Flowers, Incense, and Lamps

The talk had come round from umbrellas and sandals to the house that gives them away.

"O foremost one of Bharata's race," Yudhishthira said, "do thou relate to me all the duties of the household mode, and tell me all that a man should do in order to attain to prosperity in this world."

It is worth noticing what the king was asking for. Not the way of the forest recluse, and not the discipline of the man who has renounced everything. The ordinary way. The house with a fire in it and a door that people knock at, which was the life Yudhishthira was about to go back to when the grandsire finished dying.

"O Bharata," Bhishma said, "I shall in this connection recite to thee the old story of Vasudeva and the goddess Earth."

Vasudeva is Krishna, who was sitting within hearing of the arrow bed while this was said. Once, having hymned the praises of the goddess Earth, he had put to her the very question that Yudhishthira had just put to Bhishma.

"Having adopted the state of a householder," Krishna had asked her, "what acts should I, or one like me, perform, and how are such acts to fructify in good?"

"O Madhava," the goddess Earth said, "the Rishis, the deities, the Pitris, and men should be worshipped, and sacrifices should be performed, by a householder. Do thou also learn this from me, that the deities are always pleased with sacrifices, and men are gratified with hospitality. Therefore the householder should gratify them with such objects as they desire. By such acts, O slayer of Madhu, the Rishis also are gratified."

Then she began on the day itself, and the first rule in it is about the man's own stomach.

Abstaining from food, before he has taken anything himself, the householder should daily attend to his sacred fire and to his sacrificial offerings. The deities are gratified with such acts. He should daily offer oblations of food and water, or of fruits, roots and water, for the gratification of the Pitris. The Vaiswadeva offering should be performed with rice boiled, and with oblations of clarified butter unto Agni, unto Soma, and unto Dhanwantari, who is the physician of the gods. Unto Prajapati, the lord of creatures, the oblations should be separate and distinct from the rest.

Then the goddess Earth gave Krishna the plan of the house as the gods stand around it, and it is best read as what it is, a map.

The sacrificial offerings should be made in due order: to Yama in the Southern region, to Varuna in the Western region, to Soma in the Northern region, to Prajapati within the homestead, to Dhanwantari in the North-eastern region, and to Indra in the Eastern region. Food should be offered to men at the entrance of the house.

"These, O Madhava," she said, "are known as the Vali offerings."

The word covers every one of them, and the rest of the rule concerns where each portion is set down and at what hour. The Vali should be offered to the Maruts and to the deities in the interior of one's house. To the Viswedevas, the all-gods, it should be offered out in the open air. To the Rakshasas and the spirits the offerings should be made at night, which is when they walk, and not before.

What is left over does not simply become the family's dinner. After making these offerings, the householder should make offerings unto Brahmanas; and if no Brahmana be present, then the first portion of the food should be thrown into the fire. There is no arrangement under which the first portion stays in the house.

The order is fixed again for the day a man feeds his ancestors. When a man desires to offer Sraddha to his ancestors, he should, when the Sraddha ceremony is concluded, gratify his ancestors and then make the Vali offerings in due order. He should next make offerings unto the Viswedevas. He should then invite Brahmanas, and then properly regale with food the guests who have arrived at his house.

"By this act, O prince, are guests gratified," the goddess said.

And because a great deal in the household life turns on the word, she stopped and defined it. He who does not stay in the house long, or who, having come, goes away after a short time, is called a guest.

Not a friend. Not a relation who has settled in. The man passing through, who will be gone by morning and will never be in a position to return the meal, is the one the whole arrangement is built around.

There is a sentence the goddess put into the householder's mouth, and it is to be said aloud every day.

To his preceptor, to his father, to his friend, and to a guest, a householder should say, "I have got this in my house to offer thee today." And he should offer it accordingly, every day. Whatever they would ask him to do, he should do. This is the established usage.

It is a declaration of stock, made by a man who is not permitted to know in advance how much of it will be left to him.

"The householder, O Krishna," the goddess Earth said, "should take his food last of all, after having offered food to all of them."

There are guests who are to be met with more than food. With offerings of Madhuparka, the mixture of honey and curds that is set before a person of honour, the householder should worship his king, his priest, his preceptor, and his father-in-law, and Snataka Brahmanas, those who have finished their studies and bathed at the end of them, even if such a one were to stay in his house for a whole year. The year is stated so that nobody can plead that the visit has gone on too long.

And then, at the bottom of the list, where the house meets the street.

In the morning as well as in the evening, food should be offered on the ground to dogs, to Swapachas, who are the men of the lowest birth, whom nobody else will feed, and to birds. This is called the Vaiswadeva offering, and it carries the same name as the offering of boiled rice into the sacred fire.

"The householder who performs these ceremonies with a mind unclouded by passion," she said, "obtains the blessings of the Rishis in this world, and after death attains to the heavenly regions."

Bhishma let that stand for a moment on the field.

"The puissant Vasudeva, having listened to all this from the goddess Earth, acted accordingly," he said. "Do thou also act in the same way. By performing these duties of a householder, O king, thou shalt acquire fame in this world and attain to heaven after death."

