The Garuda Purana

by Manmatha Nath Dutt | 1908 | 245,256 words | ISBN-13: 9788183150736

The English translation of the Garuda Purana: contents include a creation theory, description of vratas (religious observances), sacred holidays, sacred places dedicated to the sun, but also prayers from the Tantrika ritual, addressed to the sun, to Shiva, and to Vishnu. The Garuda Purana also contains treatises on astrology, palmistry, and preci...

Chapter C - Worship of Vinayakas Durga

Yajnavalkya said:—Now hear me describe the symptoms which are exhibited in a person, struck by the malignant influence of a Vinayaka. The afflicted person dreams of water and fancies in dreams that he has been bathing in a lake or pool. The patient pines away in sorrow and silence, and all his undertakings end in dismal failures. A king under the influence of a Vinayaka, loses his sovereignty, a virgin cannot secure a husband, and a matron continues sterile or is deprived of the blessings of motherhood. The remedy consists in a ceremonial ablution effected in the following manner:—

The body of the patient should be first rubbed with a compound consisting of white mustard seeds and sandal wood pasted together with the admixture of clarified butter, his head being plastered with a paste of the drugs, known as Sarvaushadhi and Savagandha. Then he should be seated on a platform, as is generally raised on the occasion of a religious sacrifice; and the Brahmanas shall be asked to recite benedictory Mantras over his person.

Then four earthen pitchers, all of the same colour, and filled with water fetched from the same lake or natural reservoir of water, and saturated with Rochona (yellow pigment), sandal paste, and Guggulu (aromatic gum resin) should be emptied over his head, the patient being seated on a red leather cushion, and the Brahmanas chanting the following Mantras at the time:—

“We bathe thee with water which has been purified by the Sun-God and the Holy Sages. May the purifying element in the water, imparted to it by their sacred touch, cleanse thy spirit. May the gods Varuna, Indra, the Sun, the Wind, the concourse of the seven Holy Sages, as well as the Jupiter and the sacred person of the king, give back to thee thy lost splendour and fortune. May the ill fate which clings to thy hairs, forelock, head, temples, ears and eyes, be hereby dispelled and washed away.”

After that, mustard oil should be poured over his head and in his ears, and a Homa should be performed in the fire of lighted Kusha blades soaked with clarified butter, and held over his head. Libations of clarified butter, surcharged with powdered turmeric, should be subsequently cast in the sacrificial fire in honor of the gods, known as Kushmanda and Rajputra, by appending the term Svaha (obeisance) to their respective names, each time they are invoked in the course of the ceremony. Then blades of Kusha grass should be spread over a place where four roads meet, and the votary or the priest officiating at the ceremony, should sit upon them with a tray on his head, containing both ripe and unripe grains of rice, sweet-scented flowers of beautiful colours, the three kinds of wine, curd, sweet porridge, boiled rice, clarified butter, treacle and sweetmeats, and worship the goddess Amvica in that posture with blended palms and in a devout spirit.

He shall dedicate those offerings to the goddess, and pray as follows:—

“Grant me the boons of beauty and fame, O goddess, and make me happy in the delights of fatherhood.”

Gifts of white cloths and white sandal pastes should be made to the Brahmanas at the close of the worship, and the spiritual preceptor of the patient’s family, should be appeared with the gift of a pair of cloths, and the tutelary deities of the planets should also be propitiated with a worship.

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