Skandapurana 4.46

Skanda said:

When the host of yoginīs had gone, O pot-born one [Agastya], the God of Gods,

desirous of knowing the events in Kāśī, dispatched the Sun.

The God of Gods said:

"O you who have seven horses, go swiftly to the auspicious city of Vārāṇasī,

where that King Divodāsa, righteousness incarnate, resides.

Act quickly in such a way that the sacred field may be vacated without violating his righteousness;

and do not show disrespect to that king.

Whatever disrespect is shown to one devoted to the path of righteousness

surely falls upon oneself, and a great sin is born.

If, by the unfolding of your intellect, he deviates from righteousness,

then, O Sun, that city should be evacuated by you with your unbearable rays.

Desire and anger, greed and delusion, envy and pride—

as long as those two [classes of passions] are not in him, even Time cannot conquer him.

As long as intellect is steady in righteousness, and as long as the mind is steady in righteousness,

how can there be any rise of obstacles among men even in adversity, O Sun?

You know the conduct of all living beings here, O Sun;

therefore, O eye of the universe, go to accomplish this task."

Taking the god's command and assuming another form,

the Sun, traveling day and night through the sky, turned his face toward Kāśī.

His mind became exceedingly restless with eager longing to see Kāśī;

though possessing a thousand rays, he then wished to take not just a single step in the sky.

Then, being a swan [in the sky], the sun's state of being a swan bore fruit,

for he was a traveler perpetually on the celestial path, desirous of going to Kāśī.

Then, having reached Kāśī, the sun, moving inside and out,

did not perceive the slightest breach of righteousness in that king.

Dwelling in Kāśī in various forms for a year, the sun

found no opening anywhere in that highly righteous king.

At times, becoming a guest and asking for what was hard to obtain, the sun

saw nothing that was hard to obtain in that king's realm.

At times he became a beggar, and sometimes he was a munificent giver;

at times he assumed a wretched state, and sometimes he was an astrologer.

And sometimes he demonstrated an action contrary to the Vedas;

at times he established empirical, worldly convictions.

Sometimes he had matted hair, and sometimes he went sky-clad;

sometimes he was a snake-charmer, expert in toxicology.

He knew the doctrines of all heretics, and sometimes he was an expounder of the absolute;

sometimes he was a magician, bewildering people.

And sometimes, through teachings of various vows,

he agitated devoted wives many times with illustrative tales.

Sometimes he was a twice-born observing the Kāpālika vow;

sometimes he was a scholar of science, and sometimes an alchemist.

Somewhere a brahmin, somewhere a prince, a merchant, or somewhere an outcaste;

somewhere he was a celibate student, somewhere a householder, somewhere a forest dweller,

and sometimes an ascetic—with these forms he bewildered the people;

and somewhere he was skilled in all lores, omniscient.

Thus, roaming Kāśī in various forms, the lord of the planets

never found any flaw in anyone anywhere.

Then Kaśyapa's son, stricken with anxiety, condemned himself:

“Fie on servitude to another, in which glory is nowhere gained!”

Mārtaṇḍa said:

“If I go to Mandara today, the Lord will instantly grow angry

at me, as if at an ordinary servant, whose purpose has not been accomplished.

Even taking his wrath upon myself, if I should go somehow,

how indeed could I stand before him like a foolish servant?

And if, uttering assent or in disregard, I somehow go,

the three-eyed lord will look at me in rage; then poison must be drunk by me.

Truly, if I become a moth into the fire of Hara's wrath,

even the grandfather [Brahmā] will certainly not be able to protect me.

Therefore I will stay right here forever; I will never leave,

having made my hermitage in Vārāṇasī according to the rule of kṣetrasaṃnyāsa.

For me remaining here without reporting the matter before the enemy of Tripura,

whatever sin shall arise, Kāśī is the expiation of that sin.

Whatever other sins there may be, great or small,

all those perish for virtuous people who enter Kāśī.

And this sin was not deliberately acquired by me;

for indeed formerly it was commanded by the enemy of Tripura: ‘Let righteousness be protected!’

By him by whom righteousness is protected while the body is swiftly passing away,

the three worlds are protected; what is the use of well-protected pleasure and wealth?

If pleasure ought to be protected, how was it that Kāma,

though bringing happiness to many, was in an instant reduced to bodilessness by the enemy of Kāma?

If it is said by some: ‘Wealth must be protected by all means,’

then why did Hariścandra not protect it when faced with Kuśika's son [Viśvāmitra]?

Righteousness, however, was protected by all, even at the cost of their bodies—

by kings like Śibi and by leading twice-borns like Dadhīci.

