Greatness of Donations of Food

Vyasa said

Men who commit sins follow a path of great misery when they go to Yama. Lord, please tell me how those who follow dharma travel in happiness.

Sanatkumara replied

One must certainly enjoy the results of karma performed, good or bad. I will tell of the dharma that gives rise to happiness. There are men of amiable disposition, full of compassion, doers of good, who travel Yama's fearful road in joy. A man who gives footwear, or wooden sandals, to a foremost brahmana travels to Yama's abode in great happiness on a horse. By giving an umbrella an embodied person travels with an umbrella held over his head. By giving a palanquin one travels happily on a chariot. By giving beds and seats one travels happily, resting along the way. Those who plant trees and build shady resting-houses along a path travel to Yama's world without exhaustion, even in heat. Men who build flower gardens travel on the Pushpaka. Those who build temples for the gods travel as if playing inside their homes, and so do those who build pavilions and hermitages for mendicants and those without protectors. Men who worship the gods, the sacrificial fire, gurus, brahmanas and father and mother are honoured and travel in whatever happiness they wish. Those who give lamps travel on a path lit in all directions. By giving refuge one travels happily without ailments. Men who serve their gurus rest along the way. Those who give much to brahmanas travel happily as in their own homes. Those who give cows travel amid prosperity, with all they wish. A man who gives food and drink gets them along the path. One who gives foot-washing water gets water on the road, and one who gives oil for massaging the feet travels on a horse. Vyasa, a person who always gives foot-washing water, foot oil, lamps, food and refuge is never approached by Yama. One who gives gold and jewels easily crosses impassable regions. One who gives silver, bulls and garlands goes happily to Yama's world. Those who give such things go to Yama's abode in happiness and always enjoy many pleasures in heaven.

But among all gifts, the gift of food is said to be supreme. It increases pleasure and joy at once, strengthens and sharpens the mind. Supreme sage, no gift equals the gift of food. Creatures arise from food and without it they die. In order, blood, flesh, fat and semen result from food, and creatures arise from semen, so the universe is nothing but food. Even if a person has gold, jewels, horses, elephants, women, garlands, sandalwood and other things, he cannot enjoy himself when hungry. Those in the womb, the newborn, children, the aged, the middle-aged, gods, danavas and rakshasas all want food. Of all bodily and mental ailments hunger is said to be the most serious, and they are destroyed when the herb that is food is applied. No misery equals hunger, no disease equals hunger, no happiness equals health, no enemy equals anger. That is why gifts of food are said to be most auspicious. Otherwise, scorched by hunger's fire, all embodied creatures die. The giver of food is said to be the giver of life, and one who gives life gives everything. So by giving food one gains the fruit of all gifts. When a man gains merit with limbs nourished by food and drink, the merit is without doubt divided in two halves, one earmarked for the one who gave the food. There are many pleasures in the three worlds, jewels, women and mounts, and a giver of food gets all these in this world and the next. The body is the supreme means for dharma, artha, kama and moksha, so one must nourish it with food and drink. Food is praised because everything rests on it. No gift has equalled the gift of food or ever will. Sage, everything in this world and universe is held up by food. Food gives people energy and life rests on food. A person who wants his welfare should give food to mendicants and great-souled brahmanas even if his family suffers for it. For a giver of food, the best of riches is created in the world hereafter, in the form of an afflicted brahmana who wants food. A householder who wants prosperity should worship a brahmana who has come to his house at the right time, tired from travel and without means of living. Vyasa, a person who follows good conduct and gives food without malice is worshipped. For great happiness in this world and in heaven he must give up any resulting rise in anger; the increase of anger, even if natural, must be curbed. Gifts of food, even to bitches and outcastes, are never wasted. One who gives without anguish to a tired traveller, even one he has never seen, gains prosperity. Great sage, one who gladly gives food to ancestors, gods, brahmanas and guests gains the fruit of a great good deed. Whether given to a shudra or a brahmana, the gift of food and drink is special. A man must not ask the recipient's gotra, conduct, learning or country. A man who gives food to a brahmana who begs for it goes to a supreme heaven and stays until the deluge comes. For a giver of food it is as if he gets a tree granting all desired fruits. He is full of joy like brahmanas in heaven. By gifts of food worlds are created in heaven. Hear of the greatly divine worlds a giver of food gets. The houses of those great souls shine in heaven, of many shapes and forms, filled with many objects of desire, with trees that grant every desire standing in them. Everywhere there are golden, auspicious wells and ponds. Thousands of kinds of auspicious drinks are announced. There are heaps of food, garments and ornaments, milk flows in the rivers and there are mountains of ghee. The palaces shine white and the beds gleam like gold. A giver of food goes there. So one who wants welfare in this world and the next should give food. For those who do the good deed of giving food those worlds are very radiant, so men must especially give food. Food is Prajapati himself, Vishnu himself and Hara himself. No gift has equalled the gift of food or ever will. If a person commits a great sin and gives food afterward he is freed from all sins and goes to heaven. In the world of the dead eight kinds of gift stand out: food, drink, horses, cows, garments, beds, umbrellas and seats. If a man gives these he goes to Dharmaraja's city on a vimana. Sanatkumara said this account is about the power of giving food, and a person who reads it or has it read gains prosperity, and one who hears it, or has it heard, at a shraddha or before brahmanas gives the ancestors an endless quantity of food.