Skandapurana 5.234

Brahmā said: / They always praise the dharma of giving among all dharmas; / especially while Hari is asleep, giving is the cause of attainment to Brahman.

Food is declared to be Brahman; upon food the life-breaths are established. / Therefore, a person should constantly be a giver of food and a giver of water.

The giver of water attains satisfaction; the giver of food attains imperishable happiness. / Equal to the gift of water and food there has not been nor will there ever be.

Compared to gifts of jewels, gems, corals, silver, gold, and garments, / and compared even to other gifts, the gift of food is pre-eminent.

Constantly giving food and water, giving a cow, / reciting the Vedas, and offering oblations into the fire during the Cāturmāsya yield great fruit.

If one desires the abode of Vaikuṇṭha, in union with Viṣṇu, / for the destruction of all sins one should be a giver of food during the Cāturmāsya.

Truly, truly indeed, O celestial seer Nārada, has this been spoken by me to you: / what has not been given does not attend one in a thousand other births.

Therefore, by the giving of food all living beings rejoice; / and the gods yearn for this giver of the gift of food.

And clarified butter mixed with diamonds should be given in vessels with faith; / a mortal who makes a gift of diamonds during the Cāturmāsya is no ordinary human.

Feeding venerable brahmins, giving ghee, and hospitality— / he in whom these abide during the Cāturmāsya is no ordinary human.

True dharma, sacred discourse, service to the virtuous, the darśana of the virtuous, / worship of Viṣṇu, and delight in giving are hard to obtain during the Cāturmāsyas.

That mortal who becomes a giver of food during the Cāturmāsya for the sake of the ancestors, / his soul purified of all sins, would attain the realm of the ancestors.

All the gods, satisfied by the gift of food, bestow what is desired; / even an ant goes bearing food from his house.

Unforbidden food by night or day: the gift of food is unsurpassed; / while Hari is asleep, it destroys sins, even when offered to enemies.

During the Cāturmāsya, the giving of milk, curds, and buttermilk yields great fruit; / that gift is supreme by which the bodily mass was formed at the time of birth.

A giver of vegetables does not see hell or the world of Yama; / a giver of garments would dwell in the world of Soma until the dissolution of beings.

While the God is asleep, according to one's capacity, even to other icons, / by offering flowers and garments, lineage never declines.

He who gives sandalwood and aloewood incense during the Cāturmāsya, / endowed with sons and grandsons, becomes one possessing the form of Viṣṇu.

While the God, the Lord of the World, is asleep, whoever gives a gift of fruit / to a brahmin who knows the Vedas, does not see the world of Yama.

Whoever gives the gift of knowledge, the gift of a cow, and the gift of land / solely for the pleasure of Viṣṇu, delivers his ancestors here.

One who gives jaggery, rock salt, oil and the like, honey, bitter herbs, and sesame food / dedicated to a deity, departs indeed to their realm.

Having given sesame seeds during the Cāturmāsya, one does not drink from a breast again; / a giver of barley dwells in the imperishable realm of Indra.

Sacrificial food should be offered into the fire, and gifts should be given to the twice-born; / cows should be honored well, especially during the Cāturmāsya.

Whatever virtuous deed was well-accumulated since birth— / if, during the Cāturmāsya, when a worthy recipient departs turned away, it is not given,

it perishes in an instant; for whoever falls away from his word, / what was promised increases for him day by day.

Therefore one should not make a promise [unless] even a small thing is promptly given; / the obligation to give increases as long as one does not give it.

That person who out of delusion in the world [fails to give], it becomes tenfold a crore of times; / then tenfold is the increase for the giver during the Cāturmāsya.

His fall into hell lasts as long as fourteen Indras reign; / therefore, whatever has been promised should always be given by men.

It should not be given to another; what has been promised one must not forfeit. / During the Cāturmāsyas, he who gives a bed to an eminent twice-born,

According to the rite prescribed in the Vedas, he does not go to the abode of Yama. / A seat, a water vessel, and a utensil—a copper vessel—

Should be given with effort during the Cāturmāsya according to one's wealth. / Giving all kinds of gifts to brahmins while the Teacher of the World is asleep,

He frees himself along with his ancestors from sin. / A cow, land, a vessel of sesame, and the supreme gift of a lamp:

Giving [these] to a twice-born, he becomes released from the three debts.

He is the creator of the universe, the protector among the worlds; he is the enjoyer of sacrifice and the bestower of all fruits. / In whom [abides] the presiding deity over gifts and objects, addressing him, [the giver], liberated, offers [them].

Thus ends the two hundred and thirty-fifth chapter, titled 'Description of the Glory of Gifts during Cāturmāsya,' in the dialogue between Brahmā and Nārada, in the Glory of Cāturmāsya, in the episode of Him Who Sleeps upon Śeṣa, in the Glory of the sacred field of Hāṭakeśvara, in the sixth Nāgarakhaṇḍa, in the compendium of eighty-one thousand [verses] of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa.