36 - On fast and pilgrimage

Garuda said: 

1-4. Why is the site of fasting considered holy and the bestower of salvation? What is the goal attained by a person who had left his house and died in a holy centre? What is it if he died before reaching the holy centre? What is it if he died in the house itself? What is it if he died in a cottage (as a Vänaprastha) or if he took to Sannyåsa either in the holy centre or in the house. How shall the rites be performed in such cases? What is the procedure if he does not die a proper death? O lord, what are the rules if the performer wavers and does not stand on his resolve? What are the rites which enable him to achieve realization?

 The lord said: 

5. If any one observes the rite of fasting and dies he will cast off his human form and become equal in lustre to me. 

6. He will have the benefit of performing as many sacrifices, complete with due fees as the number of days he was able to live observing the rite of fasting. 

7. If such a death takes place after taking to Sannyasa whether in the holy centre or elsewhere the benefit accruing from the same is twice that of the previous one. 

8. If a person suffering from an incurable disease such as plague etc. observes fast and dies he has no rebirth. He rejoices in heaven like a deity. 

9. If a sick man takes to Sannyasa he is released from the cycle of rebirth in this world of sorrows and afflictions. 

10. Brahmins should be fed everyday. Gifts of a vessel full of gingelly seeds or gifts of lamps according to his capacity should be made. Gods should also be worshipped. 

11. If gifts are made in favour of the dead, his major and minor sins are washed away. On death, he attains immortality on par with sages. 

12. Hence, observance of fast enables men to attain heaven. Man should strive for salvation when his body is in perfect health. 

13. The deities Brahma and others bestow contentment and nourishment on the man who forsakes his sons, wealth and goes to a holy centre. 

14. If a person dies after observing the fast on reaching the holy centre or on the way, he goes to the sphere of sages. 

15. If a person dies at home after observing the fast he alone will sojourn in heaven leaving the members of his family. 

16. If a person casts off food and water and drinks only the water from my feet he is not reborn on the earth. 

17. The family deities protect the man who goes to a holy centre and abstains from food. The emissaries of Yama guard him. No torture at the hands of Yama's attendants is in store for him. 

18. A person who makes frequent pilgrimages to holy centres can destroy sins. The person who cremates him, if he dies, enjoys thc benefit of making the pilgrimage. 

19. A frequent visitor to holy centres, even if he dies outside the holy centre, is reborn as an intelligent Brahmin well-versed in the Vedas at a holy place and in a noble family. 

20. If a man observing fast, О Tärkşhya, survives it he should invite bråhmaņas and gift away his possessions. 

21. Following the instructions of brahmins he should observe Chandrayana and Kṛucchra. He should never tell a lie thereafter. He shall practise virtuous actions. 

22. When a person returns to his own house after making pilgrimage to the holy centre he should take the permission of pious brahmins and perform expiatory rites. 

23. If a person is able to make pilgrimage to holy centres at the stage of death after previously making gifts of gold, cow, land, elephant and horses, he is the most fortunate of all. 

24. A person starting on a pilgrimage when death is imminent should make gifts of cows at every step if the act is not involved in violence. 

25. The sin committed at home is washed off by oblutions in holy waters, while the sin committed at the holy centre becomes adamantine and is never washed off at all. 

26. There is no doubt in this that he will be distressed for ever by those sins as long as the sun, the moon and the stars shine. O bird, the gifts made therein are of everlasting benefit. 

27. Even indigent persons when sick should make gifts. Such gifts should consist of a cow, gingelly seeds, gold and of seven grains. 

28. On seeing a person making liberal gifts, the deities, sages and Chitragupta are excessively delighted. 

29. So long as one is in free possession of one's wealth, one should make it over to the brahmaņas. After death, the entire wealth goes to others. Who will not therefore have the grace to give? 

30. By offering gifts of wealth to brāhmaṇas, the sons in fact, prepare for their salvation along with sons, grandsons and great grandsons. 

31. What is given to father will be requited a hundred fold; to mother a thousandfold; to a sister a hundred thousand fold and to a brother manyfold. 

32. If, out of covetousness, a person does not give any thing during sickness, that miserly sinner will indeed repent after death. 

33. Wealth is acquired with strain and stress. It is naturally unsteady. The only solution is in being gifted to others. Otherwise there awaits only disaster. 

34. Just as an unchaste wife laughs at her husband who fondles the son too much, as also death laughs at a person who makes fuss about protecting himself, and the earth laughs at a person who guards too much his wealth. 

35-36. A virtuous man of liberal temperament and gentleness, even after acquiring a lot of wealth, considers it to be as useless as a blade of grass. He feels no torment, no delusion and no fear of the emissaries of Yama at the hour of death. 

37. The after-effects of death in water last for seven thousand years; those of death in fire for eleven thousand years; those of death in scorching sun for sixteen thousand years; those of death in a battle for sixty thousand years; those of death in thwarting the seizure of cow for eighty thousand years, and O Bharata, those of death in fasting are everlasting.