THE GARUDA PURANA 56 страница

35. It is I who induce their activities. By actions life attains heaven, hell or salvation.

36. The prosperity of man, consigned to heaven or hell, is possible through Sraddhas. Hence, people shall assiduously perform different kinds of Sraddhas.

37. The names of the ten incarnations of the lord, viz —

Matsya (fish), Kurma (tortoise), Varaha (boar), Narasirhha, Srirama, Parsurama, Krsna, Balarama, Buddha and Kalki shall be remembered always.

38. He will be posted in heaven. After enjoying the pleasures therein when he is born again on the Earth, he will enjoy riches. 1 He will be endowed with the qualities of mercy and chivalry. He will have sons and grandsons. He. will live for a hundred years.

39. He should offer gifts to the needy and adore Visnu with the requisite JVyasas 1 or repeat the mantras of eight syllables 2 or twelve syllables. 3

40. White flowers should be offered in worship together with food offerings cooked in ghee. Frequent incenses and scents should be offered and hymns from the Vedas, Smrtis such as of Manu should be recited.

41. Visnu is mother, Visnu is father. Visnu is kinsman.

If I do not see Visnu nothing is of any consequence to me.

42. Visnu is on earth. Visnu is in water. Visnu is on the mountain. Visnu is in fiery flames. Everything identifiable in the universe is with Visnu.

43. I am the waters. I am the Earth. I am the darbha grass. I am the gingelly seeds. I am the cows. I am the subjects.

44. I am gold. I am grains. I am honey. I am ghee. I am brahmins. I am deities. I am Siva. I am mantras:

bhuh, bhuvah, svah.

45. I am the giver. I am the taker. I am the sacrificer.

I am the sacrifice. I am the remover. I am virtue, earth and water.

46. O bird, I divert a man’s mind to virtue or evil through auspicious and inauspicious activities. Whatever man does is actuated by the actions of his previous birth.

47. It is I who induce thoughts of virtue. It is Yama who induces thoughts of evil. It is I who induce thoughts of ascetics towards virtue. It is I who accord salvation.

48. O Garuda, the river Vaitarani is beneficent to men of virtue. After dispelling all sins the virtuous man goes to Visnu’s region.

49-51. If one makes a gift of a brown cow which grants all wishes, one is freed from all sins — the sins committed in infancy, childhood or youth, in previous births, during nights or mornings, middays or afternoons, at dusk or dawn whether it is by means of action, thought or speech.

1. Mydsa — touching the limbs of the body with the hand accompanied by appropriate mantras.

2. Mantra of eight syllables — Om namo Vasurievaya 3. Mantra of twelve syllables— Om namo bhagaoate

Vasudcvaya 52. May cows remain in front of me, may cows remain behind me, may cows remain ever in my heart. I reside in the midst of cows. May the splendour of all living beings, the splendour present in deities remove my sins. May Laksmi assume the form of a cow and dispel my sins.

CHAPTER THIRTYONE.

On bestowing gifts.

1. Men tainted by sins go to Yama’s abode. A gift made in my name accords endless benefits.

2. A person who gifts plots of land stays in heaven for as many years as the number of steps the land measures.

Those who make gifts of sandals go seated on horse-back.

3. By making a gift of umbrella one will traverse after death, without difficulty, the paths where other men are excessively oppressed by the heat of the sun.

4-5. If food is given in gift with the dead man in view he will be nourished by the same. Men who make gifts of lamps can traverse those regions infested by terrible darkness, without the aim or regular form, which shall for him become illuminated brightly.

6. The gift of lamp is conducive to the pleasure of those who die in the month of Asvina, Karttika or Maglia or on the fourteenth day of the lunar fortnight.

7. Lamps shall be gifted daily for a year after the death for the benefit of the dead in the troublesome path.

8. The pure soul who is engaged in the gift of lamps shall brighten his path and his family. He shall be honoured among the luminaries of the sky.

9-10. He who makes a gift of lamps either for the dead or for himself facing east or north or places them in temples or in the houses of brahmins will be able to traverse the Great Path without any distress.

1 1. He who makes gifts of seats, vessels or foodstuffs to brahmins goes along the path happily and enjoys everything.

