[Advaita-l] GARUDA PURANAM

[KAMESWARARAO MULA]

There is an example of the efficacy of gifts for the higher body of story King Babhruvahana.
In  the Treta yuga period, the delightful city ofMahodaya a king named Babhruvahana,who was very powerful and firm in righteousness. A sacrificer, Lord of Gifts,prosperous, a lover of Brahmaṇs,valuing the good, endowed with good character and of good conduct,compassionate, skilled, Righteously protecting his subjects as though they werehis own sons, always delighting in Kṣhatriya duties and punishing the guilty. Once, that powerful king,with his army, went hunting. He entered a thick forest, full of various kindsof trees, Crowded with various species of animals, and resounding with thecries of various birds. In the midst of the forest the king saw a deer in thedistance and shooted an arrow over it as a part of his hobby & duty also. Thedeer, severely wounded by his very hard arrow, ran out of sight into theinterior of the forest, carrying the arrow with him. The king, following theblood-stains on the grass, pursued the deer and came into another forest, he ishungry and with parched throat, fainting with the heat and with fatigue, coming to a lake bathed in it with hishorse.

Then,having drunk of that cool water, rendered fragrant by the-pollen of the lotus,Babhruvahana came out of the water refreshed and saw a delightful fig-tree,giving cool shade with its large spreading boughs, sounding with many birds andstanding like a big standard over the whole forest. The king approached and satat its root. 

Nowhe beheld a Departed One, ofterrible appearance, humpbacked and fleshless, with hair erect, dirty and withsenses discomposed by hunger and thirst, Seeing him deformed and dreadful, Babhruvahana wondered. The DepartedOne, also seeing the king who had come to that dreadful forest and becoming filled with curiosity, came near to him.Then Tarkṣya, this king of the Departed spoke thus to the king:

I have escapedthe condition of the Departed and reached the highest condition, by being intouch with you, O Great-Armed one,I am highly blessed. The king said: "OBlack-complexioned and Gaping-mouthed, bywhat bad deeds did you reach this state of the Departed, dreadful to see, andhighly unhappy?" Tell me in detail the cause of your condition, dear.Who are you and by what gifts will your condition as Departed pass away?"The Departed one said: "I will tell you everything from the beginning, OBest of Kings. You will surely have compassion upon me when you have heard thecause of my condition as Departed.

There is a townnamed Vaidasa, possessed of all prosperity, having many districts and aboundingin precious stones of various kinds, Beautiful with palaces and mansions and inwhich many religious acts are performed. There, O Reverend Sir, I dwelt, alwaysengaged in worship of the Shining Ones. By caste I am a Vaishya, by nameSudeva. By fire-offering I pleased the Shining Ones, and likewisethe forefathers by food. I gladdened the twice-born by offering various gifts.I gave food of various kinds to the poor, the blind and the wretched. All this,O King, through my evil fate has proved fruitless. How my good deeds provedfruitless I will relate to you. I haveno offspring, no companion, no relative and no friend like you, who willperform for me the ceremonies for the-higher body. 

O great king, Ifthe sixteen monthly Sraddhas, are not performed, the condition as Departedbecomes firmly fixed, even if hundreds of annual Sraddhas are performed forhim. Uplift me then, O Lord of Earth, by doing the ceremonies for my higherbody. It is said that in this world the king is the kinsman of all castes.Therefore, O Lord of Kings, help me over and I will give you a most preciousjewel, so that my departed condition may be destroyed and my higher statearise. In that manner please act, O warrior, if you desire my welfare.Suffering from the misery of hunger and thirst, I cannot endure this departedcondition. 

In this forest there is sweet and cool water and pleasantfruits, but I am not able to grasp them at all, although afflicted with hungerand thirst. if the great Narayaṇa rite is performed for me, O King, along with all the ceremoniesfor the higher body, with Vaidic mantras, Then surely my condition as departedwill unfailingly pass away. Vaidic mantras, austerities, gifts and compassionto all beings, Listening to holy scriptures, worship of Viṣhṇu, association with the good these, Ihave heard, are the destroyers of the departed condition. 

