THE GARUDA PURANA 53 страница

3. If he had made substantial gifts in his life-time he derives pleasure therefrom. From here Vaivasvata town of Yama is situated at the distance of twentyfovr Yojanas.

4. The residents of Vaivasvatapura are satiated by the gifts of iron, salt, cotton and a vessel of gingelly seeds, offered by the relatives of the deceased.

1. A popular theme occurring in the Bhagavad git& 9 II. 22.

5. The dead repair to Vaivasvata town and inform Dharmadhvaja, the keeper at Yama’s gate (about the gifts).

Dharmadhvaja is always present at the gate of Yama.

6. Dharmadhvaja is pleased with the gift of seven grains.

Propitiated by that, he tells the dead about their virtues and sins.

7. Holy and pious people see Dharmaraja as a god of noble countenance, while the sinful and the wicked see him as a god of dreadful and terrible aspect.

8. The deceased person is terribly afraid at his sight and laments bitterly. Those who have offered gifts in their lifetime should entertain no fear.

9. Yama moves from his seat as soon as he sees a holy man. He thinks that he will supersede him in status and reach Brahmaloka.

10. Virtue can easily be procured by offering gifts. The path to Yama’s region can easily be traversed by acts of Charity.

This High Way cannot be easily covered otherwise. O dear, none can reach the city of Yama without doing charitable acts.

11. That dreadful path is full of terror-striking servants of Yama. Each of the cities is guarded by a thousand of these servants.

12. The messengers of Yama torture the sinner in (hot) waters and take off his skin till he becomes a skeleton.

13. The deceased for whom no obsequial rites have been made traverse the path with great difficulty. They are led like animals bound with ropes.

14-15. The person may become a god, a mare, a man of low species, or as Yama ordains he may attain salvation or be bom as a human being as a son to his father.

16. He obtains birth according to his activities. He passes through a series of births in this world.

17. Knowing that even the highest happiness is non eternal, he should perform acts of righteousness when he has received a human body.

18. Human body is either reduced to worms, ashes, or feces. Though he carries a lantern in hand, he may fall in a dreadful hell full of darkness.

19. He can acquire human body as a result of his pious acts. He who performs holy deeds in human body acquires supreme position.

20. If he neglects Dharma, he comes to grief.

21. The soul obtains human body after passing through series of births. O bird, in human body too, his birth as a Brahmana is a rare event. He who observes vows natural to his caste becomes immortal after death by the blessing of God.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

Functions of the Departed Soul.

Garuda said:

1. Having obtained a new body where does a preta shelter? Released from pretahood, where does he go to live in?

2-3. Passing through torments in hells which number eighty four lacs and guarded by Varna and his thousand attendants how do the pretas get release and how do they roam about in this mortal world?

The lord said:

4. O king of birds, hear. I shall tell you about the region where the pretas live. Men attain pretahood by stealing other man’s riches, by indulging in sexual intercourse with other man’s wife or by doing acts of treachery.

5. Having incurred sins, they seek for redemption in -their progeny. Being bodiless as well as suffering from hunger and thirst they roam about here and there.

6. Evr ' the captives released from prison are frightened at their sight. They seek for means to kill their kith and kin.

7. They bolt doors on their ancestors, put obstacles in the way of manes. Like thieves, they snatch the mane’s food in the way before it reaches them.

8. They return home, stay on the roof and watch the activities trf their kins. They cause disease and grief to their relatives.

9-11. Having assumed the form of tertian and such-like fevers they cause diseases due to cold or wind like head-ache or cholera. They stay at the place of leavings or refuse, in the company of other ghosts and partake of food and drink left over by their relatives.

1 2. In this way, the sinning pretas move about freely.

Garuja said:

13-14. How do the pretas behave and in what form?

How is it possible to know their attitude, since the pretas do not speak to us? If you are pleased to do me a favour, you clear off my doubts. O lord, I hear that in the Kali Age many people become ghosts.

Gaxuia said:

15. The ghost torments his family people through the enemy. While he was inhuman body he was affectionate to his people, now that he is dead he becomes hostile to them.

16. He who is devoted to Rudra, follows the path of righteousness, propitiates gods, satiates guests, speaks truth and pleasant words, is not tormented by the pretas.