The man who had been given the kingdom was being told that his first office in it was to put a dish of food on the ground at his own door, twice a day, for whatever came.

"Of what kind is the gift of light, O chief of Bharata's race?" Yudhishthira asked. "How did this gift originate? What are the merits that attach to it? Do thou tell me all this."

"In this connection, O Bharata," Bhishma said, "is recited the old narrative of the discourse between Manu, that lord of creatures, and Suvarna."

Suvarna was an ascetic of the old days, and his name is a description. His complexion was like that of gold, and so he was called the gold-complexioned. He was of pure lineage and good behaviour and excellent accomplishments, and he had mastered all the Vedas, and by what he had made of himself he surpassed many men who had been born higher than he was.

One day this learned Brahmana saw Manu, the lord of all creatures and the first of men, and went up to him. They made the usual enquiries of politeness. Both of them were firm in the observance of truth. They sat down together on the delightful breast of Meru, that great mountain of gold, and there they talked of the high-souled deities and the regenerate Rishis and the Daityas of ancient times, as two learned men will when they have the whole day and the whole of the past in front of them.

Then Suvarna asked his question.

"It behoveth thee to answer one question of mine for the benefit of all creatures. O lord of all creatures, the deities are seen to be worshipped with presents of flowers and other good scents. What is this? How has this practice been originated? What also are the merits that attach to it?"

Manu did not answer out of his own authority. He went back further.

"In this connection is recited the old history of the discourse between Sukra and the high-souled Vali."

Shukra of Bhrigu's race is the preceptor of the Asuras, and Bali the son of Virochana was in those days ruling the three worlds. Shukra came to his court, and the chief of the Asuras, who was famous for the abundance of his sacrificial presents, worshipped the descendant of Bhrigu with the Arghya, offered him a seat, and sat down himself only after his guest was seated. Then the Daitya king put to him the same question that Suvarna would one day put to Manu.

"O foremost of all persons conversant with Brahma, what, indeed, is the merit of giving flowers and incense and lamps?"

Shukra began before flowers existed.

"Penance first sprang into life," he said. "Afterwards came Dharma. In the interval between, there started into life many creepers and herbs."

Innumerable were the species of them, and all of them have Soma for their lord, because the moon governs everything that grows and is cut and grows again. Some of these creepers and herbs came to be regarded as Amrita and some as Poison, and others that were neither the one nor the other formed a third class.

He defined the two by what they do to a man rather than by what they are made of. That is Amrita which gives immediate gratification and joy to the mind. That is Poison which tortures the mind exceedingly by its odour. Amrita is highly auspicious and Poison is highly inauspicious, and all the deciduous herbs, everything that sheds and renews itself, are Amrita. Poison is born of the energy of fire.

"Flowers gladden the mind and confer prosperity," Shukra said. "Hence men of righteous deeds bestowed the name Sumanas on them."

Sumanas is the ordinary word for a flower, and it means the good-minded, or that which puts the mind in a good state. The whole doctrine of the gift is folded into the name. That man who, being in a state of purity, offers flowers to the deities finds that the deities become gratified with him, and in consequence of that gratification they bestow prosperity upon him. Those deities unto whom a worshipper offers flowers while uttering their names aloud become gratified by the devotion in the act.

Then he set out the grounds on which flowers are to be told apart, because the rest of the teaching depends on being able to tell them apart.

The deciduous herbs are of diverse kinds and possess diverse kinds of energy, and they should be classed as fierce, mild, and powerful. Flowers themselves are of many sorts. Some are wild. Some come from trees that grow in the midst of human habitations. Some belong to trees that never grow at all unless they are planted on well-tilled soil. Some are from trees growing on mountains. Some are from trees that are not prickly, and some from trees that are prickly. Fragrance, beauty of form, and taste may each of them offer further grounds of classification.

And the scent that flowers yield, he said, is of two kinds only, agreeable and disagreeable. Everything that follows is decided by that.

Then Shukra assigned the flowers of the world to the beings of the world, and the rule in every case is that a creature is given what it is like.

Those flowers that emit an agreeable scent should be offered to the deities. The flowers of trees that are destitute of thorns are generally white in hue, and such flowers are always acceptable to the deities. Flowers born on mountains and in vales, agreeable in scent and in aspect, should be offered unto the deities also, sprinkled with sandal-paste and presented according to the ordinances of the scriptures.

One possessed of wisdom should offer garlands of aquatic flowers, the lotus and the like, unto the Gandharvas and the Nagas and the Yakshas.

Such plants and herbs as produce red flowers, as are possessed of a keen scent, and as are prickly, have been laid down in the Atharvana as fit for all acts of incantation for the injuring of foes. That is stated plainly and without apology, and it is a warning as much as a permission: a man who gathers those has declared what he is about.

Such flowers as are possessed of keen energy, as are painful to the touch, as grow on trees and plants having thorns, and as are either bloody-red or black, should be offered to evil spirits and to unearthly beings.

Such flowers as gladden the mind and heart, as are very agreeable when pressed, and as are of beautiful form, are worthy of being offered to human beings.

And there is one prohibition. Such flowers as grow on cemeteries and crematoria, or in places dedicated to the deities, should not be brought and used for marriage and other rites that have growth and prosperity for their object, nor for acts of dalliance and pleasure in secrecy. What has been given already, or has grown out of the ground where the dead are burnt, cannot be given a second time to the living.

Then Shukra explained why the same flower does different work in different hands.

"The deities become gratified with the scent of flowers," he said, "the Yakshas and Rakshasas with their sight, the Nagas with their touch, and human beings with all three, that is, scent, sight, and touch."

Men alone get the whole of a flower. And flowers, when offered to the deities, gratify them immediately, and the deities are capable of accomplishing every object by merely wishing it accomplished. Gratified, they gratify their worshippers. Honoured, they cause their worshippers to enjoy all honours. Disregarded and insulted, they cause those vilest of men to be ruined and consumed.

"I shall, after this, speak to thee of the merits that attach to the ordinances about the gift of incense," Shukra said.

Incenses are of diverse kinds, some auspicious and some inauspicious. Some consist of exudations, the gum that a tree weeps. Some are made of fragrant wood set on fire. And some are artificial, made by the hand out of diverse articles mixed together. Their scent, as with flowers, is of two kinds, agreeable and disagreeable.

Then the assignments. All exudations except that of the sallaki tree are agreeable to the deities, and of all exudations the best is guggula. Of all the Dhupas of the Sari class the aloe wood is the best, and it is very agreeable to the Yakshas, the Rakshasas, and the Nagas. The exudation of the sallaki, and others of that same class, are much desired by the Daityas, which is a thing Bali could verify in his own hall. Dhupas made of the exudation of the sal and the deodar, mixed with various spirits of strong scent, are ordained for human beings. Such Dhupas immediately gratify the deities, the Danavas, and the spirits. Beyond these there are many other kinds that men burn merely for pleasure or enjoyment, and those are not part of the ordinance. All the merits spoken of as attaching to the offer of flowers attach equally to the gift of such incense as gives gratification.

"I shall now speak of the merits that attach to the gift of lights," he said, "and who may give them, at what time, and in what manner, and what the kind of lights should be."

Light is energy and fame, and it has an upward motion. Therefore the gift of light enhances the energy of the man who gives it. There is a hell of the name of Andhatamas, the blind darkness, and the period of the sun's southward course is likewise regarded as dark. For escaping that hell and the darkness of that season, one should give lights during the period when the sun is in his northward course, and such an act is applauded by the good. It is owing to the lights offered to them that the deities have become endued with beauty, energy, and resplendence, and it is by abstaining from that act that the Rakshasas have become endued with the opposite attributes.

Bhishma, who was waiting on the arrows for the sun to turn north before he would let himself die, was reciting this to a king who would have to light the lamps after him.

The rules for lamps are exact, and several are prohibitions. A giver of lights should not be an object of jealousy. Lights should not be stolen, nor extinguished when given by another. One that steals a light becomes blind, and gropes through darkness in the next world. One that gives lights shines in the celestial regions like a row of lamps.

Among lights the best are those in which ghee is burnt, and next those fed with the juice of fruits yielded by deciduous herbs. One desirous of advancement should never burn, for light, fat or marrow or the juice that flows from the bones of creatures. A lamp fed on a killed thing is not a lamp.

And Shukra named the places, all of them places where a stranger might be walking in the dark: at descents from mountains, in roads through forests and inaccessible regions, under sacred trees standing in the midst of human habitations, and at the crossings of streets. The man who gives lights illumines his race, attains to purity of soul, and after death attains to the companionship of the luminous bodies in the firmament.

Then he came back to the food, with a definition that has teeth in it.

"Those unscrupulous and wicked men that eat without first serving Brahmanas and deities and guests and children," he said, "should be known as Rakshasas."

One should therefore offer the ready food first unto the deities, having worshipped them with restrained senses, and should offer the Vali bending one's head in reverence. The deities are supported by the food that householders offer, and they bless the houses in which offerings are made. The Yakshas and Rakshasas and Pannagas, guests, and all homeless persons are supported by it, and the Pitris draw their sustenance from it. Gratified, they gratify the offerer in return with longevity and fame and wealth.

Clean food of agreeable scent and appearance, mixed with milk and curds, should be offered with flowers to the deities. The Valis offered to Yakshas and Rakshasas should be rich with blood and meat, with wines and spirits accompanying them, and adorned with coatings of fried paddy. Valis mixed with lotuses and Utpalas are very agreeable to the Nagas. Sesame seeds boiled in raw sugar go to the spirits and other unearthly beings.

"Even thus," Bhishma said, "did the learned Kavi of Bhrigu's race discourse to Vali, the chief of the Asuras. That discourse was next recited by Manu unto the Rishi Suvarna. Suvarna in his turn recited it to Narada. The celestial Rishi Narada recited unto me the merits that attach to these several acts. Informed of those merits, do thou, O son, perform them."