Garudapurana 3.29

The glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa: Chapter 29. / I shall declare those following Pravaha; listen, O best of the lords of birds! / Dharma, who was a son of Brahmā, arose from his skin at the beginning of creation.

Because of sustaining good people in a gentle form, he is named Dharma; / he indeed became the son of Sūrya and acquired the name Yama. / Because he punishes sinners, he is called Yama by the wise.

The holy Kṛṣṇa said: / After Prahlāda comes Gaṅgā, the wife of Varuṇa. / She is to be known as inferior to Prahlāda, but superior to Varuṇa in greatness.

She is to be known as inferior by intrinsic nature; no doubt should be made here. / Yama always knows Viṣṇu, who grants the intrinsic nature of knowledge.

Therefore she is to be known as the Gaṅgā, who constantly purifies the worlds. / Out of devotion she is proclaimed as the Viṣṇupadī; of this there is no doubt.

She who, in former times, when the sacrificial embodiment Viṣṇu, Hari himself, bestrode [the worlds], O King of Birds, / pierced through the upper part of the cosmic egg from the tip of his left foot's nail,

entered its interior with great speed, flowing down, purified by the filament of the foot of the slayer of the world's sins, / destroying all impurity by sight, by touch, or by a single immersion, granting devotion to Viṣṇu's feet, / fair as an excellent ray of the moon, fish-eyed, worthy of great worship—whoever remembers her who arose from Hari's foot gradually attains liberation.

Even Indra, having drunk the drop of the wind-mass struck by the hand of the wind, and having an intolerant mind on his head, / knowing always that the Bhāgīrathī is marked with Hari's foot, as the foremost of the great supreme devotees of the Lord, / with a heart melting with devotion, holding her upon his head with the highest reverence, that supreme inauspicious one became Śiva [the auspicious one].

And there were four forms of the Bhāgīrathī, O lord of birds: / she was the wife who anointed Mahābhiṣaj, the lord of men;

by her second form, Gaṅgā was the wife of Śantanu; / as Suṣeṇā, she is recorded as the monkey wife of Suṣeṇa;

and as the frog's wife, that same Gaṅgā is remembered as Maṇḍūkinī. / Thus the four forms of the Gaṅgā are proclaimed.

And from the sun and the Gaṅgā, Parjanya is said to have arisen; / he rains down supreme dispassion, hence he is named Parjanya.

For the best of arrows, having abandoned the five from the Pañcajanya and eaten the arrogance sixfold in succession, / one should worship the arrow situated in one's own heart, and never devotion [which turns to] poison.

The subtle body should not always be nourished; the subtle body should always be nourished in this way: / attachment to the womb should never be formed; when freed from the womb, unattached, one attains liberation.

Thus he constantly produces dispassion; therefore, Parjanya is the ender, O best of birds. / To that extent, that great soul is named Śarabha, and he is internal, but he is indeed Parjanya.

He on whose body hair constantly shines, O King of Birds, is called Śarabha, and thereafter / the wife of Yama is Śyāmalā, O King of Birds, because she is always the wife of Kali and dear to him.

She who properly makes up her mind after reflection, hence she was named Śyāmalā. / I shall speak of impurity, which is opposed to devotion to Hari, and its presence in a vessel of good iron.

That should always be abandoned by Vaiṣṇavas, as well as burnt cloth, that produced at a junction, and childbirth; / treating another's suffering [for selfish gain], O King of Birds, should always be abandoned by Hari's devotees.

And those who are devoid of devotion to Hari are not noble; association with them should never be made: / an abandoned one through contact with the old, an old palm leaf, an old garment,

a worn-out patched rag, an antelope skin, a girdle, a sacred thread—these are dear to Kali; / a house with a woolen canopy, and that filled with sacrificial sticks and kuśa grass and censured,

all this is dear to Kali's wife, and never dear to the wielder of the Śārṅga bow; / barley-porridge well cooked in bell-metal, chaff, oil-cake, bottle-gourd, bael, onion,

stale buttermilk, food that is tasteless, lukewarm—all these are dear to Kali's wife; / foul-mouthed speech, reviling of noble people, deliberately dishonoring good people and one's own children,

constant oppression in the circle of the husband's kin, theft of grain, cloth, and other goods kept in the house, / keeping disheveled hair, accompanied by clapping hands—these are dear to the deity Kali.

All such things, dear to Kali's wife, she makes completely pure. / Therefore, she attained her name Śyāmalā, and she became Devakī.

She indeed became Yudhiṣṭhira's respected wife, and she was Devakī there. / Rohiṇī, the wife of the Moon, is constantly superior even to Aśvinī and the others.

Taking hold of the ray, she ascends to the suitable station; therefore she is renowned as Rohiṇī. / The wife of the Sun is named Saṃjñā, O King of Birds; she is to be known as an embodiment of Nārāyaṇa.

Because she fully knows, she attained the name Saṃjñā in the world as the wife of Sūrya, O King of Birds; / and the deity who identifies with the cosmic egg attained the name Virāj thereby.

The group of six beginning with Gaṅgā are always equal to one another, neither superior nor inferior. / Other than the purifier of the principal fire, Gaṅgā is always auspicious; there is no doubt about this.

From knowledge of these, one continually attains merit, and Hari Keśava is always pleased. / Lower than the group beginning with Gaṅgā is the wife of Agni, named Svāhā, rich in virtues, not deficient.

Identifying with the utterance 'svāhā' in the form of mantras, she always attained the name Svāhā, O best of birds. / From the wife of Agni was born the wise Budha, the son of the Moon, who identifies with Brahmā.

By his intellect he understood everything born of the realm and sustained it; therefore he attained the name Budha. / And thus arose the great-souled Abhimanyu from Arjuna in the womb of Subhadrā.

He was endowed with portions of Kṛṣṇa, the Moon, Yama, the two Aśvins, and Hara. / But Budha, the son of the Moon, is lower than Svāhā, devoted to the lotus feet of Lord Viṣṇu.

The wife of the Aśvins, consisting of names, is proclaimed as Uṣā; / she is to be known as lower than Budha, tenfold lower than Svāhā.

The wife of Nakula, the daughter of the king of Magadha, and the wife of Sahadeva, the daughter of Śalya— / both of these are wives of the Aśvins; and Uṣā worships the primeval Viṣṇu endowed with six virtues. / Therefore she is also named Uṣā, O King of Birds. Hear now of those who follow, O great-souled one.

Thence is Śakti, the soul of the earth; he always moves slowly (śanaiḥ); / therefore his name is Śanaiścara, and he is tenfold lower than Uṣā.

Puṣkara is to be known as the embodiment of action, then Śani, then Yama is considered; / the person who presides over policy, slightly lower, is tenfold inferior.

Because he constantly brings pleasure to Hari and sports at Puṣkara, / he is therefore proclaimed in the world as Puṣkala.

I shall describe the dharmas that bring pleasure to Hari; listen, O King of Birds: / Having risen at daybreak, one should remember Hari Nārāyaṇa.

One should perform salutation to tulasī and meditate on Śrī Viṣṇu, O bird, / and at the time of voiding feces and urine, on Keśava in the form of the apāna wind.

[He remembers] Hari as Trivikrama at the time of purification, Hari as making one drink the Gaṅgā, / and at the time of cleaning the teeth, Hari as the inner ruler of the moon.

At the time of washing the face, one should remember Mādhava, O bird; / and at the scratching of cows, one should remember Hari as Govardhana.

Always at the time of milking cows, one should remember the beloved of the cowherdesses. / When the deeds of lives earned through endless merit are fully ripened, O best of the kings of birds,

the touching of cows indeed always happens for men; hence there is no doubt here. / In whichever house there is not an ever-excellent cow, and in whose courtyard there is no holy tulasī,

in whichever house there is no great festival for the gods, in whichever house there is no hearing about Viṣṇu, / from association with that [house], suffering and the like comes; one should never touch him.

For one devoid of touching cows, not knowing the milking of cows, / and devoid of maintaining cows, they declare his life to be useless.

For one who does not give a mouthful of grass to a cow and does not nourish a cow, / there is no good destination at all; he is considered like a village outcaste.

When a calf drinks milk, one should remember child Kṛṣṇa; / and when churning curds, one should remember Hari, the support of the churning stick.

At the time of taking an earth-bath, one should remember Hari as the Boar; / and when applying the sect-marks, [one should remember] the twelve deities beginning with Keśava.

