THE GARUDA PURANA 21 страница

3. Kinsmen upto the seventh or tenth degree shall perform Udakakriya facing the south and reciting the mantra apa nah lofucadagham etc.

4. The Udakakriya for maternal grandfather, preceptor and one’s own wife is also the same. In the case of sons, friends, sister’s sons, father-in-law (all being brahmins) the water is sprinkled once proclaiming the name of the dead man and his Gotra but otherwise remaining silent.

5. No water-offering is made to the heretics, sinful persons, Vratyas (persons not duly invested with sacred thread, etc. Brahmacarins, and wives without fidelity.

6. Those addicted to drinking of wine and those who had committed suicide need not be honoured with the water offering or observation of Asauca. A dead man shall not be bewailed after the water-offering. Indeed, the existence of all living beings in the world is never permanent.

7-8. All rites are to be performed upto the utmost extent of one’s ability. Thereafter, they shall proceed homeward.

At the door of the stallion, tom leaves of the Nimba 2 tree (Margosa) shall be strewn. They shall step slowly on a rock first and perform Acamana and touch fire, water, cowdung and white mustard seeds before entering the house formally.

9. Those who have touched the corpse must purify themselves by these rites and the final formal entry into the house. Those who had merely witnessed the rites do not require any formal purificatory rites. They are pure at the close of the rites. Others become pure after bath. They should remain celibate for the next three days.

10. There should be no cooking of food in the house.

They shall take food bought or received from others. They shall sleep on the ground away from one another. To the departed soul a rice-ball (pin< Ja) is given for three days.

1 1. Milk and water should be kept in a mud pot out in the open. Sacrificial rites enjoined by the Vedas should also be performed.

12. If a child dies before cutting its first tooth there is no impurity; if a child dies before the tonsure (cutting of the forelocks) rite is performed, the impurity is for a night only; if a child dies before the sacred thread investiture, the impurity is for three days; thereafter the impurity lasts for ten days.

13. In brief, the impurity due to death lasts for three or ten days. If two children die not two years old, the impurity is for the mother alone. If two impurities due to birth and death overlap, at the close of the latter, everyone becomes pure.

14. The impurity due to death has to be observed by the four castes for ten days, twelve days, fifteen days and thirty days respectively.

15-16. If a girl dies before being given in marriage or a son, a preceptor, a disciple, person continuing Vedic studies, an uncle, a Vedic Scholar, a son not one’s own but of the wife who has had intercourse with others, or if an unpopular king dies, the impurity is for a day only.

1 7. There is no impurity at all on the death due to king’s orders, attack of a cow or a brahmin or due to suicide in secret, or due to poison.

1 8-20. On the death of a sacrificer, a person performing Vratas, Brahmacarins, donors and those who have realised Brahman there is no impurity. In the case of those who die at the time of charity, marriage, sacrifice, battle, civic commotion or any other calamity there is no impurity at all. Lapse of time, rites in fire, lump of day, wind, mind, knowledge austerities, recital of prayers, repentence, fasting — all these are agents for purification. Charity purifies a person committing an unworthy act and the current itself purifies the river.

2123. In cases of emergency a brahmin shall pursue a k$atriya’s duties ( taking part in wars) or a vaigya’s activities.

But these articles he shall not sell: — Fruits, soma, silk, medicinal creepers, curd, milk, ghee, water, gingelly seeds, cooked rice, mercury, acids and alkalis, honey, lac, requisites of homas, cloth, stone, utensils flowers, vegetables, clay, leather shoes, deer-skin, silk, salt, meat, oil cakes, roots and perfumes. If it is for the purpose of religious observances, some of the articles mentioned above can be sold along with gingelly seeds and grains.

24. Even in dire necessity a brahmin should not sell salt, etc. He should rather pursue cultivation. Horses should never be sold.

25. A brahmin oppressed by great poverty shall fast for three days (and approach the king for help). The king on seeing the brahmin devoid of a means of support shall provide him with one.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SEVEN.

Teachings of Par& fara.

