Skandapurana 6.2.5

Śrī Rudra said:

Know the fifth god to be Anādikalpeśvara, O Pārvatī,

destroyer of all sins, eternal; he is ever sung of as beginningless.

At the beginning of the kalpa in ancient times, O goddess, this liṅga emerged,

when there was neither fire nor sun, neither earth nor directions nor space,

neither wind nor water, neither sky nor moon nor planets,

neither gods nor asuras nor gandharvas, neither piśācas nor rākṣasas.

From this liṅga arose the universe, both unmoving and moving,

and in time it dissolves into this liṅga, O daughter of the mountain.

From this liṅga arose the lineages of divine seers and ancestors,

the manvantaras, the genealogies, and the deeds of their descendants;

as many creations as there are, and as many dissolutions;

the oceans, mountains, rivers, and forests;

the worlds such as Bhūrloka and the seven known netherworlds;

as well as the courses of the sun, moon, planets, lunar mansions, and celestial lights.

All that is visible and invisible [arose] from this liṅga, O fair-faced one.

That which is the beginningless cause, which the great seers call the unmanifest,

which they call the subtle, eternal Puruṣa, having the nature of being and non-being,

fixed, imperishable, ageless, immeasurable, dependent on nothing else,

devoid of smell, form, and taste, free from sound and touch,

without beginning or end, womb of the universe, source of the three guṇas, undecaying,

peerless, unknowable—[this] liṅga is proclaimed by the great seers.

At the end of the dissolution, this entire divine [reality] existed by it.

I, awakened on the earth, the origin of the world, having no beginning,

the cause of all, incomprehensible in self, supreme, extraordinary, transcending actions,

swiftly manifesting Prakṛti and Puruṣa, the Lord of the universe,

the Supreme Lord, agitated them through supreme yoga.

Just as fragrance causes an agitation merely by its presence,

without acting directly upon the mind, so that Supreme Lord,

the beginningless God, is spoken of as the supreme cause of the world.

As Pradhāna was agitated by that liṅga, O Pārvatī,

there arose the support of the worlds, celebrated as the cosmic egg,

in which egg the entire universe, with gods, asuras, and mortals,

is born and dissolved, and whose end cannot be reached.

He alone was formerly the agitator, and he the agitated, the sovereign of the earth.

Through contraction and expansion, he remains in the state of the primordial matter.

He, the Lord of the universe, though devoid of qualities, manifests quality of passion;

experiencing it and attaining the nature of Brahmā, he initiates creation.

In the nature of Brahmā he creates the worlds; then, through the predominance of goodness,

attaining the nature of Viṣṇu, he preserves them according to dharma.

Then, moved by the quality of darkness, in the nature of Rudra, having withdrawn the entire universe,

the three worlds, he indeed sleeps—the possessor of the three qualities, yet devoid of qualities.

Just as the same field-owner is first called a sower, then a protector, and then a reaper,

and acquires those names accordingly, so it is with the states of Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Rudra.

In the nature of Brahmā he creates the worlds, and in that of Rudra he destroys them;

in the nature of Viṣṇu he protects them all. These three states are always remembered:

Passion is Brahmā, darkness is Rudra, and goodness is Viṣṇu, the lord of the world.

These indeed are the three Vedas; these indeed are the three men.

In every aeon he is sung of as beginningless by the gods,

by the ancestors, the gaṇas, and the perfected ones; hence, Anādikalpeśvara

is the name acquired, O large-eyed lady, always in the Mahākāla forest.

When a dispute arose between Brahmā and Keśava,

“I am superior! I am superior!” at the start of the aeon, concerning the cause of creation,

a divine voice arose then from the sky without support:

“In the Mahākāla forest there is a liṅga named Kalpeśvara;

whoever perceives its beginning or its end, he shall be the lord.

There is no doubt about it; let no dispute be made.”

Then, O goddess, Brahmā went to the endless upper world;

prompted by that statement, Viṣṇu quickly went to the lower world.

Neither its beginning nor its end was seen by Brahmā or by Keśava.

Then, filled with wonder, they praised [the liṅga] to each other.

Honoring [it] with various hymns declared in the Vedas, standing before it:

“There is no beginning, nor is there an end, nor is any limit seen here.

Therefore, from this day forth on the surface of the earth, this beginningless aeon [Lord]

shall be renowned by name in the excellent Mahākāla forest.

Whatever mortal is afflicted with the five great sins and has an evil mind,

even he, having seen the benevolent Anādikalpeśvara, would attain Śiva.

May there always be auspiciousness for those to whom you have become visible;

blessed are they in the world of mortals who have sought refuge in you.

Whatever religious merit is attained by men through ablutions in all sacred fords,

all that and more, O Lord, is obtained from your darśana.

They fall into saṃsāra, filled with pleasure and pain, only so long as

the savior from the ocean of saṃsāra, O Lord, is not seen.

When men's sin is exhausted, then darśana of you occurs.

Whether a slayer of a brahmin, or a drinker of liquor, a thief, or a violator of the guru's bed,

or a man who associates with them, committing great wicked deeds—

even he goes to the supreme abode, free from return.

Whatever fruit is attained by the horse sacrifice and by the Rājasūya sacrifice,

that fruit one fully attains, O Lord, by worshiping you.

Those men in the world are beasts; their birth is futile

by whom the great god, Anādikalpeśvara, Śiva, has not been seen.”

Having spoken thus, the god Keśava and Brahmā, O fair-faced lady,

stood on the left and right side of that liṅga.

This power that destroys sins has been told to you, O goddess,

by merely hearing which the supreme abode is attained.

Thus ends the fifth chapter, named ‘Description of the Māhātmya of Anādikalpeśvara’ in the Māhātmya of the Eighty-Four Liṅgas in the Āvantyakhaṇḍa, the fifth section of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a compendium of eighty-one thousand [verses].