The Vishnu Purana: Book III: Chapter XIV | Internet Sacred Text Archive

CHAP. XIV.

Of occasional Śráddhas, or obsequial ceremonies: when most efficacious, and at what places.

AURVA proceeded.--"Let the devout performer of an ancestral oblation propitiate Brahmá, Indra, Rudra, the Áświns, the sun, fire, the

[paragraph continues] Vasus, the winds, the Viśwadevas, the sages, birds, men, animals, reptiles, progenitors, and all existent things, by offering adoration to them

monthly, on the fifteenth day of the moon's wane (or dark fortnight), or on the eighth day of the same period in certain months, or at particular seasons, as I will explain.

"When a householder finds that any circumstance has occurred, or a distinguished guest has arrived, on which account ancestral ceremonies are appropriate, the should celebrate them. He should offer a voluntary sacrifice upon any atmospheric portent, at the equinoctial and solstitial periods, at eclipses of the sun and moon, on the sun's entrance into a zodiacal sign, upon unpropitious aspects of the planets and asterisms, on dreaming unlucky dreams, and on eating the grain of the year's harvest. The Pitris 1 derive satisfaction for eight years from ancestral offerings upon the day of new moon when the star of the conjunction 2 is Anurádhá, Viśákhá, or Swáti; and for twelve years when it is Pushya, Ardrá, or Punarvasu. It is not easy for a man to effect his object, who is desirous of worshipping the Pitris or the gods on a day of new moon when the stars are those of Dhanisht́há, Purvabhádrapadá, or Śatábhishá. Hear also an account of another class of Sráddhas, which afford especial contentment to progenitors, as explained by Sanatkumára, the son of Brahmá, to the magnanimous Purúravas, when full of faith and devotion to the Pitris he inquired how he might please them. The third lunar day of the month Vaiśákha (April, May), and the ninth of Kártika