Kodāt Mantra
Kodāt Mantra
The Kodāt mantra is the Vedic mantra beginning ko’dāt that the brāhmaṇas recite when they receive a house in the Gṛha-dāna, the gift of a house. Śrī Kṛshṇa teaches this dāna to Yudhishṭhira in the Uttara Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa. The text names the mantra by its first word.
The setting
Śrī Kṛshṇa says there is no dāna greater than the gift of a house, for as all beings live by the shelter of the mother, so all āśramas rest on the gṛhastha āśrama. A strong house of baked brick, tall and white, with windows, pillars, a courtyard, a water body and a flower garden, is filled with all a householder needs: vessels, cloth, cattle, grains, salt, spices, hearth, grindstone, mortar and pestle, winnowing basket, churn, broom and water pot. Learned brāhmaṇas with their wives are invited and honoured, a graha-yāga is performed, the Rakshoghna Sūkta is recited, vāstu-pūjā is done and bhūtabali offered. The yajamāna leads the brāhmaṇas into the houses with holy chant and seats them with their wives.
The mantra
Each house is given to its brāhmaṇa with the words idaṃ gṛhaṃ gṛhāṇa, “receive this house”. The brāhmaṇas say svasti and recite the mantra ko’dāt.
The phala
Śrī Kṛshṇa says that when even a grass hut given to brāhmaṇas, sheltering them from cold, wind and sun, fulfils all desires and gains svarga, the fruit of giving a fine house cannot be told. Gifts of cows, land and gold do not equal a sixteenth part of it, and one who gives a strong house with all its equipment to a brāhmaṇa reaches Śivaloka.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 168
Sources
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 168