,

and the pure essence of wild rice and regular rice, the essence of śyāmāka millet, the essence of pure grain;

the essences of all vegetables, [excluding] forbidden ones, and likewise the essences of salt, [excluding] forbidden ones—
Viṣṇu receives with supreme respect the essence of food, the essence of eaten and enjoyed fare,

the essence of soup, the essence of rice pudding, the essence of milk, the essence of curd and buttermilk,
the essence of ghee, and also the essence of asafoetida; Viṣṇu receives also the essence of mustard,

the essence of black pepper, the essence of cumin, and likewise the essence of sacrificial offering cooked in ghee,
of that cooked and fried in oil, the essence of jaggery, the essence of fresh butter,

the essence of cloves, and the essence of sugar—such essences Vāsudeva enjoys.
The husband of Lakṣmī is the abode of all the worlds; by his command Vāsudeva also constantly [enjoys them].

Hear also of the portions of the Great Soul [eaten by] the lord of the earth from the remnants of those essences, O best of disciples!
Thus the foolish [who are not] devotees of Vāsudeva—what need be said of Viṣṇu's devotees in the world?

Auspicious are they who enjoy the essence; because of that, no increase of sorrow comes to them.
Those who eat without performing the vaiśvadeva offering—know them to be wicked and anxious about their enjoyment.

I shall declare a specific detail regarding the vaiśvadeva rite, O King of Birds, a secret which a wise man should not utter elsewhere: / that those who make offerings to the Sun and other [deities] apart from Hari who dwells within Vāyu,

they indeed must always be known as consumers only of the essence. Therefore the great-souled Viṣṇu alone / is the consumer of the essential portion, not the consumer of everything; yet possessing unobstructed power, he consumes all.

I shall declare other essences further, O King of Birds; listen to the secret with supreme care. / Grapes and the like are entirely devoid of essence when spoiled by time and other factors, or when their condition has spoiled.

After becoming overripe, and likewise after four days, / they are known to be without essence and corrupted; so too the rose-apple fruit is traditionally considered.

After a month, O best of birds, the jackfruit is considered devoid of essence; / after six months, O best of birds, the date is considered as if bitter.

A moist, pure coconut, O lord, after being broken open, / is declared to be devoid of essence after a day and a night.

A dried coconut is like a date in this respect; / after a fortnight, a mango is declared devoid of essence.

After a year, O best of birds, the areca nut is so described; / after one ghaṭikā, O best of birds, betel is declared [devoid of essence].

After a yāma, boiled rice, pulse with rice, sweet milk-rice, / solid food, and boiled broth, O best of birds, are declared devoid of essence.

After three fortnights, O best of birds, food cooked in oil is likewise considered [such]; / and after four yāmas, food cooked in ghee is devoid of essence.

After three yāmas, leafy vegetables are declared devoid of essence; / lime, ginger, āmalakī, camphor, and mango,

after a year, O best of birds, are declared devoid of essence; / a parpaṭa is declared devoid of essence after merely a fortnight.

The tulasī always has essence, even on the eleventh lunar day, O twice-born one; / whether fresh or dried, the fresh one is considered full of essence.

On the eleventh lunar day, the tulasī's essence should be received by the wise / with the skin and the olfactory organ, but not with the gustatory organ.

On the eleventh lunar day, food offered to Hari is declared devoid of essence [for mortals]; / on the eleventh lunar day, holy water from Hari for human beings, O lord of birds,

taken once possesses essence, and taken twice is even more so. / On the eleventh lunar day, O fortunate one, holy water mixed with fragrances and the like

is declared devoid of essence, as is that mixed with sweetened water. / On the eleventh lunar day, Hari's essence is milk, ghee, and honey-water;

[for eating it is] devoid of essence for the lords of men: such is the view of the knowers of the Veda. / In the month of Āṣāḍha, O Garuḍa, leafy vegetables are said to be devoid of essence.

In the month of Bhādrapada, O best of birds, yogurt is said to be devoid of essence; / and milk in the month of Āśvina is declared devoid of essence.

A woman lacking the upward sectarian mark and the mace is proclaimed devoid of essence; / those who are devoid of devotion to Hari are declared to be asuras.

A mouth devoid of the name of Hari is called devoid of essence; / cooking devoid of food offered to Hari is called devoid of essence.

After three days, the linseed flower is declared devoid of essence; / jasmine has essence for a prahara, while jātī for half a prahara.

The lotus lasts for three yāmas; the oleander for a day and night; / pārijāta, O lord of birds, possesses essence up to a ghaṭikā.

Saffron is said by the wise to have essence for three years; / musk for ten years, while camphor for merely a year.

Sandalwood is traditionally considered to possess essence always. / Now hear of those things that are pure and devoid of essence, O lord of birds:

husk, unrefined gruel, sour rice-gruel, puṇyaka, bhiḥsaṭā, / upodakī, bottle-gourd, and the large luffa,

eggplant, sorrel greens, wood-apple, and cluster fig, / onion, garlic, stalks, and red garlic, O twice-born ones:

all these are declared devoid of essence at all times. / On the eleventh lunar day, the vaiśvadeva rite, śrāddha, and water-libations,

and the cremation of a corpse with mantras are declared devoid of essence. / Lord Nārāyaṇa, the sacrificial offering, indeed does not receive these inauspicious saps;

Hari himself does not accept them, does not accept them, does not accept them! / Even so, he knows everything; regarding the living beings of sinful deeds,

Hari causes them to taste them, but does not taste them himself; / and eating what is devoid of essence is the fruit born of living beings' karma.

Ordinary living beings eat what is secondary; Kuntī and others eat what is primary. / The all-pervading Viṣṇu drinks what is auspicious, but does not drink what is inauspicious.

Who can recount his actions? Hari himself is full of bliss. / There is none equal to him in any place or time. / I shall declare his incarnations; listen, O best of the monarchs of birds.

Thus ends the fourteenth chapter, named 'Discernment of Substances Possessing and Lacking Essence for the Purpose of Vaiśvadeva', in the Brahmakāṇḍa, the third section of the Uttarakhaṇḍa in the glorious and great Garuḍa Purāṇa.