17. He who does not observe rites, has no faith in the sanctity of the Vedas, hates rjghteous acts and indulges in falsehood, is tormented by the pretas. By doing unrighteous acts, O Garuda he becomes a preta in this Kali age.

18. From the beginning of Satya yuga to the end of Dv& para, nobody became a preta and nobody suffered from preta.

19-20. It is observed that of the many children born of one and the same mother, one is happy, one is addicted to bad habits, one is blessed with progeny, one is tormented by pretas, one abounds in wealth, one gets sons who die young, one is burdened with the offspring of daughters, one is at daggers-drawn with his relatives. This all is due to the bad intentions of the preta, O Garuda.

21. A woman becomes barren in life or if she gives birth to children they die at an early age. There is a loss of wealth and cattle. These sufferings are caused by preta.

22. If there is a sudden change in his nature or an enmity with his relatives or an unexpected calamity, the suffering is due to preta.

23. If a person loses faith in religion or if he loses the means of his livelihood or if he feels greedy in excess or if there is a regular quarrel at home, that suffering is due to preta.

24-25. If he slays his parents or reproaches gods and Brahmins and is found guilty of murder that suffering is due to preta.

26. When crops do not grow up, though the rains are abundant; when the expenditure goes up and income is reduced; when quarrels rise in gravity, that suffering is due to preta.

27. When, on travel to a foreign land, he is distressed by the onrush of wind, O lord of birds, that suffering is due to preta.

28. When he associates with the people of low caste or when be performs disreputable acts or when he is interested in acts of unrighteousness, that suffering is due to preta.

29. When the hoarded wealth is destroyed by misfortune or when the work in operation bears no fruit or when there is loss of wealth due to undue taxation or due to fire or theft, that suffering is due to preta.

30. When an incurable disease sets in, or when children suffer from pain or when wife suffers immensely, that suffering is due to preta.

31. When one loses faith in the Vedas, Smrtis, Pur^nas, and Dharma£ astras, that suffering is due to preta.

32. When one abuses gods, gurus and Brahmins in their presence or absence, that aberration of nature is due to preta.

33. This is due to preta and to no other course when a person suffers from loss of livelihood or break in social position or break in the continuity of lineage.

34. When women suffer from abortion or do not conceive or when children die at an early age that suffering is due to preta.

35. When he does not perform the annual ir& ddha in sincerity and has no inclination either — that suffering is due to preta.

36^ When on pilgrimage he indulges in sexual intercourse or- neglects his duties or when he fails to prosper though he has done acts of piety — that suffering is due to preta.

37. When both husband and wife quarrel at meals, when there is a strong inclination to harm others that suffering is due to preta.

38. When trade does not prosper though he has gone abroad where he lives in separation from wife, that suffering is due to preta.

39. When he lives in foreign lands or when he loses position at home, that suffering is due to preta.

40. When he is inimical to his people, regards his son as his enemy, when he has no interest in home and feels uncomfortable there, that suffering is due to preta.

41. When he refuses to obey his parents and has no love for his wife, is of cruel nature, is lost in his own affairs, that suffering is due to preta 42. If the funeral rites are not performed in the prescribed way, the soul of the deceased (in rebirth) deviates from the righteous path and falls in the company of the wicked.

Then Vf? otsarga is the only rite to redeem him.

43. O Garuda, a person becomes a ghost and undergoes sufferings if he dies an accidental death or if his body is not cremated properly.

44. O best of birds, when the descendent knows all this, he should conduct those rites which may release the deceased from ghosthood. If he does not perform rites for the ghost he himself turns a ghost after death.

45. The person whose house is haunted by a ghost does not feel happy or comfortable. He loses faith, pleasure, devotion, discrimination as well as wealth.

46. His lineage breaks either at the third or at the fifth generation. In each and every birth he lives a wretched, poor and sinful life.

47. There are people who have fierce, dreadful, disfigured and ghostly appearance, who have no regard or honour for their caste, progeny, parents, or womanfolk, who put on fashions, go an unpleasant way and talk loosely. Alas, it is painful to see them suffer, under the force of fate, from the recollection of their past sinful deeds.

CHAPTER TWENTYONE.

Ghosts and their Release.

