CHAPTER VII.

Babhruvahana's Sacrament for the Departed One.

1. Suta said: Having heard this, Garuda, trembling like a leaf of the holy fig-tree, again questioned Kes'ava for the benefit of men.

2. Garuda said: Tell me by what means men who have committed sins unknowingly or knowingly escape from the torments of the servants of Yama.

3-4. For those men who are immersed in the ocean of transmigration, of weak intelligence, their reason clouded by sin, their self dimmed by attachment to sense-objects--

For their uplifting tell me, O Lord, the exact meaning of the Puranas; and the means by which people attain a happy condition, O Madhava.

5. The Blessed Lord said: O Tarksya, you have done well in asking for the benefit of men, Listen attentively, and I will tell you all.

6. Hard indeed, as already said, is the fate of the sinful and those without sons; but never so, O Lord of Birds, that of those who have sons and who are righteous,

7. If by any past action of his the birth of a son has been prevented, then some means should be taken for obtaining a son.

8. Having listened to the Harivans'a, or performed the S'atachandi, or worshipped the Blessed S'iva with devotion, the intelligent should beget a son.

9. The son saves his father from the hell called Put; therefore he was named "putra" by the Self-existent himself.

10. Even a single son, if righteous, carries the whole family over. 'By the son he conquers the worlds,' is the ancient saying.

11. The Vedas also proclaim the great importance of the son. Accordingly, having seen the face of a son, one is released from the debt to the forefathers.

12. By the touch of his grandson a mortal is released from the three-fold debt. With the help of sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons he goes from the worlds and obtains heaven.

13. The son of a Brahma marriage uplifts, but the illegitimate drags down. Knowing this, O Best of Birds, one should avoid a woman of lower caste.

14. Sons having father and mother of the same caste are legitimate, O Bird. They alone, by making S'raddha-gifts are the means of their fathers' attaining heaven.

15. Need I say one attains heaven by means of the S'raddha performed by a son, when a Departed One went to heaven even when it was offered by another. Now listen.

16. Concerning this I will give you, from ancient history, an example of the efficacy of gifts for the higher body.

17-19. Formerly, in the Treta age, Tarksya, there reigned over the delightful city of Mahodaya a king named Babhruvahana, who was very powerful, and firm in righteousness,

A sacrificer, Lord of Gifts, prosperous, a lover of Brahmans, valuing the good, endowed with good character and of good conduct, compassionate, skilled,