Praśna IV, Adhyāya 6

1. The (eleven Anuvākas called) Rudras together with (the ten hymns) seen by Madhucchandas, the Gāyatrī with the syllable Om, and likewise the seven Vyāhṛtis (are the texts) which should be muttered (and) which remove guilt.^[1]

2. The Mṛgāreṣṭi, the Pavitreṣṭi, the Trihavis, the Pāvamānī are the Iṣṭis which efface sin, if they are (each) combined with the Vaiśvānara (Dvādaśakapāla).^[2]

3-4. Learn, also, the following most excellent secret; he will be freed from all sins of all kinds who sprinkles himself with water, reciting the Pavitras, who mutters the eleven (Anuvākas called) Rudras, who offers burnt oblations of butter, reciting the Pavitras, and gives gold, a cow, and sesamum (to Brāhmaṇas).

5. He who partakes of boiled barley-gruel, mixed with cow's urine, liquid cowdung, sour milk, milk, and butter, is quickly freed from sin.^[3]

6. Both he who has begotten a child on a Śūdra woman and he who has had connexion with a female,^[4] intercourse with whom is forbidden (agamyā), are purified (if they live) according to this rule during seven days.

7. (That is likewise) the remedy when one has swallowed semen, ordure, and urine, or eaten the food of persons whose food must not be eaten, (and also) when a younger brother has kindled the sacred fire, has offered a Śrauta sacrifice, or taken a wife before the elder.^[5]

8. He who has committed even a great number of (wicked) actions, excepting mortal sins, will be freed (by that rule) from all guilt. That is the statement of the virtuous.

9. But (this) ordinance, which is based on the authority of the sacred texts, is stated (to be that) through which Bharadvāja and others became equal to Brahman,

10. Through the performance of these rites a Brāhmaṇa, whose heart is full of peace, obtains whatever desires he may have in his heart.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

6. The hymns are Rig-veda I, 1-10.

[2]:

Regarding the Mṛgāreṣṭi, see Taitt. Saṃhitā IV, 7, 15. In explanation of the term Trihavis, Govinda adds the word Savaneṣṭi.

[3]:

Yāvaka, translated, as usually, by barley-gruel, can also denote, as Govinda points out, other dishes made of barley.

[4]:

See above, II, 1, 2, 7, 10, 13-14.

[5]:

See above, II, 2, 1, 21, 39-40. I follow the reading of M. and of the commentary, paryādhānejyayor etat parivitte ca bheṣajam. The reading of the Dekhan MSS. is etat patite caiva bhojanam, 'that food must be eaten  and when one has become an outcast.'