Garuda said:

1. O lord, I am desirous of asking you how the ghosts ultimately get free and when men are no longer afflicted by them.

2. How do the symptoms of ghostly affliction decisively vanish? How can ghosthood be warded off lest it should recur again?

3. What is the time-limit, if any, of ghosthood? In how many years does a long-standing ghosthood disappear utterly?

The lord said:

4. I shall tell you how the ghosts become free and also how the person knows that he is tormented by a ghost.

5-7. He ( the ghost-afflicted man) shall explain the signs and symptoms to the astrologer. If he dreams of a holy plant like a Campaka or of a mango tree laden with fruits or if he dreams of a Brahmin or of a bull or of himself in a place of pilgrimage or of the death of a kinsman and if in dream he takes this as truth, this is all due to pretadota 1. Mysterious events do often occur if the ghost has bad intentions.

8. If a person desires to visit a holy place and his heart is set upon it, but somehow there is a break in carrying out his desire, that is due to the bad intention of a ghost.

9-10. The evil intentions of the ghost come in the way of holy man whose pious activities are disturbed at each step or take an evil course or if a person falls a victim of eradication and turns cruel, O lord of birds, that is due to the bad intentions of a ghost.

1. Preta-dosa — bad intention of the ghost. The dead have to pass through the state of prcla before they attain to the status of pitr. For their release from pretahood, the abservancc of obsequial rites is necessary. If the descendent abstains from performing the obsequy, the ghost turns malevolent and proves harmful to him.

11. If a person performs holy rites for the redemption of a ghost, he will find his actions fruitful. The ghost shall be satiated permanently.

12-13. O Tarksya 1, take this as truth that he who perforins such rites becomes contented. He will make his soul permanently wedded to weal; the ghost will have a long-standing satiety. When the ghost is satisfied he will wish his kinsmen well for ever.

14. There are certain sinful, wicked ghosts who harass their descendants. But, they too, when propitiated, cease to harass them.

15. O lord of birds, they too, when their time comes, become free due to their sons’ rites and they bless their kinsmen with opulence and nourishing wealth.

16. The wretch of deluded soul who in spite of seeing, hearing and feeling the depredations of the ghost does not succour, is tarnished with the curse of the ghost.

17-18. In every birth he takes he will become extremely indigent, sick, devoid of progeny and cattle and he may not get proper livelihood either. The ghosts perpetrate all these things. Then they go back to Yama’s abode. From that place, when their evil actions wear off, and the appointed time arrives, they get release.

Garuda said:

19-20. Sometimes astrologers say that there is an affliction of ghosts but no specific indication is there as to the name of the ghost, his clan, etc; neither bad dream nor harassing activity is observed. O lord of deities, what should be done then? Please tell me precisely.

The lord said:

21-22. Brahmins say only what is true. They never tell lies. Fully believing in what the Brahmins say the person (advised and warned of ghosts) shall devoutly pray to t. ie manes, perform purascarana 2 rite and offer oblations to Visnu.

1. Tarksya — an epithet of Garuda.

2. PuraScaraim — a rite preparatory to another rite, e. g. the Nandimukha rite is preparatory to (lie rile of marriage.

23. By means of japas, homas and danas he should sanctify his body. O lord of birds, if this is performed, all obstacles and hindrances are dispelled.

24. He is never afflicted by Bhutas and Ptiacas 1 2 3 4 or other sorts of ghosts. By performing rites of oblations to Narayana with the ancestors in view he shall be freed of all sorts of affliction. This is my sworn statement.

25-27. If there is an affliction of ghosts, the victim is never relieved by any other activity. Hence, one shall with due endeavour devoutly pray to the manes. He who repeats Gnyalri mantra 2 with the manes in view, either in the ninth or tenth year, ten thousand times and performs homas a thousand times, after having previously performed Narayana Bali, Vrfotsarga 4 and other rites shall be free from all sorts of tortures.

He will attain all sorts of pleasure and the best of worlds. He shall be honoured by his cousins and kinsmen.

28. There is no godhead on par with cither one’s father or mother. Therefore, one should always worship the manes with hearty devotion.

29-31. One’s father is the instructor in wholesome things and he is a visible deity. Other deities may be the lords of bodies (but not the progenitors). Verily, this physical body can yield either hell or heaven or salvation. Who is more worthy of respect and honour than he (i. e. father) due to whose favour one is born in bodily form?

