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Garudapurana 2.40

English (machine translation) 2.40

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2.40.1

Tārkṣya said: / O Blessed One, some brāhmaṇas fall into the power of untimely death; / what is their path, what is their place, and what will their destination be?

2.40.2

And what would be proper for them, or what kind of ritual should be performed? / I wish to hear that; tell me, O Madhusūdana.

2.40.3

Śrī Kṛṣṇa said: / For twice-born men who have become ghosts when a distortion of death has occurred, / I shall declare their path, destination, place, and ritual.

2.40.4

Listen, O Tārkṣya, to the supreme secret when a bad death has occurred: / brāhmaṇas who die of starvation, or who are struck down by tusked animals,

2.40.5

those suffocated by choking, the emaciated, those struck down by beaks [or weapons], / suicides by poison, fire, a bull, brāhmaṇas, or cholera,

2.40.6

hear the condition of those who die by falling, hanging, or water; / those who are killed by mlecchas and the like go to a terrible hell.

2.40.7

Those touched by dogs, jackals, and the like, uncremated, infested with worms, / those who die being transgressed, and those afflicted with great diseases—

2.40.8

Those who are accursed, and those who are mutilated, and those who are nourished on sinful food; / [those killed] by an outcaste, by water, by a snake, by a brāhmaṇa, or by lightning-fire;

2.40.9

and those who died from fanged beasts, or from animals, or from the fall of a tree and the like; / those defiled by union with a menstruating woman, a woman in childbirth, a śūdra woman, or a washerwoman;

2.40.10

released from hell through that sin, they share the condition of ghosts; / one should not perform cremation for them, nor observe impurity, nor perform water rites;

2.40.11

one should not perform the rites beginning at death, nor should one perform the funeral rites; / for them, O Tārkṣya, one should perform the rite of the offering to Nārāyaṇa.

2.40.12

For the benefit of all the worlds, hear about [the rite] that dispels the fear of sins: / cremation after six months is held proper for a brāhmaṇa, and after three months for a kṣatriya.

2.40.13

For a vaiśya, [it is prescribed] after a month and a half, but for a śūdra it is prescribed immediately. / At the Gaṅgā, at the Yamunā, at Naimiṣa, and at Puṣkara,

2.40.14

or at a reservoir filled with water, or a lake of clear water, / at a step-well, a well, a cattle-pen, at home, or in a temple,

2.40.15

in the presence of Kṛṣṇa, the twice-born should offer the oblation named Nārāyaṇa. / A libation for the deceased should be performed with Purāṇic and Vedic mantras.

2.40.16

One should offer libations dedicating them to Viṣṇu with all medicinal herbs mixed with unhusked barley-grains; / it should be performed with the Puruṣasūkta or with Vaiṣṇava mantras.

2.40.17

Turning facing the south, one should contemplate the deceased as Viṣṇu: / “The god without beginning or end, holding the conch, discus, and mace,

2.40.18

the imperishable, lotus-eyed one, shall grant liberation to the deceased.” / And at the conclusion of the libation, free from passion and free from envy,

2.40.19

having subdued his senses and mind, pure, devoted to dharma, / intent on gifts and righteous deeds, calm, having bowed down, restrained in speech, pure,

2.40.20

the sacrificer should stand there pure, accompanied by his kinsmen. / With devotion he should perform right there precisely eleven śrāddhas.

2.40.21

Concentrated before each one according to the ripening of all actions, / with sixty [measures] of water, unhusked rice, and barley, as well as wheat and priyaṅgu millet,

2.40.22

pure sacrificial food, a coin, an umbrella, a turban, and a garment, / he should cause all varieties of grain, along with milk and honey, to be given.

2.40.23

Equipped with a garment and shoes, he should give the eightfold gift; / he should cause it to be given to all the brāhmaṇas, without making an exclusion of rows.

2.40.24

When the funeral rice-balls are resting on the ground, provided with fragrance, flowers, and unhusked grains, / a libation should be made separately in a conch shell or in copper.

2.40.25

Engaged in meditation and concentration, having fallen to the earth on his knees, / [gifts] should be given to all the brāhmaṇas according to the ordinance of the Veda and the treatises.

2.40.26

He should offer the water-offering with a verse separately in the rite for a single ancestor: / with ‘āpo devīr madhumatīḥ’ arranged on the first seat;

2.40.27

with ‘upayāmagṛhīto ’si’ he should present the water-offering on the second; / and with ‘yenā pāvakacakṣuṣā’ arranged on the third;

2.40.28

with ‘ye devāsaḥ’ on the fourth; with ‘samudraṃ gaccha’ on the fifth; / ‘agnir jyotiḥ’ likewise on the sixth; ‘hiraṇyagarbhaḥ’ on the seventh;

2.40.29

‘yamāya tvā’ should be known for the eighth; likewise ‘yaj jāgrataḥ’ on the ninth; / on the tenth ‘yāḥ phalinīḥ’; and then for the eleventh funeral rice-ball,

2.40.30

with ‘bhadraṃ karṇebhiḥ’ he should perform the dismissal of the funeral rice-ball. / Having performed the śrāddha dedicated to the eleven deities, he should perform on the following day:

2.40.31

He should invite five brāhmaṇas who are masters of the four Vedas, / endowed with learning and virtuous conduct, from his own circle, best in virtue, / unblemished and renowned; they should never be rejected.

