25 - On sons and grandsons

The lord said: 

1-2. Hereafter, I shall explain precisely certain factors concerning men and women. A child after the age of five is established as such. He is able to know the various sense organs and differentiate colours. 

3. Death or bondage of living beings is a result of their previous actions. It is the sin that causes death. 

4. If there is miscarriage, there is no obsequial rite. Milk is distributed when infants die. Duc to mishaps to children, if death occurs, water-pots, milk puddings etc. are made over as gifts. 

5. The rites in the event of the death of a child are the same as for the older people except that the rites of Vrushotsarga and Mahadana are performed for the older people on the eleventh and twelfth days. 

6. Infants and older children of the neighbourhood are fed and clothed. Water-pots are gifted whether the deceased is a boy, young man or old. 

7. Till the second year, the dead body is merely buried. Thereafter, O foremost among birds, the body is cremated.

8. A child is called infant till the teeth are cut; till the tonsure1 ceremony he is called a child; a boy till the kusha girdle is put. This is in accordance with all sacred texts.2

1. Tonsure ceremony wherein the boy's head is shaved and only a single lock on the crown of the lead is left. The ceremony is performed either in the first or in the third year. Cf. Manu 2.3.5. 

2. Maunji—The girdle of a brahmana made of a triple string of Munja grass. Cf. Ms. 2. 42.

9-10. From the time of conception till he is sixteen months old he is called infant; from sixteen months to twenty-seven he is called a boy; from twenty-seven months to five years, he is called Kumara; from five to nine years, he is called Pauganda.3 He is known as Kishora till the sixteenth year. After the sixteenth year he attains maturity.

3. Pauganda-- According to SSED the boy from the fifth to the sixteenth year is called pauganda.

11. A boy's death occurring at the fifth year whether normally or due to accident, all rites as mentioned above, should be carried out including the ten pindas. 

12. Since the rites are not many, since contact with the worldly objects is of short duration and since body too is of small stature, the obsequies also are not elaborate.

13. If a child dies before the fifth year, the articles of diet and daily necessaries to which it is accustomed can be made over as gifts. 

14-15. Sons evolved out of the semen of brahmins are favourites of Divine sages. In the same way, whether they are in the age group of children, young men or old men, both Yama and his emissaries too certainly consider. The all-pervasive soul experiences both pleasure and pain. 

16-17. Forsaking the body like the serpent casting off its slough, the subtle soul of the size of the thumb1 roams about in its aerial form oppressed by hunger.

1. The personal soul is of the size of a thumb, Cf. Mahabharata, Satyavati akhyana where Yama is stated to have forcibly dragged the thumb sized soul out of the body of Satvavan:

18. Therefore, certainly, gifts should be made. From the birth to the fifth year, uncooked things should be gifted to the Brahmana. 

19. If there is accidental death after the fifth year, Vrushotsarga and other rites are performed but the rite of sapindikarana is not necessary. 

20. It is on the eleventh day that sons usually perform the sixteen shraddhas and make the Udakumbha and other similar gifts. 

21. In the case of all persons beyond the age of five at death brahmins should be fed and major gifts offered according to capacity. The gift of earthen lamp should also be made. 

22. O foremost among birds, ghosts should be propitiated by due performance of rites. If the person does not perform the rite he himself will become a ghost. 

23-24. Therefore, before other rites are accomplished, he should perform ekoddishta2 for the mane for appeasing his hunger, put the rice-ball over darbhas while wearing the sacred thread over the right shoulder. When this is done, the obsequial rites are completed.

2. Ekoddishta-a Shraddha or funeral rite performed for one definite individual deceased not including other ancestors. Cp. Mitakshara on the Yajnavalkya Smruti:

25. Thereby a son yields all pleasure to his parents. If dead early he is born again in the family. 

26-28. Just as the same single sky, moon or sun are reflected in different water-pots, so also the Atman is reflected in different sons (and daughters) and roams about.

The mentality of the progenitor at the time of sexual intercourse when the semen and the menstrual blood mingle is reflected in the child born of that union. Hence, we can say that the boy takes after the father. 

29-30. It is possible that the child may differ in qualities but not in features. We have never seen a blind man procreating a blind child, a mute procreating a mute child, a deaf procreating a deaf child or an idiot procreating an idiot.

Garuda said: 

31-32. There are ten kinds of sons1: Aurasa (legitimate) Kshetraja (procreated in one's wife by another man) and others. There is a son Sangruhitru (adopted) or Dasiputra (son of a slave girl). How do these sons perform rites for their fathers? What is the goal they attain? If anyone has only daughters and no son or grandson, who should perform shraddha rites for him? What are the rules regarding the same?

1. Manu, however enumerates twelve kinds of sons grouped into two divisions, viz. six gotriyas and six agotriyas. To the former belong Aurasa, Kshetraja, Dattaka, Kruttrima Gudhotpanna and Apaviddha. "To the latter belong Kanina, Sahodha, krita, Paunarbhava, Svayamdatta and Shaudra. Ms. IX, 158-160.

The lord said: 

33. A man is released from his debt to the manes on seeing his son's face.2

2. Vide footnote 2, p 844.

3.1. A man is released from three types of debts on seeing his grandson3 On seeing his son, grandson, and great grandson he attains eternal or celestial worlds.

3. Everyone who is born has three debts to pay off: to sages, gods and manes. He who learns the Vedas, offers Sacrifices to gods and begets a son becomes free from the three debts.

35. The Kshetraja and other sons contribute to his worldly welfare. The Aurasa (legitimate) son performs Parvana duly. 

36. The other nine1 types of son perform Ekoddishta Shraddha, not Parvana2. The brahmin son takes one upward but the adopted son causes his down-fall. If the latter were to perform the annual shraddha it will result only in his falling into hell.

1. nine types of sons. Footnote 1, p. 818. 

2. Parvana- the general ceremony of offering oblations to the Manes on the fourteenth day of each half month and the days of the full and new moon.

37. O bird, the Sangruhitru son may very well make gifts excluding cooked food-stuff. He shall perform only Ekoddishta and not Parvana. 

38-41. If le proceeds, in this manner, every year, there is no harm. If he forsakes Ekoddishta and performs Parvana he makes himself and the manes victims of Yama's wrath. The Sangruhitru, Dasiputra and other sons should perform shraddha with uncooked foodstuff in holy centres. If the Sangruhitru son perforins shraddha with cooked rice his shraddha becomes fruitless like the food offered by a Shudra to a brahmin. The grandfather and the other manes do not accept anything offered by him. O foremost among birds, knowing all these things, one shall avoid procreating sons in lower caste women.3

3. lower caste woman-Women of Shudra caste.

42-43. Apravrajita4 and a Shudra procreating sons even in brahmin women procreate only Chandalas. O lord of birds, one shall marry legitimately a woman of his own caste and procreate sons.

4. apravrajita --One who has not renounced the world.

44. If they are of good nature he will be happy. If they are of bad nature he will go to hell. Even sons of lower caste people, if good-natured, cause happiness. 

45. A single son, free from the sins of Kali is honoured by the siddhas and fanned by celestial damsels with divine chowries. He will be able to lift hundreds of manes, kinsmen, sons, grandsons and great-grandsons fallen into the abysmal depths of Inferno.