SMELLING HORSE FAT- HOW CAN IT CLEANSE SINS?

VOLUME 14 CHAPTERS 90 AND 91
Parvam 14 Asvamethaparvam, Chapter 90

32 tato niyuktaah paSavo yathaaSaastram maniishibhih

tam tam devam samuddiSya pakshiNah paSavaS ca ye



33a rishabhaah SaastrapaThitaas tathaa jalacaraaS ca ye

sarvaams taan abhyayunjams te tatra agni caya karmaNi



34 yuupeshu niyatam caasiit paSuunaam triSatam tathaa

aSvaratnottaram raajnah kaunteyasya mahaatmanah



35 sa yajnah SuSubhe tasya saakshaad deva rushi samkulah

gandharva gaNa samkiirNah Sobhito -apsarasaam gaNaih



36 sa kimpuruusha giitaiS ca kimnarair upaSobhitah

siddhavipranivaasaiS ca samantaad abhisamvrutah



37 tasmin sadasi nityaas tu vyaasaSishyaa dvijottamaah

sarva Saastra praNetaarah kuSalaa yajnakarmasu



38 naaradaS ca babhuuvaatra tumburuuS ca mahaadyutih

viSvaavasuS citrasenas tathaanye giitakovidaah



39 gandharvaa giitakuSalaa nrutteshu ca viSaaradaah

ramayanti sma taan vipraan yajnakarmaantareshv atha



Chapter 91: vaiSampaayana uvaaca

01 Samayitvaa paSuun anyaan vidhivad dvijasattamaah

turagam tam yathaaSaastram aalabhanta dvijaatayah



02 tatah samjnaapya turagam vidhivad yaajakarshabhaah

upasamveSayan raajams tatas taam druupadaatmajaam



kalaabhis tisrbhii raajan yathaavidhi manasviniim

a uddhrtya tu vapaam tasya yathaaSaastram dvijarushabhaah



03 Srapayaam aasuru avyagraah Saastravad bharatarshabha

04 tam vapaa dhuuma gandham tu dharmaraajah sahaanujah

upaajighrad yathaanyaayam sarvapaapmaapaham tadaa



05 SishTaany angaani yaany aasams tasyaaSvasya naraadhipa

taany agnau juhuvuru dhiiraah samastaah shoDaSa rutvijah

06 samsthaapyaivam tasya raajnas tam kratum Sakratejasah

vyaasah saSishyo bhagavaan varudhayaam aasa tam nrupam


07 tato yudhishThirah praadaat sadasyebhyo yathaavidhi

koTiisahasram nishkaaNaam vyaasaaya tu vasumdharaam

CONTEXT
The Mahabharata war ended. Pandavas won. YudhishThira became king. Yet, he was unhappy. He suffered from a guilty-complex of killing brothers and elders. He was worried about sin.

Sage Vyasa advised him to perform a horse sacrifice, for cleansing his sins.

Dharmaraja, accordingly performed the horse sacrifice.

Verses 32 to 34 show that hundreds of cattle, bulls, horses, birds, fish, were sacrificed, after being tied to sacrificial-poles.

Verse 34 calls the sons of Kunti (Pandavas) - mahatmas (Great Souls). What a great deed they have done to be called Great souls! Compare this to the horse sacrifice performed by Dasaratha in Valmiki Ramayana as part of his putrakameshti (worship to get a son). You can see it at my Ramayana blog.

Verses 35 and 36 show that celestial angels and divine sages watched this dirty event from the sky!

Verses 37 shows that Vyasa's disciples supervised it.

Verse 38 and 39 indicate that celestial singers sang to entertain the priests.

Verse 01 indicates that the slaughter is as per scriptures.

Verse 02 indicates that Queen Draupadi was made to stay with the dead horse. (Pl. see my Ramayana blog. There, Kausalya had to spend one night with the dead horse. She had to stab the dead horse three times. Here, Draupadi seems to have escaped the joyful job.)


Verses 3 , 4 and 5 deal with smelling of the burnt fat and fumes by the King Yudhishthira and his brothers.

Verse 6 again deals with supervision by Vyasa and others.

Verse 7 indicates that Yudhishthira gave away to those present (presumably the Priests) koti sahasra nishkams i.e. 10 billion gold coins. He gave away the whole earth to Sage Vyasa. Fortunately for Yudhishthira, Vyasa returned it to him.

Thus Yudhishthira's sins have been cleansed.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
You can see some similarities and contrasts of thousands of Haj prilgrims throwing stones at a pillar believing that they are attacking the Satan. Of course, you will have some other similar ceremonies in Christianity. These things show us how crazy can people turn into!.

Question: Would Dharmaraja have so easily parted with ten billion bucks?

Answer
Lot of brainwashing and persuasion might have taken place earlier. This type of brainwashing of the kings and rich persons to gift away gold can be seen in the tail end of Mahabharata, i.e. Vol. 18 of the Book- SvargArOhaNa parvam - Ascendence to Heaven. This will be the subject matter of my next post #016.