2.40.32

Viṣṇu should be made of gold, and Rudra made of copper; / Brahmā likewise made of silver, and Yama should be made of iron.

2.40.33

The deceased, however, should be made of lead or else of darbha grass. / With the mantra ‘śan no devīḥ’, he should place Govinda in the west.

2.40.34

With ‘agna ā yāhi’, he should place Rudra in the north; / with the mantra ‘agnim īḷe’, Prajāpati in the east;

2.40.35

with the mantra ‘iṣe tvorje’, he should set Yama in the south; / having made a circle in the middle, the man made of darbha grass is to be placed.

2.40.36

Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Rudra, Yama, and the deceased as the fifth / should then be placed each on a separate water-jar, provided with the five gems.

2.40.37

Garments, sacred threads, and separate signet rings [are given]; / he should perform separate recitation of mantras there for the deities beginning with Brahmā.

2.40.38

He should perform five śrāddhas for the deities according to the rule; / then he should pour a stream of water on each separate seat.

2.40.39

In a conch, or in a copper vessel, or in its absence even in an earthen one, / taking water with sesame seeds, mixed with all medicinal herbs,

2.40.40

a seat, shoes, an umbrella, a ring, a water-pot, / a dish, a dish-stand, and garments: this is the eightfold gift.

2.40.41

A copper vessel filled with sesame seeds, together with gold and a ritual fee, / he should give to the foremost brāhmaṇa in accordance with the rule, O Lord of Birds.

2.40.42

To one who has mastered the Ṛgveda he should give land bearing crops; / to a brāhmaṇa versed in the Yajurveda he should give a milch cow.

2.40.43

To a chanter of the Sāmaveda he should give silver dedicated to Śiva; / dedicated to Yama he should give sesame seeds and iron, and then he should give a ritual fee.

2.40.44

Afterwards, an effigy should be made, accompanied by all medicinal herbs; / hear, O descendant of Kaśyapa, the distribution of the leaf-stalks of palāśa:

2.40.45

Having spread out a black antelope skin, and with kuśa grass [forming] the human shape, / the collection of bones is declared to be made with three hundred and sixty stalks.

2.40.46

Arranging those stalks separately on these limbs: / he should place forty in the region of the head, and ten on the neck;

2.40.47

he should place twenty on the chest, and twenty on the abdomen; / he should place a hundred on the pair of arms, and twenty in the region of the hips;

2.40.48

a hundred on the two thighs, and he should place thirty on the two shanks; / he should place four on the penis, six on the two testicles, / and ten in the region of the toes: thus he should arrange the bones.

2.40.49

A coconut in the place of the head, and he should place a gourd on the palate; / the five gems in the mouth, and a plantain fruit on the tongue;

2.40.50

he should place a hollow stalk for the entrails, and bālaka herb for the vital breath; / he should place fat for the marrow, and urine with cow's urine;

2.40.51

sulphur should be given for the minerals, orpiment, and realgar; / mercury in the place of semen, and brass for feces;

2.40.52

realgar likewise on the body, and sesame paste on the joints; / barley flour likewise for the flesh, and wild and apiary honey;

2.40.53

for the hair, banyan aerial roots; on the skin, he should place deer skin; / palm leaf on the two ears, and guñjā berries on the two breasts;

2.40.54

a lotus with a hundred petals on the nose, and a lotus in the navel-circle; / an eggplant on the pair of testicles, and an auspicious carrot for the penis;

2.40.55

clarified butter should be applied to the navel, and tin is prescribed for the loincloth; / a pearl on each of the two breasts, and anointing with saffron on the head.

2.40.56

With camphor, agallochum incenses, and pure fragrant garlands; / silk thread for the garment, and he should place gold on the heart;

2.40.57

the two herbs ṛddhi and vṛddhi for the two arms, and two cowrie shells for the eyes; / vermilion at the corners of the eyes, and offerings such as betel.

2.40.58

Having treated the deceased with all [medicinal] herbs, the worship should be performed as prescribed; / and for one who maintained the sacred fires, he should arrange the sacrificial vessels in due order according to the rules.

2.40.59

With the verse 'śiro me śrīḥ' and 'punantu mām...', / having performed the purification of the deceased with water mixed with rice, śāla, and stone,

2.40.60

a well-behaved milch cow should be given, designated for Viṣṇu.

2.40.61

Sesame seeds, iron, gold, cotton, and salt, / seven grains, land, and cows—each is known as a [purifying] gift. / Then, having given a vessel of sesame seeds, likewise the gift of sandals and other items,

2.40.62

the great gifts should be given, and likewise a vessel of sesame; / then the Vaitaraṇī [cow], adorned with all ornaments, should be gifted.

2.40.63

The wise man should perform the Vaiṣṇava śrāddha for the liberation of the deceased; / he should then effect the deceased's liberation, meditating upon Viṣṇu in his heart.

2.40.64

Recalling [the formula] 'Oṃ Viṣṇu', the deceased, and his death, / he should then perform the cremation with fire; the period of impurity lasts for three days.

2.40.65

The performer of the ten-day rites should offer rice-balls for the sustenance of the deceased; / he should perform the entire yearly rite—thus the deceased attains liberation.

2.40.65.p1

Thus ends the fortieth chapter, entitled 'Determination of Gain and Loss, Happiness and Misery in Untimely Death', in the Pretakalpa of the Dharmakāṇḍa, in the second section of the Uttarakhaṇḍa of the glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa, in the dialogue between Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Garuḍa.

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