Skandapurana 6.3.192

Chapter 192
Mārkaṇḍeya said:
Immediately next to it, my dear, is Devatīrtha, second to none. / Having seen the Lord of Śrī, a mortal on earth is freed from sins. 192.1

The god Janārdana is the son-in-law of that great seer Bhṛgu. 192.2

Yudhiṣṭhira said:
Who is this god, the Lord of Śrī, sovereign ruler of the gods, the all-pervading lord? / How did his birth come about among the three gods, O sage? 192.3

And how did Keśava become a relation of Bhṛgu? / You ought to tell this in detail, O holy descendant of Bhṛgu. 192.4

Mārkaṇḍeya said:
I shall tell briefly the great life of the Sādhya; / for not all the great seers together are capable of narrating it in full detail. 192.5

From the navel-lotus of Nārāyaṇa was born the four-faced god [Brahmā]. / Born of his limb was Dakṣa, O king, originating from the right thumb. 192.6

From the area of his chest Dharma was born, who became his son. / He is the companion of Nārāyaṇa, though unborn, O bull of the Bharatas. 192.7

Marutvatī, Vasu, Jñānā, Lambā, Bhānumatī, Satī, / Saṃkalpā, and Muhūrtā, Sādhyā, Viśvāvatī, [and] Kakubh— 192.8

these ten daughters of Dakṣa of great splendour were the wives of Dharma. / Among them, the highly blessed Sādhyā gave birth to sons, O king. 192.9

Nara, Nārāyaṇa, Hari, and likewise Kṛṣṇa: / these are the four sons of Dharma, portions of a portion of Viṣṇu.

Then Nārāyaṇa and Nara, on Mount Gandhamādana, / fixing the self upon the Self, performed supreme austerity,

Meditating on their own uncaused cause, incomparable, / Vāsudeva, undefinable, unthinkable, without boundary,

Engaged in yoga, the two great souls stood firm in intense austerity. / Through the power of their austerity, the sun did not burn hot,

The wind blew timidly, yet felt pleasant to the touch when untroubled; / and fire, though blazing, became exceedingly cool.

Lions, tigers, and other beasts roamed peacefully together with deer on the mountain. / Oppressed by their weight, O lord of the earth, the earth [groaned] like a cow;

The mountains trembled, and the great ocean was agitated. / The gods in their abodes, robbed of their luster and grown dim, / fell into great agitation, O protector of the earth.

Then Śakra, king of the gods, tormented by their austerity, / dispatched the apsarases there, wishing to cause an obstacle to them both.

Indra said: / 'O Rambhā, Tilottamā, Kubjā, Ghṛtācī, Lalitā, Śubhā, / Pramlocā, O fair-browed Sumlocā, Saurabheyī, highly proud one,

Alambuṣā, Miśrakeśī, Puṇḍarīkā, Varūthinī! / Displaying a lovely form that awakens love,

Go to Gandhamādana and do my bidding. / There Nara and Nārāyaṇa, two twice-born consecrated to austerity,

The two sons of Dharma, are performing austerity exceedingly difficult to practice. / For us, O fair-hipped women, they, practicing supreme austerity,

Inflict suffering and anguish through the excess of their rites, destroying our future. / Therefore go; you should feel no fear. [Hear] this word:

Smara will be your ally, and the spring season too, O lovely women! / Seeing your beauty and youth, which supremely kindle passion, / what man does not succumb helplessly to the power of Kandarpa?'

Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Having been thus addressed by the king of the gods, along with Madana, / all the apsarases and Spring went forth at that time, O lord of the earth.

Arriving at Gandhamādana, teeming with flocks of male cuckoos, / Spring ranged through the lovely [mountain] whose forest trees were in full bloom.

In the southern quarter, a breeze blew from the Malaya hills; / the forest became delightful with the buzzing sounds of swarms of bees.

And a fragrant scent, rising freshly from the forest groves, / brought delight to the nostrils of Kinnaras, Uragas, and Yakṣas.

And all those lovely women began to entice / the two seers, Nara and Nārāyaṇa, with words, bodily charms, and graceful smiles.

One sang charmingly, and an apsaras danced there; / another played [instruments] still more delightfully, O king.

With coquettish gestures, emotional expressions, flowing smiles, and sweet speech, / the slender-limbed women made an effort to agitate them both.

Even so, no perturbation arose in the minds of the two, / O lord of the earth, their consciousness having reached the far shore of the Self.

Just as two lamps standing in a windless place remain steady, O king, / so the minds of both remained at peace, surrendered to Vāsudeva.

And as the great ocean, though filled by waters, does not overflow into other land, / so their mind was nowhere agitated.

Regarding supreme Brahman, beneficent to all beings, as consisting of Vāsudeva, / they fell under the sway of neither passion nor hatred.

Smara could not enter their hearts, / just as darkness cannot enter an abode full of lights and radiant with knowledge.

The excellent trees glowing with blossoms, Spring, the southern breeze, / all those apsarases, and Kandarpa—the two great sages

And the austerity begun by them, themselves, and Gandhamādana— / beheld it all as the form of Brahman, O bull among men.

