Garuda Purana — Preta Kalpa, Shloka 39
Svapnādhāya (Dream-Chapter): Causes, Forms, Nourishment, and Liberation of Pretas
एवं नाम्ना च सर्वे वै संप्राप्ताः प्रेततां वयम् / ब्राह्मण उवाच / प्रेतानां कर्मजातानां कथं वै नामसम्भवः / किञ्चित्कारणमुदिश्य येन ब्रूयाः स्वनामकान्
evaṃ nāmnā ca sarve vai saṃprāptāḥ pretatāṃ vayam / brāhmaṇa uvāca / pretānāṃ karmajātānāṃ kathaṃ vai nāmasambhavaḥ / kiñcitkāraṇamudiśya yena brūyāḥ svanāmakān
«ဤသို့ နာမည်များကြောင့်ပင် ကျွန်ုပ်တို့အားလုံး ပရေတအဖြစ်သို့ ရောက်လာကြသည်»။ ဘြာဟ္မဏက မေးလေသည်– «ကံကြောင့် ဖြစ်ပေါ်လာသော ပရေတတို့၏ နာမည်များသည် မည်သို့ ဖြစ်ပေါ်သနည်း။ တစ်ဦးချင်းစီကို ကိုယ်ပိုင်နာမည်ဖြင့် ခေါ်ရသည့် အကြောင်းရင်းကို သေချာညွှန်ပြပါ»။
Brāhmaṇa (questioning within the preta-narrative)
Afterlife Stage: Pretayoni
Concept: Names and post-mortem states arise from specific karmic causes; identity in preta-state is deed-marked.
Vedantic Theme: Karma as upadhi shaping experience; nama-rupa conditioned by action and vasana.
Application: Examine habitual actions that ‘label’ one’s character; correct patterns before they crystallize into consequences.
Primary Rasa: adbhuta
Secondary Rasa: bhayanaka
Type: samvada (didactic dialogue)
Related Themes: Garuda Purana Pretakalpa: sections explaining how specific sins generate specific hells/names/forms (adjacent 2.22 narrative)
FAQs
This verse frames that a preta’s designation is not arbitrary; it arises from karma, implying that post-death conditions and labels reflect specific causes and actions.
It highlights the intermediate preta-state as a karma-produced condition, where the departed is identified and described according to the causal imprint of deeds.
Live with ethical restraint and perform duties conscientiously, recognizing that actions shape one’s post-death condition and the consequences that follow.