Adhyaya 183

Śrī Mahādeva declares his instruction to Pārvatī, and the narrative turns to Māhiṣmatī, where the brāhmaṇa Mādhava prepares a sacrifice in which a goat is to be offered. The goat speaks, questions the efficacy of such killing, and discloses karmic causality: once a learned officiant, he incurred a curse through an unscriptural slaying connected with Caṇḍikā worship, and fell through painful rebirths—monkey, dog, horse, and finally goat. The goat then relates a second exemplum at Kurukṣetra during a solar eclipse. A king’s mahādāna involving Kālapuruṣa causes embodied sin to appear in caṇḍāla forms and cling to a brāhmaṇa, who is saved by inward recitation of Bhagavad Gītā, Chapter 9. The adhyaya concludes that daily recitation of the ninth chapter enables one to cross calamities arising from improper gifts and to attain liberation.