159 - The merits of the offer of libation and the performance of good deeds

Pushkara said:

1. One would reach hcaven whether the cremation is done or not done if Lord Vishnu is remembered. The dead gets redemption if the bones are immersed in the waters of the Ganges.

2-4. One remains in heaven till (the period) his bones remain in the waters of the Ganges. No cremation (is laid down) for those committing suicide and those fallen (from righteous living). Even for them it is beneficial to drop their bones in the waters of the Ganges. The waters and food offered for them would be absorbed in the sky. The (rite of) Nārāyaṇabali¹should be done with great compassion for the dead fallen (from righteousness). Hence, that person would enjoy favour.

1. A particular funeral cercmony.

5. The lotus-eyed (Vishņu) is without decay. That which is offered there will not perish. Lord Janārdana (Vishņu) is the vessel because that protects from falling.

6. It is certain that (Lord) Hari (Vishņu) is the only (god) who confers enjoyment, emancipation etc. for the fallen. Seeing the people dying oneshould do the helpful righteous deeds.

7. Even after the death (of a person), the relatives would not be able to follow the dead person. The path of death is different for all others except the wife.

8-15. Only the deeds accompany one wherever one may go. Oneshould do today the work of tomorrow and in the forenoon that of the afternoon. The death does not wait to see whether (the work) has been done or not done. One who is attached to the plot, market and house and has his mind drawn towards something else, death takes him and goes away like theshe-wolf seizes the ram. No one is dear, nor one is an enemy of time. When the life (period) and one's work are over, (it) endures and takes away the people. Even if pierced with hundred arrows one does not die at the inopportune time. One does not live if the destined time has come even if he has been touched only by the tip of kusa (grass). Medicines and sacred syllables and others cannot save one who is destined to die. Certainly one's past actions find the doer like (the cow finding its) calf. That which precedes one's birth and that which succeeds one's death is not explicit. Only that which is in between is explicit in this world. Just as we have the boyhood etc. for the body, so also another body is got. Just as the body wears another new dress, so also the soul (gets another body). (The soul) is always indestructible. Hence oneshould discard grief.

Summary of chapter 159 of the Agni Purāṇa is as follows:

Āśauca pertaining to persons who have not undergone the proper saṃskāras (especially upanayana) is discussed. Agni states that a person who has not been duly initiated lives in a permanent state of subtle ritual incompleteness, and that deaths in such families generate āśauca of different character from that of fully saṃskṛta families. The conditions under which formal saṃskāras can still be retroactively performed—with modified procedure and reduced validity—are described. The chapter reinforces the Purāṇic position that saṃskāras are not mere social ceremonies but transformative spiritual events whose absence has real ritual consequences.