A Brahmin Who Kept a Friend's Wealth

Gautama buried his own wealth in the ground. But that brahmin's wealth he sold,

and he used it up with his sons and wife, dear one. Many years passed. Then Gautama died, when he was old, O fair-faced one.

Then he went to the world of the Gandharvas (heavenly singers) for twenty thousand. He enjoyed it with the Gandharvas and Kinnaras (heavenly musicians), O large-eyed one.

When his merit was used up, he went into a swan's birth. After a deer's birth, he got a human birth.

He is lucky, very steady, and always inclined to good conduct. In the earlier birth, O Goddess, he destroyed his friend's wealth.

He did not give it back, O large-eyed one. By that wrong his wife is a vandhya (a woman who cannot bear children). Or she becomes a kakavandhya (a woman who has only one child).

His body is ill, with many kinds of fever. I will tell the remedy. Hear it, O lovely Goddess.

Have good works done with a sixth part of house and wealth. Have old step-wells, wells and tanks repaired.

Then do a hundred thousand (ten times ten thousand) japa (repeating a mantra). Use the root mantra (sacred words) of the Gayatri (a sacred Vedic chant). Do homa (fire offering) of a tenth part. Have good works done.

Then give one young white cow with her calf and a bronze milk pail. She should be a good cow, covered with cloth. Give her to a brahmin who knows the Veda.

Feed brahmins and give a fee as you are able. Eat with your relatives. Then have a dance done. (Our text is unclear here: the word for 'after giving' may be spelled a little differently.)

Hear the Purana (old sacred stories). Worship the feet of Chandika (a form of the Goddess). Give food, and above all give ghee, O Goddess.

Do this, and there is no doubt: the family will grow. All illnesses come to an end, and many comforts come.