Suta said:

1. ParaSara 1 narrated to Vyasa the various duties of the different castes and stages in life. At the end of every Kalpa there is dissolution and a new creation. But the unborn god does not perish.

2. Sratis (Vedas), Smrtis and the conduct of the good not repugnant to the Vedas (are to be followed by all). At first Brahma remembered the Vedas (andjtaught Manu and others).

Manu and others propagated Dharma through their Smrtis.

3. In the Kali age charity is the main virtue. Other virtues are likely to forsake the doer. Sinful deeds are perpetrated only in the Kali age. A curse uttered bears fruit in a year.

1. Par& iara is known as the author of some hymns in the Rgveda.

He is also said to have taught Vi? nu Purina. According to the statement of the N%hibh& rata, he is known as the father of Kr? r> a Dvaipiyana Vy& sa.

His writings on Dharma are often quoted in Hindu law-texts.

4. By strictly adhering to the performance of six rites every day man obtains everything. They are — taking bath, sandhya prayers, recital of mantras, homas, worship of gods and hospitality to guests.

5. Brahmins observing all rites properly will be rare then (in the Kali age); sages will be rare. A ksatriya shall conquer the enemie’s army and protect the earth. Business transactions and agriculture shall be the duties of vaisyas and devotion to the twice-born that of the Sudras.

6. By eating forbidden food, by stealing, and by approaching unworthy women a man becomes degraded. A twiceborn engaged in cultivation shall not employ tired bullocks in ploughing, 7. Upto midday one shall be engaged in religious rites such as bathing, yogic rites and then feed brahmins. The five sacrifices shall be performed. The cruel shall be treated with contempt.

8. A brahmin shall not sell gingelly seeds and clarified butter. He shall become sinful if sunayajfta is performed. A man engaged in agriculture shall not be sullied if he gives a sixth of the produce to the king, one-twentieth to the gods and one-thirty third to the brahmins.

9. A ksatriya, a vaisya and a sudra engaged in agriculture shall be considered a thief if he does not give the tax mentioned before. A pure brahmin shall be cleansed of the impurity of death in three days.

10. A ksatriya becomes pure in ten days, a vaiSya in twelve days and a sudra in a month. If proper rites are not maintained a brahmin shall become pure in ten days and a ksatriya in twelve days.

1 1. A vaisya shall be pure in fifteen days and a sudra in a month. Some kinsmen living separately have a single riceball in common.

12. In the event of birth and death such kinsmen shall observe inpurity. If the kinsmen are removed to the fourth degree the impurity lasts for ten days; if they are of the fifth remove the impurity is for six days.

13. If they we removed to the sixth degree the impurity is for four days; if they are of the seventh remove the impurity is for three days. If a person dies in a foreign land or if an ascetic dies, there is no impurity.

14-15. No cremation, no offering of rice-ball and no offering of water for children dying before cutting teeth or still born. In regard to still-birth and abortion the impurity is for as many days as the number of months of pregnancy.

16. If the child dies before the naming ceremony, there is no impurity; if it dies before the rite of first cutting of the forelock, the impurity is for one day and night; if he dies before the holy rite of investiture with the sacred thread, the impurity is for three days, beyond that the impurity is for ten days only.

17. Abortion usually occurs within four months and miscarriage and still births in the fifth and sixth months. No impurity in case these are observed strictly— celibacy rites in fire and abstention from evil association.

18. Artisans, craftsmen, physicians, servants, a Vedic scholar maintaining holy fire, the king — all these are of immediate purity (i. e. no impurity is observed on their death).

19. After the birth of a child the mother becomes pure after ten days and the father by taking bath. The impurity due to birth is removed by touching water, 20. In the rites of marriage, festivals and sacrifices, interrupted by the impurity of death or birth, all further rites shall be given up except what had been already undertaken.

21. If a child dies within the period of impurity, both the impurities cease with the former. If anyone dies in a cowshed the impurity is only for a day.

22. By carrying the corpse of an unknown person the impurity incurred is very little and that very little is removed by Pranayama. If the dead man is a Sudra, the impurity is for three nights.

