Shloka 199
Tīrtha-yātrā: Phalaśruti and Sacred Geography from Lohitya to Prayāga
Pulastya’s Instruction
स्नातमात्रस्य तत् सर्व नश्यते नात्र संशय: । पद्मवर्णेन यानेन ब्रह्मुलोकं प्रपद्यते,राजन! उसमें स्नान और जलपान करके मनुष्य स्वर्गलोकमें प्रतिष्ठित होता है। जो सूर्यग्रहणके समय अमावास्याको वहाँ पितरोंका श्राद्ध करता है, उसके पुण्यफलका वर्णन सुनो--। भलीभाँति सम्पन्न किये हुए सहस्र अश्वमेध यज्ञोंका जो फल होता है, उसे मनुष्य उस तीर्थमें स्नानमात्र करके अथवा श्राद्ध करके पा लेता है। स्त्री या पुरुषने जो कुछ भी दुष्कर्म किया हो, वह सब वहाँ स्नान करनेमात्रसे नष्ट हो जाता है; इसमें संशय नहीं है। वह पुरुष कमलके समान रंगवाले विमानद्वारा ब्रह्मलोकमें जाता है
snātamātrasya tat sarvaṁ naśyate nātra saṁśayaḥ | padmavarṇena yānena brahmalokaṁ prapadyate, rājan |
Ghūlastya said: “For one who has only just bathed there, all (sin) is destroyed—of this there is no doubt. O king, borne in a lotus-hued celestial car, he attains the world of Brahmā. By bathing and drinking the water at that sacred ford a person becomes established in heaven. And hear the account of the merit of performing ancestral rites (śrāddha) there on the new-moon day at the time of a solar eclipse: the fruit that comes from a thousand well-completed Aśvamedha sacrifices is obtained simply by bathing at that tīrtha, or by offering śrāddha there. Whatever wrongdoing, whether by woman or man, is washed away by that bath alone; and the purified soul rises to the highest realm.”
घुलस्त्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage teaches the purificatory and merit-generating power attributed to a sacred tīrtha: bathing (snāna) and ancestral offerings (śrāddha), especially on ritually potent times like amāvāsyā and a solar eclipse, are said to erase wrongdoing and yield extraordinary spiritual reward, culminating in ascent to Brahmaloka.
A speaker named Ghūlastya addresses a king and extols the greatness of a particular pilgrimage site. He claims that merely bathing there destroys sins, that śrāddha performed there at the new moon during a solar eclipse grants immense merit comparable to many Aśvamedha sacrifices, and that the devotee ultimately travels in a lotus-colored celestial car to Brahmaloka.