Garudapurana 2.42

English (machine translation) 2.42

Language: English

2.42.22 — 1 part

2.42.1

The glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa — [Chapter] 42. / The Holy Viṣṇu said: / Just as among a thousand cows a calf finds its mother, / so an action done previously follows the agent.

2.42.2

The Sun, Varuṇa, Viṣṇu, Brahmā, Soma, Fire, / and the trident-bearing Lord applaud the giver of land.

2.42.3

There is no gift equal to land; there is no treasure equal to land; / there is no dharma equal to truth; there is no sin greater than falsehood.

2.42.4

Gold is the first-born child of Fire, the earth belongs to Viṣṇu, and cows are daughters of the Sun; / the three worlds are given by him who gives gold, a cow, and land.

2.42.5

They declare three to be supreme gifts: cows, land, and Sarasvatī [learning]; / through recitation, worship, and homa, these rescue [one] from hell.

2.42.6

Even after committing many terrible and immense sins, / one is purified by the gift of land, even if it is only the size of a cow's hide.

2.42.7

Even if one is seizing it out of greed, one should restrain and prevent him; / he who does not protect it goes to a dreadful hell.

2.42.8

What ought not to be done should not be done, even when life is at the throat; / only that which ought to be done must be done—so the knowers of dharma understand.

2.42.9

The sin in confiscating a mine is equal to the slaughter of a thousand cows; / likewise in cutting off a livelihood; providing a livelihood is [equal to giving] a hundred thousand cows.

2.42.10

Better that even one [cow] is not seized than a hundred cows are given; / having taken one and given a hundred, equality is not attained thereby.

2.42.11

He who, having given himself, personally obstructs it, / that sinner goes to hell until the dissolution of all beings.

2.42.12

Not even by a horse-sacrifice performed according to rule with lavish priestly fees [is such merit gained], / as when a distressed brāhmaṇa, emaciated from lack of livelihood, is protected.

2.42.13

That [merit] does not arise from the Vedas, nor from a sacrifice with abundant priestly fees, / which merit arises when a weak and frightened brāhmaṇa is protected.

2.42.14

Vehicles and armies well-nourished by brāhmaṇa-property / collapse in battle like bridges made of sand.

2.42.15

He who seizes land, whether given by himself or given by another, / is reborn as a worm in excrement for sixty thousand years.

2.42.16

Property of a brāhmaṇa enjoyed through friendship burns [a lineage] up to the seventh generation; / that very same property, taken by theft, burns [it] as long as the moon and stars exist.

2.42.17

A man might perhaps digest iron filings or powdered stone; / but who in the three worlds is able to digest the property of a brāhmaṇa?

2.42.18

Through destruction of temple property, through confiscation of brāhmaṇa-property, / and through disrespect to a brāhmaṇa, noble families descend into ignobility.

2.42.19

There is no disrespect to a brāhmaṇa in the case of a brāhmaṇa devoid of learning; / having abandoned a blazing fire, an offering is not indeed poured into ashes.

2.42.20

Whatever gifts, and whatever offerings to gods and ancestors are made at a solar transit, / the Sun returns them again and again until the end of seven aeons.

Among receiving gifts, teaching, and sacrificing for others, they declare receiving gifts to be the most desirable for oneself; / recitation and homa purify one from receiving gifts, but the Vedas do not purify the act of sacrificing for an unfit person.

2.42.22

One who constantly recites prayers, constantly offers oblations, and avoids food cooked by others / is not tainted even when accepting the earth filled with jewels.

2.42.22.p1

Thus ends the forty-second chapter, entitled 'Determination of the Gift of Land and Other Gifts', in the Pretakalpa of the Dharmakāṇḍa, in the second part of the Uttarakhaṇḍa of the glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa, in the dialogue between Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Garuḍa.

Linked texts (1)

Garuḍapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit