Adhyaya 200
Dīpadāna-vrata (The Vow of Offering Lamps)
Lord Agni teaches the Dīpadāna-vrata (vow of offering lamps) as a discipline that grants both bhukti and mukti, declaring that offering a lamp for a full year in a deity’s shrine or a brāhmaṇa’s home bestows complete prosperity. Lamp-giving is praised as unsurpassed in merit, especially during Cāturmāsya and in Kārttika, promising entry into Viṣṇu’s realm and heavenly enjoyments. Agni then recounts Lalitā’s example: an apparently incidental act connected with a lamp in a Viṣṇu temple—done without deliberate intent—still yielded extraordinary fruit, leading to rebirth in royal fortune and increased marital prosperity. The teaching also warns against wrongdoing: stealing a lamp is condemned, bringing karmic results such as birth as mute/dull and descent into a darkness-hell. A moral exhortation follows, censuring sense-indulgence and unethical desire (notably adultery) and turning the listener toward accessible practice—chanting Hari’s name and making simple offerings like a lamp. The chapter concludes by affirming that dīpa-dāna magnifies the fruits of all vratas, and that hearing and adopting this teaching leads to an elevated destiny.
Shlokas
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Frequently Asked Questions
Offer a lamp—ideally sustained as a yearly practice—in a deity’s shrine (especially Viṣṇu’s) or a brāhmaṇa’s home; the act is taught as a high-merit vrata granting prosperity, longevity, clarity of sight, and higher worlds, ultimately supporting liberation.
Kārttika is presented as a peak season of ritual potency: lamp-giving then is said to yield exceptional heavenly results, surpassing ordinary times and amplifying vrata-fruit.
It demonstrates that even an unpremeditated or indirect contribution to a lamp-offering in a Viṣṇu temple can generate powerful puṇya, underscoring the vow’s efficacy and the sacredness of temple-based offerings.
The chapter condemns dīpa-theft with severe karmic outcomes and uses hell imagery to caution against negligence, sense-addiction, and sexual misconduct (adultery), redirecting the practitioner toward dharmic restraint and Hari-nāma.