A seeker approached with profound questions: How do the offerings of cooked food and oblations, made here by mortals, reach the ancestors in their distant realms? Who acts as the conduit for these gifts? When a twice-born person eats, or when offerings are consigned to fire, by what process do these acts—whether auspicious or inauspicious—come to be enjoyed by the departed? The ancient revelation of the Vedas declares that the Vasus are known as ancestors, the Rudras as grandfathers, and the great-grandfathers, along with the Adityas, are also venerated in this way. The means by which offerings reach the ancestors is through invoking their name and lineage, and through the proper mantras of the śrāddha, performed with unwavering faith and devotion. The Agniṣvāttas and other divine beings are established as lords of the ancestors. Even those ancestors who have taken on new existences are reached by the invocation of their name, lineage, the proper time, and place. When the ritual is performed, living beings who have adopted those forms for the purpose of receiving the offering are satisfied. If the father has attained divinity through virtuous deeds, the food offered becomes immortal nectar and follows him even in his divine state. If he has become a demon, it transforms into enjoyment; in the form of an animal, it becomes grass. The śrāddha food, in the form of wind, attends even the ancestor who has become a serpent. If he is a Yakṣa, it becomes drink; if a Rākṣasa, it becomes meat. In the state of a Dānava, it becomes illusion; for a ghost, it turns into blood and water; and in human form, it becomes a variety of foods and drinks, each with its own taste and pleasure. Pleasure is the power of enjoyment, women are beloved, food is the capacity to eat, giving is the power of generosity and wealth, and beauty and health are also bestowed. Faith is said to be the flower, union with Brahman the fruit. Through these, long life, sons, wealth, knowledge, heaven, liberation, and happiness are granted. When the hosts of ancestors are satisfied, they grant kingship to men. It is heard that in ancient times, the sons of Kauśika attained liberation and reached the supreme abode of Viṣṇu through connections formed in fivefold births. Curious, the seeker asked: How did Kauśika’s descendants attain the highest yoga? How does karma become exhausted through these fivefold birth connections? There was a great sage named Kauśika, righteous in soul, dwelling in Kurukṣetra. His seven sons were Śvasṛpa, Krodhana, Hiṃsra, Piśuna, Kavi, Vāgduṣṭa, and Pitṛvartin, who became disciples of the sage Garga. After their father’s passing, a severe famine struck them—a great drought that spread fear across the worlds. On Garga’s instruction, these ascetic brothers guarded a milch cow in the forest. Tormented by hunger, they considered, “Let us eat this tawny cow.” As they debated this sinful act, the youngest brother suggested, “If she must be killed, let it be done as a śrāddha offering.” When he was to be appointed for the śrāddha, the cow herself refused, saying, “I will not do it, for it is sinful.” Yet, permitted by those devoted to their father, she performed the ritual. With a focused mind, the youngest brother performed the śrāddha, offering it to the cow, and then made two brothers divine guests, and in succession, all three for the father. In the same way, appointing one as a guest, the performer himself conducted the ritual with mantras, remembering his father with deep devotion. When the cow was killed by a tiger, and there was no cow left, even a calf was offered to the teacher. Thus, the cow was eaten. Yet, the seven ascetics, relying on the power of the Vedas, remained fearless in their cruel act. Drawn by the force of time, these brothers were next born as hunters in Daśapura, retaining the memory of their past births, their minds shaped by devotion to their father. Because of the cruel act performed as a śrāddha, they were born in the house of hunters, engaged in harsh deeds. Yet, owing to the greatness of their father, they retained memory of their past lives, and through dispassion and yoga, they again undertook fasting. Born with memory, the seven brothers became deer on Mount Kālanjara, before Nīlakaṇṭha, influenced by their devotion to their father. There, too, through knowledge and dispassion, they surrendered their lives righteously, observed by the people, at the end of a pilgrimage, by fasting. In their next birth, at the Mānasa lake, the seven became cakravāka birds—yogis by name and deed. Their names were Sumanā, Kumuda, Śuddha, Chidradarśī, Sunetraka, Sunetra, and Aṃśumān, and all excelled in yoga. Of these, three fell from yoga and wandered with little awareness, seeing one among them shining forth in the garden, surrounded by women, playing in various ways, possessing great strength and valor, born in the lineage of the Pāñcālas, endowed with abundant power and vehicles. Among these aquatic beings, one became desirous of kingship; the brāhmaṇa, devoted to his father, who had performed the śrāddha, was loving like a son to his father. The other two, seeing the one with power and vehicles, became ministers among mortals by their own wish. Those who were desireless among them became the best of brāhmaṇas. One, the son of Vibhrāja, became known as Brahmadatta. The two sons of ministers were Kaṇḍarīka and Subālaka. Brahmadatta was anointed king, with a learned priest as his advisor. The king of Panchala was valiant, expert in all scriptures, knowledgeable in yoga among all creatures, and skilled in understanding their sounds. His wife was the auspicious daughter of Devala, renowned as Samnati, who was once called Kapila. Because she was engaged in ancestral rites, she became a speaker of Brahman. Together with her, the king’s son ruled the kingdom. Once, while the king was in the garden with his wife, he saw a pair of insects, agitated by a quarrel of love. Thus, the story unfolds, tracing the mysterious workings of karma and the journey of souls through many births, guided by devotion, knowledge, and the sacred rites for ancestors.