So Iwill tell you about the worship of Viṣhṇu, the destroyer of the departed condition. Bring two piecesof gold, honestly gained, and make one image of Narayaṇa from them, O King, Dress it with a pairof yellow cloths, put on it various ornaments, bathe it in many waters andplacing it, you should worship thus. Place Sridhara  to the east of it, Madhusudana to the south, to the west Vamanadeva  to the north Gadadhara, In the middle Pitamaha and also Maheswara, Worship these in turn with sandal-paste and flowers, according tothe rite. 

Then,having gone round them, make offerings in the fire to these deities. Makeofferings to the universal deities with clarified butter, curds and milk. Next,having bathed, calm and controlled in mind, the sacrificer should perform,according to the rite, in front of Narayaṇa, the ceremony for the upper body. He must commence, asprescribed in the scriptures, by giving up anger and greed, and perform all theceremonies and the release of a bull. Then he must give thirteen sets of potsto Brahmiṇs, and havingmade the gift of a bed, consecrate a pot of water for the sake of the departed.

Theking said, How is the pot for thedeparted to be prepared, and in accordance with what rites must it begiven? Tell me, on account of my sympathy for all, about the pot which givesrelease to the departed. The departed said: "Oh Great King, you have donewell in asking this. Please take notice and l will describe that good gift bywhich the departed condition cannot exist. Thegift which is named 'the pot for the departed,' is a destroyer of all evil.In all the worlds it is difficult to obtain this dissipater of evil conditions.Having prepared apot of refined gold, consecrated it to Brahma and Kesava  and all the guardians of the quarters, filledit with clarified butter and worshipped before it with devotion, give it to atwice-born. What good are a hundred other gifts from you? Brahma in the middle,likewise Viṣhṇu, and Sankara,eternal giver of happiness, in the east and other directions, in the neck ofit, the guardians of the universe in order.O King, These having duly worshipped,  with incenses, flowers and sandal-paste, one should give away the goldenpot, full of milk and clarified butter.

This gift, OKing, which is superior to all other gifts in removing great sins, should bemade with faith, for the release of the departed. The Blessed Lord spoke on Hisarmy, while he was thus conversing with the departed, followed him up, withelephants, horses and chariots, O Kasyapa. On the arrival of the army thedeparted one, having given the great jewel to the king, bowed to him, againimplored him, and became invisible. Having come out of the forest, the king returnedto his city, and arrived there remembering all that was said by the departedone. He duly performed the rites andceremonies for the dweller in the upper body and the departed, released by these sacred gifts, attained heaven.  By the Shraddha,performed even by a stranger, the departed attain a happy state what wonderthen that when the son performs it the father should reach it! 

He who hears, and he who causes others to hear thisholy history, never go to the departed condition, though they may have actedsinfully. 
Jyeshta Suddha PournamiSri Guru Padaravindarpana MastuKameswara

 

 


    On Monday, 17 June 2019 5:06:49 pm IST, KAMESWARARAO MULA via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:  
 
