{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/gpu/gpu11.htm","path":"hin/gpu/gpu11.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/gpu/gpu11.htm","text":"The Garuda Purana, by Ernest Wood and S.V. Subrahmanyam, [1911]\n1. Garu\u1e0da said: You have spoken fully about the gifts for the diseased. Tell now, O Lord, of the rites for the dying.\n2. The Blessed Lord said: Listen, O T\u0101rk\u1e63ya, and I will explain the rites for one leaving the body, and by what rites men after death reach a good condition.\n3-5. When, by the effects of karma, the embodied leaves his ordinary body, then, near to a holy basil tree one should make a ring with cowdung. 1\nNext, having scattered sesamum seeds, he should strew darbha-grass, and then have the \u015a\u0101lagr\u0101ma stone placed on the cleaned platform.\nLiberation is certain for the being who dies near the \u015a\u0101lagr\u0101ma stone, which removes all ills and sins,\n6-9 Where is the shade of the holy basil tree, which removes the pain of being, there is always liberation for the dying, difficult to obtain by gifts.\nThe house in which the holy basil tree is enshrined is like a holy bathing place,--the servants of Yama do not come to it.\nYama is not able to see him who gives up his life while having a holy basil shoot, though he have hundreds of sins.\nThe man who dies with a leaf of it in his mouth, upon a seat of sesamum and darbha-grass, goes to the city of Vi\u1e63\u1e47u, unfailingly, though he have no son.\n10-13. Sesamums, darbha-grasses and holy basil are three holy things, and they prevent an ailing man from going to a miserable condition.\nBecause the sesamum is produced from My sweat it is holy; hence Asuras, D\u0101navas and Daityas run away from sesamum.\nThe darbha grasses, my riches, O T\u0101rk\u1e63hya, are produced from my hairs; hence by the mere touch of them men attain heaven.\nBrahma is seated at the root of the ku\u015ba-grass; in the middle of the ku\u015ba is Jan\u0101rdana; 1 at the tip of the ku\u015ba is \u015aa\u1e45karadeva 2--three shining ones are seated in the ku\u015ba grass.\n14-15. Hence ku\u015ba, fire, mantras, holy basil; Br\u0101hmi\u1e47s and cows do not lose their purity by being used again and again.\nDarbha-grass becomes unclean with rice-balls; Br\u0101hmi\u1e47s, by eating the offerings for the departed; mantras, cows and holy basil, when basely used; and fire, on a cremation-ground.\n16-20. One should lay the dying man on the ground cleaned with cow-dung and spread over with darbha-grasses; not support him in the air. 1\nBrahm\u0101, Vi\u1e63\u1e47u, Rudra 2 all the shining ones, and Sacrificial Fire stand upon the ring,---therefore should one make a ring.\nThe ground must he pure everywhere, with no stain to be seen. If there is a stain it should be cleaned away by further plastering.\nDemons, goblins, elementals, spooks, and the followers of Yama enter an impure place, and a cot above the ground.\nHence without this ring one should not perform oblations to the fire, \u015ar\u0101ddha, the feeding of Br\u0101hmi\u1e47s, the worship of the Holy Ones; nor place the dying man upon the ground.\n21-22. Next, placing him on the cleaned ground, one should put gold and jewels upon his lips, and give him the Water of the Feet of Vishnu in the form of the \u015a\u0101lagr\u0101ma.\nHe who drinks even a drop of the water of the water of the \u015a\u0101lagr\u0101ma stone 3 is absolved from all sins, and goes to the residence Vaiku\u1e47\u1e6d\u1e25a. 4\n23-30. Then one should give him the water of the Ganges, which is the effacer of great sins, and gives fruit of merit equal to bathings and gifts at all the sacred waters.\nHe who performs a thousand times the Ch\u0101ndr\u0101ya\u1e47a fast which purifies his body, and he who drinks the water of the Ganges, are both equal.\nJust as, O T\u0101rk\u1e63ya, a bundle of cotton is destroyed by falling into the fire, so, by his drinking the water of the Ganges, is his sin reduced to ashes.