Sadācāra

Sadācāra · sat-ācāra, “the conduct of the good”

Sadācāra means “the conduct of the good”: the everyday way of living by dharma. Many Purāṇas teach it, as the daily code for the householder, the Vedic student, the forest-dweller and the renunciant.

Ācāra (good conduct) is declared to be the root of all piety, the greatest tapas (austerity), the thing that lengthens life, and the destroyer of pāpa (wrongdoing). Without it, even japa, tapas and yajña lose their fruit. The teaching covers the daily routine from rising to sleep, bathing, sandhyā and japa, food, speech, hospitality, income, ritual impurity (āśauca), the duties of the varṇas and āśramas, the saṃskāras (life-cycle rites) and the conduct of a Vedic student.

In the Agni Purāṇa, Pushkara teaches Paraśurāma the ācāra, the daily rule of conduct, in Chapter 155: rising in the brāhma-muhūrta with the remembrance of Vishṇu, cleansing, the six kinds of snāna and their mantras, tarpaṇa, and a long list of what to do and what not to do, from giving way on the road to the choice of a country to live in. In Chapter 238, in the rāja-nīti that Śrī Rāma taught Lakshmaṇa, sadācāra is the conduct of good people, the means of winning the hearts of the people, and the ācāra of mahātmās (great souls) is given mark by mark.

In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, the chapter of sadācāra closes Nārada Maharshi‘s teaching to Yudhishṭhira: the right giving in śrāddha, ahiṃsā as the highest dharma, the five branches of adharma, contentment, how each fault is conquered, the guru as Bhagavān Śrī Hari himself, dhyāna-yoga and prāṇāyāma, the chariot of the body, the paths of the fathers and of the devas, and the three advaitas, by which even a gṛhastha reaches Īśvara.

In the Bhavishya Purāṇa, Sumantu Muni tells King Śatānīka that ācāra is the first dharma and the root of all tapas, and Brahmā teaches the ṛshis that good conduct, not birth or saṃskāra, is the mark of a brāhmaṇa. In the Uttara Parva, Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Yudhishṭhira that every vrata and dāna bears fruit only for the person of sadācāra, and then gives the whole rule of the day: rising, sandhyā, cleanliness, the use of wealth, speech, dress, companions, the place to live, the house, the meal, the guest and sleep.

Per Brahma Purāṇa

Chapter 221, called Sadācāra-varṇana, gives a full code of daily conduct as part of its larger dharmaśāstra section (Chapters 221–226). The teaching covers the householder’s ācāra from the moment of waking to the care of guests and the rules of ritual purity.

Morning practice

The gṛhastha must rise during brahma-muhūrta, the auspicious time before dawn, and spend it in contemplation before the day’s work begins. Sandhyā-vandana (the sandhyā prayer at dawn, noon and dusk) is given as an absolute duty: no excuse allows leaving it out. The rules of śauca (personal cleanliness and ritual purity) are given in detail: the direction to face for bodily functions at different times of day, the right order of cleaning, the use of mṛttikā (earth) for purifying, and what is needed for the śauca to be complete.

Ritual purity of substances

The text lists the levels of purity of the various substances used in household ritual and daily life. Gold is among the naturally pure substances. Shell, stone and certain kinds of garments are discussed: when they need further purifying and when they keep their natural purity. The rules are given for the householder, in whose house different materials are in constant use.

Food rules

The text lists both forbidden foods (nishiddha āhāra) and permitted foods with care. The forbidden items are listed by kind. The rules for behaviour at meals are given: the proper posture, the feeding order (guests before the householder) and the recitation before eating. The conduct proper at another’s meal, when one is a guest, is also covered.

Guest conduct (atithi-dharma)

A householder who fails to honour an atithi (unexpected guest) properly takes on adharma, whatever his other puṇya. The text gives the order of hospitality: the guest receives a seat, water, food and respectful conversation in turn, before the host eats. The host should honour the atithi as Parameśvara himself, an arrival to be honoured and not a burden to be managed.

Conduct during eclipses

The text gives the conduct (ācaraṇa) proper during solar and lunar eclipses, times of great cosmic importance. It lays down the acts to be done and those to be avoided during the eclipse, and the ritual frame for returning to normal activity after the eclipse ends.

Per Vishṇu Purāṇa

The third part (Tṛtīyāṃśa) of the Vishṇu Purāṇa gives a detailed, practical guide to sadācāra, the everyday code of behaviour and sacred practice for a person who lives by dharma, in Chapters 8–12 and 16–18. It is taught by Aurva Ṛshi to King Sagara.

The teaching covers the householder’s whole day, from rising before dawn to going to sleep. It includes rules about food, conduct towards women and elders, avoiding impurity, the right times for married union, and the meaning of the word “nagna” (“naked”): a person left spiritually unprotected because he has abandoned the three Vedas. It ends with rules about contact with pāshaṇḍas (those who have rejected the Vedic path) and what happens to those who keep company with people who have abandoned dharma.

The Foundation: Honouring Vishṇu through Varṇāśrama

The highest way to honour Vishṇu is to fulfil one’s own varṇāśrama dharma (the duties of one’s social group and stage of life) with śraddhā (faith). Vishṇu is the ātman (inner self) of all beings, so honouring dharma honours him. In the same way, harming any creature is harming Vishṇu. The path of sadācāra is therefore not just a social code. It is a form of bhakti (devotion).

“A brāhmaṇa, kshatriya, vaiśya or śūdra must each honour Vishṇu by performing the dharma of his own varṇa. There is no other way.”

The Duties of the Varṇas in Brief

The sādhāraṇa dharmas (duties shared by all varṇas and āśramas) are: compassion, patience, freedom from ahaṃkāra (ego), truth, purity, not overstraining, auspicious action, pleasant speech, friendship towards all, fewer desires, and freedom from envy.

The Daily Routine (Dinacaryā)

Before Dawn

• Rise in brahma-muhūrta, the third muhūrta (a period of about 48 minutes) before sunrise, about ninety minutes before dawn.
• Think about dharma, artha and kāma (right living, wealth and pleasure). Resolve to do what is auspicious, and put aside any wish that clashes with dharma or causes harm in the long run.
• Relieve oneself facing north-east by day and south by night. While doing so, cover the head with a cloth, do not speak, and do not linger.
• Use the prescribed amounts of mṛttikā (earth) for cleansing. Do not take earth from ant-hills, rat holes, places where water has left deposits, fields, cremation grounds, or ground made dirty by waste.

Ācamana and Cleanliness

• Perform ācamana (sipping water to purify oneself) three times, with pure water that is free of foam and smell.
• Clean the teeth. Do not bite the nails, and do not snap blades of grass for no reason.
• Apply oil, look in a mirror, and wear fragrant flowers; white flowers are preferred.
• Wear two clean cloths. Do not wear a single cloth (eka-vastra) for any sacred act.

Sandhyā-Upāsanā

• Perform the prātar-sandhyā (morning prayers) before sunrise, while the stars can still be seen.
• Perform the sāyaṃ-sandhyā (evening prayers) at sunset, while the sun can still be seen.
• Neither sandhyā may be left out, except during āśauca (ritual impurity after a birth or death), madness or illness that threatens life.
• One who is asleep at sunrise must perform prāyaścitta (atonement).
• “Those who do not perform either sandhyā fall into the Andhatāmisra naraka.”

Tarpaṇa

• After bathing in a river, lake or well, perform tarpaṇa (water offerings) at the three times of day.
• Offer three añjalis (handfuls of water) each to the devas, ṛshis and pitṛs (ancestors), through their own tīrthas (points of the hand): the daiva-tīrtha is the fingertips, the ṛshi-tīrtha is the root of the fingers, and the pitṛ-tīrtha is the root of the index finger.
• Also make a kāmya-tarpaṇa for all beings: devas, asuras, yakshas, nāgas, gandharvas, rākshasas, piśācas, guhyakas, siddhas, trees, birds, water creatures, beings who live on the earth, and pretas (departed spirits) in the narakas.

Deva-Pūjā and Vaiśvadeva

• Return home and offer pūjā to one’s chosen deity with jalābhisheka (pouring water), flowers, dhūpa (incense) and naivedya (food offering).
• Perform the vaiśvadeva homa, with five āhutis (offerings into fire) to Brahmā, Prajāpati, Kāśyapa, the Anumati devas and the Bhūtas.
• Offer bali (food offerings) to the guardians of the directions: Indra (east), Yama (south), Varuṇa (west), Candra (north), Dhanvantari (north-east), Vāyu (north-west) and Brahmā (centre).
• Place the bhūta-bali, food set on the ground for dogs, caṇḍālas (outcastes), birds, patitas (fallen people) and the childless.

Atithi-Pūjā: Honouring the Guest

After vaiśvadeva, wait at the entrance for as long as it takes to milk a cow (about six minutes). If an atithi (a guest from another place) comes:

• Welcome him with a seat (āsana), water to wash his feet (pāda-prakshālana) and hospitality.
• Do not ask the guest’s gotra (lineage), śākhā (Vedic branch) or kula (family). Treat him as Brahman.
• A guest who leaves unsatisfied takes away the host’s puṇya (merit) and leaves his own pāpa behind.
• Turning away a guest who comes at night brings eight times the fault.

The Meal

Eat only after:

1. Performing japa and homa
2. Bathing and putting on clean clothes
3. Serving first the guests, brāhmaṇas, the guru, the elderly, pregnant women, children and dependants

Rules at the meal:

• Face east or north, and sit on a clean seat.
• Do not eat with wet hands, in a single cloth, facing a wrong direction, or looking at another person’s plate.
• Eat the sweet course first, then the salty and sour in the middle, and the bitter and pungent last.
• Take liquid first, then solid food, then liquid again; this keeps one healthy.
• Eat without insulting the food. Silently offer the first five mouthfuls to the five prāṇas (life-breaths).
• Do not eat from a vessel lying on the bare ground.
• After eating, wash the hands and feet and perform ācamana.
• Meditate briefly: “May the food I have eaten be digested by the Vaiśvānara fire and nourish all five prāṇas.”

Code of Behaviour (Chapter 12)

Chapter 12 gives a long list of rules of conduct.

To Avoid

• Riding damaged vehicles or animals
• Standing under or near collapsed buildings, or in flooded areas
• The company of enemies, patitas, the insane, those with many enemies, immoral women, people of mixed varṇa, dishonest people, spendthrifts, those who desire other men’s wives, and fools
• Travelling alone on the road; plunging into a river’s current; going into a burning building
• Climbing to the top of a tree; gnawing the nails; pinching the nose; yawning without covering the mouth; laughing loudly; passing wind noisily
• Eating one’s nails; pulling up grass; scratching the ground; trimming the moustache with the teeth
• Exposing oneself to impure lights; looking at a woman who is not covered; looking at the rising or setting sun
• Feeling disgust at a dead body or its smell, since the body holds a part of Soma (soma-aṃśa) even in death
• Going at night to crossroads, the village banyan tree, cremation grounds, or the house of an immoral woman

To Do

• Walk clockwise (pradakshiṇa) around temples and crossroads.
• Before leaving home, bow to auspicious things (maṅgala-dravyas) and sacred objects (pūjya-dravyas).
• Walk with the eyes looking straight ahead, watching the ground one staff’s length in front.
• Carry an umbrella in rain and sun, a staff at night or in forests, and sandals to protect the feet.

Conduct with Others

• Do not quarrel with those above or below you. Marry, and settle disputes, only with equals.
• Bear small losses patiently, and do not seek wealth through enmity.
• Do not bathe in a wet cloth or dry the hair with a cloth; do not stand on one foot to rub the other; do not stretch the feet towards elders or sacred objects.
• Sit lower than the guru, and always be humble in the guru’s presence.

Ṛtu-Kāla: Rules for Married Life

Married life is placed within clear limits:

• Union is proper during the ṛtu-kāla, days 4 to 16 counted from the start of the wife’s monthly period, especially on the even-numbered nights in that time, and on nights when these auspicious nakshatras (lunar mansions) are present: Aśvinī, Kṛttikā, Rohiṇī, Punarvasu, Pushya, Hasta, Anurādhā, Śravaṇa, Pūrvabhādrapadā and Uttarabhādrapadā.
• It is forbidden at the parva times (caturdaśī, ashṭamī, amāvāsyā, pūrṇimā and the day the sun enters a new sign, ravi-saṃkramaṇa); during the day; in water; at sacred places such as temples, tīrthas, cowsheds, crossroads and cremation grounds; and with a wife who is sorrowful, ill, pregnant, very hungry, overfed, unwilling, or desiring another.
• One who breaks the rules of the parva times dies and enters a naraka of urine and excrement.

“Nagna”: The Spiritually Naked

The word nagna (literally “naked”) a special spiritual meaning (Chapter 17).

The three Vedas (Ṛg, Yajus and Sāman) together are called the trayī. The trayī is not just a set of texts. It is a saṃvaraṇa, a covering or protective armour, for the brāhmaṇa. The Veda shields the jīva (individual soul) from harm, both worldly and karmic.

A brāhmaṇa who abandons the trayī through ignorance or carelessness becomes “nagna”: stripped of this covering and open to every force. The text says: “A brāhmaṇa who through ignorance abandons the trayī becomes a mahāpātakī (one guilty of great pāpa) and a nagna. There is no doubt.”

The idea is widened further. Those who have left their svadharma (own duty) and follow a “hīna karma” (a lowly, wrong occupation) are also called nagna. The account of Māyāmoha shows how the daityas who abandoned the Vedas became “nagna”, and so could be defeated.

Four Āśramas, and No Fifth

The text says plainly: “Brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, parivrāṭ: these are the four āśramas. There is no fifth.”

One cannot simply drop the dress and conduct of a gṛhastha (householder) and call oneself a vānaprastha (forest-dweller) or parivrāṭ (wandering renunciant) without the proper saṃskāra (rite) and transition. Such a person is a nagna and a wrongdoer. For one who is able, leaving out the nitya-karmas (daily duties) even for a single day brings pātana (a fall), and great prāyaścitta is needed. If the wise see someone who has left them out for a fortnight, they should look at the Sun to purify themselves.

Rules about Pāshaṇḍa-Dosha

The text names kinds of people whose company must be avoided (Chapters 17–18):

What contact with them brings:

• Seeing a pāshaṇḍī destroys one day’s gathered puṇya.
• Speaking with a pāshaṇḍī destroys one day’s puṇya.
• A śrāddha (ancestral rite) seen by a nagna or pāshaṇḍī becomes fruitless; the devas and pitṛs do not receive it.
• Purification: after an accidental meeting, look at the Sun at once.
• A year of keeping company with such people makes one equal to them.

Further marks of a “nagna”:

• Wearing jaṭā (matted hair) without being entitled by a proper Vedic or Pāśupata vrata
• Having the śikhā (tuft of hair) cut without being initiated into sannyāsa
• Eating food not first offered to the devas, guests and pitṛs (mogha-āśī, “one who eats in vain”)
• Lacking inner and outer purity (śauca)
• Not performing tarpaṇa and piṇḍa-pradāna (offering rice balls to the ancestors)

The account of Śatadhanu and Śaibyā shows what follows from even a single conversation with a pāshaṇḍī on a vrata day.

Per Śiva Purāṇa

The Vidyeśvara Saṃhitā, the first part of the Śiva Purāṇa, sets out a complete daily routine for the Śiva-bhakta (devotee of Śiva).

It begins with rising in brahma-muhūrta, the sacred time before dawn. It then moves through śauca (bodily cleansing), snāna (bathing), sandhyāvandana (prayers at the junctions of the day), Gāyatrī japa (repeating the Gāyatrī mantra), and tarpaṇa (water offerings to the devas, pitṛs and ṛshis). This daily discipline is the ground on which all pūjā of Śiva and all sādhanā (spiritual practice) rest.

Brahma-Muhūrta: Rising before Dawn

The Vidyeśvara Saṃhitā tells the devotee to rise in brahma-muhūrta, the sacred time about one and a half hours before sunrise (roughly 4:30 to 5:30 in the morning, changing with the season). At this time tamas (the quality of dullness and sleep) is weakest and sattva (the quality of clarity and light) is strongest. Rising at this hour brings the devotee’s waking life into step with the rhythm of light in the universe (Chapter 15).

Brahma-muhūrta is held to be the time when Śiva‘s presence is easiest to reach. The silence before dawn naturally helps meditation, japa and sandhyāvandana.

Śauca: Cleansing

After rising, the first act is śauca, cleansing of the body. The text lays down:

Direction: One must face a set direction while relieving oneself and cleansing: north by day and south by night.

Hand positions: Particular positions of the hands are prescribed during śauca, to keep proper conduct during this act.

Use of earth (mṛttikā): Afterwards the hands are washed with clean earth a set number of times. The text gives the exact count; the hands must be cleaned with earth the proper number of times to become ritually pure.

The care given to śauca reflects the Vedic teaching that the purity of the body is not separate from the purity of the mind. A body made ready through proper śauca can focus better in pūjā and meditation (Chapter 15).

Snāna: Bathing

The bath prescribed is thorough.

Depth: The devotee must go into water (a river, tank or well) at least up to the throat. A quick rinse or washing only the surface is not enough. Going in this deep makes sure the whole body is covered by purifying water.

Mantras: Set mantras are chanted while bathing. They call on the sacred rivers and the purifying power of water. Bathing with mantras turns the physical act into a rite that purifies at every level.

This insistence on going in up to the throat reflects the tradition that full contact of the whole body with water, especially river water, is complete purification; a partial or surface bath is not (Chapter 15).

Sandhyāvandana: Prayers Three Times a Day

Sandhyāvandana is done three times daily, at the three junctions of the day:

1. Prātaḥ sandhyā: morning, at sunrise (dawn)
2. Mādhyāhnika sandhyā: midday
3. Sāyaṃ sandhyā: evening, at sunset

Each sandhyāvandana includes ācamana (sipping water to purify oneself), prāṇāyāma (breath control), recitation of the Gāyatrī mantra a set number of times (see below), and arghya (a water offering to the sun) (Chapter 15).

Gāyatrī Japa: Counts for Each Time of Day

The Vidyeśvara Saṃhitā gives a separate count of Gāyatrī japa for each sandhyā:

The counts grow smaller through the day because of the nature of each time. The morning, when the mind is freshest and the tapas (disciplined effort) of brahma-muhūrta is still fresh, calls for the longest practice. Midday and evening are shorter, but no less essential (Chapter 15).

Tarpaṇa: Water Offerings to Three Groups

After sandhyāvandana, the Vidyeśvara Saṃhitā prescribes tarpaṇa, the offering of water with set mantras to three groups of beings:

1. Deva-tarpaṇa: water offered to the devas, honouring the divine order and keeping the devotee connected with dharma in the universe
2. Pitṛ-tarpaṇa: water offered to the ancestors (pitṛs), repaying the pitṛ-ṛṇa (the debt to the ancestors) and supporting the welfare of those who have passed on
3. Ṛshi-tarpaṇa: water offered to the ṛshis, honouring the line of wise ones who handed down the Vedic and Purāṇic teachings

Tarpaṇa is done after the morning sandhyāvandana. It recognises that each devotee lives within a web of relationships: with the devas who sustain the universe, with the ancestors who gave him birth, and with the ṛshis who gave him knowledge (Chapter 15).

Bhasma, Rudrāksha and Eating

The Vidyeśvara Saṃhitā states clearly that a Śiva-bhakta must not eat or drink before he has applied bhasma (sacred ash, in the three lines called tripuṇḍra) and put on rudrāksha (sacred beads). So applying sacred ash and wearing rudrāksha are part of sadācāra: daily duties that must come before the first meal.

Sadācāra as Pūjā of Śiva

The routine of sadācāra is not separate from the pūjā of Śiva. It is the pūjā of Śiva in its daily form. Each part prepares the body, mind and energy for the central act of Śiva-pūjā:

• Rising in brahma-muhūrta gives the clear mind needed for pūjā.
• Śauca purifies the body that will stand before Śiva.
• Snāna purifies the body further and calls on the sacred rivers.
• Sandhyāvandana honours the three great junctions of the day.
• Gāyatrī japa fills the mind with Śiva’s radiant awareness. Gāyatrī, the mother of the Vedas, is directly linked to the chain that leads from Oṃkāra to the Vedas.
• Tarpaṇa repays the three great debts (ṛṇas), freeing the mind from obligation for deeper sādhanā.

The devotee who keeps sadācāra fully creates the conditions in which Śiva-bhakti can grow most fully.

Per Nārada Purāṇa

Chapters 84–87 of the first half (Pūrvārdha) give a complete teaching on sadācāra. Sanaka Ṛshi teaches it to Nārada.

The teaching starts with the four varṇas (social groups) and their duties. It then covers the kali-varjya (acts forbidden in the Kali Yuga, the present age), the saṃskāras (life-cycle rites) from garbhādhāna to upanayana, the rules for the brahmacārī (Vedic student) and the days when the Veda must not be studied, the eight forms of marriage, the daily conduct of the gṛhastha (householder), the full sandhyāvandana (prayers at dawn, noon and dusk) with meditation on Gāyatrī, Sāvitrī and Sarasvatī, the five daily yajñas, and the rules of vānaprastha and sannyāsa. The whole teaching is presented as the way Śrī Mahāvishṇu is honoured. Sadācāra is not just social custom. It is the sacred practice through which those devoted to varṇāśrama-dharma serve Bhagavān Vishṇu and reach his parama-pada (supreme abode).

The Four Varṇas

The four varṇas are well established: Brāhmaṇa, Kshatriya, Vaiśya and Śūdra. Among them the brāhmaṇas are the highest. Brāhmaṇas, Kshatriyas and Vaiśyas are dvijas (twice-born). Their first birth is from the mother; their second birth is from the upanayana (the sacred-thread ceremony). Each varṇa must follow its own varṇa-dharma. One who abandons his svadharma (own duty) becomes a pāshaṇḍa (one outside the Vedic path) and is cut off from all dharmas. One who follows the gṛhya-sūtra (household rite) rules of his varṇa gains kṛtārthatā (fulfilment); one who does not becomes a patita (fallen).

Each varṇa must also accept the yuga-dharma (duty suited to the present age) and the local custom (deśācāra), as long as it does not go against the smṛti (the traditional law texts).

Duties of Each Varṇa

Brāhmaṇa: Give dāna (gifts), perform yajña, accept gifts (yācana), teach others (adhyāpana), perform yajñas for others (yājana), stay constantly in contact with water (nityam apasaṃbandha), study and keep up the Veda and the sacred fire, stay even-minded towards the wealth he receives and the wealth he must give away, speak only soft words (mṛdu-vākyas), practise Vishṇu-pūjā, and approach only his own wife and only in the proper season (ṛtu-kāla-svadāra-gamana).

Kshatriya: Give dāna, study the Veda, perform yajña, live by weapons (śastra-jīva), rule the kingdom according to dharma (dharma-baddha rājya-pālana), and practise daṇḍa-nīti (the right use of punishment).

Vaiśya: Engage in paśu-pālana (raising cattle), vāṇijya (trade), kṛshi (farming) and Veda-adhyayana (Vedic study). Earn through arranging marriages (viyāha), buying and selling (kraya-vikraya) and crafts, and use the wealth for dharma.

Śūdra: Give dāna, but do not perform śrauta yajña (the great Vedic fire rites); only pāka-yajña (simple cooked-food offerings) is allowed. Render sevā (service) to brāhmaṇas, kshatriyas and vaiśyas. Approach only his own wife in the proper season.

Duties shared by all varṇas: lokahita (the welfare of all), śubhakaratva (doing what is auspicious), priyavāditā (pleasant speech), anāyāsa (ease, without strain), manoharsha (cheerfulness), titikshā (patience) and nirgarvatā (freedom from arrogance).

The Four Āśramas

The four āśramas (stages of life) for dvijas are brahmacarya (student life), gārhasthya (householder life), vānaprastha (forest-dwelling) and bhikshu (sannyāsa, renunciation). No fifth āśrama is prescribed. Through the four āśramas the highest dharma is fulfilled. Bhagavān Vishṇu is pleased by those who follow the karma-yoga (dutiful action) of their āśrama. Those who are free of desire (āśā-rahita), peaceful (śānta) and devoted to karma-yoga reach the parama-pada, from which there is no return.

Āpad-dharma (duty in emergencies): In an emergency, a brāhmaṇa may take up the conduct of a kshatriya. In extreme emergency, a kshatriya may take up the conduct of a vaiśya. But a brāhmaṇa must never take up a śūdra’s way of living (śūdra-vṛtti) in any situation. If he does, he falls to the state of a cāṇḍāla (outcaste).

Kali-Varjya: Acts Forbidden in the Kali Yuga

The following practices, though allowed in earlier yugas, are forbidden in the Kali Yuga:

• Samudra-yātrā (sea voyage)
• Carrying a kamaṇḍalu (water pot) as a mark of asceticism
• Asavarṇa-vivāha for brāhmaṇas (marrying women of a lower varṇa)
• Niyoga (having a child through a brother-in-law to continue the line)
• Paśu-vadha in the madhuparka (killing an animal for the wedding offering)
• Māṃsa-bhakshaṇa in śrāddha (eating meat at the ancestral rite)
• Vānaprastha-āśrama in its full traditional form (forest-dwelling)
• Akshata-yoni-kanyā vivāha (remarriage of a maiden whose first husband died before the marriage was consummated)
• Naishṭhika brahmacarya (lifelong celibacy outside the normal order of āśramas)
• The Naramedha, Aśvamedha and Gomedha yajñas
• Mahāprasthāna (the great final journey undertaken to end one’s life)

Saṃskāras

The saṃskāras (life-cycle rites) from birth onwards, in order:

• Garbhādhāna (the conception rite) and the saṃskāras that follow are done at the right times with mantras. For girls and women, mantras are not required (mantra-rahita).
• Sīmanta (parting of the mother’s hair): done in the 4th month of pregnancy, or in the 6th, 7th or 8th month.
• Jātakarma (birth rite): done by the father at birth. It includes bathing with one’s clothes on (sacela-snāna), svastivācana (auspicious blessings) and nāndī-śrāddha (an offering to the ancestors on a happy occasion). Doing this nāndī-śrāddha with cooked food makes one a cāṇḍāla; only a water-śrāddha is allowed.
• Nāmakaraṇa (naming): the father says the name aloud. It should have an odd number of syllables and should not be full of heavy letters.
• Caula (first haircut): done in the 3rd, 5th, 6th or 7th year, according to the gṛhya-sūtra.
• Upanayana: see below.

Upanayana

Brāhmaṇa: In the 8th year counted from conception (garbhāshṭama), or the 8th year from birth. It can be done up to the 16th year. Beyond that, the dvija becomes a sāvitrī-patita (one who has lost the right to the Gāyatrī).

Kshatriya: In the 11th year (garbhaikādaśa). It can be done up to the 22nd year, with a secondary period (gauṇa-kāla) up to the 24th year.

Vaiśya: In the 12th year, with a similar secondary period.

If the proper time for upanayana is missed, heavy prāyaścitta (atonement) is needed before the ceremony can be done: twelve years of kṛcchra-vrata, plus the cāndrāyaṇa-vrata, plus two sāntapana-vratas, followed by the full set of rites. The person responsible also incurs the pāpa of brahmahatyā for the delay.

Upanayana Items by Varṇa

After upanayana the dvija lives in the guru’s house until his Vedic study is complete, serving the guru in every way.

The words for asking bhikshā (alms), by varṇa:

• Brāhmaṇa: “Bhavati bhikshāṃ dehi mātar” (the word “bhavati” first)
• Kshatriya: “Bhikshāṃ bhavati dehi mātar” (the word “bhavati” in the middle)
• Vaiśya: “Bhikshāṃ dehi bhavati mātar” (the word “bhavati” last)

Conduct of the Brahmacārī

The brahmacārī (Vedic student) must give up entirely: madya (liquor), the company of women, māṃsa (meat), lavaṇa (salt), tāmbūla (betel), cleaning the teeth with a twig on vrata days, eating leftover food (ucchishṭa-bhojana) and sleeping by day. He must also give up carrying an umbrella (ātapatra) or wearing sandals (pādukās), using perfume, wearing flowers or garlands, applying scented pastes, playing in water (jala-krīḍā), dance, song and music, speaking ill of others (parivāda), idle talk (upalāpa), talking too much, añjana (eye-black), mixing with nāstikas (those who deny the Veda), and keeping company with śūdras.

The brahmacārī must perform tarpaṇa every day, and both the morning and evening agni-kārya (fire rite) and brahma-yajña (Vedic recitation). Giving up agni-kārya makes him a patita; leaving out brahma-yajña makes him a brahmaghātaka (as guilty as the killer of a brāhmaṇa).

After his studies and service to the guru, the student returns home with the proper dakshiṇā (offering to the teacher). The Veda itself is declared to be Śrī Hari in person. So the brāhmaṇa who studies the Veda obtains all his wishes.

Anadhyāya: Days without Vedic Study

On the following days the Veda must not be studied: ashṭamī, caturdaśī, pratipad and pūrṇimā; mahābharaṇī; śrāvaṇa-dvādaśī; bhādrapada-kṛshṇa-dvitīyā; māgha-śukla-saptamī; āśvayuja-śukla-navamī; a solar eclipse; the day a śrotriya (Vedic scholar) arrives at the house; when a brāhmaṇa is imprisoned; during a conflict; at both sandhyās; during thunderclouds; in unseasonal rain; during meteors and lightning; when a brāhmaṇa is being dishonoured; on manvādi and yugādi days; and at the beginnings of the four yugas.

Yugādi tithis (days on which the yugas began; each gives akshaya-phala, undying puṇya, for dāna):

• Vaiśākha śukla tṛtīyā (Akshaya Tṛtīyā)
• Bhādrapada kṛshṇa trayodaśī
• Kārtika śukla navamī (Akshaya Navamī)
• Māgha pūrṇimā

Manvādi tithis (days on which the Manvantaras began; extended list): Āśvayuja śukla navamī, Kārtika śukla dvādaśī, Caitra śukla tṛtīyā, Bhādrapada śukla tṛtīyā, Āshāḍha śukla daśamī, Māgha śukla saptamī, Śrāvaṇa bahula ashṭamī, Āshāḍha pūrṇimā, Phālguna amāvāsyā, Pausha śukla ekādaśī, and the pūrṇimās of Kārtika, Phālguna, Caitra and Jyeshṭha.

On manvādi and yugādi days, śrāddha (the ancestral rite) should also be performed. Vedic study should be stopped during solar and lunar eclipses, at the turning of the sun to uttarāyaṇa and dakshiṇāyana, during earthquakes, and on days of broken cloud (megha-cchinna-dina).

Gṛhastha Dharma

After coming home from the gurukula (the guru’s school), the dvija should marry a woman of good family and suitable varṇa. She must not be related within five generations on the mother’s side or seven generations on the father’s side; marrying closer relatives brings the pāpa of guru-talpa (violating the guru’s bed). He should not marry a woman who is always ill, has eye diseases, comes from a family with disease, is very talkative or angry, is very short or very tall, is deformed, is insane, has a masculine appearance, or is of doubtful character.

Eight forms of vivāha (marriage): Brāhma, Daiva, Ārsha, Prājāpatya, Āsura, Gāndharva, Rākshasa and Paiśāca. Brāhmaṇas should always choose Brāhma-vivāha; Daiva or Ārsha is also acceptable. The other five are ninditā (looked down upon) for dvijas. Only when the earlier forms are not possible may the later ones be used.

The gṛhastha wears two yajñopavītas (sacred threads) and an upper cloth (uttarīya), applies sandal paste and similar pastes, keeps his hair and nails trimmed, carries a bamboo staff and a kalaśa (pot) filled with water, holds a white umbrella (ātapatra), and wears fragrant flower garlands.

Rules of abhivādana (respectful greeting by bowing):

• A brāhmaṇa should never bow down to kshatriyas or to anyone of lower standing, in any situation.
• One should not bow down to: nāstikas, those who break the bounds of right conduct (maryādā), the ungrateful (kṛtaghnas), village purohitas (grāma-yājakas), secret thieves, impostors, pāshaṇḍas, vrātyas (those who have lost their sacred thread status), jyotishikas (those who earn a living from astrology), great wrongdoers (pātakīs), the insane (unmattas), soothsayers (śakunis), cheats (dhūrtas), those running in a hurry, those who are impure, those with oil on their hair, those doing japa, and those caught up in quarrels.
• During śrāddha, a vrata, dāna, deva-arcana (pūjā to the devas), yajña or tarpaṇa, one should not greet anyone.

The five daily yajñas (pañca-yajñas): Giving them up makes one a brahma-ghātaka. The gṛhastha must perform all five every day: deva-yajña, bhūta-yajña, pitṛ-yajña, nṛ-yajña and brahma-yajña. One who does not give food to guests loses his puṇya (merit). A guest who leaves unsatisfied takes away the host’s puṇya and leaves behind his own pāpa.

Occasions for śrāddha for the gṛhastha: the ayanas (uttarāyaṇa and dakshiṇāyana), the vishuvas (equinoxes), yugādis, amāvāsyā (new moon), pitṛ-paksha (the fortnight of the ancestors), manvādis, the death anniversary (mṛtāha), ashṭamī, the coming of a new crop, visits of śrotriyas, solar and lunar eclipses, and at puṇya-kshetras (holy places).

Sandhyāvandana

The full sandhyāvandana, performed three times a day, is described in detail.

Common Steps (All Three Times)

1. Rise in brāhma-muhūrta and think over the day’s plan for dharma, artha, kāma and moksha, so that they do not clash.
2. Tie the hair neatly. At the two sandhyās, place both sacred threads over the ear. Relieve oneself facing north by day and facing south by night.
3. Perform śauca (cleansing) with the prescribed earth (mṛttikā), then ācamana (sipping water).
4. Clean the teeth with a twig of bilva, asana, uttaraṇī, neem, mango or mandāra, saying the mantra:

Āyur balaṃ yaśo varcaḥ prajāḥ paśūn vasūni ca, brahma prajñāṃ ca medhāṃ ca tvaṃ no dehi vanaspate.

(“O Vanaspati, master of trees, give us long life, strength, fame, radiance, children, cattle, wealth, knowledge of the Veda, wisdom and intelligence.”)

1. Call the sacred rivers into the bathing water with the mantra below, and call to mind the seven sacred cities:

Gaṅge ca Yamune caiva Godāvari Sarasvati, Narmade Sindhu Kāveri jale’smin sannidhiṃ kuru.

1. Perform aghamarshaṇa japa, prāṇāyāma (breath control) and snāna (bath).

The Sandhyā Pūjā Itself

Seated on a seat of darbha grass, facing east or north:

• Do ācamana with the Gāyatrī.
• Recite “Ṛtaṃ ca…” and do ācamana again.
• Sprinkle water around oneself (prokshaṇa); recite the praṇava (Oṃ) and make the saṃkalpa (statement of intention).
• Remember the ṛshi, chandas (metre) and devatā of the mantra.
• Sprinkle water on the head with the seven vyāhṛtis; do aṅga-nyāsa and kara-nyāsa (placing the mantra on the limbs and hands) separately.
• Do the tāra-svara utterance: Bhūḥ on the head, Bhuvaḥ on the śikhā (tuft of hair), Svaḥ on the kavaca (the chest, as armour), Bhūrbhuvaḥ on the eyes, and Bhūrbhuvaḥsvaḥ with Astrāya Phaṭ in the directions.

Invoking the Three Forms

Morning (prātar): Invoke Gāyatrī, the brahma-vādinī, in the form of a young girl, seated on a haṃsa (swan), with four arms holding an aksha-mālā (prayer beads) and a kalaśa, shining like a young moon, with the mantra:

Āgaccha varade devi tryakshare brahma-vādini, Gāyatri chandasāṃ mātar brahma-yone namo’stu te.

Midday (mādhyāhna): Invoke Sāvitrī, the rudra-vādinī, in the form of a woman of middle age, riding a vṛshabha (bull), wearing white clothes, holding the khaṭvāṅga, trident and other emblems, with flashes like lightning in her matted hair and a young crescent moon, white in body, the very form of the Yajurveda.

Evening (sāyam): Invoke Sarasvatī, the vishṇu-vādinī, in the form of an elder woman, dark in colour, seated on Garuḍa, dressed in yellow silk (pītāmbara), adorned with jewels, anklets, armlets, necklaces and other ornaments, holding the śaṅkha (conch), cakra (discus), gadā (mace) and padma (lotus) in her four hands.

Gāyatrī Japa

After the invocation, perform mārjana (sprinkling water on oneself) three times with the mantra “Āpo hi shṭhā mayobhuvaḥ…”, then ācamana, then arghya (water offering) to Sūrya, and then Gāyatrī japa:

• 1,000 repetitions: uttama (best)
• 100 repetitions: madhyama (middle)
• 10 repetitions: adhama (least)

Brahmacārīs add the three vyāhṛtis at both the beginning and the end of each repetition. Gṛhasthas add them only at the beginning.

After japa, offer the Gāyatrī to the sun, offer two añjalis (handfuls of water), and bid her farewell with the mantra “Uttare śikhare…” (“Go, Gāyatrī, to the ocean, with the permission of Brahmā, Rudra and Vishṇu“). Then salute the directions.

Vānaprastha Dharma

When signs of old age appear, such as white hair and wrinkles, the gṛhastha should either hand his wife into the care of his sons or take her with him to the forest. In the forest he should:

• Bathe three times a day
• Leave his nails, jaṭā (matted hair) and beard uncut
• Sleep on the ground
• Keep brahmacarya (celibacy)
• Perform the five daily yajñas
• Eat only fruits and roots (phala-mūla), not produce from village gardens
• Eat only eight mouthfuls of food a day, and nothing at night
• Give up oil completely, and give up the company of women, excess sleep and laziness
• Meditate constantly on Nārāyaṇa holding the śaṅkha, cakra and gadā
• Practise the cāndrāyaṇa and other vratas, and bear all the hardships of cold and heat
• Keep tending the sacred fire (agni-paricaryā)

Yati (Sannyāsa) Dharma

Only one who has developed complete vairāgya (detachment) from all sense objects may take sannyāsa. Without true vairāgya, he becomes a patita. The yati (renunciant) must be:

• Śānta (peaceful), dānta (self-controlled) and jitendriya (master of the senses)
• Devoted to the study of Vedānta
• Free from the pairs of opposites (dvandvas), from ahaṅkāra (ego) and from mamatā (possessiveness)
• Dressed only in a kaupīna (loincloth) or old, worn cloth

The yati stays only one night in a village and three nights in a city. He takes alms from different households every day, never from one household alone. He bathes three times a day. He must not ask any one household for food; if he does, not even ten thousand prāyaścittas can purify him. He should rest in ātmānanda (the joy of the self), meditating on:

Nārāyaṇa: formless, free from all ills, without beginning or end; unageing and undivided; the cause of the awareness of the world; beyond the guṇas, higher than the highest, the Paramātmā; Nārāyaṇa with a thousand heads.

Closing Teaching

The teaching ends with this statement: “Those devoted to varṇāśrama-dharma are freed from all pāpas, become wholly devoted to Nārāyaṇa, and reach the parama-pada, the abode of Śrī Mahāvishṇu.”

Hari alone is Śiva; Śiva alone is Hari. One who sees a difference between them falls into crores of narakas. Keeping sadācāra without bhakti (loving devotion) is incomplete; bhakti without following one’s own svadharma does not please Hari. Ācāra (right conduct) is the foremost of all the āgamas. Dharma is born from ācāra, and the master of dharma is Śrī Hari.

Per Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa

In Chapters 31–32, Mādālasā teaches sadācāra to her son Alarka.

The principle of sadācāra

Mādālasā opens the teaching with a direct statement of the principle: the gṛhastha (householder) must always be devoted to sadācāra. Any person who violates sadācāra and yet continues with the activities of saṃsāra finds that his japa, tapas and yajñas all become inauspicious. They lose their fruit. A person of durācāra (bad conduct) cannot live long in health. Therefore sadācāra must be kept with effort (Chapters 31–32). The Purāṇa calls it the practical outermost layer of dharmic life.

Management of income

The gṛhastha should divide his income into four parts:

• One quarter for paralaukika-dharma: religious and charitable purposes for the next world.
• One half for ātma-poshaṇa: self-support, including daily, occasional and festival-related rituals (nitya-naimittika-kriyās).
• The remaining quarter held as capital (mūla-dhana) for future support.

This systematic allocation ensures that both worldly and spiritual duties are met without conflict.

Morning conduct (prātaḥ-kāla)

The āstika gṛhastha should:

• Wake during brahma-muhūrta and spend that time thinking on dharma and artha.
• Perform homa at dawn and at dusk without fail.
• Not look directly at the rising or setting sun.
• Do the hair-tidying, mirror-gazing (for applying tilaka and the like), tooth-brushing and deva-tarpaṇa, all in the pūrvāhṇa (morning period).
• In a town, on a tīrtha, in a field or on a road: never relieve himself facing east or north (specific directional rules apply by time of day).

The kitchen and the house

• Women in the household should apply a fresh layer of cow-dung paste to the kitchen floor each morning. Failing to do this makes the pitṛs and devamātās turn away from the home.
• A house whose threshold is not swept before sunrise becomes inauspicious to the family devas.
• The space around the house should be attended to in the early hours.
• The floor of the cooking space must be clean at all times.

After service to others

The ideal is that the gṛhastha, having served all five categories of beings through the pañca-yajñas, should also extend his care to bhūta-gaṇas, bhṛtya-gaṇas, animals, birds, ants, bhikshus and all who come asking for anything. The gṛhastha who attends to these gathers the puṇya that gives happiness both in this world (iha-loka) and in the next (para-loka).

Āśauca (ritual impurity)

Chapter 32 covers the āśauca rules for birth and death. The text teaches:

• When one of one’s family dies, there is a period of ritual impurity (mṛtāśauca) during which certain rites and activities are suspended.
• Similarly at birth (jātāśauca).
• The length and the specific restrictions vary by varṇa.
• After the āśauca period ends, the householder resumes all his regular rituals and activities.

Keeping āśauca properly is itself a part of sadācāra. Failing to keep it pollutes the śrāddhas, yajñas and other rituals performed during that period.

The foundation

Mādālasā frames sadācāra not as something forced from outside but as the natural expression of one who understands dharma. The gṛhastha who has absorbed the teaching of varṇāśrama-dharma, gṛhastha-dharma and rāja-dharma will naturally live sadācāra, because right conduct is what all these teachings look like when joined in daily life.

Per Agni Purāṇa

The daily regimen (Chapter 155)

Chapter 155, in Pushkara‘s words to Paraśurāma, gives a full sadācāra: the whole code of right daily conduct for the dharmic person. It stands beside the āśrama-dharma chapters and is the outer, practical form of varṇāśrama-dharma in daily life.

Waking: Every day in the brahma-muhūrta, one must rise and think on Vishṇu and the other devas.

Toilet conduct (mala-mūtra-visarjana): During the day, one faces north; at night, one faces south; at the two sandhyā times, one follows the daytime rule. One must never relieve oneself on a road, in water, in a lane or in a narrow passage. One spreads tṛṇa (grass) on the earth and does the act on it. The hands, feet and body parts are cleaned with mṛttikā (clay).

Bathing (snāna): Six kinds of snāna are named: nitya (daily), naimittika (occasional), kāmya (for a wish), kriyāṅga (as part of a ritual), mala-karshaṇa (removal of bodily impurity) and kriyāsnāna (after a ritual). One who does not bathe finds all his actions fruitless. So the bath in the morning (prātaḥ-kāla) is a must. The purity of water sources rises in this order: water drawn from a well, ground water, stream water, lake water, river water, tīrtha water; and the water of Gaṅgā is supreme among all.

The bath itself: One enters the water, removes bodily impurities, performs ācamana, and recites the mantras “Hiraṇyavarṇā”, “Śaṃ no devī abhishṭaye”, “Āpo hishṭhā” (the three water mantras) and “Idam āpaḥ”. One then dips under the water and silently recites the Aghamarshaṇa sūkta, or “Drupada iva”, or the “Yuñjate manaḥ” sūkta, or the “Sahasraśīrshā” sūkta. Gāyatrī japa is especially recommended. The devatā of the Aghamarshaṇa sūkta is Bhāvavṛtta, its ṛshi is Aghamarshaṇa and its chandas is anushṭubh; by it one remembers Hari as Bhāvavṛtta.

After the bath: Wring out the garments while offering deva-pitṛ-tarpaṇa; offer water in añjali with the Purusha sūkta; perform agnihotra; and give dāna according to one’s means. Then take refuge in Parameśvara for yoga and kshema (welfare and security). One’s own āsana, śayyā, vāhana, strī, santāna and kamaṇḍalu (seat, bed, vehicle, wife, children and water-pot) are pure only when they are one’s own; if shared, they become impure for oneself.

Conduct in public: One yields the path to those carrying heavy loads, to pregnant women and to elders. One must not look directly at the rising or setting sun. One must not look at the reflection of the sun in water, at a nude woman, into a well, at a place of killing, or at evil-natured persons. One must not step over cotton, bones, ash or repulsive objects. One must not enter another’s antaḥpura (inner quarters) or treasury. One must not act as another’s dūta (messenger). One must not climb a broken boat, a tree or a mountain. One should be eager about wealth, house and the śāstras.

Prohibitions (nishedhas): One must not crumble clods of earth with the fingers, uproot grass, bite nails, or make the sound of musical instruments with the mouth. One must not go anywhere at night without a lamp. One must not enter a house by any way other than the proper door. One must not change the colour of one’s face. One must not cause harm through speech. One must not exchange one’s garment with another’s. One must always say “Bhadra, bhadra” (auspiciousness). One must not sit on a leaf-mat (palāśa-āsana). One must keep a distance from the shadows of devas. One must not pass between two venerable persons. One must not look at stars and nakshatras in an unclean state (ucchishṭa). When approaching a river, one must offer deva-pitṛ-tarpaṇa before crossing.

At rivers and water: When in one river, one must not utter the name of another river. One must not throw dirt into water, and must not bathe naked. One must not scratch with both hands.

Further rules: Take refuge in the Paramātmā for yoga-kshema. Do not take off the garland on one’s body with one’s own hands. Keep far from the dust raised by a donkey. Do not laugh at those in a lower condition than oneself, and do not live with them in one place. Do not converse with women in their period or with the fallen. Always remember Vishṇu. After coming along a road, one must surely do ācamana. Do not carry water and fire at the same time. Never utter “hum” in anger at a worthy, auspicious person. Do not press one foot with the other. Do not blame anyone, to their face or behind their back. Pushkara says: “Paraśurāma! Do not neglect even a small disease or a small enemy.”

Where to live: One must not live in a country where there is no physician, no king and no river, nor in a place where mlecchas, women or many people are the rulers.

Speech and social conduct: One must not criticise the Vedas, the śāstras, the king, the ṛshis or the devatās. One must avoid jealousy towards women. One must listen to dharma. One must show devotion to the devas. On one’s janma-nakshatra (birth star), one must worship the moon, brāhmaṇas and devatās. On the shashṭhī, ashṭamī and caturdaśī tithis, one must not take an oil bath. One must go far from the house for mala-mūtra-visarjana. One must never antagonise excellent persons. The chapter adds that one must never trust women; and one must practise dharma every day.

Bodily care: One must not hold back the natural urges of mala and mūtra. One must cover the mouth when laughing, yawning or sneezing. A wise person keeps both his own humiliation and the humiliation of his master private. One must not be led by the senses.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 155

Sadācāra and the conduct of mahātmās (Chapter 238)

In Chapter 238 Agni Deva tells Vasishṭha Maharshi the rāja-nīti that Śrī Rāma taught Lakshmaṇa. Among the duties common to all varṇas and āśramas, Śrī Rāma names not causing pain to any being, sweet and truthful speech, purity without and within, compassion for the poor and distressed, and patience.

The ācāra of good people (satpurusha) is sweet speech; compassion for the distressed; giving to worthy recipients according to place and time; protecting the distressed and those who come for refuge; and the company of good people. This sadācāra is the means of winning the people. Because the world praises it, it is the best; and because it is a cause of abhyudaya (rising and welfare) in time to come as well, it is beneficial.

The ācāra of mahātmās (great souls), in the order Śrī Rāma gives it:

1. Not censuring the works of others.
2. Always keeping one’s own varṇāśrama dharma.
3. Compassion for the distressed.
4. Speaking sweetly with everyone in all worldly dealings.
5. Being ready to help one’s dear friends even at the cost of one’s life.
6. Embracing friends and other good people who come to one’s home.
7. When needed, giving them wealth according to one’s means.
8. Enduring the harsh behaviour and harsh words of others.
9. Remaining free of change when one prospers.
10. Having no envy when others prosper.
11. Not speaking words that cause others pain.
12. Keeping silence (mauna).
13. Keeping the bond with kinsmen unbroken.
14. Dealing straightly with good people and acting according to their consent.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 238

Per Bhavishya Purāṇa

Ācāra, the first dharma (Brahma Parva)

At the opening of the Purāṇa, Sumantu tells King Śatānīka what the Bhavishya Purāṇa holds: all the dharmas, the merits and faults of karmas, and the daily ācāra of the four varṇas. Ācāra is the first dharma, taught by the Veda. One who is self-possessed and keeps daily ācāra is called a dvija. A vipra without ācāra does not enjoy the fruit of the Vedas; one with ācāra is fit to enjoy their whole fruit. The munis saw that dharma proceeds from ācāra alone, and they understood that excellent ācāra is the root of all tapas. So people have always taken refuge in ācāra (Chapter 1).

In the Brahma Parva, Sumantu retells what Brahmā taught the ṛshis in Brahmaloka. When the ṛshis ask him what dharma is, Brahmā names Śruti, Smṛti, śīla, ācāra and ātma-santushṭi (one’s own inner contentment) as the roots of dharma for good men. He then says that Veda, Smṛti, sadācāra and what is dear to oneself, these four together, are directly the mark of dharma. And he says what sadācāra is in a land: in any country, whatever custom has come down by tradition among the varṇas and upavarṇas is called sadācāra for them. People of all countries learn their own ācāra from the brāhmaṇas born in the Brahmarshi-deśa (Chapter 7).

Brahmā closes his teaching on the bodily marks of women with this: good conduct is more praised in women than any mark, and a woman is praised by her good conduct, not by her marks (Chapter 5). Śatānīka then asks to hear of the good conduct of women, and Brahmā’s answer is a teaching for the gṛhastha, so that he may gain dharma, artha and kāma. A man should first gain knowledge of the Veda with its meaning and earn wealth, and only then take a wife. He should marry a kanyā born in a kula equal to his own in learning, wealth and ācāra, of blameless character and fit for the practice of dharma (Chapter 6).

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapters 1, 5–7

Good conduct and the brāhmaṇa (Brahma Parva, Chapters 41–42)

Sumantu tells Śatānīka that the ṛshis once went to Brahmā, wondering at the brāhmaṇatva of Viśvāmitra, and asked him what brāhmaṇatva rests on. In Brahmā’s answer, sadācāra is what decides the matter.

Veda study alone does not make a brāhmaṇa, for even when studied with the aṅgas the Vedas cannot purify those without ācāra. Veda study is the task of brāhmaṇas, but to have good conduct (sadvṛtta) as one’s way of life is the mark of a brāhmaṇa. A brāhmaṇa who has studied the four Vedas but lacks sadvṛtta can accomplish no act; even a karma he performs is fruitless (Chapter 41).

Nor do the saṃskāras alone make a brāhmaṇa. Brahmā offers what the people of sadācāra, the intelligent and the capable, have said, as subhāshita (a good saying). Those who keep company with women of pleasure, who are like serpents, fall from sadācāra and from brāhmaṇatva. The man of evil conduct goes to naraka though he has had the saṃskāras. The man of sadācāra becomes an excellent brāhmaṇa though he lacks them. Vyāsa and other excellent munis, Brahmā says, simply kept ācāra, without any of the saṃskāras beginning with garbhādhāna. Those who walk by the word of such great ones of lovely conduct have gained a tejas grown through ācāra (Chapter 42).

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapters 41–42

The rule of eating (Brahma Parva, Chapter 3)

Sumantu gives Śatānīka the rule of the meal. The brāhmaṇa eats after he is purified by snāna and ācamana, and afterwards he cleans his face and limbs with water. The direction of the seat follows his aim: one who wants āyus (long life) faces east, one who wants kīrti (fame) faces south, one who wants wealth faces west, and one who wants the fruit of satya faces north.

Food must always be honoured and never hated or reviled. On seeing food one should rejoice and become serene, and eat rejoicing; this is Manu‘s word. Food eaten with praise gives strength and vīrya, and food eaten with reviling takes them away.

Ucchishṭa food (food left from a meal) must not be given to others, and the ucchishṭa of others must not be eaten. Whoever leaves the food he is eating and out of greed eats that same food again loses the happiness of this world and the next. Sumantu tells of the vaiśya Dhanavardhana, rich in wealth and grain, who lived in Pushkara Kshetra in the Kṛta Yuga. One summer he performed Vaiśvadeva and sat eating with his sons, brothers and kin. A great sound was heard. He left his meal and ran after the sound; it vanished, and he came home and ate what was left. For this he took birth a hundred times.

One must not overeat. Food taken to excess turns to āmla (sourness), and from āmla disease arises; it breaks snāna, dāna, japa, homa and the rites for the pitṛs, and health, āyus and the happiness of svarga. Food left during a meal for any reason is called ucchishṭa, and yakshas, bhūtas, piśācas and rākshasas take shelter in it.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 3

Sauradharma sadācāra (Brahma Parva, Chapters 171–172)

The Brahma Parva has a teaching on Sauradharma sadācāra: the daily code of right conduct for those devoted to Bhagavān Sūrya. It is given as the highest ethical side of Sūrya upāsanā (devotion to Sūrya).

Compassionate conduct

The Sūrya devotee must relieve those who suffer (the hungry, the thirsty, the exhausted, the unclothed and the sick) with all his strength, holding nothing back. Making no difference of jāti, community, patita (the fallen), caṇḍāla, bird or creature, he must give food from what he has to all beings. Some part of one’s possessions must always be given away. This compassionate conduct (karuṇāpūrita ācaraṇa) gives akshaya-phala (fruit that never runs out).

The power of speech

Madhura vāṇī, sweet and gentle speech, gives happiness in this world and the next. The text declares that words that flow like amṛta, are cool as the touch of sandalwood and rest on dharma are the most direct and unshakable stairway to svarga. Beside such speech, even dāna, pūjana and adhyāpana (teaching) are said to pale. One should receive arriving guests with eager welcome. One should send off travellers with a heartfelt wish (śubhā-kāṃkshā): “May your path be auspicious! May you accomplish all dharma-kāryas and return safely.” In all situations, only words of blessing and auspiciousness should flow.

One who follows this conduct finds all pāpa destroyed and becomes established in Sūrya-loka.

Kshamā and the ban on krodha

The same bhakti that one holds towards Sūrya must be held towards other Sūrya devotees. Thoughts of revenge must never be kept. Kshamā (forgiveness) is declared a more direct path to puṇya than bathing in all the tīrthas of the world together. A single outburst of krodha (anger) destroys at once all the puṇya gathered by jñāna, yoga, tapas, yajña and dāna. Krodha is a pit of darkness, and it must not be allowed to come near.

Harsh and cutting words (apriya) burn the marmas (vital points), the bones, the heart and in the end the prāṇa itself. Under no circumstances should one speak harshly. The text declares: “The angry person, the one given to harsh speech: the grace of Sūrya Nārāyaṇa will never reach them.” And in the other direction: kshamā, dāna, tejas, satya, śama and ahiṃsā are present in a person only when Sūrya’s grace is present.

Reverence for Sūrya in all places

When one sees a Sūrya pūjā going on by the road, or a Sūrya temple, one must stop, bow, and then go on. Bhagavān Sūrya himself is present there. At all sacred occasions (deva-parvas, utsavas, śrāddhas and puṇyakarmas) Sūrya should be worshipped. Since all the devagaṇas and pitṛgaṇas dwell in Sūrya, worshipping Sūrya pleases them all at once.

Jñāna arises only through Sūrya upāsanā. From jñāna come yoga and vairāgya. Sūrya-yoga makes the sādhaka all-knowing (sarvajña) and complete (pūrṇa), and gives the power to look within (ātmaśakti). Its final fruit is Sūrya-loka-prāpti (reaching Sūrya-loka).

Dāna and pātra defined

True dāna is giving rightly earned or rightly gifted wealth to qualified persons. A bhūdāna (gift of land) requires land that is well watered and can grow crops. A kanyādāna requires giving a blameless, well-adorned kanyā to a learned dvija even if he is poor. Vastra-dāna is giving a fresh, good cloth.

The eight qualities that make a person a supreme pātra (worthy receiver) are kshamā, nisspṛhā (freedom from craving), dayā, satya, dāna, śīla, tapas and adhyayana. Such a person may receive any amount given to him. The final definition is:

Sauradharma is: bhakti toward Sūrya, kshamā toward all others, satya, the control of all ten indriyas, and maitrī toward every being.

Uttara Parva (Chapter 205)

Chapter 205 of the Uttara Parva is given wholly to sadācāra. It is not a mere appendix. It is the necessary ground for all the vratas and dānas taught throughout the Parva. The teaching is Bhagavān Kṛshṇa‘s answer to Yudhishṭhira‘s question: “You have described many devatās and their differing mantras and observances, yet the great ṛshis speak of only one undivided Paramātmā. What is the secret? And please teach us the dharma of all varṇas and āśramas.”

Yudhishṭhira has heard, in order and in detail, the gifts of the tithis from pratipadā on, the vratas and dānas with their mantras, beginnings and udyāpanas, the yajñas, the rule of snāna, the utsavas and ishṭāpūrta. Yet his mind is in doubt, for Vyāsa and the other munis, given to dhyāna-yoga, describe only one Paramātmā, imperishable, all-pervading and unchanging. The maharshis present are eager to hear the answer.

The unity of devatās

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa answers first with the philosophical resolution. All the devatās described throughout the Uttara Parva are manifestations of one undivided Paramātmā. Brahmā is Hari, Hari is Maheśvara, Maheśvara is Sūrya. Sūrya himself is Agni, Kārttikeya and Vināyaka. The śakti manifested as Gaurī, Lakshmī and Sāvitrī is that same Paramātmā’s other aspect. As earth contains fire, air and water and yet is called simply “earth”, the one Paramātmā contains all apparent diversity. At the pārāmārthika (highest) level there is no distinction whatsoever, because distinction itself does not exist. So any vrata or dāna performed within the Vedic framework, whatever the devatā it rests on, reaches that one Paramātmā alone.

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa says that he has told the vratas and dānas only in essence, for Bhagavatī Sarasvatī alone could describe them in full. The common dharma of all varṇas and āśramas is this: that all beings be free of obstacles and all share in well-being. One who keeps a vrata for any deva or devī should see no distinction of deva and devī there, for this whole world is made of Śiva and Śakti.

Sadācāra as the first requirement

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa then gives the essential teaching: all the vratas and dānas described throughout the Parva bear fruit only for the sadācārin, the person of right conduct. For the durācārin they bear no fruit at all. The Vedic śāstra declares with one voice:

Ācārahīnaṃ na punanti vedā yady apy adhītāḥ sahāshaḍbhir aṅgaiḥ |
chandāṃsy enaṃ mṛtyukāle tyajanti nīḍaṃ śakuntā iva jātapakshāḥ ||

“The Vedas do not purify one who has given up right conduct, even if they have been studied in full with all six aṅgas. At the moment of death the Vedas leave such a person, as fledglings leave the nest once their wings have grown.”

As water poured into a skull or milk placed in a dog-skin vessel becomes impure through its vessel, so all puṇya in a person of poor conduct becomes impure through that vessel. Ācāra must therefore be guarded with all effort.

Vṛttaṃ yatnena saṃrakshed vittameti prayāti ca |
ahīno vittatohīno vṛttatas tu hato hataḥ ||

“Protect conduct with all effort; wealth comes and goes. One lacking wealth but having conduct is not lost; but one lacking conduct, though wealthy, is utterly destroyed.”

Ācāra as kula (lineage)

Na kulaṃ kulam ityāhur ācāraḥ kulam ucyate

“Lineage is not called lineage; ācāra is called lineage.” A person of the lowest birth who is pure in conduct, skilled in all dharmic arts and good in character is among the best of the sants, and is a kulaputra (son of a good family) in the truest sense. Birth in a high lineage with poor conduct is not lineage at all: worms are born even among fragrant flowers.

Ācāra is the root of dharma and of kula. One who slips from ācāra is neither well-born nor dhārmika. One rich in sadācāra has joy in this world and the next. Ācāra gives rise to dharma, and the good (santa) are the root of sadācāra, for their conduct is sadācāra. So one who seeks his own welfare should keep it; keeping it destroys faults and pāpa.

A person whom the world neither sees properly nor knows, if he is of right conduct and a dharmātmā, is held the best in all three times; all remember him with honour and do what pleases him. The nāstikas, those without faith in Īśvara, who transgress the commands of gurus and the śāstras, who do not know dharma and are of wrong conduct, are as if dead. But one who lacks every good bodily mark and yet is of right conduct, full of śraddhā and free of fault-finding, gains all he desires.

Rules of daily conduct

The rules of sadācāra given in this chapter include the following.

Morning: Rise in brahma-muhūrta and think on dharma and artha. Do not relieve yourself facing brāhmaṇas, fire, the sun or cows. During the day, face north; at night, face south for the toilet. Ācamana must be done before pūjā, before showing reverence to guru and elders, and before meals. The trivarga (dharma, artha and kāma) must be pursued in right balance.

• In the morning, after the daily acts and ācamana, do the morning sandhyā with a collected mind. Do the evening sandhyā in the same way, with speech restrained and in silence.
• Do not look at Bhagavān Sūrya while he rises or sets.
• The ṛshis gained long life through long tapas and the like.
• A dhārmika king should set to śūdra work the dvija who does not do the morning and evening sandhyā.
• If the urge is pressing, or some obstacle arises, do not wait on rule and observance.
• Pass stool with the ground covered with grass and the head covered with cloth, far from the house. Throw the leftovers of the house far off.
• Do not relieve oneself in a village, āśrama, tīrtha, kshetra, road, ploughed field or cow-pen, or on the paths of cows.
• Five kinds of earth are not to be used for cleansing: earth from inside water; from an āśrama and the like; from an ant-hill; from a rat-hole; and what is left over from another’s cleansing.
• Do ācamana with foamless, fragrant, clear water, facing east or north.
• Combing the hair, looking in a mirror, cleaning the teeth and pūjā of the devatās are done in the forenoon.

Wealth: By achieving the trivarga the gṛhastha gains siddhi here and in the next world. Of wealth honestly earned, a wise person spends one part on puṇya for the next world, saves one part, and spends half, that is two parts, on food, daily dealings and the nitya and naimittika works. So one should strive to earn wealth justly, for through wealth dharma, kāma and the other purushārthas are achieved.

Things to avoid: Do not crush clods of earth, break grass-stalks or bite nails. Do not eat others’ leftover food or take adulterated substances; these make one short-lived. Do not look at a naked woman, nor at a menstruating woman, nor touch her. Do not do śṛṅgāra (adorning oneself) or toilet acts in water. Avoid bones, dust, skulls and places of excrement.

• One who breaks clods of earth, shreds grass, bites and eats his nails, always eats leftovers, or adulterates goods does not live long in this world.
• Do not look at another’s wife naked, or at your own stool. Do not touch a woman in her menses or talk with her.
• Do not pass urine or stool in water, nor have union in water.
• Do not sit on hair, ash, skull-bones, stool or urine, husks, embers, a skeleton or a rope. Do not sit on a broken seat or in an unclean place.
• Do not use cracked bronze vessels. Do not eat with the hair untied. Do not bathe or sleep naked.
• Do not touch the head with an ucchishṭa hand, for all the prāṇas dwell in the head. Do not pull the hair or strike the head, and do not scratch the head with both hands together.
• Do not beat a son or pupil with a whip.
• Do not bathe the head without cause. Do not bathe at night except at a grahaṇa (eclipse). Do not bathe after a meal, in fathomless water, or in very swift water. Do not apply oil after bathing.
• Do not eat tila-pishṭa (ground sesame), for it wastes life.
• Do not rest in the shade and the like on a river bank. Do not travel alone on the road, enter a burning house or climb to the top of a tree.
• Do not make the sound “hum” at a corpse. Do not grind the teeth, flare the nostrils, speak with the mouth wide open, laugh loudly or break wind with sound.
• Do not tap nail on nail or cut them so, and do not write on the ground. Do not eat the hairs of the beard or moustache. Do not press one foot with the other.
• At night avoid the crossroads, the cremation ground, the pippala and other trees near the village, gardens, and the company of a wicked woman. Keep silent at night and in the forest.
• Keep far away from hair, bones, an impure bali-place with thorns, ash, husks, and ground wet from bathing.
• Do not look into a dirty mirror. Do not point out the nakshatras to others.

Dress and bearing: Use only approved medicinal herbs (oshadhi). Wear gems, keep the hair oiled and clean, wear a good and seemly dress, and wear white and pleasing flowers. In summer and the rains keep an umbrella. Do not wear for long a very red, speckled or black cloth, and do not reverse cloth or ornaments. Wear one cloth for sleep, another for pūjā, and another for the assembly. Walk looking at the ground.

Social conduct: Do not speak ill of elders or the learned. When they are displeased, bow down and seek reconciliation; do not give up the relationship. Yield the path to pregnant women, the elderly, the burdened, kings, the learned, the mute, the blind and the intoxicated. Do not share footwear, seats or garments with others. Do not eat curd or sattu (flour of parched grain) at night. Do not reveal others’ secrets, and have no curiosity to know them.

• The learned should bow to brāhmaṇas, offer them a seat, and go some distance with them when they leave.
• Yield the path also to a brāhmaṇa, a woman, a superior and the deaf, and to the mad, and do so from afar. Do not wear shoes, clothes or garlands worn by others.
• Do not take even the least of another’s wealth. Do not bind enmity with anyone, and live among all kin free of matsara (envy).
• A learned person should make no friendship with the hostile, the patita (fallen), the unmatta (mad), one in enmity with many, the varṇasaṅkara, a barren woman, the husband of a barren woman, the base, the liar, the very spendthrift, one who needlessly blames others, and the śaṭha (crooked).
• Do not talk with the patita, or he too becomes patita.
• In the world there is nothing that shortens life more than going to another’s wife.
• Do not envy women. The protection of women is a duty. Envy wastes life, so give it up altogether. One who wishes long life should not think a woman weak.
• Do not scorn the foolish, the mad, one in distress, the misshapen, the proud, one lacking a limb, one with an extra limb, or one without learning.
• Do not sit for long with the knees raised, or sit with one foot on the other. Do not sit on a high seat before the guru. Do not stretch the feet towards a guru or a devatā.
• Do not be intolerant or unbending. Do not cause pain to others. Do not blame a guru, a pativratā, a yajña-performer or a tapasvin, even in jest.
• Do not in anger use foul words to dāsas and servants. Comfort one who is afraid. Live as a sādhu does. These things give the fruit of svarga.
• Give up abuse, dispute and carrying slander (piśunatā).
• A learned person should not hold fire and water at the same time. Do not drink water from the joined palms. Do not take too much wind or sun.
• Always be intent on sadācāra. Do not be a kāmācārī (one who follows desire). One who wishes good in both worlds, by not living in kāmācāra, is established in svarga. One who lives the rest of his life with his ātmā under control suffers not the least loss of dharma, artha or kāma.

Speech: Harsh and cutting words tear friendships apart like trees felled by an axe. The tree may sprout again from the root, but friendships broken by harsh speech do not recover. Words must be used with care. Do not criticise the Vedas, the Dharmaśāstras or kings.

Do not listen to words blaming another, and do not speak them. Do not tell the faults of others, and do not speak behind their backs. Speak true and pleasant words, and never what is unpleasant. Do not speak ill words to gurus and elders. Do not speak contemptuous words to a brāhmaṇa. Do not be a nāstika, do not blame the devatās, and do not be a coward.

Where to live: A wise person should live happily under a strong, just king who conquers his enemies. It is happy to live where the women are free of matsara. A learned person should live in the rāshṭra where the farmers are at their farming and are not great talkers, and where all oshadhis are to be had. Do not live where people overpower others and hold knots of enmity, where the place is empty of people or too crowded, or where there are no utsavas. Do not live where these four are absent: a money-lender, a physician, a śrotriya and a river full of water. One who wishes a long reign should not eat food from a goldsmith’s house, nor trust him, nor make him a friend.

The door and the house: Do not keep at the door a broken vessel, a broken cot, a dog or a cock, nor thorny trees. A broken vessel in the house brings quarrel, and a broken cot is also not good. In a house with a dog and a cock the pitṛs do not eat. Piśācas live under thorny trees. When an elder, a kinsman or a friend falls into poverty, keep him with you; the house grows by their presence. It is good to keep a pigeon, a parrot and a mynah in the house; these are free of pāpa. Keep these always in the house: sandal, a vīṇā, a mirror, ghee, honey, water and fire.

Hospitality and the household: The gṛhastha must not be the first to eat. The proper feeding order is: pregnant women, elderly women, children and hungry guests first; then one may eat with guests or one’s spouse. The chapter also names suvāsinīs (married women whose husbands live) and the sick among those fed first, and says that the master of the house eats last.

• Do not eat at midnight. Eat by the rule only after the bali-vaiśvadeva rite.
• One who uses a cow as a draught animal and the like to earn money and then uses that money, and one who eats without giving to the person standing outside the house, eats pāpa itself.
• Do not eat wearing a single cloth. Eat cheerfully, facing east or north.
• Do not take unprepared (asaṃskṛta) or contemptible food.
• After feeding the worthy and the hungry, eat from clean vessels, without anger, calm and content.
• Do not eat from a vessel placed on a plank, in an unfit place, at a wrong time, or in a very cramped place.
• Before the meal give the agrāśana (the first portion), then eat with an undivided mind.
• Eat sweet things first, then salty, then pungent and sharp.
• One who eats soft things first, heavy dishes in the middle and liquid dishes last stays free of disease.
• Alakshmī, also called Daridrā, always dwells in curd and sattu by night, and in the kovidāra.
• With speech controlled and in silence, without blaming the food, eat approved food.

After eating, do ācamana well, wash the hands, do ācamana carefully again, and remember your chosen devatā. Then recite these two ślokas, gently stroking the belly with the hand. They ask that the food nourish the five prāṇas and bring happiness, that Agastya, Agni and Vaḍavānala digest what has been eaten, and that Vāsudeva grant freedom from disease. After this, free of sloth, do such works as come without strain.

Prāṇāpāna-samānānām udāna-vyānayos tathā |
annaṃ pushṭikaraṃ cāstu mamādyāvyāhataṃ sukham ||

Agastir agnirvadavānalaś ca bhuktaṃ prapānnaṃ jarayatv aśesham |
sukhaṃ ca me tat pariṇāma-saṃbhavaṃ yacchatv arogaṃ khalu Vāsudevaḥ ||

When an evening traveller arrives at the door, rise and welcome him with pādya (water for the feet), arghya (water of welcome) and āsana (a seat). Then speak gently and offer food.

Serve him with food and a bed as well. The pāpa of an evening guest turned away is eight times that of a guest turned away by day.

Night and restraint: Sleeping with the head to the east or south is approved; the reverse brings disease. Union with one’s wife is approved only in the ṛtu-kāla. On caturdaśī, ashṭamī, amāvāsyā and parva times, avoid oil-massage and union. After shaving, union with a woman and going to the cremation ground, bathe with one’s clothes on.

The king: A king should be ever intent on knowing Dhanurveda and the other śāstras and on learning Nītiśāstra. He should also know Śabdaśāstra (grammar), Yajñaśāstra, Gāndharvaśāstra (music), Kalāśāstra, and Itihāsa-Purāṇa.

The closing declaration

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa ends: “This is sadācāra. It brings growth of wealth and growth of life. Ācāra is the supreme dharma. It leads to svarga. Dharma, artha and kāma, all three fruits, arise from sadācāra alone and from nothing else. All must keep it without exception.”

He says these are the marks of sadācāra, and that other things worth knowing should be learned from the elders. Sadācāra is the parent of all prosperity. Keeping it increases life and removes all faults. Among all the Āgamas it has the first place, and by it knowledge increases. By ācāra one gains aiśvarya, yaśas, long life, svarga and the highest maṅgala. He has described all this for the good of all varṇas.

When the dialogue closes, Śrī Kṛshṇa says that in this Bhavishyottara he has described the vratas and the groups of dānas of men endowed with sadācāra, and that explaining it before people of sadācāra, of controlled senses, devoted to truth and purity brings sugati (a blessed course) (Chapter 207).

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapters 205, 207

Per Skanda Purāṇa

Kāśī Khaṇḍa (Chapters 35–36)

In this khaṇḍa, Skanda teaches sadācāra to Agastya Ṛshi as the basic practice one needs in order to reach and live in Kāśī (Vārāṇasī), the holiest of cities.

The setting: ācāra as the path to Kāśī

After hearing of the greatness of Jñānavāpī and Avimukta (sacred sites of Kāśī), Agastya asked Skanda a very practical question: “You have said that moksha (liberation) is possible in Kāśī without tapas, without yoga, without sacred rites or gifts. But what must one practise regularly to be able to reach Kāśī at all?” Skanda answered that ācāra (good conduct) alone is the root. Without good conduct no dear wish can come true, because Kali and Kāla (time) watch for any moral gap through which to strike (Chapter 35).

The ranking of beings

Skanda places sadācāra within a ranking of all beings:

• Beings that do not move, then worms, fish, birds, animals, humans and suras (devas): each level is a thousand times more developed than the one before.
• Among humans: ordinary people, then Vedic scholars, then people of firm understanding, then those who perform sacred rites, then those absorbed only in Brahman. The brahma-nishṭha, one wholly absorbed in the Absolute, has no superior in the three worlds; such people bow only to one another.
• A person of good conduct deserves honour from all. A person who has strayed from good conduct deserves none, even if he is a brāhmaṇa.

The ten yamas and the ten niyamas

The Kāśī Khaṇḍa lists the two pillars of sadācāra.

The ten yamas (restraints): truthfulness, patience, straightforwardness, meditation, gentleness (absence of fierceness), not harming, control of the senses, cheerfulness, sweetness and tenderness.

The ten niyamas (observances): inner and outer purity (śauca), sacred bathing (snāna), tapas, dāna (giving), silence (mauna), yajña (ijyā), Vedic study (adhyayana), vrata (sacred vows), upavāsa (fasting) and restraint from unlawful sexual acts (upastha-daṇḍa).

The six enemies to be overcome through sadācāra are Kāma (lust), Krodha (anger), Mada (arrogance), Moha (delusion), Mātsarya (jealousy) and Lobha (greed).

The ethics of karma

Several ethical truths are stated very directly:

• “A being is born alone; it dies alone; it enjoys its puṇya alone; and it reaps the bitter fruits of wrong conduct alone.” Relatives leave the dead body behind like a piece of wood; only dharma follows the departing ātmā. So one must gather dharma as one’s true companion.
• “Just as ants slowly build an anthill, one should, without hurting others, slowly gather good deeds that will help in the next world.”
• A person of bad conduct is looked down upon in the world, always troubled by illness, unhappy and short-lived.
• A wise person should seek the company of good people and avoid the base. By keeping company with the excellent, even a brāhmaṇa rises higher.

Daily practice: from waking to the bath

The chapter gives a complete daily routine.

On waking (brāhma samaya): Rise in the last part of the night before dawn and meditate, in order, on: Gaṇeśa; Īśa (Śiva) with Ambā; Vishṇu with Śrī; Brahmā with Brāhmaṇī; all the devas beginning with Indra; all the ṛshis beginning with Vasishṭha; all the rivers beginning with Gaṅgā; all the mountains beginning with Śrī Śaila; all the oceans beginning with the Ocean of Milk; the sacred city of Kāśī, first among all holy places (kshetras); the liṅgas beginning with Viśveśa; and the feet of one’s mother, the most excellent of all tīrthas (holy places).

Morning cleansing: Go in the proper direction to answer the calls of nature. Perform śauca with the set number of lumps of clay. Face east or north for ācamana (sipping water to purify oneself). The chapter gives the number of sips of water for each part of the body for each varṇa. It gives detailed rules for dantadhāvana (cleaning the teeth): which trees are recommended, on which days it is forbidden, which mantras to recite, and what to use when twigs cannot be used.

Morning bath: The daily morning bath (prātaḥ-snāna) is praised. It brings energy, good fortune, a pleasing appearance and a calm mind. It makes one fit to recite mantras, stotras (hymns of praise) and japa. The chapter gives the Vedic mantras for each step of the bath, from putting on the clay to rising from the water at the end. After the bath, the brāhmaṇa should perform the morning sandhyā (twilight prayers). “A brāhmaṇa who does not perform the sandhyā becomes a śūdra while still alive.”

Brahmacarya and upanayana (Chapter 36)

Chapter 36 carries the teaching on to the saṃskāras and the duties of a Vedic student.

The saṃskāras: The set order begins with Nisheka (the conception rite) and goes on through Puṃsavana (rite for a healthy child in the womb), Sīmantonnayana (parting of the mother’s hair), Jātakarma (birth rite), naming on the eleventh day, Nishkramaṇa (first outing) in the fourth month, Annaprāśana (first solid food) in the sixth month, and Cūḍā (first haircut) in the first year. For girls and women these rites are done silently, without mantras. The only saṃskāra with mantras for them is Pāṇigrahaṇa (marriage).

Timing of upanayana: A brāhmaṇa is ready for the Sāvitrī (Gāyatrī) mantra in the seventh or eighth year (in the fifth, if he seeks brahma-tejas, spiritual radiance). A kshatriya is ready in the eleventh year (or the sixth), and a vaiśya in the twelfth (or the sixth). After the sixteenth, twenty-second and twenty-fourth years respectively, upanayana can no longer be performed, and the Vrātyastoma yajña is needed to make amends.

The guru: The ācārya, one who teaches the whole Veda with its inner meaning, is ten times more worthy of honour than an upādhyāya (a teacher of part of the Veda). The father is a hundred times more worthy than the ācārya, and the mother a thousand times more than the father. Among brāhmaṇas, rank comes from knowledge; among kshatriyas, from valour; among vaiśyas, from wealth and grain; among śūdras, from being born earlier.

Conduct of the brahmacārī: During Vedic studentship one should wear the girdle, staff and deerskin, and beg alms from brāhmaṇas who are free of blame. One must avoid liquor, meat, harming living beings, looking at the Sun, applying eye-black (añjana), women and stale food. One should eat in silence and only with the guru’s permission, and not eat twice in the same day. No brāhmaṇa should stay outside an āśrama (stage of life) even for a day; one who does must perform atonement rites every day.

On Gāyatrī japa: Repeating the Gāyatrī with the Mahāvyāhṛtis (the great sacred syllables) three times a day, a thousand times or more, for a little over a year, makes the practitioner vyoma-mūrti (pure in body, like space) and brings him to the great Brahman. Mental japa (mānasika) is a thousand times more powerful than spoken recitation. Whispered japa (upāṃśu) is a hundred times more powerful than japa spoken aloud.

Dharmāraṇya Khaṇḍa (Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 5)

The Dharmāraṇya Khaṇḍa, a section of the Brahma Khaṇḍa, gives a whole chapter to the sadācāra of a brāhmaṇa (a member of the priestly and teaching class).

It starts with waking before dawn in brahma-muhūrta. It then covers the morning routine of cleansing, cleaning the teeth and bathing; the five kinds of snāna (bath), including brāhma-snāna; the rules of ācamana; prāṇāyāma, which the text says removes all pāpa (wrongdoing); the full sandhyā-upāsana (twilight prayers) with its rules of posture for morning and evening; Gāyatrī japa and its counts; tarpaṇa to the devas, ṛshis and pitṛs; the five kinds of Vedic study; vaiśvadeva; rules about food; and the pañca-mahāyajñas (five great daily offerings). Together these form the ideal daily pattern of a dharmic brāhmaṇa life as taught in the Dharmāraṇya tradition.

Brahma-Muhūrta and Waking

The day begins in brahma-muhūrta, the auspicious time about one and a half hours before sunrise. On waking, the brāhmaṇa should think of Paramātmā, reflect on dharma, and turn his mind to sacred matters before getting up. This quiet time before dawn sets the spiritual tone for the whole day.

Śauca and Danta-Dhāvana

After rising, the brāhmaṇa performs śauca (purification), the morning cleansing done according to set rules. Then comes danta-dhāvana (cleaning the teeth). It must be done carefully and according to tradition before any other rite begins.

Prātaḥ-Snāna: The Morning Bath

The prātaḥ-snāna (morning bath) is essential. It is of five kinds. The highest and most powerful is brāhma-snāna, “bathing” through Vedic recitation, in which the power of mantra purifies body and mind in a way water alone cannot. The other kinds of snāna include bathing in water at sacred tīrthas (holy bathing places), bathing with sacred earth, and bathing through contact with sacred fire and ash. Brāhma-snāna means the purification gained by reciting the Vedas, especially the Purusha-sūkta and other sacred hymns, at the time of bathing.

Ācamana

The text gives the rules of ācamana (sipping water in a set way to purify oneself). Ācamana must be done before every sacred act, after eating, after coming back from a journey, and at various turning points of the day. The water must be pure, the amount exact, and the mantras recited correctly.

Prāṇāyāma: The Destroyer of Pāpa

Prāṇāyāma (control and regulation of the breath) is given special weight, with a direct statement: it destroys all pāpa. The text says that through regular prāṇāyāma, whatever pāpa clings to the brāhmaṇa, whether gathered in this life or in past lives, is burnt up like dry grass in a fire. So prāṇāyāma is not only a bodily practice. It is a means of spiritual purification as powerful as tīrtha-yātrā (pilgrimage) and yajña (sacred fire offering).

Sandhyā-Upāsana

The sandhyā-upāsana (prayers at the meeting points of day and night) is the central practice of the brāhmaṇa’s day. Two sandhyās are prescribed:

• Prātaḥ-sandhyā (dawn prayers): The brāhmaṇa must stand upright, facing east, and continue the sandhyā until the sun has fully risen above the horizon. Standing is required for the prātaḥ-sandhyā; sitting is not correct.
• Sāyaṃ-sandhyā (evening prayers): The brāhmaṇa must sit, facing west and settled, and continue the sandhyā until the stars appear. Sitting is required for the sāyaṃ-sandhyā.

These rules of posture (standing at dawn, sitting at dusk) are specifically laid down and must not be swapped.

Gāyatrī Japa

After the sandhyā, Gāyatrī japa (repeating the Gāyatrī mantra) is done in one of three set counts:

• 1,000 times: the complete and most powerful japa
• 100 times: the middle japa
• 10 times: the minimum japa, for days when the full practice is not possible

The Gāyatrī japa is to be done with breath control and full concentration. It purifies the mind and brings great puṇya to the one who practises it.

Tarpaṇa

After japa, the brāhmaṇa performs tarpaṇa, the offering of water to three groups of beings:

1. Deva-tarpaṇa: water offered to the devas with sacred mantras
2. Ṛshi-tarpaṇa: water offered to the great ṛshis and munis
3. Pitṛ-tarpaṇa: water offered to the departed ancestors (pitṛs)

This daily tarpaṇa keeps the living brāhmaṇa connected with the three realms of the devas, the ṛshis and the ancestors. It also repays his continuing debt (ṛṇa) to each of them.

Veda-Adhyayana

Five kinds of veda-adhyayana (Vedic study and recitation) are prescribed: silent recitation, recitation aloud, teaching, discussion, and reflection on the meaning. Regular Vedic study is an essential duty. Without it the brāhmaṇa cannot keep up the handing down of the Veda, which is his main responsibility to the world.

Vaiśvadeva and Rules about Food

Before eating, the brāhmaṇa must perform vaiśvadeva, the offering to the Viśvedevas (all the devas). This fire offering, though short, fulfils the deva-yajña part of the householder’s daily duties. The food rules include purity of ingredients, the right state of mind while cooking and eating, and a ban on eating before vaiśvadeva has been done.

The Pañca-Mahāyajñas

The five great yajñas (pañca-mahāyajñas) that a householder brāhmaṇa must perform every day are:

1. Brahma-yajña: daily Vedic recitation, the offering to Brahman itself
2. Pitṛ-yajña: daily tarpaṇa to the pitṛs (ancestors)
3. Deva-yajña: the fire offering (vaiśvadeva) to the devas
4. Bhūta-yajña: offering food to all living creatures (bali-haraṇa)
5. Nṛ-yajña: hospitality to guests and fellow human beings (atithi-pūjā)

Together these five daily yajñas make up the complete dharmic shape of a householder brāhmaṇa’s day. They honour the Veda, the ancestors, the devas, all living beings and fellow humans. A brāhmaṇa who performs all five every day is said to have fulfilled his basic duties of dharma.

Per Garuḍa Purāṇa

The Ācāra Khaṇḍa gives two chapters (213–214) to sadācāra. It presents it as the full outer discipline of the gṛhastha’s life, covering auspicious signs, the five-fold Vedic practice, the feeding of the pōshya-varga, the kinds of wealth, and the detailed sequence of snāna, sandhyā and tarpaṇa.

The eight maṅgalas (Ācāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 213)

Eight things in this world are declared to be maṅgala (auspicious) by their very nature. Meeting them at the start of a day or a journey gives śubha-phala (good fruit):

1. Brāhmaṇa, the embodiment of sacred knowledge
2. Cow (go), the sustainer of life
3. Agni, the sacred fire
4. Gold (kāñcana)
5. Ghṛta (clarified butter)
6. Sūrya (the Sun)
7. Jala (water)
8. Rājā (a righteous king)

One who sees and honours these eight, and keeps them to the right side while moving, goes forward with auspiciousness.

Five-fold Vedic practice (vedābhyāsa pañcavidhi)

The text names five ways in which a brāhmaṇa must work with the Veda:

1. Adhyayana: personal study
2. Cintana: contemplation of what was studied
3. Abhyāsa: repeated practice and recitation
4. Japa: repetition of mantras
5. Adhyāpana: teaching the Veda to qualified students

These five make the complete cycle of Vedic transmission, so that the sacred knowledge flows from teacher to student in an unbroken stream.

The pōshya-varga: one’s circle of dependents

The gṛhastha’s first ethical duty is to keep and protect his pōshya-varga, those who depend on him:

Mātāpitā gurubhrātā prajā dīnāḥ samāśritāḥ / abhyāgato’tithi-ś-cāgniḥ pōshya-vargā udāhṛtāḥ

“Mother, father, teacher, brothers, children, the poor and the distressed, the abhyāgata (unexpected visitors), the atithi (announced guests) and the fire: these are declared to be the circle of dependents to be sustained.”

A man who feeds only himself while neglecting these is compared to a village dog, for even a stray dog knows how to feed only itself. The one who feeds the many is truly alive:

Sa jīvati varaś caiko bahubhir yo-pajīvyate

“That man alone truly lives whom many depend upon.”

Three kinds of wealth

The text sorts all wealth (dhana) into three kinds:

• Śukla (white, pure): earned by wholly lawful means, such as teaching, righteous service and inheritance.
• Śabala (mixed): of partly lawful and partly doubtful origin.
• Kṛshṇa (black, impure): earned by means that break dharma.

The text lays down that from lawfully earned wealth a part must always be given to the pūjā of the pitṛ-devatās, the deva-gaṇas and the brāhmaṇas. This acts as a purifier even for small faults in how the wealth was got.

The rules of snāna (Chapter 214)

Chapter 214 gives the detailed sequence of snāna, sandhyā and tarpaṇa as the practical form of sadācāra. The key principle: all ritual acts (japa, agni, havana and others) are not allowed without snāna first. Snāna is the first requirement for every part in ritual.

The eight kinds of snāna listed are:

1. Nitya: the daily ritual bath for pūjā and dharmic acts
2. Naimittika: the bath after touching what is impure (a caṇḍāla, a rajasvalā woman, a corpse)
3. Kāmya: a bath on auspicious nakshatras for specific desired fruits
4. Kriyāṅga: a bath as a preparing act before specific rituals
5. Malāpakarshaṇa: a bath to remove bodily impurity in natural water bodies
6. Mārjana: bathing with prescribed mantras (mantra-snāna)
7. Āgneya: bathing with bhasma (sacred ash)
8. Avagāhana: full immersion in water while reciting mantras without a break

The chapter sets out a ladder of water purity: ground-spring water is pure; stream water is purer; lake water is purer still; river water is purer than that; the water of a sacred tīrtha is purer; and Gaṅgā-jala (water of the Gaṅgā) is the purest of all and can destroy a lifetime of pāpa.

After snāna, the practitioner does sandhyā and tarpaṇa to complete the daily round.

Per Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa

Chapters 88–89, 93 and 94 of the second part (Dvitīya Khaṇḍa) together give a full teaching on sadācāra for the dharmic householder. They cover the whole fabric of right daily living.

Chapter 88 (Prātaḥkṛtya) covers morning duties and bathing. Chapter 89 (Ācāra-kathanam) gives a long code of personal conduct: what is forbidden, what is praised, and how yoga and svādhyāya (self-study of the Veda) fit into daily life. Chapter 93 (Bhojana-vidhi) gives the rules of eating. Chapter 94 (the second Ācāra-kathanam) deals with sleeping and conduct between husband and wife. Together they form the dharmic framework of everyday life.

Morning Duties (Prātaḥkṛtya, Chapter 88)

The householder rises at aruṇodaya, the moment before dawn when the sky first grows light, before the sun actually rises. The morning begins with dantadhāvana (cleaning the teeth), followed by relieving oneself (vega-utsarga).

Places where one must not relieve oneself: ploughed fields, cowsheds, in or near fire, riverbanks, the shade under trees, on grass, on roads, on ash heaps, in water, at the door of one’s house, on paths used by cattle, facing fire or sunlight, and facing into the wind. During sandhyā (the twilight times), one must face north by day and south at night. Facing the sky is never allowed.

Method: The sacred thread (upavīta) is placed over the right ear. The head is covered. Water is poured over oneself. Earth and water are used for śauca (cleansing). The amounts of earth are fixed: one application for the hand, fourteen for the feet (three each for the toes), and one for the body. Brahmacārīs (students) use double these amounts, vānaprasthas (forest-dwellers) three times, and yatis (renunciants) four times.

Ācamana (sipping water): After śauca, one washes the hands and feet, sits facing east or north with the hands between the knees, and performs upasparśana (touching water) and ācamana. Water sipped from one hand instead of the cupped palm, foamy water and hot water must not be used. The four sacred tīrthas (points) of the hand are named: deva-tīrtha (the fingertips), brahma-tīrtha (the base of the thumb), pitṛ-tīrtha (the base of the index finger) and mānushya-tīrtha (the base of the little finger). Three sips are taken from the brahma-tīrtha and the mouth is wiped. The eyes, nose, ears, crown of the head and navel are touched with water.

Dantadhāvana (cleaning the teeth): After ācamana, one chews a tooth-cleaning twig. It must not be used while facing north or east, only facing south. It must not be used after eating meat. Twigs that are not suitable: half-crushed ones, ones with insects, ones that give too much sap or none, ones that are too sweet or too sour, ones without a point, ones too thin or too thick, and ones bitten by animals. Approved woods: bilva (called mārēḍu in Telugu), karañja (of the neem family), pīlu, gōgu, śleshmātaka (uddālaka), vibhītaka, guggulu, kramuka (areca), nyagrodha (banyan), aśvattha (peepal) and khadira (acacia). Many others are also listed as allowed. The twig must be washed before and after use. If it falls pointing towards oneself, it is a good sign for saubhāgya (good fortune).

Snāna (bathing): Six kinds of snāna are listed:

1. Nitya: the daily bath for purification
2. Naimittika: the bath on particular occasions
3. Kāmya: the bath taken for a desired result
4. Kriyāṅga: the bath taken as one step within a rite
5. Malakarshaṇa: the bath to remove bodily dirt
6. Kriyāsnāna: the ritual bath proper

Rules for bathing: One must not bathe after eating, in unknown waters, when ill, or before the light of dawn has spread across the sky. Bathing at night is not good (praśasta), except during an eclipse (Rāhu-grahaṇa). One must not bathe in water belonging to others, in shallow water, or without putting the head under.

The merit of bathing: One who bathes every day at dawn does not see naraka. One who bathes both at the morning and midday times (prātaḥ-savana and madhyāhna-savana) is honoured even by the devas in svarga. One who bathes at all three times (trishavaṇa snāna) is reborn in a prosperous family, with beauty, learning and a love of dharma, and is joined by women of beauty and good character. Bathing at great tīrthas and lakes and on sacred occasions removes all impurity and grants svarga and one’s wishes.

Code of Conduct (Sadācāra, Chapter 89)

Appearance and Dress

• Garlands are auspicious and bring the grace of Lakshmī. They must be worn only on the head, never elsewhere.
• Do not wear perfumes without scent, or flowers that are black, red or from thorny trees (though fragrant white flowers from thorny trees are allowed).
• Fragrances to apply: candana (sandal), kuṅkuma (saffron), aguru, karpūra (camphor) and priyaṅgu.
• Clothing: do not wear dirty, red, worn-out or fringed white clothes. Do not wear another person’s footwear or sacred thread.
• Dress, posture and adornment should suit one’s body type, age, family and occupation.
• After bathing, one should at once put on a turban and a freshly washed cloth, apply gandha (fragrant paste), wear a white garland, and wear only pure gold.

Travel and Conduct in Public

• Do not travel alone at night, at noon, during sandhyā, in heavy rain or in strong wind.
• Do not travel without an umbrella, footwear and a turban.
• On the road, give way to a bridegroom, a king, a snātaka (a student who has completed his studies), a chariot, someone carrying a load, and a pregnant woman.
• Honour crossroads, great trees and all maṅgala (auspicious) objects by walking around them clockwise.
• Keep inauspicious objects on your left as you pass.
• Do not watch the reflection of the rising or setting sun in water.
• Do not look at an angry guru, a menstruating woman, a naked woman, a woman with another man, or one’s wife while she is eating, sleeping, bathing or without her ornaments.

Physical Actions to Avoid

• Do not step on bones, ash, crossroads, husks or fire, and do not enter abandoned buildings.
• Do not step on furniture, enter the inner rooms of a house without permission, or enter the homes of enemies.
• Do not climb unsteady boats, trees or mountains.
• Do not beat fruit trees with sticks or stones.
• Do not make noise in water with sticks or hands.
• Do not bite the nails, break the teeth, pull or pluck the hair, or make meaningless sounds with the mouth.
• Do not sleep with the head uncovered at night, and do not move about at night without a lamp.
• Do not drive away cows grazing in someone else’s field, and do not separate a calf from its mother while it is feeding.
• Do not point out a rainbow to another person.

Social Conduct

• Do not walk between two brāhmaṇas, between a couple, or between those fighting; do not interrupt a conversation.
• Do not wake a sleeping person without reason.
• Do not show disrespect to those who are devoted to you.
• Do not touch the shadows of devas (their images), gurus, kings or brāhmaṇas, nor the shadow of a caṇḍāla.
• Do not look at the sun during an eclipse. Do not look at fire without first praising the nakshatras (lunar mansions) and Rāhu.
• Do not look at your own reflection in oil or in a dusty mirror.
• Do not face the wind directly or face the sun directly.
• Do not use both hands together to scratch your head, and do not cry without cause.
• Do not speak ill of others. Do not be jealous about women, and do not trust them without condition; treat them with affection and keep discipline.
• Do not listen to or join in vulgar talk. Do not criticise the Vedas, the king, the ṛshis or the devas.
• Speak auspicious words, such as “Bhadraṃ bhadram” (“good, good”), and avoid saying unpleasant things.
• Seats, footstools and footwear made of palāśa wood (flame of the forest, called moḍugu in Telugu) are not suitable.

Activities Forbidden on Certain Days

• Shaving and haircuts (kshaura-karma): not on Sunday, Saturday or Tuesday, not on the riktā tithis (the 4th, 9th and 14th lunar days), not on one’s birth nakshatra, and not on the 6th tithi.
• Oil massage of the head: not on the 8th, 6th, 9th or 14th tithis, nor at the junctions of the parvas (new and full moon).
• Bathing with āmalaka (Indian gooseberry): not on saptamī (the 7th tithi).
• Wearing new clothes: the auspicious nakshatras are Hasta, Rohiṇī, Anurādhā, Punarvasu, Pushya, Aśvinī, the three Uttarās, Citrā, Svātī, Dhanishṭhā, Viśākhā and Revatī. Not on Tuesdays or new-moon days, and only after first applying turmeric.

When the Moon Is in One’s Birth Nakshatra

When the moon passes through one’s janma-nakshatra (the lunar mansion of one’s birth), the householder should:

• Take a śiro-snāna (bath including the head) and offer pūjā to Candra (the moon) and to the devatā of his own nakshatra
• Perform śrāddha, agni-pūjā and brāhmaṇa-pūjā with special care
• Honour vehicles, umbrellas and all the devas, especially Bhagavān Keśava
• Dress well, clean the hair and nails, and make offerings

Svādhyāya and Yoga

The householder must do svādhyāya (study and recitation of the Veda) every day without fail. Even when great wealth comes his way, he must not give it up. After svādhyāya he should bathe, do japa, and bring the senses under control (indriya-nigraha) before offering pūjā to Bhagavān Janārdana. One who offers pūjā to Vishṇu after svādhyāya at once gains the fruit of all yajñas.

Giving up the habit of following sense pleasure leads to well-being in this world and the next. The practice of yoga for mastering the senses (indriya-jaya) should be kept up steadily. Through mastery of the senses, one gains happiness (sukha) both here and in the world beyond.

Praising oneself (ātma-stuti) and finding fault with others (para-nindā) must be given up completely. Gratitude and firm bhakti (devotion) should always be cultivated.

Rules of Eating (Bhojana-Vidhi, Chapter 93)

When not to eat: Do not eat during solar and lunar eclipses, from before the eclipse begins until the sun or moon has risen again. Do not eat when brāhmaṇas and cows are suffering, during political unrest, when pūjā in the temple is blocked, during āśauca (ritual impurity after a birth or death), or when forbidden or harmful food is present. Do not eat while children, the elderly or the guru have not yet eaten; always serve them first.

The merit of feeding children: One who feeds children gains the merit of go-dāna (the gift of a cow). One who gives them toys lives for a very long time in the pleasure gardens of svarga. A man whose presence fills children with joy will find good fortune wherever he is born.

Forbidden at meals:

1. Eating from one’s own lap, without a plate
2. Holding salt directly in the hand while eating
3. Giving a one-time gift while eating
4. Pouring out the water from one’s vessel carelessly
5. Taking milk or meat at night
6. Breaking one’s teeth
7. Eating food that is too hot

Forbidden foods and ways of eating:

• Do not drink water from the cupped palm.
• Do not eat sesame oil, or too much food, after sunset.
• Do not eat puffed grain (dhānā, called borugulu in Telugu) during the day.
• Puffed-grain powder mixed with curd, eaten at night, harms the voice.
• The kovidāra tree is always inhabited by Alakshmī (the devī of misfortune); do not eat from it.

On sharing: Always leave a portion of milk, puffed grain, pāyasa (sweet rice pudding) and water for others; never finish them alone. Leftover food (ucchishṭa) must not be given to a śūdra. Ghee that has touched leftover food must not be used. Food must never be criticised. It should be eaten with a calm mind and full attention, without looking around restlessly.

After the meal: Wash the hands and feet, do ācamana, clean the teeth (danta-śodhana) and chew tāmbūla (betel). After this, listen to itihāsa and śāstra, take a short walk, perform the evening sandhyā, keep the mind pure, and go to sleep after the last devārcana (pūjā to the devas) and vaiśvadeva (the daily food offering to all the devas).

Rules of Sleep (Ācāra, Chapter 94)

Places where one must not sleep: in ruins, at cremation grounds, at crossroads, inside temples of Śiva, the Devī, yakshas, nāgas or Kumāra, under trees on riverbanks, on sandy or dusty ground, or on kuśa grass in the open.

Ways one must not sleep: with the head towards the north, in the open with nothing on any of the four sides, under a caitya-vṛksha (a village’s sacred or community tree, called racce-tree in Telugu), with wet feet or without clothes, or in an impure place.

Forbidden union: Do not approach a pregnant woman, a grey-haired woman, a menstruating woman, a sick woman, or a woman of a different lineage; nor when oneself is hungry or has just applied oil; nor at the parva times (new and full moon and special tithis). Never release semen into open space or into animals or birds.

One who keeps the purity of mind and action taught here sees his gathered pāpas dissolve in an instant, and he gains the highest well-being and happiness.

Per Vāmana Purāṇa

In Chapters 14 and 15 of the Vāmana Purāṇa, Pulastya Maharshi tells Nārada how the maharshis of a forest in Magadha taught sadācāra to Sukeśī, the rākshasa king, son of Vidyutkeśī. Bhagavān Śiva had given Sukeśī a city that moves through the sky, and he had come to the āśramas of the ṛshis to ask what brings good in this world and the next. In Chapter 16 the teaching bears fruit: Sukeśī commands his rākshasas to keep it, and their good conduct raises them so high that their city outshines the Sun and the Moon.

Sukeśī’s question

The ṛshis told Sukeśī that one who wishes to be a gṛhastha (householder) marries a bride of good family from another gotra and ṛshi-lineage, earns wealth by his own dharma, satisfies the pitṛs, the devas and his guests with bhakti, and keeps sadācaraṇa, good conduct. Sukeśī asked: “You said ‘sadācaraṇa’. Please explain what this good conduct is.” The ṛshis answered: “Out of our regard for you we shall explain sadācāra. Rākshasapati, hear it in detail.”

Why sadācāra matters

The gṛhastha must keep ācāra (right conduct) at all times. One without ācāra has no good either here or in the other world. For one who goes against sadācāra, no good comes from yajña, dāna, tapas or vratas, and one who acts wrongly has no happiness here or hereafter. Sadācāra destroys evil, so a man must strive hard to practise it.

“Dānava, we tell you the form of sadācāra; listen with śraddhā (faith),” the ṛshis said. Sadācāra is a tree. Dharma is its root, dāna (giving) its branches, kāma its flower, and moksha its fruit. Only he who tends such a tree of sadācāra is a puṇyātmā, one rich in puṇya (merit).

Rising at brāhma-muhūrta

The day of good conduct begins at brāhma-muhūrta, before dawn. One rises and remembers the devas and the ṛshis, and then recites the morning maṅgala-stotra spoken by Bhagavān Śiva (Śaṅkara). Sukeśī asked what this suprabhāta stotra was, which Paramaśiva had graciously given for release from the bonds of pāpa. The ṛshis taught it: a prayer that Brahmā, Murāri, Tripurāntaka, the Sun, the Moon and the grahas, the great ṛshis from Bhṛgu and Vasishṭha to Cyavana and Ṛbhu, Sanaka and his brothers, Āsuri and Piṅgaḷa, the seven svaras, the seven rasātalas, the five elements with the mahat, and the seven bhuvanas may all make the morning auspicious.

Whether one hears it, reads it or remembers it, it gives release from all pāpa. If on rising from sleep one reads, hears or remembers this suprabhāta, the doshas of the bad dreams of the night before are removed, and by bhagavat-kṛpā, divine grace, the man gains what is auspicious. Of this, the ṛshis said, there is no doubt.

Rising from bed thus, thinking of dharma and artha, one remembers the name of Śrī Hari and begins the daily duties (nitya-vidhi).

The morning rites

1. One relieves oneself away from the paths of the devas, the brāhmaṇas and the fire, away from royal roads, crossroads and cowsheds, not facing the east or the west.
2. Then one cleanses with earth: the anus three times, the left palm seven times, both hands ten times, and the liṅga once. “O rākshasa,” the ṛshis said, “one who knows sadācāra does not take this earth from water, from rat-holes or anthills, earth already used once and thrown aside, or earth from inside the house.”
3. Sitting facing the east or the north, one washes the face twice and rinses the mouth with water that has no foam; touches with the hand the five senses (pañcendriya) and the head; cleans the teeth, combs the hair, looks at the face in a mirror, and performs sandhyāvandana according to rule.
4. Then one takes a head-bath or a bath of the body, offers the water of tarpaṇa to the devas and the pitṛs, performs homa, touches a maṅgala-dravya (an auspicious thing), and goes out.

The chief maṅgala-dravyas, in the text’s order, are: dūrvā grass, curd, ghee, a water-pot, a cow with her calf, a bull, gold, earth, cow-dung, the svastika, akshatas (unbroken rice), parched grain, honey, a brāhmaṇa maiden, white flowers, fire, sandal, the disc of the sun and the aśvattha tree. One touches any one of these and then sees to other work.

Conduct through the day

One carries out the duties of one’s family and gotra (kula-dharma and gotra-vidhis) according to place and time, without giving them up. Gaining one’s ends in this way, one spends the time without speaking needless things, untruth, harsh words, or anything against the Veda and the śāstras; otherwise one falls under the blame of the good. For one of good conduct it is never right to break dharma or to keep company with the wicked. The good do not covet the wealth of others or the wives of others: the first is a door to naraka, the second a cause of death.

There are four things the gṛhamedhī (householder) must not do, the ṛshis said, addressing Sukeśī as “foremost of heroes”:

• wander without purpose, for it breaks his nitya and naimittika rites (the daily and the occasional rites);
• give without purpose, for it brings loss of wealth;
• harm animals for pastime, for one who does so goes to naraka;
• take a wife improperly, for it brings loss of progeny and the inauspicious fear of varṇa-saṅkara (the mixing of varṇas).

Union is not at the two sandhyās (dawn and dusk) nor by day; never with the wives of others; not in open places without shelter, nor in water; and not with a woman in her ṛtu-kāla (monthly period).

Further, in the text’s order:

• Do not look at the wives of others when they are unclothed.
• Do not converse with thieves.
• Do not look at, touch or speak with women in their ṛtu-kāla.
• Do not sit on one seat with a sister, with the wives of others, with one’s own mother or with a grown daughter.
• Do not sleep, bathe or wander about naked.
• Throw broken seats and broken vessels far away.

Rules by tithi, weekday and nakshatra

• By tithi: no oil-bath on śukla pāḍyami (pratipadā), shashṭhī or ekādaśī; no shaving on caturthī, navamī or caturdaśī; no union on śukla pañcamī, daśamī or pūrṇimā. On śukla vidiyā (dvitīyā), saptamī and dvādaśī all of these may be done.
• By weekday: avoid the head oil-bath on Sunday and Tuesday, shaving on Friday, meat on Saturday, and union on Wednesday. On the other days anything may be done at any time.
• By nakshatra: no abhyañjana (oil-bath) on Citrā, Hasta and Śravaṇa; no shaving on Viśākhā and Abhijit; no meat on Mūla, Mṛgaśira and Bhādrapadā; no union on Maghā, Kṛttikā and Uttarā.

Sleeping, eating, bathing and other rules

• Never sleep with the head to the west or the north. “Rākshaseśvara, do not eat sitting facing the south or the west.”
• Temples, trees standing by the road, trees at crossroads, the learned and gurus are not to be gone round from the right side.
• The one who knows does not use garlands, food and drink, or clothes that others have used.
• Take a head-bath every day, but not at night without special reason: at night only at the time of an eclipse, when a relative has died, or when the moon enters one’s birth-nakshatra.
• “Rākshasa-rāja, do not touch one who has oiled his head. Right after a head-bath, do not shake out the hair. Do not wipe the body at once with the cloth just taken off, or with the hand.”

Where to live

One should make one’s home in a country under good rule, in a community that lives in unity, among people who love justice, where hard-working farmers till the land and there is plenty of every kind of grain. A wise man should not live where the king is weak and punishes the people, or where the people live in enmity with one another and are sunk in revelry. “Sukeśī,” the ṛshis said, “do not forget these things.”

The teaching continued

In Chapter 15 the ṛshis went on with the same teaching: what may be eaten and what must be given up, the purification of things, ground, food and vessels, touch and purification, those from whom food is not taken, āśauca (impurity at birth and death) and the rites for the dead, and the life of the gṛhastha, the vānaprastha and the sannyāsī. Among these they said that the wise man does not stay in gardens at unfit times, does not speak with a man who hates people, and does not talk idly with widows and with women.

A man who lives with his wife and children in this good conduct gathers dharma, artha and kāma, and gains happiness in this world and afterwards in paraloka (the world beyond). Thus taught by the ṛshis, Sukeśī bowed to them and, turning their teaching over in his mind again and again, went back to his city by the path of the sky.

Sadācāra as the thirteenth limb of dharma

Back in his city, Sukeśī gathered all his rākshasas who were devoted to dharma. “I have heard from the munis the form of dharma, ancient and auspicious,” he said, “and I command you all to practise it without hesitation.” He named its thirteen parts: ahiṃsā (non-violence), satya (truth), asteya (not stealing), brahmacarya, amānitva (freedom from pride), śauca (purity), restraint of the senses, dāna (giving), dayā (compassion), kshānti (patience), auspicious and sweet speech, constant eagerness in doing good deeds, and, completing the thirteen, sadācaraṇa, good conduct. “These give the higher worlds,” he said.

The rākshasas kept this thirteen-limbed dharma with great steadfastness and joy, and by its power they grew in sons and grandsons, in strength and in wealth. The light of the dharma they earned stopped the coming and going of the Sun, the Moon and the stars; their sky-city shone like the Moon by day and like the Sun by night. Bhagavān Sūrya, the knower of yoga, saw the radiance and the rise of the rākshasas and considered its cause. He found that they were all endowed with sadācāra, devoted to the devas and the brāhmaṇas, and attached to dharma, and that this was the cause of their rise. He understood that falling from the path of dharma was the one way to root them out. Then, with his fiery eyes, he flooded the rākshasa city with his glance, and it fell from the sky like a graha whose puṇya is spent, until Bhagavān Śiva heard Sukeśī’s cry (Chapter 16).

