Matsyapurana 19
English (machine translation) 19
- Language
- English
19.1
The ṛṣis said: / How do the offerings to ancestors and offerings to gods, when given here by men, / reach those who dwell in the realm of the ancestors? Who is said to be the conveyor here?
19.2
If a mortal twice-born man eats [it], or if it is poured into the fire, / how is that which is offered consumed by the deceased spirits, consisting of good and evil deeds?
19.3
Sūta said: / They declare the fathers to be the Vasus, the grandfathers the Rudras, / and the great-grandfathers the Ādityas: such is the Vedic revelation.
19.4
The name and lineage of the ancestors convey the offerings to gods and ancestors; / and the mantras of the śrāddha and faith must be employed with supreme devotion.
19.5
The Agniṣvāttas and other [ancestor-classes] are established in authority over them. / Name, lineage, time, and place satisfy living beings,
19.6
even when they have passed into another existence, having assumed food appropriate to them. / If the father has been born as a god through the conjunction of auspicious deeds,
19.7
his food turns into nectar and follows him even in divinity. / In the state of a Daitya it takes the form of enjoyments, and in that of a beast it becomes grass.
19.8
The food of the śrāddha attends him in the form of air even in the state of a serpent; / it becomes a beverage in the state of a yakṣa, and likewise meat in that of a rākṣasa.
19.9
In the state of a Danuja it becomes magical power; in that of a ghost, blood and water; / and in that of a human being, it becomes food, drink, and the taste of various pleasures.
19.10
Power of sexual enjoyment, lovely women, food, the ability to eat, / the ability to give along with wealth, beauty, and health—
19.11
faith is declared to be the flower of this, and its fruit is union with Brahman. / Long life, sons, wealth, knowledge, heaven, liberation, pleasures,
19.12
and sovereignty the pleased hosts of ancestors bestow upon men. / And it is heard that anciently the sons of Kauśika attained liberation; / through five connected births they reached the supreme abode of Viṣṇu.
Translations (1)
- The Matsya Puranam — A Taluqdar of Oudh 1916, English
Linked texts (1)
- Matsyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit