Skandapurana 11: adhyāyaḥ 74

Skanda said: / Hear, O slayer of Vātāpi, of [the river] that removes sins in Kāśī, / which occurred in the Padma Kalpa regarding the twice-born Damana. / He was the son of Bhāradvāja, named Damana by name. / Having performed the ceremony of the muñja belt and acquired the body of knowledge, / realizing that life is full of the sorrows of saṃsāra and also fickle, / the wise Damana departed from his own house. / Setting out in a certain direction, having attained supreme detachment, / at every hermitage, at every mountain, at every ocean, at every forest, / at every sacred ford, at every river, he wandered, engaged in austerity. / Whatever shrines exist here across the earth, / he dwelled at that many, with his senses and mind restrained. / Yet no steadfastness of mind was attained by him anywhere, / nor was a teacher of his desire seen anywhere at all. / Then, once by the course of destiny, that ascetic named Damana / beheld on the bank of the Revā the sacred ford of Amarakaṇṭaka / and also the great sacred shrine of Oṃkāra there. / Seeing it, he became joyful at heart and attained steadfastness of mind. / Then, beholding the Pāśupatas there, rich in austerity,

their bodies adorned with sacred ash, having performed the worship of the liṅga,

their bodily maintenance regulated, having engaged in contemplation of the Āgamas,

sitting at ease before him, unswerving in mind,

he bowed and sat down there in the presence of their teacher,

his two hands folded, his neck bent down in reverence.

Then the Pāśupata teacher, the great sage named Garga,

overcome by old age, his body emaciated through austerity,

intent on the worship of Śambhu, foremost among all ascetics,

questioned Damana thus: “Who are you, and why have you come here?

Though young, you are dispassionate; whence is this? Tell, O excellent one.”

Having heard this [inquiry] given with affection, Damana said:

“O venerable Pāśupata teacher, lover of the worship of the Omniscient One,

I shall tell you truly the activity of my own mind.

I am an heir of a brahmin, having laboured in the Vedas and Śāstras.

Knowing the vanity of saṃsāra, I took resort in forest-dwelling.

Desiring great perfection with this very body,

I bathed in many sacred fords, and mantras were chanted by the crores;

many deities were worshipped, and many offerings were made;

many teachers were served for a long time;

very many nights were spent in great cremation grounds;

ah, the summits of great mountains were inhabited by me;

thousands of divine herbs were successfully prepared by me;

again, elixirs were consumed by me many times;

undertaking great daring, caves inhabited by the perfected ones,

resembling the mouth of Death, were entered by me many times;

and great austerity was performed with numerous restraints and observances.

Yet I have not seen even the sprout of perfection anywhere, O lord.

Now, wandering the earth, having reached you,

steadfastness of mind has been reached, as if by one who has attained perfection.

Surely, whatever word shall come forth from your lotus mouth,

by that alone great perfection will be mine, not otherwise.

Therefore, speak good instruction on how perfection may be mine,

very great [perfection] with this very earthly body.”

Hearing this speech of Damana, the teacher Garga then

spoke of an excellent, great wonder seen directly with his own eyes,

while all the disciples of steadfast mind were listening there.

of those seeking liberation, who observed the great Pāśupata vow.

Garga said:

If you desire accomplishment even in this very body,

then listen attentively, and I shall tell you.

In the great sacred field Avimukta, which grants all accomplishments to the virtuous,

the supreme mine of the jewels known as duty, wealth, pleasure, and liberation,

to all creatures of every action who have taken refuge [there],

it is like a lamp to moths, a great elephant to the mass of darkness,

a forest fire to the tree of past actions, a submarine fire to the ocean of mundane existence,

an ocean of milk to the goddess of liberation, a meeting-place of happiness,

the bestower of supreme awakening to those asleep in a long slumber,

a roadside shade-tree to living beings exhausted by wandering to and fro,

the wielder of the thunderbolt against the mountain of great sins accumulated over many births,

the producer of supreme welfare for men who merely utter its name,

the supreme abode of the Lord of the Universe, the boundary between heaven and liberation,

whose surface is perpetually washed by the surging waves of the River of Heaven—

in such a great sacred field, which removes the whole flood of sorrow,

I shall tell you, O wise one, what happened right before my eyes.

Where there is no fear of Death, where there is no fear of sin,

who is capable of properly describing the greatness of that sacred field?

Whatever sacred fords there are in this world that destroy the sins of creatures, ah!

they all come continually to Kāśī for the sake of their own purification.

Even if someone who eats everything and sells everything should dwell in Kāśī,

that mortal attains a destination which cannot be attained elsewhere by sacrifices or gifts.