Per Bhāgavata Purāṇa

The seventh Skandha closes with the chapter it names the setting out of sadācāra. Śuka tells Parīkshit how Nārada Maharshi, ending his teaching to Yudhishṭhira on the dharma of the varṇas and āśramas, gave him the conduct of the gṛhastha, the inner discipline of yoga, the two paths after death and the three advaitas.

Giving in śrāddha and deva-pūjā

Among the knowers of the Veda, Nārada said, some are steadfast in karma, some in tapas, some in reciting the Veda, some in teaching it, some in ātma-jñāna and some in meditation on Bhagavān Vishṇu. One who wants endless fruit from śrāddha and deva-pūjā should give the kavya (what is offered to the pitṛs) and the havya (what is offered to Īśvara) to one steadfast in jñāna; if no such person is found, to others by their fitness. However wealthy one may be, in a śrāddha one should feed two in the place of the Viśvedevas and three in the place of the pitṛs, or one in each place, and no more; for when the śrāddha is made elaborate and relatives are gathered and fed, the śraddhā fitting to the place and time is lost, and the materials, the fitness of those who eat and the honour given to them all suffer. Even rice cooked from wild grain, first offered to Śrī Hari and then given with śraddhā to a worthy person at a fitting place and time, fulfils the giver’s desires and leads to moksha. The sādhaka should share food among the devatās, the maharshis, the pitṛs, other beings, himself and his own people, seeing all of them as forms of Parameśvara.

No meat in śrāddha; ahiṃsā the highest dharma

One who knows dharma should not serve meat in a śrāddha, nor eat it himself. The pitṛs are greatly pleased by the wild-rice food of the munis, and no such pleasure comes to them from meat got by harming animals. Dharma is the very form of Parameśvara, and for those who seek dharma, giving up harm to other beings in mind, speech and body is the highest dharma. Some foremost knowers of yajña, discerning the eternal from the passing, offer the yajñas of karma into the fire of self-restraint kindled by jñāna. When beings see a man setting about a yajña made with material things, they are afraid, thinking: “This man has no compassion, does not know dharma, and seeks only to please his senses; he will surely kill me.” So the one who knows the secret of dharma should be content with the havis the munis eat, and perform daily the nitya karmas such as sandhyā-vandana and the naimittika karmas such as dāna.

The five branches of adharma

The knower of dharma should give up, as he would adharma itself, the five branches of the thorn tree of adharma:

• Vidharma: any act that harms one’s own dharma.
• Paradharma: what was laid down by another for another.
• Upama: conduct against the Veda, and ostentation.
• Chala (deceit): interpreting the words of the śāstra wrongly.
• Ābhāsa (a semblance of dharma): practices men invent as they please against the dharmas of the four āśramas.

The āśrama-dharma laid down according to a man’s own nature gives supreme peace to all.

Contentment

Even if poor, the sādhaka should not beg for wealth, whether to perform dharma or to live; for one without desires, his very desirelessness provides his livelihood, as the python lives on the creature that comes to it. The joy of the discerning one who rests content in his own svarūpa cannot be found by one who runs in every direction after enjoyment and wealth. To a foot that wears sandals gravel and thorns bring no pain; so to a mind that is always content every direction is full of happiness. A contented man can live happily even on water alone, while greed for enjoyment and the fickleness of the tongue make a man behave like a house dog. For a brāhmaṇa without contentment, radiance, learning, tapas and fame waste away, and his jñāna leaves him. Hunger and thirst end when they are satisfied, and anger ends when its work is done, but greed does not end even for one who conquers and enjoys the whole earth. Many learned paṇḍitas who preside over assemblies and remove the doubts of others still fall for lack of contentment.

How each fault is conquered

1. Desire, by giving up the imagining of objects of enjoyment.
2. Anger, by giving up desires.
3. Greed, by seeing that heaping up wealth ends only in calamity.
4. Fear, by examining the true state of things.
5. Grief and delusion, by discerning the ātmā from what is not the ātmā.
6. Hypocrisy, by serving mahātmās.
7. The obstacles that come to sādhanā when people gather and chatter, by mauna (silence).
8. Hiṃsā, by keeping the body and the senses still.
9. Sorrow from other beings, by showing compassion to those very beings.
10. Sorrow from prārabdha (past karma now bearing fruit), by steadfastness in the ātmā.
11. Sorrow of the body from illness, by the strength of yoga practice.
12. Excessive sleep, by food that increases sattva.
13. Rajas and tamas, by sattva; and sattva itself, by a tranquil mind.

All these faults a man conquers easily and surely by bhakti to the guru.

The guru is Bhagavān Śrī Hari himself

The guru who gives the lamp of jñāna is Bhagavān Śrī Hari himself. For one who thinks of the guru as an ordinary man, all his hearing of the śāstra is as useless as an elephant’s bath. Nārada pointed to Śrī Kṛshṇa: he is Bhagavān Śrī Hari himself, the master of prakṛti and of the jīvas, on whose feet the foremost yogīs meditate in their hearts, yet the world thinks of him as an ordinary man. So too the guru is Bhagavān Śrī Hari.

The purpose of the niyamas

The highest purpose of all the niyamas of the śāstra is to bring the group of six enemies under control: kāma, krodha, lobha, moha, mada and mātsarya (or, in a second reading the text also gives, the five senses of knowing and the mind). If, even then, the niyamas do not give dhāraṇā, dhyāna and samādhi on Bhagavān Vishṇu, they leave only fruitless toil. Farming and the like bear fruits that only keep saṃsāra going; so too the pūrta works (works for the people, such as digging tanks) and the ishṭa works (yajñas) of one of bad understanding only continue saṃsāra and do not lead to moksha.

The practice of dhyāna-yoga

One who sets out to conquer the mind should give up attachment and the heaping up of things, stay alone in a pure place, and as a bhikshu eat even his alms in moderation. He should spread his seat in a clean, level place, sit on it steady, at ease, with his body upright, and do japa of the Oṃkāra. Until the mind gives up its desires he should keep his gaze on the tip of his nose and do prāṇāyāma: pūraka, drawing the breath in fully; kumbhaka, holding it within and without; and recaka, letting it out fully. Wherever the wandering mind runs, he should slowly bring it back and fix it firmly in the heart. The mind of one who practises so without break soon grows tranquil, like a fire without fuel; when it no longer falls into the agitation of desire and anger and all its movements are stilled, it gains the touch of brahmānanda and never again turns outward.

Those who fall from their āśrama

The gṛhastha āśrama is the root of dharma, artha and kāma. A bhikshu who gives it up for sannyāsa and then shamelessly enjoys the same things eats his own vomit. Some first reflect that the body is not the ātmā, is mortal and will become filth, worms or ash, and then again take it as the ātmā and praise it. The brahmacārī who gives up his vow, the gṛhastha who gives up his nitya karmas, the vānaprastha who gives up tapas for sense-pleasure and the sannyāsī who falls to the pull of the senses are the lowest in their āśramas, only imitators of those who keep them, deluded by the māyā of Īśvara; they should be shown compassion and left alone. But the one whose inner self is purified by viveka knows his own svarūpa as Parabrahma; in him there is no sense of being the enjoyer, so for what would he be greedy, and for which enjoyer would he nourish the body?

The chariot of the body

The mahātmās say that the body, made by Īśvara, is the chariot; the senses are the horses; the mind, lord of the senses, is the reins; sound, touch, form, taste and smell are the roads; buddhi is the charioteer; and the inner self is the great binding rope. The ten movements of prāṇa form its axle: prāṇa (breathing), apāna (excretion), vyāna (the root of strong action), udāna (upward movement), samāna (digestion and the flow of blood), nāga (belching), kūrma (opening the eyes), kṛkala (hunger), devadatta (yawning) and dhanañjaya (the nourishing of the body). Dharma and adharma are its wheels; the jīva who says “I” and “mine” of the body is its owner; the Oṃkāra is the jīva’s bow, the jīva is the arrow, and Parabrahma is the target.

The sādhaka’s enemies are attachment, hatred, greed, grief, delusion, fear, pride, conceit, dishonour, finding fault in others’ virtues, deceit, hiṃsā, envy of others’ prosperity, obstinacy, forgetfulness, hunger, sleep and the like; most are of rajas and tamas, and some, such as love turned into attachment, are of sattva. While the chariot of the body is under his control, the sādhaka should serve the feet of the mahātmās, take Acyuta alone as his strength, sharpen the sword of viveka and with it conquer these inner enemies; then, content in the bliss of his own svarūpa, with his desires cooled, he should leave the body without regard for it. If he is careless, the wicked horses and the charioteer lead the chariot on the wrong road and throw it among the highway robbers, the sense-enjoyments, who cast owner, horses and charioteer into the dark well of saṃsāra, where the fear of death is great.

Pravṛtti and nivṛtti

The karma the Veda enjoins is of two kinds. Pravṛtti karma is done to fulfil desires, and by it one keeps wandering in saṃsāra; nivṛtti dharma is giving up desires and resting in the ātmā, and by it one gains moksha. Pravṛtti karma is of two kinds: ishṭa, the agnihotra, the darśa and pūrṇamāsa ishṭis of the new and full moon, the cāturmāsya, the paśu-yāga and soma-yāga and the like, which involve hiṃsā, need great materials and, driven by desire, bring unrest; and pūrta, the building of temples, rest-houses, wells, water-sheds for travellers and free food houses.

The Pitṛyāna and the Devayāna

The one devoted to pravṛtti, on dying, takes a subtle form made of the offerings he made, and goes by the Pitṛyāna, the path of the fathers, through the smoke of the homa, the night and the dark fortnight to Candraloka. When his puṇya is spent, that body wanes; in subtle form the jīva comes down with the rain into plants, stays in the grain, becomes a man’s food and his seed, and through a woman is born again. Those purified by the saṃskāras from garbhādhāna to the last rite follow these paths.

The one devoted to nivṛtti dissolves, in contemplation and step by step, the acts of yajña into the senses, the senses into the mind, the mind into speech, speech into the letters, the letters into Om, Om into the bindu, the bindu into the nāda, the nāda into the sūtrātmā, the prāṇa that pervades the world, and the sūtrātmā into Parabrahma. After death he reaches in order Agni, Sūrya, the day, the evening, the bright fortnight, the full moon, the uttarāyaṇa and the loka of Hiraṇyagarbha, where he enjoys its bhogas. Then he dissolves Viśva, the self of the gross body, into Taijasa of the subtle, and Taijasa into Prājña of the causal, and knowing as his own svarūpa the pure ātmā that is the ground of these three and beyond them, he gains moksha. The mahātmās call this the Devayāna; by it the sādhaka is not born again. One who knows these two paths, with the śāstra as his eye, is not deluded even while living in the body.

The ātmā is all

The jñānī himself is the ātmā, the undivided abode: the cause of bodies at the beginning and their resting place at the end, the object enjoyed outside and the enjoyer within; great and small, the knower and the known, name and form, darkness and light, all is the ātmā. A reflection is known by reason not to be real, yet appears real; so the difference perceived in the world is against reason, pramāṇa and experience, yet the undiscerning take it as real. The body and all things made of the five elements are mithyā, like a shadow; the elements themselves are made of the five tanmātras, and without the parts the whole does not exist, nor the parts without the whole. What is, is one alone; through ajñāna difference is seen in it, as in a dream one takes waking and sleep for true while the dream lasts; so the world, life in it, and the injunctions and prohibitions that direct that life are experienced as real during the time of ajñāna.

The three advaitas

The sādhaka who reflects on the three advaitas of the ātmā removes the three “dreams”, waking, dream and sleep (or knower, knowledge and known), and rests in the ātma-tattva beyond them:

1. Bhāvādvaita, the oneness of things: the difference of effect and cause, like cloth and thread, is only seen and not real; it dissolves into the principle that has no second.
2. Kriyādvaita, oneness in action: offering every act of mind, speech and body directly to Parabrahma.
3. Dravyādvaita, oneness in things: seeing no difference of “mine” and “another’s” in wealth and enjoyment between oneself, one’s wife, children and relatives, and all other beings.

The gṛhastha reaches Īśvara

Whatever thing, got by whatever means and from wherever, is not forbidden to a man at that place and time, with that alone he should do his work, and except in calamity he should not go near what is forbidden. The man who, doing these and the other karmas the Veda enjoins on him, worships Bhagavān Vishṇu with bhakti, reaches the svarūpa of Īśvara, moksha, even while remaining a gṛhastha.

Nārada’s own birth and the close of the teaching

Nārada told Yudhishṭhira that the Pāṇḍavas had crossed heaps of calamities that even kings and devatās could not escape, because of their master Śrī Kṛshṇa; serving his lotus feet, they had conquered the earth and performed many yajñas. Then he told of his own past. In the past mahā-kalpa he was a gandharva named Upabarhaṇa, great among the gandharvas, beautiful, sweet of speech, dear to women, attached to enjoyment and proud. When the Prajāpatis invited the gandharvas and apsarases to sing the accounts of Śrī Hari at a satra-yāga of the devatās, he came surrounded by women, singing songs of pleasure. Seeing this disrespect, the Prajāpatis pronounced a śāpa that he would at once lose all his splendour and become a śūdra. He was born the son of a serving woman, served the knowers of Brahman in that birth, and by the power of that service was born in the next as the son of Brahmā.

“I have told you the dharma of the gṛhastha,” Nārada said. “It destroys pāpas, and gṛhasthas who follow it easily reach the goal that sannyāsīs reach. You are greatly fortunate: the hidden Parabrahma lives in your house in human form, and so the maharshis who purify the world keep coming to it. That Parabrahma, the bliss the mahātmās seek, is Śrī Kṛshṇa, who gives you love and welfare: not only your maternal uncle’s son but your very life and your guru, who even follows your command. His svarūpa not even Rudra and Brahmā could describe; he is to be worshipped with bhakti, in silence, giving up all desires. May he be gracious to us!”

Śuka tells Parīkshit that Yudhishṭhira, overjoyed, worshipped both Nārada and Śrī Kṛshṇa in the overflow of his love; Nārada took leave of them and went away; and Yudhishṭhira was filled with wonder to hear that Śrī Kṛshṇa is Parabrahma.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 15

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 221
• Vishṇu Purāṇa, Tṛtīyāṃśa (Part Three), Chapters 8–12 and 16–18
• Vishṇu Purāṇa, Tṛtīyāṃśa, Chapter 8
• Vishṇu Purāṇa, Tṛtīyāṃśa, Chapter 17
• Vishṇu Purāṇa, Tṛtīyāṃśa, Chapters 17–18
• Śiva Purāṇa, Vidyeśvara Saṃhitā, Chapter 15
• Nārada Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 84
• Nārada Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 85
• Nārada Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 86
• Nārada Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 87
• Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, Chapters 31–32
• Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 155, 238
• Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapters 1, 3, 5–7, 41–42, 171–172; Uttara Parva, Chapters 205, 207
• Skanda Purāṇa, Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 35
• Skanda Purāṇa, Kāśī Khaṇḍa, Chapter 36
• Skanda Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Dharmāraṇya Khaṇḍa, Pūrvārdha (first half), Chapter 5
• Garuḍa Purāṇa, Ācāra Khaṇḍa, Chapters 213–214
• Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Uttarārdha (Dvitīya Khaṇḍa), Chapter 88 (Prātaḥkṛtya)
• Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Uttarārdha (Dvitīya Khaṇḍa), Chapter 89 (Ācāra-kathanam)
• Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Uttarārdha (Dvitīya Khaṇḍa), Chapter 93 (Bhojana-vidhi)
• Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Uttarārdha (Dvitīya Khaṇḍa), Chapter 94 (Ācāra-kathanam II)
• Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 14–16
• Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 15