23. No purificatory rite is necessary in case the death is due to self-immolation, poison, hanging or insect bite. The man who touches a person killed by a cow or bitten by an insect becomes pure by means of krcchravrata.

24. If a person forsakes an undefiled undegraded wife in the prime of her youth he shall be born as a woman in seven successive births and suffer widowhood over and over again.

25. If a man does not cohabit with bis wife after the fourth day from menstruation he shall incur the sin of infanticide. A woman not allowing her husband to have intercourse during those days shall be born -as a sow. Unworthy women though they perform Vrata iiave no right for a rice-ball or water-offerings.

26. like son legitimately born or after Niyoga 1 in one’s jfcfhrough another, shall offer a rice-ball to the legal father.

A person committing the minor sin of Parivedana 2 shall perform Krcchra and the girl who marries him too shall perform Kfcchra.

27. The man who gives his daughter in a Parivedana marriage and the priest who officiates in the same shall perform Atikfcchra and Candrayana respectively. If the elder brother is dwarfish, hunch-backed, stammerer, idiotic, blind, deaf or dumb, Parivedana is no offence at all.

28. If the husband is untraceable, dead, or has renounced the world or is impotent or degraded — in these cases of emergency a woman can remarry.

29. A wife who dies in the company of her husband shall remain in heaven as many years as there are hairs on his person.

30. If a person is bit by a dog he shall become pure by reciting Gayatri mantra. A brahmin killed by a canqlala or others shall be cremated with ordinary fire. If he has maintained sacrificial fires his corpse shall be lathed in milk and cremated with those sacred fires with mantras.

31-35. If a man dies in a foreign land the obsequies are done as follows: — On a deer skin six hundred PalaSa twigs are spread making the contours of a human body. A Sami twig is placed in the spot where penis should be, the Arani wood is placed in the spot of scrotum; a pot is placed at the right hand and a sacrificial pitcher at the left; mortar at the sides, a threshing rod at the back, the sacrificial slab at the thighs, rice grains, ghee and gingelly seeds in the mouth, the vessel of holy water at the ears and the vessel for ghee at the eyes; small bits of gold shall be dropped into the ears, eyes, mouth and nostrils.

An effigy of the man made of ku$a grass is placed over this arid burnt. The Ahuti is offered with the mantra Asau svargdya lokdya svthd slowly once. Since all the requisites of an Agnihotra are used lie will surely attain Brahmaloka.

1. This term is used to denote the legally permitted intercourse of a married woman to obtain a son with a male other than her husband generally her brother-in-law i. e. her husband's younger brother.

2. The act of one's marrying before one's elder brother. CSL, p. 445.

36. A person who kills Swans, Sarasas, Krauficas, Cakravakas, hens, peacocks and sheep becomes pure in a day and night.

37. The killer of any bird becomes pure in a day and night. After killing quadrupeds one shall observe fast for a day and night and perform Japa.

38. After killing a sudra, the rite of Kfcchra shall be performed; if a vaiSya is killed atikrcchra shall be performed.

If a ksatriya is killed Candrayana shall be performed twenty times and if a brahmin is killed it is performed thirty times.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHT.

Brhaspati-niti-Sdra.

SUta said:

1. Now I shall explain the essence of Polity based on Economics for the benefit of kings and others. It is holy and conducive to longevity, heavenly bliss, etc.

2. A person wishing for success and achievement should always associate with good men: never with the wicked; it is good neither for this nor for the other world.

3. One should always avoid arguments with mean-minded base people and shun even the very sight of the wicked. He should avoid enmity with friends and intimacy with persons serving the enemy.

4. Even a scholar comes to grief by trying to advise a foolish disciple, by supporting a wicked wife and by keeping the cofhpany of wicked men.

5. One should keep aloof from a brahmin foolishly puerile, a ksatriya averse to fighting, a vaisya sluggish and inactive and a sudra hot-headed and vain due to complete, defective study.

6. Alliance with an enemy or estrangement with a friend should be indulged in at proper time. A true scholar bides his time after a careful consideration of causes and effects.

7. Time allows all living beings to mature, time brings the dissolution of all people. Even when people are asleep, time is watchful and awake, it is difficult to transgress time.

