{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/db/bk11ch22.htm","path":"hin/db/bk11ch22.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk11ch22.htm","text":"THE ELEVENTH BOOK\nChapter XXII\nOn the rules of Vais\u2019vadeva\n1-45. N\u00e2r\u00e2yana said :-- O N\u00e2rada! In connection with this Puras\u2019charanam it comes now to my memory about the rules concerning the Vais\u2019va Deva worship (An offering made to the Vis\u2019vadev\u00e2s; an offering to all deities made by presenting oblations to fire before meals). Hear. The five yaj\u00f1\u00e2s are the following :-- (1) The Devayaj\u00f1\u00e2, (2) Brahm\u00e2 yaj\u00f1\u00e2, (3) Bh\u00fbta yaj\u00f1\u00e2, (4) Pitri yaj\u00f1\u00e2, and (5) Manusya yaj\u00f1\u00e2. Fireplace, the pair of stone pestles, brooms (for sweeping, etc.), sieves and other house-hold things of the sort, wooden mortars (used for cleansing grains from husk) and water-jars, these five are the sources of evils inasmuch as they are the means of killing. So to free one\u2019s self from the above sins, one is to sacrifice before the Vais\u2019vadeva. Never offer oblations of Vais\u2019vadeva on hearths, on any iron vessel, on the ground or on broken tiles. They are to be offered in any sacrificial pit (Kunda) or on any sacrificial altar. Do not fire the hearth by fanning with hands, with winnowing baskets, or with holy deer skin, etc., but you can do so by blowing by your mouth. For the mouth is the origin of fire. If the fire be ignited by clothes, one is liable to get disease; if by winnowing baskets, then less of wealth comes; if by hands, one\u2019s death ensues. But if it be done by blowing, then one\u2019s success comes. (There is the danger of catching fire.)\nOne should sacrifice with curd, ghee, fruits, roots and vegetables, and water and in their absence with fuel, grass, etc., or with any other substances soaked with ghee, curd, P\u00e2yasa or lastly with water. But never with oil or with salty substances. If one performs the Homa with dry or stale substances, one is attacked with leprosy; if anybody performs Homa with leavings of other food he becomes subdued by his enemy; if one does so with rude and harsh substances, he becomes poor and if one does with salty substances, he meets with a downward course, gets degraded in position and honour. You can offer oblations to Vais\u2019vadeva with burning coals and ashes from the north side of the fire of the hearth after the preparation of the meals. But you should never offer sacrifices with salty things. The\nilliterate Br\u00e2hmana who eats before offering oblations to Vais\u2019vadeva goes headlong downwards into the K\u00e2la S\u00fbtra hell. Whatever food that you are intending to prepare, whether they be vegetables, leaves, roots or fruits, offer oblations to Vais\u2019vadeva with that if, before the Homa be performed of Vais\u2019vadeva, any Brahmach\u00e2r\u00ee comes, then take off, for the Homa, first something; and then give to the beggar and satisfy him and tell him to be off. For the Brahm\u00e2ch\u00e2r\u00ee mendicant can remove any defects that may occur to Vais\u2019vadeva but Vais\u2019vadeva is unable to remove any defects that may occur regarding the mendicant Brahmach\u00e2r\u00ee. Both the Paramahansa or Brahmach\u00e2r\u00ee mendicant are the masters of the prepared food (Pakk\u00e2nna); so when anybody takes one\u2019s food without giving to any of these two, if they happen to come there, he will have to make the Ch\u00e2ndr\u00e2yana (religious or expiatory penance regulated by the moon\u2019s age, that is, waxing or waning). O N\u00e2rada! After the offering given to Vais\u2019vanara, one is to offer Gogr\u00e2sa, that is, mouthfuls of food to the cows. Hear now how that is done. The mother Surabhi, the beloved of Visnu, is always stationed in the region of Visnu (Visnupada); so O Surabhi! I am offering you mouthfuls of food. Accept it. \u201cSalutation to the cows,\u201d saying this, one is to worship the cows and offer food to them. Hereby Surabhi, the Mother of the cows, becomes pleased. After this, one is to wait outside for a period that is taken to milch a cow, whether any guests are coming. For if any guest goes back disappointed from any house without any food; he takes away all the punyams (merits) of the house-holder and gives him back his own sin. The house-holder is to support mother, father, Guru, brother, son, servants, dependants, guests, those that have come, and Agni (Fire). Knowing all these, he who does not perform the functions of the house-hold is reckoned as fallen from his Dharma both in this world and in the next. The poor house-holder gets the same fruit by performing these five