 Dear Members,
                    Madhusudana tells that the tree whose firm root is Law, whose trunk is the Vedas, whose abundant branches are the Puraṇas, whose flowers are sacrifices, and whose fruit is liberation. In Naimiṣaranya, the field of the sleepless Ones, the sages, Saunaka and others, performed sacrifices for thousands of years to attain the Heaven-world. Those sages once, in the morning, having offered oblations to the sacrificial fire respectfully asked this of the revered Suta sitting there. 
The sage said: The happiness only is giving path of the Shining  and wish to hear about the fear-inspiring Way of Yama. When the breath  leaves its place, the moment of dying seems an age, and pain like the stinging of hundred scorpions is experienced and persons emits foam; his mouth becomes filled with saliva. The vital breaths of the sinful depart by the lower gateway.Karma not experienced does not die away even in thousands of millions of ages, the being who has not experienced the torment certainly does not obtain the human form.
 Garuda! One should know about Khumbipakam & Raurava hells in details so that they never perform the sins in their life times.
For ten days the son should offer rice-balls. Every day these are divided into four portions, two portions give nourishment to the five elements of the body; the third goes to the messengers of Yama, he lives upon the fourth. For nine days and nights the departed obtains rice-balls and on the tenth day the being, with fully formed body, acquires strength. The old body being cremated, a new one is formed by these offerings, the man, the size of a hand (cube), by this experiences good and evil on the way. By the rice-ball of the first day the head is-formed; the neck and shoulders by the second, by the third the heart forms, By the fourth the back forms; and by the fifth the navel, by the sixth the hips and secret parts, by the seventh the thigh forms, Like this next the knees and feet by two, on the tenth day hunger and thirst. Dwelling in the body formed by the rice-balls, very hungry and pained with thirst, on both the eleventh and twelfth days the departed eats. On the thirteenth day the departed, bound by the servants of Yama, walks alone along the road like a captured monkey.

The way of Yama measures eighty-six thousand Yojanas (1Yojana=8 – 9 Miles), without Vaitaraṇi. Two hundred and forty-seven Yojanas each day the departed travels, going by day and night. Having passed successively  through these sixteen cities on the way, the sinful man goes to the place of the King of Righteousness. There is no shade of trees there, in which a man may take rest and on this road there is none of the foods by which he may support life. No water is to be seen anywhere that he extremely thirsty, may drink. Twelve suns blaze, as though at the end of a pralaya and being beaten with hammers by the awefull messengers of Yama, vomiting blood from the mouth, which then they eat again,  

Bewailing their own karmas these beings, becoming exhausted, full of very great misery, go on towards the mansion of Yama, thus going on the way, calling on son and grandson, incessantly crying out. Yama asks Chitragupta about the people’s sins. Chitragupta, although he is all-knowing, enquires of the Sravaṇas. The Sravaṇas are the sons of Brahmaṇ who wander in heaven, on earth and other regions. Their wives have a similar nature, and are called distinctively, Sravanis. They know accurately all that is done by women. These report to Chitragupta everything that is said and done, openly and secretly by men. These followers of the King of Justice know accurately all the virtues and vices of mankind and the karma born of mind, speech and body. Such is the power of these, who have authority over mortals and immortals. Thus do these truth-speaking Sravaṇas relate the actions of man. To the men who pleases them by austerity, charity and truthful speech, they become benevolent, granting heaven and liberation.
 

He who does not mike gifts becomes poverty--stricken and through poverty he commits sin, by the force of sin he goes to hell, and is again born in poverty and again becomes sinful. Karma which has been made, whether good or evil, must inevitably be suffered. Karma not suffered does not fade away even in tens of millions of ages and this is the Thumb Rule.

 Suta said: Having heard this, Garuḍa, trembling like a leaf of the holy fig-tree, again questioned Kesava for the benefit of men. Garuḍa said: Tell me by what means men who have committed sins unknowingly or knowingly escape from the torments of the servants of Yama. For those men who are immersed in the ocean of transmigration, of weak intelligence, their reason clouded by sin, their self dimmed by attachment to sense-objects.

What is the fate of the sinful and those without sons and those who have sons, who are righteous. If by any past action of his the birth of a son has been prevented, then some means should be taken for obtaining a son. Lord said by performing Satachaṇḍi, the intelligent should beget a son. The son saves his father from the hell called Put, therefore he was named "putra" by the Self-existent himself. Even a single son, if righteous, carries the whole family over. 'By the son he conquers the worlds,' is the ancient saying. The Vedas also proclaim the great importance of the son. Accordingly, having seen the face of a son, one is released from the debt to the forefathers. By the touch of his grandson a mortal is released from the three-fold debt. With the help of sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons he goes from the worlds and obtains heaven.

 There is an example of the efficacy of gifts for the higher body of story King Babhruvahana.
  
Sri Guru Padaravindarpana Mastu
Kameswara








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