8. The semen virile flows out at proper time and develops itself in the womb. It is time that causes creation and it is time again that effects the dissolution.

9. The passage of time is incomprehensible. It has twofold functions, an apparent gross movement at one place and a subtle invisible movement at another.

10. The divine preceptor Brhaspati expounded the essence of polity to god Indra which got him omniscience and heavenly glory after killing the asuras.

11. The worship of gods, brahmins, etc. should be performed by saintly kings and brahmins. They should also perform the horse-sacrifice to wipe off their sins both small and great 12. A person never comes to grief if he associates with good people, conducts discourses with scholars and contracts intimate friendship with persons devoid of greed.

13. Illicit contact with or gay revelries in the company of another man’s wife, desire for another man’s wealth or residence in another man’s house shall never be pursued.

14. A well-intentioned enemy is actually a kinsman and a kinsman acting against one’s interests is an enemy. Sickness in the body is inimical and a herb in the forest is friendly and beneficial.

15. He is a kinsman who works to our benefit; he is the real father who nurtures and nourishes us; he is a friend where confidence can be placed; it is the native land where sustenance is available.

16. He is the true servant who is loyal and obedient; it is the real seed that germinates well; she is the real wife who speaks pleasantly and he is the real son who lives to the family tradition.

1 7. His life is perfect who has virtues and good qualities; fruitless, indeed, is the life of a man devoid of these two.

18. A true wife manages the household affairs skilfully, speaks sweet pleasant words, solely dedicates herself to her husband and is loyally devoted to him.

19-21. The man who has a wife endowed with these qualities is no less than Indra the lord of heaven. He is no ordinary man. The good wife takes her daily bath, applies sweet scents to her body, speaks sweetly, is satisfied with limited quantity of food, is not garrulous, has always auspicious things around her, is very scrupulous in virtuous activities, exhibits her love to her husband by every action and is pleased to surrender herself to his dalliance after the four days of the menstrual flow. She enhances the good luck of everyone.

22-23. What we call old age is not so dispiriting as a wife devoid of good qualities and possessing all bad traits — uglyeyed, slovenly, quarrelsome, argumentative, visiting other people’s house frequently, depending on other people’s help, evil in actions and devoid of shame.

24. A wife who appreciates good qualities, devoted to her husband, and satisfied with the minimum in everything is the real beloved.

25. It is death indeed if one has a wicked wife, a rogue as a friend, a servant who answers back and serpents infesting his house.

26. Forsake the contact with wicked people, resort to the assembly of the good; do meritorious acts day and night and remember the unstabilitv of everything.

27. A woman devoiu S love, terrific in appearance, ferocious by nature, more horrible than a serpent round the neck, tigerlike in having ruddy eyes, appearing to spit fire desirous of visiting other houses and cities should never be approached.

28. Devotion in the son, good deed in the ungrateful, coldness in the fire may occur sometime by God’s grace; but love in a prostitute is never come across.

29. Who can be complacent and carefree if serpents infest the house wherever we cast our eyes, if sickness cannot be cured with all appliances of treatment and if death is ever ready to pounce on the body at every age from infancy to old age?

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINE.

Brhaspa t i - niti-sd ra.

Sut a said:

1. Money should be saved for emergency; wife should be protected by spending hoarded wealth and one’s own self should be saved even at the risk of preserved assets and wife.

2. One should sacrifice oneself to save the family; a family should be sacrificed to save the village; a village should be secrificed for the safety of the land and the land should be sacrificed to save one’s soul.

3. The residence in hell is better than that in a house of evil conduct. By the former, one’s sins are washed away whereas there is no redemption from the latter.

4. The intelligent man fixes one foot firmly and moves with the other. Without testing the new place well, the old place of resort should not be abandoned.

5. One should unhesitatingly abandon a country infested with men of evil conduct, a residence of harassing environment, a king of miserly temperament, and a friend of deceptive disposition.

6. What purpose can be served by the riches in the hands of a miser? Of what avail to men can that knowledge be that is tarnished by a roguish disposition? Of what avail is beauty bereft of good qualities and valour? Of what value is a friend who turns his face away at the time of misfortune?

7. Many persons unknown to him before will flock round a person occupying a high post as his friends and assistants.

Time being adverse, if he loses his wealth and is dismissed from his post even his kinsmen become his enemies.

8. A friend can be found out if he is genuine or otherwise in times of danger; the test of valour is the battlefield;

the test of purity of a man is his conduct in isolated places. Loss of wealth puts fidelity of the wife to a test and famine provides an opportunity to test whether a man is fond of entertaining a guest or otherwise.

9. Birds leave off the tree when the fruits are exhausted;

the Sarasa quits the lake when it is dried up; the courtesan turns out the man who has no money in his pockets; ministers bid good-bye to the king who has lost his throne; honeybees never touch the flower that is faded and withered; the deer flee the forest consumed by fire — So, it is evident that people take delight in things that delight them. Who takes interest in others otherwise?

10. One should propitiate a greedy man by giving him money; a praiseworthy man by reverence with joined palms; a fool by allowing him to do as he pleases and the scholar by a clear statement of facts.

1 1. Devas, good people and brahmins are pleased with genuine good nature; the ordinary vulgar people by an offer of something to eat or drink and the learned scholars by due honour and fitting rewards.

12. The noblest can be won over by humility and submission; the rogue with a threat; the vulgar with small gifts and concessions and men of equal status by exhibiting an equal strength and valour.

13. An intelligent man must penetrate deep into the innermost recesses of every one’s heart and speak and act befitting his nature and inclination and win him over to his side.

14. Implicit trust in rivers, clawed beasts, horned animals, armed men, women and scions of royal families is never to be encouraged.

15. Men of sense will never disclose loss of wealth, mental anguish, illicit actions in the house, deception ( of which they had been the victim) and disrespect.

16. The following are the activities that bring about the destruction of chastity and good conduct in women: —

Association with base and wicked people, a long separation from the husband, too much of consideration and love shown to them (by the would-be detiler) and residence in another man’s house.

17. Which family is devoid of defects? Who is not distressed by sickness? Who is not oppressed by vices and calamities? Who enjoys continuous blessings of the goddess of fortune?

18. Who is the man in the wide world who does not become haughty on attaining wealth? Who has escaped miseries in his life? Whose mind is not ripped asunder by maidens? Who has been a favourite of kings for ever? Who is it that has remained out of sight of the god of Death? Who is that suppliant who has won honour and respect? Who is that fortunate fellow who has escaped unscathed after having once fallen into the wily nets of the wicked?

19. He who has no friends, relatives or kinsmen to advise him and he who has no intrinsic intellect in himself suffers certainly. How can a wise man pursue that activity which does not produce any tangible result even when completed successfully but which necessarily ushers in great sorrow when left incomplete?

20. One should leave off that land where no one honours him or loves him; where there is no kinsman, and where there are no amenities for higher learning.

21. Earn that wealth to which there is no danger from kings or robbers and which does not leave you even after your death.

22. The wealth that a man acquires by putting in exertions risking his own life is divided among themselves by his successors after his death. Only the sin that he commits in his eagerness to earn remains his exclusive property.

23. Amassed and deposited wealth of the miser is ransacked by others frequently like that of the mouse and is conducive to sorrow.

24. Beggars roaming the streets, naked, grief-stricken, rough and armed with broken bowls point out to the world that the fruits the non-charitable persons reap are like these.

25. O misers! the beggars who request you saying “Please give” really teach you that this is the result of not giving. Do not become like them.

26. A miser’s hoarded wealth is not being employed in hundreds of sacrifices (i. e. for good purposes) nor is it being given in charity to the deserving; but in the end, it is utilised in the houses of robbers or put in the king’s treasury.

27. The wealth of the miser does not go unto the deities, brahmins, relatives or to himself but it goes unto the robbers or kings or is consumed by fire.

28. Let those riches be not thine — the riches acquired with great deal of toil, by transgressing the curbs of virtue or by falling at the feet of the enemy.

29. A blow of destruction to learning is absence of practice; wearing rags is a blow unto the goddess of wealth; eating after digestion is a blow to sickness; and craftiness is a blow to the enemy.

30. A fitting punishment to the thief is the death sentence; being reserved is the best punishment for a false friend; lying on a separate bed is a punishment for women, and non invitation in sacrifice is a punishment for brahmins.

31. Wicked persons, artisans, slaves, defiled ones, drums and women are softened by being beaten; they do not deserve gentle handling.

32. By sending them on errands the ability of servants can be known; sincerity of kinsmen can be known by their behaviour during our adversity; the genuine friendship can be understood when some mishap occurs and the fidelity of the wife is known when one’s fortune dwindles.

33. The diet of a woman is twice as much as that of a man; shrewdness four times, energy is six times and amorousness is eight times as much as that of a man.

34. It is impossible to overcome sleep by sleeping it off; to overpower a woman by loving her; to smother a flame by addiqg fuel and to quench thirst by drinking wine.

35. A delicious fatty meat diet, pleasing dress, glowing wine, fragrant scented pastes, and sweet smelling flowers kindle passion in women.

36. It can be said with certainty that even during the period of celibacy the god of love is busily active. On seeing a man pleasing to her heart the vagina of a woman becomes wet with profuse secretion.

37. O Saunaka, it is true, definitely true that the vaginal passage of a woman begins to secrete profusely on seeing a well dressed man whether a brother or a son.

38. Rivers and women are of similar nature in their love of freedom to choose their own course. The rivers erode the banks and the women undermine their own families.

39. The river undermines the banks and the woman causes the fall of the family. The course of rivers and women is wayward and cannot be checked.

40. A blazing fire cannot be satiated with sufficient supply of fuel; the ocean can never be filled to satiety by rivers flowing into it; the god of death is never satiated by the living beings (whom he smites) and a passionate woman is never satiated v with man.

41. It is impossible to be satiated with the company of good men, friends, men of delightful conversation, and pleasures, sons, life and boons.

42. A king is never gratified with his ambitious activity of amassing wealth; a sea is never gratified with a perennial flow of water into it; a scholar is never satiated with the talks and speeches given byjiim; no layman’s eye is satiated with the glimpses of the king that he gets.

43. They maintain themselves by what they earn by doing their duties; they are devoted to the sacred scriptures; they are fond of their own wives; they have subjugated the unreasonable wanderings of the sense-organs; they are delighted in serving guests; they attain salvation at their very doors; they are the excellent among men.

44. If the wife is after your heart, if she is attractive, well bedecked and delightful, if you live in your own house it is heaven indeed which can be obtained only by good deeds performed in previous birth.

45. Women are incorrigible; they can never be brought round by making a gift, or offering respect, or a straight forward dealing, or repeated service. They can neither be threatened with a weapon nor asked to be quiet by citing scriptural codes.

46. Five things should be pursued slowly and cautiously.

Learning, riches, ascending the mountain, amorous approach to women, and assimilation of virtuous conduct.

47. Worship to gods is of permanent benefit; a present to a brahmin leaves a permanent blessing behind; a thoroughly good learning has an everlasting beneficent result and a good bosom friend is a permanent asset.

48. Those who have not acquired enough learning during studentship and those who have not secured a decent wife and sufficient wealth during youth are to be pitied for ever.

They are no better than beasts, but have a human form.

49. A person devoted to the scriptural codes shall not worry over the meal. He must ponder over a regular study. A man seeking knowledge must be prepared to go a long way with the speed of Garu< Ja.

50. Those who had been unmindful of studies during studentship and those who had wasted their wealth during youth in pursuit of lust fall into a miserable plight during old age slighted by others and burning within like the lotuses in the winter season.

51. Arguments are never stable and irrefutable; Vedas are wide and varied; there is no sage who has not mentioned something different from others. Still the central theme of virtue is hidden in a cave, as it were. Hence, the path traversed by great men should be taken as the correct one.

52. The inner workings of a man’s mind should be inferred from his facial reflexes, behaviour, gestures, movements, speech and the contractions and distortions of his eyes and lips.

53. A spoken word is understood by even a beast.

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