And when putting on the seals, one should remember [Hari] bearing the conch, discus, and mace, / the lotus, the mark of Nārāyaṇa, and [the forms] beginning with Kruddholka.

And [one should engage in] remembrance of Śrī Rāma at twilight, O best of birds; / and at the time of a śrāddha, one should remember Acyuta, Ananta, and Govinda.

During the five oblations beginning with prāṇa, one should remember [the deities] beginning with Aniruddha; / and at the time of offering food and the like, one should remember Vāsudeva.

At the time of sipping water, [one should remember] Hari residing within Vāyu; / and at the time of putting on clothes, one should remember Hari as Upendra.

When putting on the sacred thread, one should remember Nārāyaṇa named Vāmana; / and likewise at the time of waving the lamp for Viṣṇu, one should properly remember Viṣṇu named Rāma Jāmadagnya.

At the time of sipping water, during the vaiśvadeva rite, during other oblations, and when applying holy ash, / one should remember with devotion and supreme reverence Nārāyaṇa named Rāma Jāmadagnya.

At the time of taking the holy water three times, [one should remember] Kṛṣṇa, Rāma, and the divine Vyāsa in sequence; / and when taking water from the conch, one should always remember the form of Mukunda.

With every morsel of pure food, remembrance should be made of the one named Govinda; / at the time of taking each single piece of food, O King of Birds, one should properly remember Acyuta.

At the time of eating vegetables and the like, one should always remember Dhanvantari; / and likewise when enjoying another's food, one should properly remember Viṣṇu as Pāṇḍuraṅga.

When eating fresh butter, one should properly remember Kṛṣṇa known as Tāṇḍava; / when eating curd-rice, one should always remember the supreme, primordial Gopālakṛṣṇa.

And likewise when consuming milk-rice, one should properly remember Hari as Śrīnivāsa; / when eating fried food cooked in fine oil and clarified butter, one should remember Veṅkaṭeśa.

Grapes, fine rose-apples, bananas, mangoes, oranges, and fine pomegranates— / indeed, when enjoying splendid plantains, coconuts, and emblic myrobalans, one should remember child Kṛṣṇa.

At the time of drinking sweet beverages, one should properly remember Viṣṇu named Nārasiṃha; / and at the time of drinking the nectar of the Gaṅgā, one should remember Viṣṇu alone as the father of the Gaṅgā.

At the time of departure on a journey, one should remember Nārāyaṇa mounted on Garuḍa, qualityless, having the universe as his form; / and at the time of kissing sons and others, one should remember Kṛṣṇa alone with the fine flute in hand.

During pleasant union with one's own wife, [one should] always [remember] Hari delighting in the pair of breasts of the gopīs; / and at the time of betel, one should always remember Hari, Vāsudeva named Pradyumna.

At bedtime, one should always remember Hari, the form of Viṣṇu named Saṃkarṣaṇa; / at the time of sleep, one should remember the one named Padmanābha; and at the time of holy narration, Hari in the form of Vyāsa.

At the time of sweet singing, one should remember the song of the flute and always say, 'Hari, Hari'; / and at the time of cutting the sacred tulasī, one should remember, 'Śrī Rāma, Rāma.'

At the time of plucking flowers and the like, one should properly remember Hari named Kapila; / and during circumambulation, O King of Birds, one should always remember Hari residing within Garuḍa.

At the time of bowing to Viṣṇu, the God of gods, one should remember Viṣṇu seated upon Śeṣa; / at the time of proper conduct, one should always remember Nārasiṃha and Nārāyaṇa.

When the completion of rituals is performed, one should properly remember Hari as Vāsudeva. / Actions performed in this way bring delight to Hari.

Performing these [remembrances] properly, Puṣkara became dear to Hari.

For this very reason, O Lord of Birds, if one endowed with faith listens to the ritual that has been described and this matchless narrative of Puṣkara, / he will always be devoted to the dharma that brings delight to Hari.

Thus ends the twenty-ninth chapter, entitled 'The Secret of the Realities,' in the dialogue between Kṛṣṇa and Garuḍa, in the Brahmakāṇḍa, the third part of the Uttarakhaṇḍa in the great Garuḍa Purāṇa.

The Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa is concluded.

Thus ends the glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa.