Chapter 55

Vishnu Smriti 55

Now, there are the secret penances. // Vi_55.1 //

Having gone to a river and bathed, having performed sixteen breath-controls with their proper characteristics every day, eating a single meal of sacrificial food, a Brāhmaṇa-killer becomes pure in a month. // Vi_55.2 //

At the end of the rite, he shall give a milch cow. // Vi_55.3 //

A liquor-drinker becomes pure by the Aghamarṣaṇa vow. // Vi_55.4 //

A gold-thief, by muttering the Gāyatrī mantra ten thousand times. // Vi_55.5 //

One who violates his preceptor's bed, by fasting for three nights and by muttering and offering oblations with the Puruṣasūkta. // Vi_55.6 //

Just as the horse-sacrifice is the king of sacrifices, the remover of all sin, / So the Aghamarṣaṇa hymn is the remover of all sin. || Vi_55.7 ||

A twice-born man shall perform breath-control for the removal of all sin; / All sins of a twice-born man are burned away by breath-control. || Vi_55.8 ||

With the sacred utterances and with the syllable Om, the Gāyatrī with its head, / He who recites it three times with controlled breath, that is called breath-control. || Vi_55.9 ||

The syllable A, the syllable U, and the syllable M, Prajāpati / Drew forth from the three Vedas, and also "bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ". || Vi_55.10 ||

From the three Vedas, he drew forth one foot each; / That is the "tat" of this Ṛg verse, the Sāvitrī, from the supreme Prajāpati. || Vi_55.11 ||

A twice-born man who knows the Veda, by muttering this syllable and this verse, preceded by the sacred utterances, / At the two twilights, is endowed with the merit of the Veda. || Vi_55.12 ||

A twice-born man who repeats this triad a thousand times outside the village, / Is freed from even a great sin in a month, like a snake from its skin. || Vi_55.13 ||

A Brāhmaṇa, Kṣatriya, or Vaiśya, who is not united with this triad at the proper time and with its proper rite, / Incurs censure among the good. || Vi_55.14 ||

The three great imperishable sacred utterances, preceded by the syllable Om, / And the three-footed Gāyatrī are to be known as the mouth of Brahman. || Vi_55.15 ||

He who studies this every day for three years without laziness, / He attains the supreme Brahman, becoming like the wind, with a body of ether. || Vi_55.16 ||

The single syllable is the supreme Brahman, breath-controls are the supreme austerity; / There is nothing higher than the Sāvitrī; truth is superior to silence. || Vi_55.17 ||

All Vedic rites of offering and sacrifice perish; / But the imperishable syllable is to be known as the imperishable Brahman and Prajāpati. || Vi_55.18 ||

The sacrifice of muttering prayers is superior to the sacrifice of prescribed rites by ten times; / Inaudible, it is a hundred times superior; mental, it is remembered as a thousand times superior. || Vi_55.19 ||

The four domestic sacrifices, together with the sacrifice of prescribed rites, / All of them are not worth the sixteenth part of the sacrifice of muttering prayers. || Vi_55.20 ||

A Brāhmaṇa may attain perfection by muttering prayers alone, there is no doubt; / Whether he performs other rites or not, he who is friendly is called a Brāhmaṇa. || Vi_55.21 ||