After pondering over this, if one gives anything to the pitrs, O bird, that returns to him which he enjoys. This is what those who know the Vedas say.

1. Bhutas and Pisacas — malevolent beings, instigators of evils.

2. Gayalri mantra — The holiest of all the mantras chanted by thousands of devotees at their morning, midday and evening ablution or ritual. It is so called because it is composed in the Gayatri metre. It runs thus Tat savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dhimahi dhiyo yo nah pracodayat 3. Narayana bali — A day-long rite performed by the descendent of the deceased who died without the rite of dlpa-dana etc. at the time of death.

4. Vrsolsarga — a rite of releasing the bull in favour of the deceased.

832 Garuda Purina 32. He who saves his father from the hell named put is called putra here and hereafter. 1

33. If one’s father or mother dies either due to accident or due to a foul play, one shall have to adjourn religious rites, pilgrimages, nuptial rites and the annual Sraddha.

34. He who reads this chapter entitled Soapnadhyaya or hears it, wherein the various dream symbols of ghosts have been indicated, will never see the same himself. [He will not be afflicted by ghosts].

CHAPTER TWENTYTWO.

On attaining ghosthood.

Garuda said:

1-2. How do these ghosts come into being? How are they redeemed from pretahood? What are their features.

What is their diet, O lord? How aret he ghosts propitiated?

O lord of deities, where do they stay? Please favour me, O lord, with an answer to these queries.

The lord said:

3. It is the men of sinful actions actuated by their previous misdeeds who become ghosts after death. Please listen to me, I shall tell you in detail.

4-5. He who desecrates wells, tanks, lakes, parks, temples, water sheds, groves of trees, almshouses etc., and misdirects any one in religious rites for monetary gain is a sinner. After death he becomes a ghost and remains sis such till the final deluge.

1. Putra — so called because he protects his father against falling into the hell named ptim: Mann IX. 138.

6. Out of greed if people upset the boundaries of villages and destroy pasture lands, tanks, parks, underground drainage, etc., they become ghosts.

7. Sinful persons meet with death at the hands of Candalas, infuriated brahmins, serpents, animals with curved teeth or in watery graves or struck by lightning.

8-13. Those who meet with foul death such as committing suicide by hanging from a tree, by poison or weapon, those who die of cholera, those who are burnt to death alive, those who die of foul and loath-some diseases or at the hands of robbers, those who are not cremated duly after death, those who do not follow sacred rites and conduct, those who do not perform Vrsotsarga and monthly Pinda rites 1, those who allow Sudras to bring sacrificial grass, twigs and other articles of homa, those who fall from mountains and die, those who die when walls collapse, those who are defiled by women in their menses, those who die in the firmament and those who are forgetful of Visnu, those who continue to associate with persons defiled due to births or death, those who die of dog-biting or meet with death in a foul manner, become ghosts and roam over the earth.

14. One who discards one’s mother, sister, wife, daughter or daughter-in-law without seeing any fault in them, obtains ghosthood surely.

15. One who deceives his own brother, kills a brahmana or a cow, drinks liquor, defiles the preceptor’s bed, steals gold and silk-garments, becomes a ghost, O bird.

16. One who usurps a deposit, deceives a friend, enjoys other man’s wife, kills other’s faith, is cruel, definitely becomes a ghost.

17. One who discards the family-customs, takes to other customs, is without knowledge and good character, definitely becomes a ghost.

18. To illustrate this there is an anecdote narrated by 1. Pinda rite — the rite of offering a rice-ball to the manes at the obsequial ceremonies or Sraddhas.

Bhisma 1 to Yudhisthira. 2 O you of good rites, I shall narrate the same to you, on hearing which you may feel pleasure.

Yudhisthira said:

19. O grandfather, please tell me what those evil deeds are as a result of which one becomes a ghost and what are the means of redemption from the same on hearing which I shall not be deluded thus further.

Bhisma said:

20. I shall tell you entirely what those causes are whereby one turns a ghost and how he is set free after falling into a dismal hell impassable even to gods.

21. I shall tell all those things, on hearing which a person is set free from ghosthood.

22. O dear, there was a brahmin of rigorous sacred rites named Santaptaka. For practising penance, he went to a forest.

23. He was a man of kind, compassionate nature. He used to perform homas and yogic practices as well as great sacrifices. He used to spend time usefully engaged.

24. He strictly observed celibacy. He observed penances.

He was soft-hearted, truthful and pure. He was afraid of the other world.

25. He strictly followed the instructions of his preceptor.

He was delighted in serving guests. He observed yogic practices. He was free from Dvandvas (like happiness and misery, heat and cold and such opposite pairs).

1. Bhisma — the son of Santanu, king of the lunar dynasty His birth name was Devavrata. He was named Bhisma, a person of terrible vow, when he declared not to marry or assert his claim to the throne which passed on consequently to his step-brother Vicitravirya. For details see Puranic Encyclopaedia under Bhisma.

2. Yudhisthira — ‘firm in battle’. Name of the eldest Pandava prince, also named ‘Dharina, Dharmaraja, Ajatasatru’. Son of Kunti and Pandu and the grandson of Vicitravirya, he became the emperor of Hastinapur at the conclusion of the Great Bharata war after eighteen days’ severe fighting.

26. Practising yoga incessantly to conquer mundane existence, he subjugated the sense organs. Following the path of good conduct he eagerly desired salvation.

27. He spent years in the secluded forest. Then the idea of visiting holy centres entered his mind.

28. He thought within himself “I shall keep immersed my body in the waters of a holy river till I die. ” Accordingly he hastened to a holy centre where he took bath at sunrise. He performed the rites of Jap a and Namaskara (obeisance) and started on journey.

29-31. One day, this brahmin of great penance lost his way and reached a forest full of thorny shrubs, secluded and devoid of big trees. While he was hurrying up, he saw five terrible ghosts.

On seeing these five awful ghosts of deformed features he was terrified and he closed his eyes in sheer fright. Then, he cast olThis fear and became bold enough to ask in sweet words “O sires, how is it that you are so deformed? ”

32. What was the sin committed by you? Wherefore have you attained this deformity? Where are you proccccding in company?

The Ion! of the ghosis said:

33. O excellent brahmin, our ghosthood is the outcome of our own misdeeds. We had been engaged in harassing others. Hence, we became victims of foul death.

34. In this state of our ghosthood we are oppressed with hunger and thirst. We are unable to speak. We have lost our mental equilibrium. We have lost consciousness too.

35. We arc Pisacas born of our own misdeeds. We do not know' the difference between one quarter and another. We are extremely distressed. Wc do not know where we go.

36. We have neither fathers nor mothers. This ghosthood is due to our own misdeeds. We are extremely dejected and sorrowful because the attack is all too sudden.

37. O Brahmin, we are delighted on seeing you. We feel refreshed. Please wait a little. I shall narrate everything from the very beginning.

38. My name is Patyufita. This ghost is known as Sucimukha. The other one is Sighraga and the others are Rohiia and Lekhaka. These are our names and we are ghosts.

The brahmin said:

39. How can ghosts, the outcome of evil actions, have names? You may have some purpose in view in having these names. Please tell me.

The Pretardja (King of ghosts) said:

40. O excellent brahmin. While I myself took all sweet things Pleft stale things for brahmins to eat.

41. While I was on earth as a man, I showed the hungry brahmins the exit door. Hence, my name is paryufita.

42. O excellent brahmin, whenever a brahmin begged him for food, out of hunger, this ghost used to run away, hence, he is called Sighraga.

43. This other one irritated many brahmins with sharp tongue when they came to him for food, hence he is called Sucimukha.

44. In his life on earth, this ghost ate sumptuously, in isolation, the food-stuffs offered to gods and manes in the absence of brahmins. Hence, he is known as Rohaka.

45. Whenever a needy person requested him for something, this ghost pretended to be silent and went on scratching on the ground. As a result of this he is known as Lekhaka.

46-47. Thus acquiring our ghosthood and names from our misdeeds we have got ourselves deformed too.

This Lekhaka is goat-mouthed; Rohaka is mountainfaced; Sighraga is cow-faced; Sucimukha is needle-mouthed; I, Paiyufila, am crane-necked.

