Revākhaṇḍa ascribed to the Vāyupurāṇa (RKV) 159

English (machine translation) 159

Language: English

159.102 — 2 parts

159.1

The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Then, O great king, one should go to the supreme purifying pilgrimage place / on the Narmadā, very difficult to attain, the perfected Anarakeśvara.

159.2

Having bathed at that pilgrimage place, a man, even if he has committed evil deeds, O Bhārata, / does not behold the terrible [place] named the Gate of Hell.

159.3

Yudhiṣṭhira said:
O father, men in this world who have experienced the fruits of auspicious and inauspicious deeds
are born with certain bodily marks; tell me of those, O best of beings.

159.4

Just as the individual soul departs, leaving the body, and cannot see [it],
even so, departing, it enters another body endowed with the five gross elements.

159.5

Together with skin, bones, flesh, fat, blood, hair, and hundreds of tendons,
what consciousness arises for men in this heap of feces, urine, and semen?

159.6

Thus addressed, that Mārkaṇḍeya, knower of yoga, spoke,
having meditated upon the eternal Maheśvara, God of gods, who is all.

159.7

Mārkaṇḍeya said:
Listen, O son of Pṛthā, to this profound question; I shall tell it as it was heard
formerly in the presence of Brahmā, at the assembly of sages and gods.

159.8

The spiritual guide is the chastiser of the self-controlled; the king is the chastiser of the wicked;
here [in this world], Yama, son of Vivasvat, is the chastiser of those whose sins are hidden.

159.9

For those who have not performed atonement, in the realm of Yama in various ways
[punishments are meted out]; when released from torments through many series of living births,

159.10

having arrived at human state, they bear the marks of their sins.
I shall explain that to you; listen with a focused mind, O king.

159.11

Having endured all torment after going to the abode of the son of Vivasvat,
those whose torments have ended come into the world marked [by signs].

159.12

A liar becomes a stammerer, and one who lies regarding cattle becomes mute;
a killer of a brāhmaṇa is born a leper, and a drinker of liquor has black teeth.

159.13

One who steals gold gets deformed nails; one who defiles the guru's bed gets diseased skin;
one who has illicit intercourse is born from a base womb; one who gives no gifts becomes poor.

159.14

One who sacrifices for those unfit to sacrifice becomes a village pig, O king;
one who performs sacrifices for many becomes an ass; and from eating uninvited one becomes a dog.

159.15

One who eats without inspecting the food becomes a monkey in a lonely forest;
a fault-finder becomes a cat, and an arsonist of dry wood becomes a firefly.

159.16

He who imparts improper knowledge becomes an ox;
one who gives stale food to a brāhmaṇa falls into impotence.

159.17

From envy one is born blind; one who steals a book is born blind from birth;
the offspring of one who steals fruits dies—of this there is no doubt.

159.18

When dead, he becomes a monkey; freed from that, he becomes a person with a goiter;
and a man who eats them without giving to others becomes childless.

159.19

One who steals cloth becomes an iguana; a poisoner becomes an eater of wind [a serpent];
from having intercourse with an ascetic woman, O king, one becomes a ghost of the wilderness.

159.20

A stealer of water becomes a diver-bird, and a stealer of grain becomes a mouse;
one who has intercourse with a girl who has not reached puberty becomes a serpent—such is the sacred tradition.

159.21

One who covets the guru's wife becomes a chameleon for a long time;
and a man who breaches a water-stream becomes a fish.

159.22

A man who sells forbidden goods gets hideous eyes;
one who has unnatural intercourse becomes a wolf; from cheating in trade one becomes an owl.

159.23

One who eats on the eleventh day after a death is born a dog;
one who promises wealth to a twice-born but does not give it becomes a cuckoo.

159.24

From approaching a queen, a wicked thief becomes a dung-eating hog;
one who reviles twice-born men obtains the body of a tortoise.

159.25

A temple-priest, O king, enters the womb called Cāṇḍāla;
a seller of fruit becomes unfortunate; the husband of a Śūdra woman becomes a scorpion.

Touching fire with the foot, one becomes a cat; an eater of another's flesh becomes diseased;
from intercourse with a sister of the same womb, one becomes a eunuch; and a thief of fragrant scent smells foul.

159.27

A village bard becomes an outcaste; an astrologer becomes a donkey;
a pseudointellectual becomes a cat; and a barking dog becomes an expounder of scriptures.

159.28

That very [state] is seen, O king, from revealing the secret flaws of others;
or whatever belongs to another, whether it is small or great,

159.29

having taken it, one attains an animal womb—of this there is no doubt.
Such and other marks, O best of kings,

159.30

determined by their own actions, are seen on human beings.
Thence comes birth, thence comes death among all living beings, O Bhārata.

159.31

It occurs, of this there is no doubt, when good and evil deeds become balanced,
through the union of woman and man, when semen and menstrual blood are purified.

159.32

Endowed with the five elements, the supreme soul as the sixth,
the sense-faculties, mind, vital breaths, knowledge, lifespan, pleasure, steadfastness,

159.33

retention, impulse, pain, desire, egoism,
effort, bodily form, color, voice, aversion, existence and non-existence—

159.34

all this belongs to that self which, being beginningless, desires a beginning.
In the first month, it becomes a fluid mass mingled with the bodily elements.

159.35

In the second month it is a lump, and in the third it is endowed with sense-faculties;
from space [it takes] lightness, subtlety, sound, the power of hearing, and the like;
and from wind [it takes] touch, movement, digestion, and dryness;

159.36

from bile [it takes] sight, digestion, heat, form, and radiance;
from water [it takes] taste, coolness, moisture, wetness, and softness;

159.37

from earth [it takes] smell, the sense of scent, heaviness, and solid form.
The unborn self takes these first, and in the third [month] it stirs.

159.38

By not granting the pregnant woman's longing, the fetus may incur a defect,
either deformity or even death; therefore what is dear to the woman should be done.

159.39

In the fourth month there is firmness of the limbs; in the fifth, the production of blood;
in the sixth, strength, complexion, and the growth of nails and hair.

159.40

Endowed with consciousness by the mind, covered with hundreds of nails and hairs,
in the seventh and eighth [months] it possesses skin and possesses memory as well.

159.41

Its vital force runs back and forth between the fetus and the mother;
therefore a fetus born in the eighth month is deprived of life.

159.42

In the ninth or the tenth month, by the forceful winds of birth,
it emerges like an arrow through the opening of the birth-passage, accompanied by fever.

159.43

Endowed with the components of the body, accompanied by major and minor limbs,
there are one hundred and eight vital points, and there are three hundred bones.

159.44

Seven cranial bones were ordained by the Self-born;
there are thirty-five million hairs on the limbs, O Bhārata.

159.45

Seventy-two thousand [channels] branch out from the heart;
they are indeed called the hitā channels, and in the midst of them is one with the splendor of the moon.

159.46

Thus the wheel turns in the fourfold multitude of living beings;
arising and destruction happen for all embodied beings.

159.47

Upward course is attained through dharma, but downward course through adharma;
for all social classes, [downward course] arises from straying from their own duty, O king.

159.48

In godhood and in humanity, acts such as giving and enjoyment
which are seen, O great king—all that is the fruit born of action.

159.49

When terrible actions are performed, whether prompted by desire or anger, or auspicious ones,
[if sinful,] one sinks into the dreadful hell from which there is no crossing over.

159.50

For rescuing living beings, situated on the bank of the Narmadā, / is this great pilgrimage place, the supreme Narakeśvara.

159.51

Dispelling hell, bearing great religious merit, destroying great sins, / that pilgrimage place is the best of all pilgrimage places, difficult to attain on earth.

159.52

Having bathed at that pilgrimage place and worshipped Maheśvara, / even one burdened with great sins does not see hell at all.

159.53

Whoever gives an auspicious Vaitaraṇī cow at that pilgrimage place / is easily delivered across the Vaitaraṇī; there is no doubt.

159.54

Yudhiṣṭhira said: / That river Vaitaraṇī which is at the terrifying gate of Yama, / what form does it have, what size is it, and how does it flow, O twice-born one?

159.55

How are [men] delivered from it, whose dwelling is there continuously, / and to whom is it favorable? Speak of this in detail.

159.56

Glorious Mārkaṇḍeya said: / O son of Dharma, mighty-armed one, hear all that is told by me / concerning that great river named Vaitaraṇī at the gate of Yama.

159.57

It is bottomless, without a farther shore, terrifying merely upon being seen; / its water is pus and blood, and it is made of mud of flesh.

159.58

Its water whirls swiftly, like ghee inside a frying pan, / filled with pus and teeming with worms having adamantine beaks and iron snouts,

159.59

and with porpoises and crocodiles equipped with adamantine shears, / and other aquatic creatures, very ferocious and tearing at vulnerable spots.

159.60

The twelve Ādityas blaze intensely, as if at the end of a cosmic dissolution; / mortals fall in there, screaming most dreadfully:

159.61

"O brother! O son! O mother!" they wail repeatedly. / [Yet] who protects one falling into the terrifying sword-leaved forest?

159.62

Creatures cross, sink down, and fall into exhaustion; / that great river must be seen by creatures of all four kinds.

159.63

They cross it by virtuous gifts; otherwise they fall [into it]. / Those who do not honor their mother, teacher, and guru,

159.64

those fools who despise them—their dwelling is there continually; / [and who despise] a devoted wife of good character, faithful, steadfast in virtues.

159.65

the sinners who abandon them, dwell [there] continuously. / Those who seek out the flaws of those who have placed their trust,

159.66

of their master, friend, ascetics, / women, children, the elderly, and the miserable, / those terrible sinners are boiled in its midst, crying out.

159.67

The foolish-minded one who obstructs a tired and hungry brāhmaṇa / is eaten there by worms for three hundred kalpas.

159.68

He who promises a gift to a brāhmaṇa and does not give it, / or who calls [someone] and says "there is nothing," dwells there continuously.

159.69

An arsonist, a poisoner, an informer to the king, a slanderer, / an interrupter of holy discourses, a false witness, a drunkard,

159.70

a destroyer of adamantine works, a stealer of what he himself has given, / a breaker of the dam of a good field, an assaulter of another's wife,

159.71

a brāhmaṇa seller of prohibited liquids, a husband of an outcaste woman, / he who breaks the embankment of a herd of cows afflicted with thirst,

159.72

a defiler of maidens, one who feels remorse after giving a gift, / a śūdra who drinks the milk of a kapilā cow, a brāhmaṇa who eats meat—

159.73

these dwell [there] continuously; do not doubt it, O king. / Hear that by which it becomes favorable, O lord of men.

159.74

At a solstice, at an equinox, during a Vyatīpāta, on the day of a conjunction of lunar days, / and at other times of religious merit, the supreme gift is given.

159.75

One should prepare an auspicious Vaitaraṇī cow, either black or reddish-brown, / with gold horns, silver hooves, giving milk into a bronze vessel,

159.76

covered with a pair of black cloths, provided with seven grains; / one should place it seated upon a copper vessel crowned with a droṇa [of grain].

159.77

One should fashion a golden Yama equipped with an iron staff, / and having constructed a raft made of sugarcane stalks with silk cords,

159.78

and having placed upon the raft that cow born from the body of the Sun, / the wise person should provide it with an umbrella and a pair of sandals.

159.79

He should present a ring and garments to the brāhmaṇa; / grasping her tail, he should utter this mantra:

159.80

"Oṃ. That river Vaitaraṇī which is at the terrifying gate of Yama, / desiring to cross it, I give this [cow]; salutation to you, O Vaitaraṇī!" / Such is the preliminary consecration mantra.

159.81

"May cows be in front of me; may cows be behind me; / may cows be in my heart; I dwell in the midst of cows."

159.82

"Oṃ. O best of the twice-born, having the form of Viṣṇu, earthly god, purifier of the assembly, / this [cow] along with a sacrificial fee is given by me; salutation to you, O Vaitaraṇī!" / Such is the donation mantra.

159.83

Having circumambulated the brāhmaṇa, Dharmarāja, / and the auspicious Vaitaraṇī cow, he should offer all to the brāhmaṇa.

159.84

Then, having taken hold of the tail of the cow and placed the twice-born in front,

159.85

"O cow, wait for me at the gate of Yama fraught with great fear! / Desiring to cross over, O cow, salutation to you, O Vaitaraṇī!" / Such is the accompanying mantra.

159.86

He should accompany him as he departs, and take everything to his house. / When this is done, O protector of the earth, the river flows pleasantly.

159.87

By means of that cow, that river flowing with water carries him across; / he obtains all desires, both divine and human.

159.88

A sick person will be freed from disease; the greatest misfortunes are pacified. / [A gift given] when healthy is a thousandfold; when sick, it is equivalent to a hundredfold.

159.89

The gift of one who has died, [given] in his absence, is considered equal [only] to itself; / therefore one should give with one's own hand: when dead, who will give for whom? / Considering this, O great king, what is given by oneself yields great fruit.

Linked texts (1)

Revākhaṇḍa (Vāyupurāṇa) — Sanskrit

Revākhaṇḍa ascribed to the Vāyupurāṇa (RKV) 159

Contents

Linked texts (1)