O gentle one, listen as I reveal to you the true nature of the pitṛ-yajña, the sacred ancestral offering. Know that all the ancestors reside within me; this is the truth I declare. I am present as the northern fire and as the southern fire as well, manifest as the purifier and as the very fire itself. In the rite of Vaiśvadeva, a celibate who is ever pure should be appointed for the offering. Such a person should not be fed at the śrāddha, but rather worshipped at divine and sacred places. The highest among men is he who is content in his household life, patient, self-controlled, and master of his senses. He is learned in the Vedas, steadfast in his vows, purified by sacred bathing, and partakes of well-prepared food. After first offering to the fire and at holy sites, O beautiful one, the householder should perform the śrāddha for each of the four castes, as is proper for them. The food for śrāddha must not be seen by dogs, cocks, or pigs, nor by those who do all kinds of work, nor by men who indiscriminately eat everything. Any śrāddha witnessed by such beings is considered demonic. Recall, when Viṣṇu, for the sake of Śakra, took the three worlds in his stride—such beings are to be avoided by the wise during ancestral rites, O lovely one. The ancestors are to be invoked upon the earth with the proper mantra and procedure. The father, the grandfather, and the great-grandfather—these three—are honored in this way. With head bowed in reverence to the goddesses and the holders of the offering, the ancestors are pleased by these acts—there is no doubt. These three—father, grandfather, and great-grandfather—arose from the very body of the gods. The gods, demons, gandharvas, yakṣas, rākṣasas, and serpents—all these, O wide-eyed one, are aware of the ancestral rites performed by the wise. When such rites are performed, the ancestors bestow health upon the performer, and there is no doubt in this. Through these acts, men are released from the states of animals and from wandering as departed spirits. Whoever, as a householder, worships both ancestors and gods at all times, his ancestors, satisfied by the śrāddha offerings, regard his merit as inexhaustible. Those learned ones who walk the pure, sattvic path, surely attain this state. But those who dwell in ignorance and darkness, who are deceitful and cunning, even if tormented until the end of the age, are rescued by the merit of the householder’s rites. The ancestors, having reached the water-reservoir without flesh, release drops of water, signifying their satisfaction. Those who perform śrāddha and satisfy the twice-born priests, even if their ancestors are in hell, they are released, and their satisfaction becomes inexhaustible. By following the guidance of the Brahmins and giving gifts according to one’s ability, the householder should also give a black bull, which destroys the sufferings of hell. Through this act, the ancestors are satisfied for sixty thousand years. If, O beautiful one, the mud is lifted by the bull’s horn, then, having lifted the ancestors, the soul proceeds to the realm of Soma for sixty thousand and six hundred years. Such is the dharma of householders, performed with sons and grandsons. Even creatures as small as ants, as well as other moving beings and birds, are encompassed by the merit of these offerings, and all are uplifted through this sacred rite.