Shloka 63
उपवासफलात्मकविधिः — Upavāsa as Yajña-Equivalent Merit
Angiras Teaching
पताकादीपिकाकीर्णे दिव्यघण्टानिनादिते । स्त्रीसहस्रानुचरिते स नर: सुखमेधते
aṅgirā uvāca |
patākādīpikākīrṇe divyaghaṇṭāninādite |
strīsahasrānucarite sa naraḥ sukham edhate ||
Aṅgirā said: In that celestial conveyance—strewn with banners and lamps, resonant with the sound of divine bells, and attended by thousands of women—such a man prospers in happiness. (This is declared as the heavenly reward for one who undertakes the vow of fasting unto death, relinquishing the body through austerity.)
अंगियरा उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse presents a karmic-ethical claim: rigorous self-restraint culminating in relinquishing the body through a vowed fast (anāśana-vrata, as explained in the surrounding prose) is said to yield exalted heavenly enjoyment—symbolized by a radiant, ornamented, celebratory celestial setting.
Aṅgirā is describing the posthumous state of a practitioner of a severe vow: the person is envisioned as seated in a splendid celestial vehicle, surrounded by lights, banners, and divine sounds, attended by many women, and thereby ‘thriving in happiness’ as the fruit of the vow.