Garudapurana 2.19

English (machine translation) 2.19

Language: English

2.19.21 — 1 part

2.19.1

The glorious Garuḍa Purāṇa, Chapter 19.
The Blessed Lord said: / Becoming wind, overcome with hunger, having taken resort in the body born of karma, / reaching that body, he travels with Yama.

2.19.2

The city of Citragupta is situated there at twenty yojanas; / there the Kāyasthas scrutinize sins and merits in every detail.

2.19.3

When great gifts have been given, one who has arrived there becomes happy. / The auspicious city of Vaivasvata is at twenty-four yojanas.

2.19.4

Iron, salt, cotton, and a vessel of sesame seeds— / by men who give these, Yama's town-dwellers are satisfied.

2.19.5

Having arrived there, they all inform the doorkeeper; / the doorkeeper Dharmadhvaja stands there always.

2.19.6

By the gift of the seven grains, Dharmadhvaja becomes pleased; / going there, the doorkeeper reports his good and bad deeds.

2.19.7

Virtuous and meritorious people behold the form of Dharmarāja, / while evil-minded people behold the intensely terrifying form of Yama.

2.19.8

Terrified with fear upon seeing him, the person cries out, 'Alas! Alas!' / But for those mortals by whom gifts have been made, there is no fear anywhere.

2.19.9

Seeing a meritorious person arrived, the son of Sūrya moves from his seat, [thinking:] / 'This one, having broken through my sphere, will proceed to the realm of Brahmā.'

Through gifts, dharma is easily attained, and Yama's path brings happiness; / this path here is vast, traversed by none [without merit]; / without the merit of gifts, my child, one should not enter the abode of Dharma.

2.19.11

On that terrible path indeed, frightful servants of Yama / stand in thousands in front of each city.

2.19.12

Inflicting torments, they seize and cook the sinner in water; / at the end of every month they seize [him], and a fourth part remains of it.

2.19.13

Those by whom gifts for the afterlife have not been given, O Kaśyapa, / travel with great torment; therefore they should be given according to one's ability. / Without giving, they go like cattle, seized by binding ropes.

2.19.14

Thus according to the deeds done, that man shall see / a divine womb, an ancestral womb, a human womb, or a hellish one.

2.19.15

Or from the command of the King of Dharma liberation arises; / truly obtaining human birth, that son may attain sonhood [again].

2.19.16

According to the deeds he has done, into that womb a person enters; / experiencing [their fruits] in that very way, he wanders going to all the worlds.

2.19.17

Knowing that pleasure surpassing all worlds is impermanent, / when human birth is attained, then one should practice dharma.

2.19.18

Worms, ashes, or feces is the nature of bodies always; / [one who neglects dharma] indeed falls into a blind, terrifying well with a lamp in his hand.

2.19.19

By the power of great merit a human birth is attained; / he who, having attained it, practices dharma, goes to the supreme state.

2.19.20

Even knowing it, one comes to grief and passes away in vain with regard to dharma.

2.19.21

Indeed, after a hundred births one attains human status, and even there twice-born status is harder to obtain, O bird! / Whoever there protects and cherishes observances, to him nectar comes into his hand by grace.

2.19.21.p1

Thus ends the nineteenth chapter, entitled 'Determination of the Attainment of Another Body Such as Human by the Order of Yama upon Entering the Abode of Yama,' in the Dialogue between Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Garuḍa, in the Pretakalpa, in the Dharmakāṇḍa, in the second part of the Uttarakhaṇḍa of the glorious and great Garuḍa Purāṇa.

Linked texts (1)

Garuḍapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit