Revākhaṇḍa ascribed to the Vāyupurāṇa (RKV) 50
English (machine translation) 50
- Language
- English
Contents
- 50.46 — 2 parts
50.1
Uttānapāda said: / 'What kind of twice-born are worthy of worship, and what kind are considered unworthy of worship, / in ancestral rites, in marriage ceremonies, and especially in gift-giving?
50.2
If faith should arise through destiny regarding the rite of ancestral offerings and the like, / tell me this, O god: to whom should a gift not be given?'
50.3
Īśvara said: / 'Just as an elephant made of wood, just as a deer made of leather, / and a Brahmin who does not study—these three bear merely the name.
50.4
Just as a eunuch is fruitless with women, just as a cow is fruitless with another cow, / and just as a gift to an ignorant man is fruitless, so a Brahmin lacking ṛc-verses is fruitless.
50.5
Just as the sower gains no fruit by sowing seed in barren ground, / so the giver gains no fruit by giving sacrificial offerings to one lacking ṛc-verses.
50.6
A diseased man, one with a deficient or redundant limb, one-eyed, the son of a remarried woman, / one who has broken his vow of chastity, one with dark teeth, an omnivore, the husband of a Śūdra woman,
50.7
a betrayer of friends, a slanderer, a seller of soma, a reviler of others, / an abandoner of mother, father, or guru, one who constantly reviles Brahmins,
50.8
the Brahmin who eats a Śūdra's food accompanied by mantras, O king, / he is an untouchable, a cāṇḍāla by deed; touching him, one should perform a sacred bath.
50.9
One with deformed nails, the husband of a Śūdra woman, a thief, a usurer, an adulterine child born during wedlock or after widowhood, / one intent on accepting great gifts, and one intent on self-destruction,
50.10
a paid teacher, an impotent man, a corrupter of maidens, an accused sinner— / these Brahmins are always to be shunned after careful consideration.
50.11
He who, having accepted a religious gift, engages in trade, / to him no gift should be given; for him that becomes futile.
50.12
Those twice-born who are endowed with learning and recitation, devoted to proper conduct, / whatever gift is given to them, it all attains imperishability.'
50.13
Support the poor, O protector of the earth, never the wealthy; / medicine is wholesome for the sick; what use is medicine to the healthy?
50.14
Uttānapāda said: / What then is the rule there? What is the rite of the pilgrimage śrāddha? / And how is the gift given? Tell me that, O Śaṅkara.
50.15
The Lord said: / Having performed a śrāddha at home with devotion, pure and with senses subdued, / circumambulating his guru, feeding [him], and then at the village boundary,
50.16
one should walk silently until one has crossed the boundary. / Then, going to Śūlabheda, one should take a sacred bath according to rule,
50.17
and [perform] a śrāddha in five places in sequence with offerings to gods, ancestors, and the like. / And whoever should offer balls of rice with rice cooked in milk, honey, and clarified butter,
50.18
his ancestors are satisfied for seventeen years. / [If offered] with unhusked grain, jujubes, bilva fruits, molasses, honey, and clarified butter,
50.19
that person also attains that fruit at this pilgrimage place, there is no doubt. / And whoever carefully gives a pair of shoes to brāhmaṇas,
50.20
he too attains heaven mounted on a horse, there is no doubt. / And whoever especially gives a bed, a horse, or an umbrella,
50.21
he would go mounted on a celestial chariot, surrounded by a throng of apsarases. / Whoever gives an excellent house supplied with the seven kinds of grains,
50.22
he would indeed dwell in my world at will in a golden abode. / And whoever gives a sesame cow along with her calf and covered with cloth,
50.23
dwells in the vault of heaven until the dissolution of all beings. / Whether at home, in the forest, or on the road to a pilgrimage place, O king,
50.24
whoever gives water and food does not see the world of Yama. / All gifts are given, [and] the fruit of them is attained;
50.25
and one should give water here, and gifts, and safety itself. / Higher than the gift of food there has been no gift, nor will there ever be.
50.26
Whoever makes the gift of a maiden, or whoever releases a bull, / his dwelling would be there where I am, not otherwise.
50.27
Uttānapāda said: / How should the gift of a maiden always be performed by the righteous, O Lord? / Just as a household is to be maintained, so indeed is a maiden's marriage.
50.28
I ask another thing, O Lord of gods: to whom is a maiden not given? / Where should that be given, O God, and to whom when given does it become imperishable?
50.29
How would it be superior, middling, or inferior, O all-pervading Lord, / or passionate, dark, or leading to the highest good?
50.30
Īśvara said: / Among all gifts indeed, the gift of a maiden is distinguished, / [namely, of] one who, approaching with supreme devotion, gives his own daughter
50.31
to a well-born, handsome, wise man who knows good qualities, / and should give the maiden adorned, at an auspicious astrological combination and an auspicious moment.
50.32
Whoever gives here horses, cows, and clothes according to his capacity, / his dwelling shall be there where is the abode free from disease.
50.33
By whom a daughter, dearer even than one's life-breaths, is given here, / by him this entire three worlds, with the moving and the unmoving, has been given.
50.34
Whoever, having received [wealth] for the sake of a maiden, also begs for her price, / he becomes an outcaste by deeds; dead, he becomes a wooden stake.
50.35
Even in his house, whoever eats through greed of the tongue in any way, / he would be purified by a cāndrāyaṇa or again by a taptakṛcchra penance.
50.36
Uttānapāda said: / In whose house there is no wealth, and there is only a maiden, / how is her marriage [to be performed] if he does not make a request?
50.37
Īśvara said: / The marriage of the maiden must be performed even without wealth, O king; / having uttered the maiden's name, it is never for fault.
50.38
The gift given by approaching is superior, and that which is an unasked gift; / the end of an aeon will come, but there is no end to that [gift].
50.39
The gift given by approaching is remembered as superior; having called [the recipient], it is middling; / when being asked for, it would be inferior; and [saying] 'Give, give' is the lowest.
50.40
Just as a stone bound to a stone and thrown into the midst of water, / both of these go to destruction, so does food given to an unworthy recipient.
50.41
Therefore, a gift should never be given to an incapable person; / it leads the giver down, and especially oneself.
50.42
A capable person, however, can carry across two, just as dry wood [floats] on water; / just as a boat, so the learned man can convey [one] to the other bank.
50.43
And one who has consecrated the sacred fire who accepts a gift from Śūdras, / he is a Śūdra in this birth, and having died, he is born a dog.
50.44
And vain trouble arises for a Brahmin Agnihotrin / making an improper acceptance of gifts secretly from a low, contemptible person.
50.45
That mortal becomes one whose food must not be eaten; he is burned with fire of cow dung; / afterwards he becomes a mat-maker for seven births, without doubt.
50.46
And the gift that arises from embarrassment, courtesy, greed, or coercion, / and that gift to servants, that becomes futile and fruitless.
50.46.p1
|| Thus in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, in the collection of eighty-one thousand verses, in the fifth Avantī section, in the Revākhaṇḍa, in the glorification of Śūlabheda, the fiftieth chapter named 'Description of the Rules of Gifts and Examination of Worthy and Unworthy Recipients.'
50.46.p2
RKV Chapter 51
Linked texts (1)
- Revākhaṇḍa (Vāyupurāṇa) — Sanskrit