Varaha Purana 139.17: Adhyaya 139, Shloka 17
The Glory of Varāha’s Rite: Merits of Cow-dung Plastering, Sweeping, Singing, Instrumental Music, and Dance
with a Truth-Vow Exemplum
Uttara Bhāga · Śauca practices (Cleansing and its outcomes)
सम्मार्जनं प्रवक्ष्यामि तच्छृणुष्व वसुन्धरे॥ यां गतिं पुरुषा यान्ति स्त्रियो वा कर्मसु स्थिताः॥
sammārjanaṃ pravakṣyāmi tac chṛṇuṣva vasundhare || yāṃ gatiṃ puruṣā yānti striyo vā karmasu sthitāḥ ||
saMmArjjanaM pravakShyAmi tachChRRiNuShva vasundhare || yAM gatiM puruShA yAnti striyo vA karmasu sthitAH
अब पोछा और साफ करने का फल बताता हूँ, धरती माँ, ध्यान से सुनो। ये काम करने वाले मर्द और औरत दोनों कहाँ जाते हैं, वो बता रहा हूँ।
Sandhi Notes
- tacchṛṇuṣva (तच्छृणुष्व) = tat + śṛṇuṣva (व्यञ्जन-सन्धि: t + ś → cch)
Varāha
Curious, burden-aware (as Earth affected by human actions)
What destiny results for men and women who engage in sweeping/cleaning, and what is the dharmic valuation of such acts?
Śauca is not merely external; intentional, conscientious cleaning becomes karma-yoga—service that refines the doer and benefits the world.
Maintain clean homes, paths, and sacred spaces; treat sweeping as seva done with mindfulness and non-offense.
Varāha turns to a new instruction: the karmic destiny arising from sweeping/cleaning, addressing Vasundharā as the listener and beneficiary of cleanliness.
Sweeping/cleaning (sammārjana) performed as a pure act yields specific auspicious gati (destiny) for both men and women engaged in it.
Purificatory merit and improved post-mortem trajectory; negligence/impurity implied to forfeit such fruit.
Varāha Purāṇa 139.19 (conditions: śuci, bhāgavata, aparādha-vivarjita)
FAQs
It highlights everyday cleanliness labor (sweeping) as ethically meaningful, and explicitly includes both men and women as agents within karmic discourse.
No geographic location is named.
To treat cleanliness and maintenance work as valuable ethical action with consequential outcomes, irrespective of gender.
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