Skandapurana 5.185

The seers said: / “O highly fortunate one, son of Sūta, declare once more in full detail / the supreme māhātmya of the guest and our duty [toward him].” // 1

Sūta said: / “Let all the sages listen to this supreme māhātmya, / by merely hearing which the sin born of the day is destroyed, // 2

which was previously heard by me as auspicious from my father's presence. // 3

For householders there is no higher duty than the worship of a guest; / there is no fault in a guest, nor in passing beyond him. // 4

From whose house a guest turns away with his hopes shattered, / he goes away leaving his misdeeds to that host and taking away his merit. // 5

Truth, purification, austerity, study, sacrifices, and gifts made for a hundred years— / all this is lost for him who does not worship a guest. // 6

He to whose house guests come contented from afar / is called a true householder; the others are merely guardians of a house. // 7

For men on this earth who have performed no prior merit, / these three are obstructed: ancestral offerings, gifts, and kind words. // 8

When a guest is pleased, all deities become pleased with the householder; / when he turns away, all turn away, without a doubt. // 9

Therefore, a guest must always be gratified by a householder, / even by offering himself, if he desires merit for himself. // 6.186.10

A guest is declared to be threefold for householders, O best of twice-borns. / I shall tell you their proper time; listen attentively: // 11

one belonging to the śrāddha, one belonging to the vaiśvadeva, and the third is the one brought by the sun [at evening]; / those others who come seeking food are designated as ordinary ones. // 12

When a deliberate śrāddha has been arranged for the dining of the ancestors, / he who arrives at that time is indeed a guest of the śrāddha. // 13

One who comes at the end of the vaiśvadeva, weary from travel on a long road, / one should know him as a guest; one who arrived earlier is not a guest. // 14

Whether dear or disliked, a fool or indeed a scholar, / if he arrives at the vaiśvadeva sacrifice, that guest is a bridge to heaven. // 15

One should not ask his lineage, conduct, dwelling, or Veda; / seeing his sacred thread, one should feed him with great devotion. // 16

If no guest arrives at the śrāddha or at the vaiśvadeva, / one should then offer an oblation of clarified butter into the fire in his name. // 17

If unable to provide a full meal, something further should be given with devotion— / even a little of his food, whereby he becomes satisfied. // 18

And the third guest is called the one brought by the sun; / he who arrives after the meal has been taken, or at night, / should be given grain by the householder according to his capacity. // 19

He who has arrived brought by the sun, if he departs from a house without worship, / leaves behind his own sin disappointed, and departs. // 6.186.20

Grass [for a seat], earth [for rest], water, and fourthly pleasant speech— / these are never lacking in the houses of the virtuous. // 21

By a welcome the fires of the householder attain satisfaction; / by a seat the self-manifest Great-Grandfather attains contentment; // 22

by the respectful offering Śambhu is pleased; by water for the feet all gods with Indra; / by the gift of food Viṣṇu is pleased, for the guest embodies all deities. // 23

Therefore, O brahmins, he must always be worshiped and fed especially; / any other brahmin should also be fed by the householder after uttering his name. // 24

Thus ends the one hundred and eighty-sixth chapter, named 'Description of the Māhātmya of the Guest', in the Greatness of the Sacred Field of the Glorious Hāṭakeśvara, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [part] of the eighty-one-thousand-verse compilation in the glorious Skanda Purāṇa. // 186