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Garudapurana 2.31

English (machine translation) 2.31

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2.31.1

Śrī Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa—31
Śrī Viṣṇu said:
Those men who are joined with sins go to the abode of Yama. / What is given by men with me as witness yields infinite fruit.

2.31.2

A giver of land dwells in heaven for as many years as there are particles of dust. / And those who give shoes travel mounted on horses;

2.31.3

they are never burned in the heat by exertion. / By the gift of an umbrella, indeed, the deceased spirits wander happily along the path.

2.31.4

Designating whom one gives food, he becomes satisfied by that.

2.31.5

In the terrible darkness, formless and without a landmark, / men travel only with illumination by means of the gift of a lamp.

2.31.6

In the month of Āśvina or Kārttika, or in Māgha, or on the death-day anniversary, / and on the fourteenth day [of the lunar fortnight], a gift of a lamp should be given for happiness.

2.31.7

And it should be given daily by men on the very rugged path, / or for a whole year, through the desire for the happiness of the deceased spirit.

2.31.8

The pure-souled person shines in his family; he attains luminescence. / Luminous is he, worthy of worship is he—the man who makes the gift of a lamp.

2.31.9

One should place a lamp facing east or facing north for a twice-born man in a temple of the gods; / one should place it firmly facing south for the ancestor, having made a ritual intention with water.

2.31.10

Whoever gives here thirteen articles furnished with every offering / for a dead person, or even for his own sake while living, / goes along the great path free from great suffering.

2.31.11

A seat, a vessel, food—whatever is given to a twice-born man: / enjoying [it] happily, he travels abundantly along the path because of that.

2.31.12

By the gift of a water-pot, when thirsty, he drinks water.

2.31.13

A vessel, the gift of clothing, a flower, and a ring / should be given on the eleventh day for the purpose of rescuing the deceased spirit.

2.31.14

In this manner, thirteen articles should be given according to one's capacity / by one wishing for the welfare of the deceased spirit; that deceased spirit will be gratified.

2.31.15

Food, sesame seeds, and thirteen water-jars, / a signet ring, and a pair of garments: through these he attains the supreme state.

2.31.16

Whoever offers a horse, a boat, or an elephant to a brāhmaṇa / experiences the corresponding pleasure according to the greatness [of the gift].

2.31.17

Whoever gives a female buffalo roams various worlds; / the female buffalo, the mother of Yama's son, bestows a good destination.

2.31.18

Betel and flowers should be given, which increase the joy of Yama's servants; / fully pleased by that, they all cause no torment to him.

2.31.19

They declare the gifts of a cow, land, sesame, and gold according to one's capacity.

2.31.20

Whoever offers an earthen water pot designating the deceased, / that man obtains the fruit of a thousand water pots.

2.31.21

Yama's messengers are very terrible, dreadfully fierce, black and tawny; / the servants of Yama do not terrify him when the gift of clothing has been made.

2.31.22

For when traveling on the path, tormented by thirst and afflicted by fatigue, / he certainly becomes comfortable through the offering of a water jar and food.

2.31.23

A bed furnished with a sacrificial fee, accompanied by weapons and clothing, / and endowed with a golden Lord of Śrī, should be given to a brāhmaṇa for happiness; / thus freed from the condition of a deceased spirit, he rejoices with the gods.

2.31.24

This gift resulting from funeral rites has been told to you, O Tārkṣya; / now I shall speak of entering another body.

2.31.25

For a creature born in the mortal world, death is certain; / one should face death according to one's own dharma, O scorcher of foes, when about to depart.

2.31.26

And of creatures dead in the past, O lord of birds, / that breath, having become subtle, departs from the orb of the mouth.

2.31.27

Through the nine gates and the pores of the hair, in the aperture of the palate for [righteous] people; / for the most sinful, the soul departs certainly through the downward breath.

2.31.28

And the body falls afterwards when the lord of breath has departed, / just as a tree, struck by the wind, falls when devoid of support.

2.31.29

The earth dissolves into earth, and water into water; / fire dissolves into fire, the wind into wind; / and space into space, and the all-pervading [soul] into Śaṅkara.

2.31.30

Desire, anger, and egoism—with the mind as their leader— / and this Time, the destroyer, are accompanied by merit and demerit.

2.31.31

The form of the world is shaped by one’s own action; / through his good and evil deeds, a person goes again to another body.

2.31.32

Endowed with the five senses together with all their sense-objects, / he enters a new body, just as a householder [moves] when his house is burned.

2.31.33

Whatever bodily constituents are seated in the body come into being; / for this body consists of six sheaths, and these constituents derive from the mother and the father.

2.31.34

So too, O Tārkṣya, all the vital winds of embodied beings arise, / as well as urine, feces, and through their contact, whatever other diseases occur.

2.31.35

Bone, semen, and tendon are burned along with the body. / This, O Tārkṣya, has been told to you: the destruction of all embodied beings.

2.31.36

I shall tell you again how their body comes to be: / it has a single pillar, is bound by sinews, and is held up by two posts.

2.31.37

Endowed with the senses, this body has nine doors; / it is overcome by sense-objects and agitated by desire and anger.

2.31.38

Pervaded by attraction and aversion, impassable as a fortress of craving, / equipped with the snare of greed, it is a city designated as ‘man’.

2.31.39

In this body of all embodied beings, endowed with these qualities, / reside all the deities and the fourteen worlds.

2.31.40

Those men who do not know the Self are considered to be beasts. / Thus have I explained to you this fourfold body.

2.31.41

Eighty-four hundred thousand wombs were created of old: / plant-born, sweat-born, egg-born, and womb-born.

2.31.42

All this has been declared to you, sinless one, as was asked by you.

2.31.43

Thus ends the thirty-first chapter, entitled 'Determination of the Fruits of Gifts, Entrance into Another Body, etc.', in the dialogue between Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Garuḍa in the Pretakalpa, the second part of the Uttarakhaṇḍa of the glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa.

2.31.43.p1

The glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa—[Chapter] 32. / Tārkṣya said: / How is a living being born among the fourfold host of creatures? / [How are] skin, blood, flesh, fat, marrow, bone, and life [produced]?

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