12-15. By making a gift of water-jar the thirsty shall drink water. Vessels, clothes, flowers, rings shall be gifted on the eleventh day for the dead to attain the highest goal. Thus those who wish the dead well shall make gifts of the thirteen articles according to their ability. The dead shall be pleased thereby. Foodstuffs, gingelly seeds, water-jars thirteen in number, a ring, pair of clothes should be gifted in favour of the dead to help him attain the highest goal.

16. He who makes gifts of a horse, a boat or an elephant to brahmins will become happy.

17. He who makes a gift of buffalo sojourns in many worlds. A she-buffalo, the mother of the vehicle of Yama, accords benefit.

18. A gift of betel leaves together with flowers increases the delight of those who are in Yama’s abode. Being delighted with that they do not harass him.

1 9-20. The man who gives according to his ability gifts of cows, plots of lands, gingelly seeds, gold and an earthen jar full of water, with the dead in view attains the fruit of the gift of a thousand water-jars.

21. If a person makes a gift of clothes, the awe-inspiring terrible emissaries of Yama black and tawny in colour do not threaten him.

22. By making gifts of potfuls of foodstuffs one shall be happy in those paths which one should otherwise have to traverse exhausted utterly and oppressed by thirst.

23. A bed with smooth cotton within and covered by a velvet cloth should be given to gods and brahmins. By that the dead man will be freed from ghosthood and rejoice with deities.

24. Thus, O Tarksya, I have explained to you the gifts which should be offered when performing obsequies. I shall now tell you how death enters the body.

25-26. Death is inevitable to all living beings in this mortal world.

O lord of birds, when the living beings die, the vital air shrinking to its subtle size comes out of the throat.

27. It may escape through any of the nine apertures or through the pores of hair or through the palate. The subtle soul escapes through Apana 1 in the case of sinners.

28. When the vital air escapes, the corpse falls down.

When struck down by Death it falls like a tree bereft of its support.

29. The earthly matter becomes merged in the principle of fire. The gaseous matter becomes assimilated in the principle of wind. The ethereal matter gets dissolved in the principle of ether and the all-pervasive soul gets merged in Sankara.

30. The five vices — passion, etc. and the five senseorgans, O bird, are the villains stationed in the body.

31. Lust, anger and egotism are led by the mind which is the annihilating agent in collusion with merit and demerit.

32. The form of the universe is evolved out of one’s own activities. The next body it transmigrates to is also the result of its merits and demerits.

33. Just as a householder enters a new furnished house after the former has been burnt and destroyed, so also the soul enters a new body endowed with all objects and the five sense-organs.

34-36. Many are the excretions and discharges from the body including faeces, urine, bile, phlegm, marrow, flesh, fat, and semen. These together with the bones and sinews are burnt along with the body.

O Tarksya, thus the position of these in all embodied beings has been clarified.

37-39. Now, I shall tell you how the body looks like.

Human body is a single column of sinews embellished with two pegs and endowed with the sense-organs in nine operturcs.

It is constantly attacked by the objects, agitated by lust and anger, tossed by love and hatred, victimised by an unquenchable thirst, entrapped in the network of covetousness, enshrouded in the cloth of greed, bound by illusion but presided over by a conscious being. It is, as it were, like a city with six vestibules with the Purusa in charge thereof.

1. apana — One of the five life-winds in the body which goes down words and out at the anus. The other four arc prana, samana, vyana and udana.

40. All the bodies are invested with these attributes and features. All the deities and the fourteen worlds 1 are present therein.

41. Those who do not understand themselves are no better than brutes. The four kinds of living beings have their bodies of the same nature and same content.

42. Eight million four hundred thousand varieties of creatures were created by me formerly.

43. They are svedajas, (insects), Udbhijas, (plants), andajas (birds) and jarayujas, born from the womb, O sinless one, I have thus explained what you asked me.

CHAPTER THIRTYTWO.

The Origin of Life.

Garuda said:

1-4. How does life come into being in the four species 2

of living beings? How are the following formed: skin, blood, flesh, fat, marrow, bone, the living nucleus, hands and feet, tongue, generative and excretory organs, hair, nails, joints, ducts and the different lines drawn over the body, lust and anger, fear and shame, mind, joy, skin of various colours punctured with holes and shrouded with a network of fatty matter. I consider it a wonderful piece of jugglery in this world of human existence. O mighty one, who is the guiding hand here? O lord, let me know all about this matter.

1. Fourteen worlds — Roughly speaking there are three lokas: heaven, earth and nether region, but according to fuller classification the lokas are fourteen: seven higher regions rising from the earth one above the other, viz., cTT, imv, and seven lower regions descending from the earth one below the other, viz.,, 7RRFT, and TRIM I 2. Four species: svedaja — generated by warm vapour or sweat (insects); udbhijja — sprouting, germinating (as a plant); andaja — oviparous (birds) and jarayuja — born from the womb, viviparous (human beings).

The lord said:

5. I shall tell you a great secret with the decisive method of unravelling the same, by knowing which one becomes omniscient.

6. O Garuda, you have put a pertinent question about the origin of life. Hence, listen attentively.

7. The first four days of menstrual flow of blood shall be avoided when the sin of a brahmin’s slaughter resides in her.

8. Brahma had removed this sin from Indra 1 and apportioned a fourth in women. Hence, even the glancing at her face during these days shall be eschewed.

9. A woman in her menses is an outcaste on the first day, a slayer of brahmin on the second day and a washerwoman on the third. She becomes pure on the fourth day.

10. After seven days, she becomes pure enough to take part in the worship of manes and deities. If conception takes place within seven days the progeny is impure.

11. Whatever be the thoughts of parents during the intercourse, like that is the progeny. There is no doubt in this.

12. If the sexual intercourse takes place on even nights, boys are conceived and if on odd nights girls are conceived.

Hence, it is better to have sexual intercourse on even nights, 2

leaving the first seven days after the menstrual discharge.

1. Indra slew Vrtra and thereby incurred the sin of Brahmahatyd Brahma removed the sin and apportioned the fourth part in the women during the days of menstruation.

2. By sexual intercourse on odd nights, girls are born, on even nights sons arc born. MS III. 45-48

13-14. The sixteen days from the appearance of blood are the days of heat for women in a general way. If conception takes place af ter the intercourse on the fourteenth night, the son born will be virtuous and endowed with good qualities and good fortune. Ordinary people will never get such an auspicious chance, O lord of birds.

15-16. Conception, usually, takes place within eight days. On the fifth day the woman is given sweet dishes which is a good tonic for the embryo. Astringent and pungent things should not be taken at all. The woman’s parts can be likened to a medicinal vessel. The seed of a man is like an ambrosial food.

17. A man depositing his semen in her vagina is actually sowing a seed. For the proper growth of the child she should avoid excessive sunshine. Cooling articles should be resorted to.

18-19. On the night auspiciously selected for the intercourse, the pair should chew betel leaves and apply scents and sandal paste over their bodies. The ideas and thoughts that hover in the mind of the man at the time of intercourse have a lasting influence in moulding the character of the child conceived.

20. The semen mixing with the blood causes the foetus.

The foetus develops in the womb like the moon in the sky.

21. The consciousness is present in the semen in the form of a seed. When love, mind and semen act in unison, a secretion takes place in the womb.

22. If the blood is predominant at intercourse, the child will be a girl. If the semen is predominant, the child will be a boy.

23. If the semen and the blood are of equal potency, the child will be a eunuch. The nucleus of the foetus is formed within a day. It becomes frothy bubble in five days.

24. Within fourteen days it becomes a mixture of flesh and lymphatic substances.

25. It becomes a solid flesh in twenty days, sufficiently strong (in twenty five days) and (after that) it begins to develop gradually. The foetus would have assimilated completely the five elements within a month.

26. By the time the two months are over, the fat and the skin are evolved. The marrow and the bones are formed in three months time. The hair and the heels are formed in the fourth month.

27. The ears, nose and the belly are formed in the fifth month. The throat, back and the reproductive organs are developed in the seventh month.

28. By the eighth month, all the limbs are completed.

In the beginning of the ninth month the child in the womb is fully developed.

29. Whether the child be a girl or a boy or a eunuch it comes out in the ninth or tenth month.

30-32. Equipped with three energies, big-eyed, endowed with six kosas, five indriyas, ten nadls, ten pranas, the child as such is known by the Yogins. Marrow, bones, semen, flesh, hair, blood are the six kosas of the paiicabhautika body of a creature. This paiicabhautika body develops in the ninth or tenth month.

33. Then being dragged by the wind in the womb, agitated with pain, nourished by the susumna nerve in the woman’s womb, the same comes out.

34-36. The principles of earth, water, fire, wind and ether envelop it through the coils of sinews. O lord of birds, the parts predominant in the principle of earth are skin, bones, nerves, hair and flesh. O son of Kasyapa, listen to those predominant in the principle of water.

37. The saliva, urine, semen, marrow and blood constitute the parts predominant in the principle of water.

They should be realized carefully.

38. Hunger, somnolence, thirst, lethargy and brilliance, O lord of birds, are considered by yogins as constituting the qualities of fire in the human constitution.

39. Love, hatred, bashfulness, fear and delusion are the qualities, O bird, derived from wind.

40. Running, breathing, contracting, stretching and thwarting are the qualities of wind in the physical body.

41. O bird, resonant sound, cavity, gravity, hearing and supporting everything are the qualities of Ether.

42. Ears, skin, eyes, tongue and nose are the five senseorgans. Hands, feet, rectum, phallus and speech are the five organs of activity. "

43-44. There are ten principal nerves in the body: —

Ida, Pingala, Susumna, Gandharl, Gajajihva, Pusa, Yasa, Alambusa, Kuhu and Sankhinl.

45. The ten vital airs stationed in the body are Prana, Apana, Samana, Udana, Vyana, Naga, Kurma, Krkara, Devadatta and Dhananjaya.

46. The wind accords vitality and takes the assimilated food to all the joints of the body.

47. The food, as soon as it is taken, is split into two by the wind.

48-49. The digested food enters the rectum and the solid and liquid waste matter goes out separately. The prana blows on the gastric fire from below, over which food and water are brought by the wind. The fire thus blown separates the waste matter and the nutritive element.

50-51. This waste matter goes out of the body in the form of twelve types of waste matter. Ears, eyes, nose, tongue, teeth, navel, rectum, pores in the body, nails, kidneys are the passages through which the waste matter gets out. The sixchambered body, is evolved out of the mixture of semen and blood.

52. O son of Vinata, the roots of hair in the body are thirty five millions and the teeth are thirtytwo in number usually.

53. The nails are twenty and the hair growing on the face and head are seven hundred thousand. Generally, the fleshy matter in the body weighs about a thousand palas.

54. O bird, the blood is a hundred palas in weight as mentioned by elderly persons. The fat is about ten palas and the skin is about that much.

55. The marrow is about twelve palas in weight and the blood plasma is three palas. The semen is two Kudavas in volume and the manstrual blood is one Kudava.

56. The weight of the phlegmatic matter is six and a half palas. Faeces and urine are in accordance with indigested food and drink. This is the physical body and I shall mention its all-pervasive character.

57. Pleasure, pain, fear and welfare — these come to a person by actions alone.

58-59. Out of the embryo the wind drags the living being whose head is downwards and feet upwards, the palms of the hands on the flanks of knees, the thumb and fingers of the hand on the knees, the eyes and nose on the back and the centre of the knee.

60. Thus the living being in the embryo of the mother develops gradually. The bones attain hardness. Life is sustained by food and drink.

61. The tubular organ Vapyayani is set close to the navel part. The child in the embryonic state is fastened with a cord to the aperture therein. He comes out of confinement (along with the cord) in the scheduled time.

62. In the womb he eats and drinks whatever is eaten and drunk by the mother. Thereby he receives nourishment and develops in form.

63. In the womb he recollects the past events and happenings of worldly affairs. Tormented from all sides he feels depressed.

64. “As soon as I leave the womb I shall be very cautious. I shall never repeat mistakes. I shall so act that I may not be born again. ”

65. The living being thinks thus and further recollects events of hundreds of past births — events which accrued to him from causes known and unknown.

66. Then at the scheduled time the living being emerges from the embryo with the head downward in the ninth or tenth month.

67. While leaving the womb he suffers and faints. When he comes out of the womb he cries in anguish.

68-69. Then with the touch of air he obtains a little relief and comes to consciousness. Then the hypnotising power of Visnu overpowers him. Deluded by that power he loses power of discernment.