48-49. Taking this illusory form, we wander over this wide region. We suffer from terrible distress. O Brahmin, you'

can judge from our deformred faces with protruding lips and twisted shape. Our teeth are long, our bodies huge, our faces crooked, due to our misdeeds. Thus I have told you how we turned ghosts.

50. We have become somewhat wise on seeing you. If you wish to hear more, you can ask us further whatever you like to know.

The brahmin said:

5 1. The creatures on this earth subsist on food, I wish to know precisely what you all eat for your subsistence.

The ghost said:

52. If you are inclined to hear what we eat, O noble sir, listen attentively.

The brahmin said:

53. O king of ghosts, please tell me what you eat.

Thus requested the ghosts began to explain their diet respectively.

The ghosts said:

54. O brahmin, our diet is extremely loathsome, despised by all living beings. On hearing it from us you are sure to hate us. It is so despicable.

55. Mucous, secretions, faeces and urine together with other exudations, filth as well as leavings of food constitute our diet.

56. We eat, drink and revel in the house where people do not pay attention to cleanliness and where they scatter litter carelessly. We haunt unclean beings as well.

57. We reside and enjoy in the house where there is no purity and where people do not observe truthfulness and restraint and where outcastes, robbers, etc. join together and take meals.

58. We take delight in haunting the house where no mantras are recited, where no oblation is offered, where no koma is performed and where people do not read the Vedas 1 regularly nor perform religious rites. 2

1. Vedas — Originally there were only three Vedas: Rg, Yajus and Saman, collectively called Trayi: ‘the sacred triad’ but, a fourth, the Alharvaveda, was subsequently added to them. Each of the Vedas has two parts — the Mantra and the Brahmana. According to the orthodox faith of the Hindus, the Vedas are not human composition, being directly revealed by the supreme Being Brahman. They are called Sruti, ‘what is heard or revealed’ as distinguished from Smrti, ‘what is remembered’ or ‘is the work of human origin’.

2. Religious rites — as the worship of deities, observance of Vratas.

59. We hover round the house where gods are not honoured, where the householder is a vile wretch, without shame and decency and where the poor husband is controlled by his sturdy wife.

60. We enjoy gaiety in the house where covetousness, fury, somnolence, sorrow, fear, haughtiness, lethargy, quarrels and deception reign supreme.

61. We lick up the urine mixed with semen from the vaginal passage of the widow having illicit intercourse with her paramour.

62. Dear friend, I am ashamed to tell you about the food we take. O pious brahmin, we lick up the menstrual blood from the generative organ of a woman.

63. O noble brahmin, prefering penance to riches, and engaged in performing the sacred rites 1, I ask you, out of frustration. Please tell me the means of warding off ghosthood.

It is better to die a hundred times than turn a ghost.

The brahmin said:

64. A person who is assiduously engaged in fasts such as Krcchra 2, Gandrayana 3 is never born as a ghost.

65. He who observes fast, keeps awake at night and is purified by meritorious deeds is never born as a ghost.

66. He who performs Asvamedha and other sacrifices, makes liberal gifts and builds monasteries, parks, drinking water-sheds and cowpens is never born as a ghost.

1. Sacred riles — as the sacraments ( Samskdras ) described in the Grhya sutras.

2. Krcchra — As expiatory rites, various kinds of Krcchras (mortifications of the body) are enumerated by Mann (11. 211-216). They are Krcchra-sdnlapana, A ti krcchra, Taplakrcchra and Pardkakrcchra.

3. Candrayana — A religious observance or an expiatory rite regulated by the moon’s age (the period of iis waxing arid waning) in which the daily quantity of food consisting of fifteen mouthfuls at the full moon is diminished by one mouthful everyday during the dark fortnight till it is reduced to zero at the new moon and is increased in like manner during the bright fortnight. Ydjhavalkya srnrti 3. 324 et. seq, and Ms i 1. 216:

67. He who helps brahmins to give their virgin daughters in marriage, according io his capacity, he who enables students to study, and he who accords shelter and refuge to the needy is never born as a ghost.

68. If a man takes food offered by a fallen man and dies with that food undigested in his stomach, he is supposed to have courted a foul death and hence, he becomes a ghost.

69. If a priest officiates at the sacrifice of an unworthy person and neglects that of a worthy sacrificer, if a man lives in the company of despicable people he becomes a ghost.

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