\nHe who drinks the water of the Ganges, heated by the rays of the sun 1 is freed from all births and goes to the abode of Hari.\nBy bathing in other rivers men are purified,--so also by merely touching, drinking or calling upon the Ganges.\nIt sanctifies meritless men by hundreds and thousands. Therefore should one drink of the Ganges, whose water helps one over the ocean of transmigration.\nHe who calls, \"O Ganges, Ganges\" while life is flickering in the throat, goes when dead to the city of Vi\u1e63\u1e47u, and is not born again on earth.\nAnd the man who, when his life is leaving, contemplates with faith the Ganges, goes to the highest goal.\n31-33. Therefore he should contemplate, salute, keep in mind the Ganges, and drink its water. Then he should listen, however little, to the Bh\u0101gavata, 1 which is a giver of liberation.\nHe who in his last moments repeats a verse, or half or quarter of a verse of the Bh\u0101gavata never returns hither from the world of Brahm\u0101.\nThe repeating of the Vedas and the Upani\u1e63ads; the hymning of Vi\u1e63\u1e47u and \u015aiva--these bring liberation at death to Br\u0101hmi\u1e47s, K\u1e63attriyas and Vai\u1e63yas.\n34-35. At the time when the breath is leaving the body, he should make a fast, O Bird. Dissatisfied with worldly things the twice-born should take up relinquishment. 2\nHe who says, 3 while life is still flickering in his throat, \"I have relinquished,\" goes at death to the city of Vi\u1e63\u1e47u, and is not born again on earth.\n36-39. Then, of him who is righteous and has thus performed the rites, O Bird, the life breaths easily pass out through the higher opening. The mouth, eyes, nostrils and ears are the seven gateways through which go those of good deeds. Yogins go through an opening in the head.\nWhen the rising and descending life-breaths, which are joined, become separate, then, becoming subtle, the life-breath departs from the inert body.\nWhen the Lord of Breath departs, the body falls like a tree unsupported and stricken by time.\n40-41. The motionless body, left by the vital breath, becomes detestable and unfit to touch; foul smells soon arise in it, and it is disliked by everybody.\nHow can men, who perish in a moment, be proud of the body, with its three conditions,--worm, dung and ashes?\n42-43. Earth is dissipated to earth; likewise water to water; fire is dissipated in fire; also air in air.\nAnd, similarly, ether to ether: and the Self that is in the bodies is happy, all-pervading, eternally free, witness of the world, birthless and deathless.\n44-45. The individual, possessing all the senses, surrounded with sense-objects of sound and the rest, clinging to desire and love, environed by the sheath of karma,\nEndowed with good tendencies, enters a new body created by his own karma, as does a householder whose house has been burnt.\n46-47: Then the messengers of the Shining Ones, resplendent with flashing plumes, arrive, bringing a chariot wreathed with countless bells,\nAnd they, knowing the true righteousness, wise, always beloved by the righteous, carry him, who has performed the rites, away in their own chariot.\n48. That great man, in a resplendent body, with shining garments and garlands, possessed of gold and diamond ornaments, by virtue of gifts attains heaven, and is honoured by the Holy Ones.\n76:1 Cowdung is extensively used in India as a purifier and antiseptic.\n77:1 Vi\u1e63\u1e47u.\n77:2 \u015aiva.\n78:1 When the people of the house are aware that one is about, to die they remove him from the couch to the ground.\n78:2 Siva.\n78:3 Water is poured over the stone, and thus consecrated to Vi\u1e63\u1e47u.\n78:4 The heaven of Vi\u1e63\u1e47u.\n79:1 Here is a mystical suggestion.\n80:1 The Bh\u0101gvata Pur\u0101\u1e47a.\n80:2 Sanny\u0101sa, giving up attachment to worldly life and its objects.\n80:3 That is, truly says.","title":"The Garuda Purana: Chapter IX. An Account of the Rites for the Dying","type":"page"}