70. In childhood he remains in that state; passing through childhood he attains youth and old age.

71. Then he succumbs to death, then he attains birth.

Thus, on the wheel of existence he is made to rotate like the potter’s wheel.

72. Sometimes he goes to heaven, sometimes to hell.

In heaven or hell he reaps the fruits of his activities.

73. Sometimes, when he has exhausted the merit of his actions he descends to the earth by the residue of his merits.

Heaven or hell is not a permanent abode, this you should know, O best of birds.

74. People going to hell suffer from extreme tortures which they derive from their hellish activities. Their tortures increase when they see their companions enjoying in heaven.

75. Extreme distress awaits the inmates even in the celestial region inasmuch as the thought of fear haunts their mind from the very start they enter heaven that after their merits are exhausted they would be thrown into hell.

76. Looking at the tortures suffered by the people in hell, the residents of heaven feel that after the expiry of their merit the same fate awaits them in hell. Thus all the while they remain discomfortable in heaven.

77. A Jiva in the embryo is put to great suffering. He suffers in childhood and old age as well.

78. In youth he suffers from the evil effects of vicious desires, jealousy, rage. He is afflicted by bad dreams. Old age ends in death which is extremely painful.

79. Being dragged by the emissaries of Yama he is thrust into hell. From hell he descends to the earth to suffer again the utmost pangs of birth and death.

80. Thus, on the wheel of this universe, people are made to rotate like the potter’s wheel and are tortured incessantly, tangled by the noose of their actions.

81. O bird, there is no pleasure whatsoever in this world abounding in a multitude of sorrows. O son ofVinata, people should endeavour for salvation.

82. Thus, I have told you all about the child in the womb. I now answer your further query in the serial order, if you desire to hear.

Garuda said:

83. I am satiated with the answer to both of my queries. I implore you, now, to answer my third query too.

84. You have asked me what should be done for a dying' person. Now listen, I shall tell you my answer in brief to your query.

85. Knowing that the person is going to die, he should be bathed with cow-urine, cowdung, sacred clay, water from sacred rivers and other waters sanctified by Kusa grass.

86-87. He should be dressed in pure, auspicious, clean clothes. He should be laid on earth besmeared with cowdung, bestrewn with darbha grass, with tips pointed to the south and overspread with gingelly seeds.

88. His head should be put in the east or in the north with gold in the mouth.

89. O lord of birds, Salagram stone and Tulasi leaves should be kept nearby. An earthen lamp should be kindled. He should utter: Orh namo bhagavate Vasudevaya.

90. He should draw Om at first, worship the same and offer charity.

9 1. He should worship lord Visnu with flowers, incense etc, and pay homage glorifying his deeds and concentrating on him with sincere devotion. He should offer charity to the brahmins, poor and the indigent.

92. He should give up attachment for the son, friend, wife, fields, corns, wealth and set his heart on Visnu.

93. He should recite Purufa sukta if he is in distress, O good one. If he is dying and is unable to recite, the sons and other relations should do the same.

94. I have told you all that can be done when death is imminent. Now, I shall tell you, in brief, the fruits of all these activities.

95. Bath purifies a man, removes impurity. Meditation on Visnu yields all sorts of fruits.

96. A blade of darbha grass takes him to heaven. There is no doubt in this. Bath with water mixed with gingelly seeds and darbha grass is as much sanctifying as the bath at the end of sacrifice.

97. A circle should be drawn around the dying person, for, it is said, Brahma, Visnu, Rudra, LaksmI and fire reside within the circle.

98. If he is laid on earth with his head eastward or north-ward, O lord of birds, he reaches the sublime regions if his sins are minimum in life.

99-100. If five gems are put into his mouth, knowledge dawns upon him.

In this shadowy world of unsurmountable difficulties, the following six incite devotion: meditation on Visnu, observance of vow on the eleventh day of the month (ekadasi), listening to the Bhagavadgita, worship of the sacred plant TulasI, brahmins and cows.

101. By muttering the mantra Om namo bhagavate Vdsudevdya, one is completely absorbed in Brahma. Even by worshipping me alone, one can reach my region direct.

102. In the obsence of entanglement, attachment vanishes by the knowledge as revealed in the Purufa Sukta.

103-104. But one who has other sources as well obtains reward in proportion to the additional sources. All those sources he should utilize for the pleasure of lord Visnu. I have thus told you in detail the benefits derivable from ablution, etc.

105-106. The various features of the cosmos are present in the body as well. The various worlds, mountains, continents, oceans and the planets like sun, etc, are all present in the body.

107-108. The sole of the foot h at ala 1 (the netherworld of that name); the upper surface of the foot is vitala; the knee is satala; the calf is talatala; the thigh is rasatala; the private parts are mahalala. The patala is in the hips. Thus the lower worlds are explained and must be noted by the learned men.

109-1 10. The Bhur is stationed in the centre of the navel;

the Bhuvar is above it. The Svar is in the heart. The Mahar is in the throat. The Janas is in the mouth; the Tapas is on the forehead and the Satya or Brahma is in the aperture of the head. Thus the fourteen worlds are explained.

1. Seven lower regions descending from the earth one below the other are named Atala, Vitala, Satala, Talatala, Rasatala, Mahdtala and Patala while seven higher regions rising from the earth one above the other are called Bhur, Bhuvar f Svar, Mahar, Janas t Tapas, Satya or Brahma.

111-112. The mount Meru is in the triangular shoulder blade. The mount Mandara is in the lower angle i. e. hips. The mount Kailasa is in the right angle. The Himalaya is in the left angle. The mount Nisadha is in the- upper surface. The Gandha-madana is to the right and the Ramana is in the linear section in the left side. Thus, the seven great mountains are present in the body.

113-114. The Jambu dvipa is stationed in the bones;

the Saka dvipa in the marrow; the Kusa dvipa in the flesh, the Kraunca dvipa in the head; the Salmali dvipa in the skin: the Gomeda in the hair; the Puskara dvipa in the nail and oceans thereafter.

115-116. The salt ocean is stationed in the urine; the milk ocean in the milky exudations of the body. The wine ocean is stationed in the phlegm; the butter ocean in the marrow; the rasa ocean in the lymphatic secretion; the curd ocean in the blood; the water ocean in the region of excreta and the ocean of sugar cane juice in semen.

117-119. The Sun is stationed in the sound-circle; the Moon in the spot-circle; the Mars in the eyes; Mercury in the heart; the Jupiter in the navel; the Venus in the semen; the Saturn in the umbilical region; Rahu in the mouth and Ketu in the feet. The planets are stationed in the body. Thus, the body is divided from head to foot.

120-123. Those who are born must die too. Hunger, thirst, unconsciousness and the affliction due to the bites and stings of serpents, scorpions and flies have all their origin in Rudra. O bird, the base wretches who sin and who are devoid of mercy and virtue are dragged through scorching sand and blazing fire, seized by their hair by the servants of Yama.

124. They live in the region of Yama and when they are reborn they will be born in cottages. O Tarksya, thus, man is born in the mortal world as a result of his own actions.

125-126. The five characteristics, viz. the span of life, action, wealth, learning and death are created in men even as they are in the womb. The life is born as a result of action; it is dissolved as a result of action.

127. Happiness or misery, fear or welfare are the results of actions. The foetus lies in the womb with the feet up and the face downwards.

128. From the moment of birth the Maya of Visnu enamours and deludes the life. The life takes its birth with its association brought about by its own actions.

129. Due to merit, man enjoys pleasures in heaven and is fortunalety born in a noble family 1. If he is sinful in actions he is born in a mean-minded family.

130. He becomes poor, sick, foolish, sinful and miserable.

O son of a sage, I have thus told you the various features of the birth of a life.

CHAPTER THIRTYTHREE.

Thx world of Tama.

Garu< j. a said:

1. What is the extent of the region ofYama? What is its expanse in proportion to that of the three worlds habitated by the mobile and immobile beings? Please tell me the length of the pathway as recorded by tradition.

2. O lord, what are the merits or demerits, sins or virtues, as a result of which men go there. Please tell me all concerning this.

1. The same idea is found in the Bhagavadgita VI. 41

In V. 128 above, a reference was made to life’s associations that determined the future birth of man. Here the Purana speaks of his enjoyments in heaven and rebirth in a pious noble family. Because of the predominance of impulses to enjoyment his release is not possible.

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