Chapter 128

“Vayu said, ‘I shall recite some duties the observance of which isfraught with happiness to mankind. Do ye listen also with concentratedattention to certain transgressions with the secret causes upon whichthey depend. That man who offers for the four months of the rainy seasonsesame and water (unto the Pitris), and food, according to the best ofhis power, unto a Brahmana well-conversant with the duties, who dulypours libations on the sacred fire, and makes offerings of rice boiled insugared milk, who gives lamps in honour of the Pitris, with sesame andwater,–verily he who does all this with faith and concentrated attentionacquires all the merits that attach to a hundred sacrifices in whichanimals are offered to the deities. Listen to this other high mysterythat is unknown to all. That man who thinks it all right when a Sudraignites the fire upon which he is to pour libations or who does not seeany fault when women who are incompetent to assist at Sraddhas and otherrites are allowed to assist at them, really becomes stained withsin[556]. The three sacrificial fires become enraged with such a person.In his next life he has to take birth as a Sudra. His Pitris, togetherwith the deities are never gratified with him. I shall now recite whatthe expiations are which one must go through for cleansing oneself fromsuch sins. Listen to me with attention. By performing those expiatoryacts, one becomes happy and free from fever. Fasting all the while, oneshould, for three days, with concentrated attention, pour libation, onthe sacred fire, of the urine of the cow mixed with cowdung and milk andghee. The deities accept the offerings of such a man on the expiration ofa full year. His Pitris also, when the time comes for him for performingthe Sraddha, become gratified with him. I have thus recited what isrighteous and what is unrighteous, with all their unknown details, inrespect of human beings desirous of attaining to heaven. Verily, men whoabstain from these transgressions or who having committed them undergothe expiatory rites indicated, succeed, in attaining to heaven when theyleave this world.”