107 - Teachings of Parashara

Suta said: 

1. Parashara1 narrated to Vyasa the various duties of the different castes and stages in life. At the end of every Kalpa there is dissolution and a new creation. But the unborn god does not perish.

1. Parashara is known as the author of some hymns in the Rugveda, He is also said to have taught Vishnu Purana, According to the statement of the Mahabharata, he is known as the father of Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa. His writing on Dharma are often quoted in Hindu law-tats.

2. Shrutis (Vedas), Smrutis and the conduct of the good not repugnant to the Vedas (are to be followed by all). At first Brahma remembered the Vedas (and taught Manu and others). Manu and others propagated Dharma through their Smrutis, 

3. In the Kali age charity is the main virtue. Other virtues are likely to forsake the doer. Sinful deeds are perpetrated only in the Kali age. A curse uttered bears fruit in a year.

4. By strictly adhering to the performance of six rites every day man obtains everything. They are-taking bath, sandhya prayers, recital of mantras, homas, worship of gods and hospitality to guests. 

5. Brahmins observing all rites properly will be rare then (in the Kali age); sages will be rare, A kshatriya shall conquer the enemie's army and protect the earth. Business transactions and agriculture shall be the duties of Vaishyas and devotion to the twice-born that of the Shudras. 

6. By eating forbidden food, by stealing, and by approaching unworthy women a man becomes degraded. A twice-born engaged in cultivation shall not employ tired bullocks in ploughing, 

7. Upto midday one shall be engaged in religious rites such as bathing, yogic rites and then feed brahmins. The five sacrifices shall be performed. The cruel shall be treated with contempt. 

8. A brahmin shall not sell gingelly seeds and clarified butter. He shall become sinful if sunayajna is performed. A man engaged in agriculture shall not be sullied if he gives a sixth of the produce to the king, one-twentieth to the gods and one-thirty third to the brahmins. 

9. A kshatriya, a Vaishya and a Shudra engaged in agriculture shall be considered a thief if he does not give the tax mentioned before. A pure brahmin shall be cleansed of the impurity of death in three days. 

10. A kshatriya becomes pure in ten days, a vaishya in twelve days and a Shudra in a month. If proper rites are not maintained a brahmin shall become pure in ten days and a kshatriya in twelve days. 

11. A vaishya shall be pure in fifteen days and a shudra in a month. Some kinsmen living separately have a single rice-ball in common. 

12. In the event of birth and death such kinsmen shall observe inpurity. If the kinsmen are removed to the fourth degree the impurity lasts for ten days; if they are of the fifth remove the impurity is for six days. 

13. If they are removed to the sixth degree the impurity i for four days; if they are of the seventh remove the impurity is for three days. If a person dies in a foreign land or if an ascetic dies, there is no impurity. 

14-15. No cremation, no offering of rice-ball and no offering of water for children dying before cutting teeth or still born. In regard to still-birth and abortion the impurity is for as many days as the number of months of pregnancy. 

16. If the child dies before the naming ceremony, there is no impurity; if it dies before the rite of first cutting of the forelock, the impurity is for one day and night; if he dies before the holy rite of investiture with the sacred thread, the impurity is for three days, beyond that the impurity is for ten days only. 

17. Abortion usually occurs within four months and miscarriage and still births in the fifth and sixth months. No impurity in case these are observed strictly-celibacy rites in fire and abstention from evil association. 

18. Artisans, craftsmen, physicians, servants, a Vedic scholar maintaining holy fire, the king-all these are of immediate purity (i.e., no impurity is observed on their death). 

19. After the birth of a child the mother becomes pure after ten days and the father by taking bath. The impurity due to birth is removed by touching water, 

20. In the rites of marriage, festivals and sacrifices, interrupted by the impurity of death or birth, all further rites shall be given up except what had been already undertaken. 

21. If a child dies within the period of impurity, both the impurities cease with the former. If anyone dies in a cowshed the impurity is only for a day. 

22. By carrying the corpse of an unknown person the impurity incurred is very little and that very little is removed by Pranayama. If the dead man is a Shudra, the impurity is for three nights. 

23. No purificatory rite is necessary in case the death is due to self-immolation, poison, hanging or insect bite. The man who touches a person killed by a cow or bitten by an insect becomes pure by means of krucchravrata. 

24. If a person forsakes an undefiled undegraded wife in the prime of her youth he shall be born as a woman in seven successive births and suffer widowhood over and over again. 

25. If a man does not cohabit with his wife after the fourth day from menstruation he shall incur the sin of infanticide. A woman not allowing her husband to have intercourse during those days shall be born as a sow. Unworthy women though they perform Vratas have no right for a rice-ball or water-offerings. 

26. The son legitimately born or after Niyoga1 in one's wife through another, shall offer a rice-ball to the legal father. A person committing the minor sin of Parivedana2 shall perform Krucchra and the girl who marries him too shall perform Krucchra.

1. This term is used to denote the legally permitted intercourse of a married woman to obtain a son with a male other than her husband, generally her brother-in-law i.e., her husband's younger brother. 

2. The act of one's marrying before one's elder brother. CSL, p. 445.

27. The man who gives his daughter in a Parivedana marriage and the priest who officiates in the same shall perform Atikrucchra and Chandrayana respectively. If the elder brother is dwarfish, hunch-backed, stammerer, idiotic, blind, deaf or dumb, Parivedana is no offence at all. 

28. If the husband is untraceable, dead, or has renounced the world or is impotent or degraded-in these cases of emergency a woman can remarry. 

29. A wife who dies in the company of her husband shall remain in heaven as many years as there are hairs on his person. 

30. If a person is bit by a dog he shall become pure by reciting Gayatri mantra. A brahmin killed by a chandala or others shall be created with ordinary fire. If he has maintained sacrificial fires his corpse shall be bathed in milk and cremated with those sacred fires with mantras. 

31-35. If a man dies in a foreign land the obsequies are done as follows On a deer skin six hundred Palasha twigs are spread making the contours of a human body. A Shami twig is placed in the spot where penis should be, the Arani wood is placed in the spot of scrotum; a pot is placed at the right hand and a sacrificial pitcher at the left; mortar at the sides, a threshing rod at the back, the sacrificial slab at the thighs, rice grains, ghee and gingelly seeds in the mouth, the vessel of holy water at the ears and the vessel for ghee at the eyes; small bits of gold shall be dropped into the cars, eyes, mouth and nostrils. An effigy of the man made of kusha grass is placed over this and burnt. The Ahuti is offered with the mantra Asau svargaya lokaya svaha slowly once. Since all the requisites of an Agnihotra are used he will surely attain Brahmaloka. 

36. A person who kills Swans, Sarasas, Kraunchas, Chakravakas, hens, peacocks and sheep become pure in a day and night. 

37. The killer of any bird becomes pure in a day and night. After killing quadrupeds, one shall observe fast for a day and night and perform Japa. 

38. After killing a Shudra, the rite of Krucchra shall be performed; if a vaishya is killed Atikrucchra shall be performed. If a kshatriya is killed Chandrayana shall be performed twenty times and if a brahmin is killed it is performed thirty times.