Mah\u00e2 jaj\u00f1\u00e2s that a rich Br\u00e2hmana gets by performing the Soma Yaj\u00f1\u00e2. O Best of the Munis! Now I am talking of the Pr\u00e2n\u00e2gni Hotra or about taking food, knowing the rules of which makes a man free from birth, old age and death and from all sorts of sins. He who takes his food according to proper rules, is freed of the threefold debts, delivers his twenty one generations from the hells, obtains the fruits of all the Yaj\u00f1\u00e2s and goes unhampered to all the regions of the righteous. Think of the belly as Arani or the piece of wood for kindling the fire\n(by attrition), think of the mind as the churning rod, and think of the wind as the rope, and then kindle the fire, residing in the belly; the eyes are to be considered as the sacrificer, (the\nAddharyu), and consider fire in the belly as the result of churning. In this fire of the belly, one is to offer oblations for the satisfaction of Pr\u00e2na, etc., the five deities. First of all offer oblations to the Pr\u00e2na V\u00e2yu with food taken by the forefinger, middlefinger and thumb; next offer oblations to the Ap\u00e2na V\u00e2yu with the thumb, middle finger and the nameless (an\u00e2m\u00e2) finger; next offer oblations to the Vy\u00e2na V\u00e2yu (breath) with the thumb, nameless finger and the little finger; next offer oblations to the Ud\u00e2na V\u00e2yu with the thumb, forefinger and the little finger and lastly offer oblations to the Sam\u00e2na V\u00e2yu with food taken by all the fingers. At the same time repeat respectively the mantras :--\n\u201cOm Pr\u00e2n\u00e2ya Sv\u00e2h\u00e2,\u201d\n\u201cOm Ap\u00e2n\u00e2ya Sv\u00e2h\u00e2,\u201d\n\u201cOm Sam\u00e2n\u00e2ya Sv\u00e2h\u00e2,\u201d\n\u201cOm Ud\u00e2n\u00e2ya Sv\u00e2h\u00e2,\u201d\n\u201cOm Vy\u00e2n\u00e2ya Sv\u00e2h\u00e2.\u201d\nWithin the mouth, there is the \u00c2havan\u00eeya fire; within the heart, there is the G\u00e2rhapatya fire; in the navel, there is the Dhaksin\u00e2gni fire; below the navel, there is the Sabhy\u00e2gni fire and below that there is the \u00c2vasathy\u00e2gni fire. Think thus. Next consider the Speech as the Hot\u00e2, the Pr\u00e2na as the Udg\u00e2th\u00e2, the eyes as the Addharyu, the mind as the Brahm\u00e2, the ears as the Hot\u00e2 and the keeper of the Agni, the Ahamk\u00e2ra (egoism) as beast (Pas\u2019u), Om K\u00e2ra as water, the Buddhi (intellect) of the house-holder as the legal wife, the heart as the sacrificial altar, the hairs and pores as the Kus\u2019a grass, and the two hands as the sacrificial ladles and spoons (Sruk and Sruva.) Then think of the colour of the Pr\u00e2na mantra as golden the fire of hunger as the Risi (seer), S\u00fbrya (the sun) as Devat\u00e2, the chhandas as G\u00e2yatr\u00ee and Pr\u00e2n\u00e2ya Sv\u00e2h\u00e2 as the Mantra uttered; also repeat \u201cIdam\u00e2dityadev\u00e2ya namah\u201d and offer oblations to the Pr\u00e2na. The colour of the Ap\u00e2na mantra is milk white. S\u2019raddh\u00e2gni is the Risi, the Moon is the Devat\u00e2, Usnik is the chhandas, and \u201cAp\u00e2n\u00e2ya Sv\u00e2h\u00e2,\u201d \u201cIdam Som\u00e2ya na namah\u201d are the mantras. The colour of the Vy\u00e2na mantra is red like red lotuses; the fire Deity Hut\u00e2sana is the Risi, the fire is the Devat\u00e2; Anustup is the chhandas, \u201cVy\u00e2n\u00e2ya Sv\u00e2h\u00e2\u201d and \u201cIdamagnaye na namah\u201d are the mantras. The colour of the Ud\u00e2na mantra is like that of the worm Indra Gopa; fire is the Risi; V\u00e2yu is the Devat\u00e2, Brihat\u00ee is the chhandas; \u201cUd\u00e2n\u00e2ya Sv\u00e2h\u00e2\u2019\u2019 and \u201cIdam V\u00e2yave na namah\u201d are the mantras. The colour of the Sam\u00e2na mantra is like lightning; Agni is the Risi; Parjanya (the rains, water) is the Devat\u00e2; Pankti is the chhanda; \u201cSam\u00e2n\u00e2ya\nSv\u00e2h\u00e2\u201d and \u201cIdam Parjany\u00e2ya na namah\u201d are the mantras. O N\u00e2rada! Thus offering the five oblations to the five breaths, next offer oblations to the \u00c2tman; the Bh\u00eesana Vahni is the Risi; the G\u00e2yatr\u00ee is the chhanda; the Self is the Devat\u00e2; \u201c\u00c2tmane Sv\u00e2h\u00e2,\u201d and \u201cIdam\u00e2tmane na namah\u201d are the mantras. O N\u00e2rada! He who knows this Homa of Pr\u00e2n\u00e2gnihotra attains the state of Brahm\u00e2. Thus I have spoken to you in brief the rules of the Pr\u00e2n\u00e2gni hotra Homa.\nHere ends the Twenty-Second Chapter of the Eleventh Book on the rules of Vais\u2019vadeva in the Mah\u00e2pur\u00e2nam S\u2019r\u00ee Mad Dev\u00ee Bh\u00e2gavatam of 18,000 verses by Maharsi Veda Vy\u00e2sa.","title":"The Devi Bhagavatam: The Eleventh Book: Chapter 22","type":"page"}