This very righteousness arising from service to Kāśī

will protect me even from an enraged Rudra, without a doubt.

Having reached Kāśī, so hard to attain, what conscious person abandons it?

Abandoning a jewel in one's hand, who desires to grasp a piece of glass?

He who, having cast aside Vārāṇasī, desires to go elsewhere,

kicks away a treasure with his foot and seeks wealth through begging.

Sons, friends, wives, fields, and riches,

can be obtained in birth after birth here; Kāśī alone is never obtained.

By him by whom the city of Kāśī—capable of delivering the three worlds—has been attained,

great bliss, difficult to obtain through the sovereign power of the three worlds, has been attained.

“Even if Rudra is angered, he will only cause the loss of my luster;

and in Kāśī I shall regain that luster which indeed is born of self-realization.

Other splendors shine here only so long,

resembling fireflies, as long as the glory born of Kāśī does not expand.”

Knowing thus the majesty of Kāśī, the eye of the universe, dispeller of darkness,

divided himself twelvefold and took up residence in the city of Kāśī:

Lolārka and Uttarārka, and likewise Sāmbāditya,

Drupadāditya as the fourth, and Mayūkhāditya,

Khakholka and Aruṇāditya, the two known as Vṛddhakeśava,

the tenth, Vimalāditya, and likewise Gaṅgāditya,

and the twelfth is Yamāditya in the city of Kāśī, O pot-born one!

These always protect the sacred field from wicked beings abundant in ignorance.

Because that sun’s mind was trembling (lola) upon seeing Kāśī,

therefore Vivasvat acquired the name Lolārka in Kāśī.

Lolārka, stationed at the confluence of the Asi in the southern direction,

always ensures the welfare and security of the people residing in Kāśī.

On the seventh or sixth day [of the lunar fortnight] of Mārgaśīrṣa, on a Sunday,

a man having performed the annual pilgrimage is freed from sins.

Whatever sins have been committed by men up to the span of a year,

are destroyed in an instant from the darśana of Lola on a Sunday that is a sixth tithi.

A man having bathed at the confluence of the Asi, having gratified the ancestors and deities,

and having performed a śrāddha according to rule, attains freedom from debt to the ancestors.

Having bathed at the confluence of Lolārka, gift-giving, oblation, worship of the gods—

whatever rite is performed leads to endless [merit].

At a solar eclipse at Lolārka, rites such as ritual ablution and gift-giving

are ten times greater than at Kurukṣetra here, there is no doubt.

Having bathed at Lolārka, at the confluence of the Gaṅgā and the Asi, on the Rathasaptamī,

one is freed that very moment from sins committed in seven lifetimes.

One of pure vows who beholds Lolārka on every Sunday,

suffering will never occur for him in this world.

Neither suffering, nor scabies, ringworm, or eczema befalls him

who beholds Lolārka on Sunday and honors the water of his feet.

Whoever, even having dwelt in Vārāṇasī, does not worship Lolārka,

surely troubles born of hunger and disease will beset that man.

Lolārka is the first head of all the sacred fords of Kāśī;

the other sacred fords are its limbs, flooded indeed with its water.

All other sacred fords, even those situated on the circle of the earth,

are not worth a sixteenth part of the sacred ford at the Asi confluence.

Whatever fruit is obtained from ritual ablution in all sacred fords,

that fruit is fully attained by men at the confluence of the Gaṅgā and the Asi.

This is not mere rhetoric (arthavāda) that has been spoken; it is not mere eulogy, O sage;

this is the truth, an accurate statement, to be believed with reverence by the virtuous.

Where Viśveśvara is present in person, where the river of heaven flows,

logicians and carpers wrongly consider that [testimony] false.

Those fools, arrogant with the force of sophistry, who declare,

“All this is mere rhetoric in Kāśī,” become worms in excrement age after age.

Even the pavilion of the three worlds could never equal the scale

of the great majesty of any single sacred ford of Kāśī, O sage.

To atheists, those outside the Veda, those devoted only to the belly and genitals,

and outcasts—before them let not Kāśī be described.

Scorched by the rays of Lolārka, severed by the sword-edge (asidhārā) [of the river],

those of great impurity cannot enter Kāśī from the southern direction.

Having heard this majesty of Lolārka, the best of men

never becomes miserable anywhere in this transmigration, this ocean of misery.

Thus ends the forty-sixth chapter, named “The Description of Lolārka,” in the first half of the Kāśīkhaṇḍa in the fourth [book of] the venerable Skandamahāpurāṇa, in the collection of eighty-one thousand [verses].