The great tree of mundane existence, sprung from the seed of passion,

when felled in Kāśī by the axe of the long sleep, does not grow again.

Among all barren soils, Kāśī is the most barren:

this seed of the sower, when sown in it, does not sprout at all.

Those who will remember Kāśī here, even they, if virtuous,

freed from the flood of sins, will certainly go to the supreme state.

The glory of all the worlds, beginning with Satyaloka, is perishable;

but the imperishable glory of the liberated one is obtainable there by the command of Śiva.

The glory seen in the case of worms, insects, and moths casting off their bodies in Avimukta—

where else does it exist within the sphere of the universe?

When Vārāṇasī has been reached, somehow through the course of time,

that means must be adopted by which there is no departure outside.

To the east stands Maṇikarṇīśa; Brahmeśa stands to the south;

Gokarṇa is in the west, and likewise Bhārabhūta in the north.

This is the supreme sacred field, of great fruit, in Avimukta.

Having bathed in the pool of Maṇikarṇī and seen the all-pervading Viśveśvara,

and circumambulated the sacred field, one obtains the fruit of a Rājasūya sacrifice;

and the great-grandfathers of one who offers a śrāddha there are liberated.

A sacred field equal to Avimukta, even in the cosmic egg,

does not exist anywhere, truly, truly—it bestows accomplishment upon the practitioner.

Where fierce, great attendants with nooses and swords in their hands,

of gentle intellects, constantly protect the sacred field from the cruel.

At the eastern gate, Aṭṭahāsa, surrounded by ten million gaṇas,

terrifying, protects the sacred field day and night from the wicked.

Likewise, Bhūtadhātrīśa is the protector of the south of the sacred field;

Gokarṇa, surrounded by ten million gaṇas, guards the western gate.

So too the great gaṇa Ghaṇṭākarṇa guards the northern gate;

Chāgavaktra [guards] the northeast corner; the formidable one [guards] the quarter of fire [the southeast];

Śaṅkukarṇa guards the southwest quarter, and Dṛmicaṇḍa the wind quarter [the northwest].

Thus these exceedingly radiant gaṇas always protect the sacred field.

Kālākṣa, Raṇabhadra, Kauleya, and Kālakampana—

these gaṇas, stationed on the opposite bank of the Gaṅgā, protect it on the east.

Vīrabhadra, Nabhas, Kardamāliptavigraha,

Sthūlakarṇa, and Mahābāhu are stationed on the other side of the Asi.

Viśālākṣa, Mahābhīma, Kuṇḍodara, and Mahodara

protect the western gate, stationed in the region of the threshold.

Nandisena and Pañcāla, Kharapāda, Karaṇṭaka,

Ānanda, Gopaka, [and] Babhru protect [it] on the bank of the Varaṇā.

In that most meritorious sacred field, there is the liṅga named Oṃkāra.

There practitioners attained supreme perfection with this very body.

Kapila, and also Sāvarṇi, Śrīkaṇṭha, Piṅgala, Aṃśumat—

these Pāśupatas indeed became perfected through the worship of that liṅga.

Once, having performed the worship of that liṅga, all five of them,

dancing while emitting the huḍut sound, dissolved into that liṅga.

And another wondrous event that took place there I shall tell you;

listen, O intelligent one, O Damana, best of brahmins.

O sage, a female frog moving about there in the presence of the liṅga,

eating the consecrated grains from offerings of flowers, would always circumambulate it.

She did not find death there because she ate Śiva’s offerings;

her death occurred outside the sacred field because of that sin.

It is better even to drink poison, but one should never consume Śiva's property.

Poison kills a single person, but Śiva's property kills sons and grandsons.

Those whose limbs are nourished on Śiva's [property] should not be touched by good people;

as the karmic fruition of that, they become dwellers in Raurava hell.

A crow, catching sight of that female frog hopping about

here and there, seized her in its beak and went outside the sacred field.

That frog was dropped outside the sacred field by the crow.

Then in course of time that female frog, [because of what she had done] right there in that best of sacred fields,

by circumambulating and also by touching the liṅga,

possessing both merit and demerit, was born as a girl in the house of the flower-seller.

She had well-formed limbs and was marked with auspicious signs,

yet she was born with the face of a vulture because of eating the consecrated grains of the flower-offering.

She fully understood the secret lore of music and possessed an exceedingly sweet voice;

the seven notes, the three scales, the twenty-one modulations,

the forty-nine melodic patterns, the one hundred and one rhythms,

the six principal rāgas, and for each of them five female counterparts,

and twenty-six rāgas and rāgiṇīs that bring delight to musical passion,

as well as sixty-five others according to divisions of region and season—

as many rhythms as there are, so many rāgas indeed.

