16 - అగ్నిపూజన విధి

బ్రాహ్మణోత్తములారా! చేతిలో రక్తకర్ణపుష్పాలను పట్టుకొని ఈ మంత్రం చదివి అగ్నిదేవుని అర్చించాలి.

ఇష్టంశక్తి స్వస్తికా భీతిముచ్చ్యైః

దీర్ఘైః దోర్భిర్ధరియంతం వరాంతం

హేమాకల్పం పద్మసంస్థంత్రినేత్రం

ధ్యాయేద్ వహ్నిం బద్ధమౌళిం జటాభిః (7) (మధ్యమపర్వం 1/16/3)

Summary of the chapter Bhadra Narrative and the Fruits of Lamp Donation▾

Summary of chapter 118 of the Bhavishya Mahā Purana is as follows:

The story of Bhadra — a devotee of Sūrya who, despite great poverty, offered a single earthen lamp to the sun-god's image on every saptamī throughout her life — is narrated here. The fruit of her continuous lamp-offering was not visible in this life: she remained poor. But after death, she was received in Sūrya-loka, where she experienced divine pleasures for thousands of years. She was then reborn as a queen of extraordinary beauty and wealth. The chapter uses Bhadra's story to teach that the fruits of Sūrya worship may sometimes manifest in the next life rather than this one — and that this is not a failure of the vrata but rather the larger time-scale on which divine grace sometimes chooses to express itself.