Every day, through this esoteric knowledge of song, that girl of auspicious vows,

named Mādhavī, of sweet speech, worshipped Oṃkāra constantly.

Though she had attained priceless youth, that daughter of the flower-seller,

by virtue of impressions from her previous birth, thought highly of Oṃkāra indeed.

Her mind, naturally restless, through the service of that liṅga,

attained steadfastness, O Damana, as does a great soul through yoga.

Neither hunger, thirst, nor sleep by day or night afflicted that girl.

Her mind was untiring in gazing upon that liṅga.

As many twinklings of the eyes as there were for her day and night,

just so much time was considered by that virtuous maiden to be a great obstacle:

"Whatever time of mine has been wasted, interrupted by the blink of an eye,

how can there be an expiation for that, caused by not looking at the liṅga?"

Pondering thus, she did not abandon the worship of Oṃkāra.

Longing for water, she drank the nectar of the name of the liṅga.

Her eyes, extending to her ears, had no desire to see anything else,

leaving aside the Oṃkāra liṅga, which resides in the heart-sky of the virtuous.

Her two ears were intent on receiving no other sound;

her two hands became exceedingly skilled in weaving beautiful garlands for it.

Her feet did not walk anywhere else out of a desire for pleasure,

leaving the courtyard ground of Oṃkāra trodden by the lotus-like Lakshmi of liberation.

[She worshipped] Oṃkāra, the syllable Om, the essence, the revealer of the supreme brahman,

having the form of the triad of the Brahman of sound, the abode of nāda, bindu, and kalā,

the eternal imperishable syllable, the primal form, of universal form, the higher and the lower,

the best, the choice, the boon-giver, eternal, tranquil, Īśvara,

the sole generator of all the worlds, the sole protector of all the worlds,

the sole destroyer of all the worlds, the sole being praised by all the worlds,

devoid of beginning and end, eternal, Śiva, Śaṃkara, the imperishable.

[who is] the one, beyond the three guṇas, who has made his dwelling in the hearts of devotees,

free from conditioning attributes, formless, changeless, taintless,

spotless, devoid of ego, free from worldly appearance, self-arisen,

delighting in his own self, infinite, all-pervading, all-seeing,

all-bestowing, all-experiencing, everything, the abode of all bliss.

Her organ of speech, pronouncing that [name] day and night,

never uttered any other name of anyone else anywhere.

Tasting day and night the nectar of the syllables of this name,

her tongue knew no other taste at all.

Mādhavī would constantly perform sweeping and [make] colourful garlands

around the temple there, as well as worship and cleaning of the vessels.

Those Pāśupatas who were engaged in worshipping the Lord of the Praṇava there—

she would constantly serve them out of great devotion, regarding them as fathers.

Once, on the fourteenth day of the month of Vaiśākha,

that Mādhavī, having fasted during the day, kept vigil at night.

When the devotees gathered for the pilgrimage had dispersed in all directions in the morning,

she swept [the area] and performed other tasks, joyfully worshipped the liṅga,

and, singing sweet songs and dancing in her natural grace,

meditating upon the liṅga as the Om-syllable, dissolved into that liṅga.

The highly wise woman [dissolved] with this very earthly body,

while our foremost teachers and ascetics looked on.

A light arose from the liṅga, filling the sky,

and into that light the girl entered, becoming made of light herself.

Even today, on the fourteenth day of the bright half of Vaiśākha, the residents of the sacred field

make a pilgrimage there accompanied by great festivities.

Having kept vigil there and fasted on the fourteenth day,

they attain supreme knowledge, wherever they may die.

Whatever sacred fords exist everywhere within the belly of the cosmic egg,

all of them come on the fourteenth day of Vaiśākha for the darśana of the Om-maker.

In front of the liṅga is an exceedingly excellent cave named Śrīmukhī;

it is the gateway to Pātāla, and indeed the perfected beings dwell there.

Those observant of good vows who stay in that cave for five nights

behold serpent maidens, and they tell them what is auspicious and inauspicious.

In the northern direction of that cave there is a well with mineral water;

having drunk it for six months, one drinks the elixir of Brahman.

Having seen the liṅga Nādeśvara there, one becomes the source of sound;

the universe consisting of all sound comes within range of one's hearing.

Having bathed there in Matsyodarī, the celestial river submerged by the Varuṇā,

a creature achieves the ultimate goal and grieves no more anywhere.

Countless devotees of Oṃkāreśvara have attained perfection

with this very earthly body, which instantly became divine.

Avimukta is the supreme sacred field, higher even than the whole cosmic egg;

higher even than that is declared to be Oṃkāra on the bank of Matsyodarī.