The blaze of fire is not for burning [fire], nor is water for moistening water; / for a substance itself cannot cause a change in that very substance.

Therefore, repeatedly recognizing supreme Brahman in its essential nature, / no disturbance arose in them on account of Spring, Kandarpa, or the women.

Then Spring and Madana made an even greater effort, O king, / and those slender-limbed women [did likewise] again and again to agitate them.

Then Nārāyaṇa, having composed his fortitude with an exalted mind, / created from his thigh a woman of beautiful limbs.

Every jewel among beauties in the three worlds, O protector of the earth, / fell into insignificance beside her qualities upon seeing her.

Beholding her, O king, the wind trembled in its heart, / Spring was struck with wonder, and Smara became bewildered.

Rambhā, Tilottamā, and the other celestial women were embarrassed; / they lost their radiance, O lord of the earth, their hearts and eyes fixed on her.

Then Kāma, Spring, and those celestial apsarases, O king, / bowed down to the two blessed ones, the best of sages, and praised them.

Spring, Kāma, and the apsarases said: / 'May the creator of the world be pleased, by whose divine māyā / we have been deluded; we know that there is no difference between you two.

May that god be pleased with you both, whose twofold form this is, / who is the abode of the worlds, beginningless, and self-supported.

May the two gods, Nara and Nārāyaṇa, both bearing the conch and discus as weapons, / show gracious faces unto us who have transgressed.

The treasury of all knowledge, a fire to the forest of all sins, / may Lord Nārāyaṇa therefore remove all our sins!

Bearing the bow Śārṅga as his emblem and weapon, glorious, consisting of self-knowledge, sinless, / may Nara destroy all sins of all embodied souls!

May this [pair] bound with matted hair, patient, / with gentle faces and looks, destroy our sins accumulated through lifetimes,

And likewise the great transgression committed through the defect of self-conceit, / since we came to entice the two lords worshipped by the three worlds.'

Be gracious, O Lord rich in wisdom! As towards those of dull vision, / the virtuous are ever the upholders of their own duty.

Having seen this best jewel of women produced by us, / [yet] the highest, transcendent mind arose in you, O Nārāyaṇa.

By that truth, O eternal Supreme Soul, whose self is truth, / O Nārāyaṇa, Lord, refuge of all the worlds, be gracious!

O one of clear intellect, of peaceful soul, with gracious face and eyes, / be gracious, O Lord of yogins, Nara, all-pervading and infallible!

We bow down to the god Nara, and likewise to Hari, Nārāyaṇa; / salutations to Nara who is worthy of homage, and salutations to Nārāyaṇa!

To those who are well-disposed, helpless, or have protectors, O Lord: / may Nara bring well-being to us; O Nārāyaṇa, grant us peace!

Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Thus praised with a hymn, free from attachment and aversion, / Nārāyaṇa, the Lord of all beings, spoke in their midst, O king:

Nārāyaṇa said: / Welcome to Spring, to Love, and to the apsarases as well! / Whatever business you have come for here, let it be stated to us.

Surely you have been sent by the enemy of Bala to test our success; / hence our witnessing of your dance-performance and the like.

We are not enticed by song or dance, nor by gestures and words of the limbs, / nor indeed by sensory objects; I deem sensory objects to be terrible by nature.

When our senses are not corrupted by contact with sound and the like, O auspicious ones, / then how could dancing and other emotional states cause desire?

We have attained perfection; we cannot be subdued by you, or Love, / or Spring. Let Indra also regain his composure, free from anxiety.

That highest, supreme Person, the Supreme Lord, / the Supreme Soul of everything unmoving and moving,

the cause of origin of these, in whom everything dissolves, / because as a divinity he abides in all, he is called Vāsudeva.

We are portions of portions of him, holding the dignity of the fourfold emanation, / walking on the path directed by him for the awakening of embodied beings in the world.

Seeing that Lord of all, identical with all beings, looking equally everywhere, / how could the two of us form divisive passions and hatreds?

When in Spring, in me, in Indra, in you, and likewise in Love / there is only that Soul of all beings, how then could there be hatred and the like?

When all living beings are composed of him and undivided, / and Viṣṇu is the Lord of all lords, whence then could come passion and the rest?

Brahmā, Indra, Īśāna, all the Ādityas and Maruts, / the Viśvedevas, seers, Sādhyas, Vasus, and the hosts of ancestors,

yakṣas, rākṣasas, bhūtas and others, nāgas, serpents, reptiles, / humans, birds, forms of cattle, elephants, lions, aquatic animals,

flies, mosquitoes, gnats, locusts, water-born worms, / among clumps, trees, creepers, spreading plants, bamboos, and species of grass,

and whatever is invisible or visible, O women of the gods: / understand all that to be born of the one Supreme Soul!

Being born, who would feel passion, hatred, or greed / toward Viṣṇu, who is also the supreme self, O women of the gods?

Viṣṇu being identical with all beings, all-pervading, the supporter of all— / having placed him into something separate, whence could any quality like passion arise?

Thus in us, in you, and in all beings, O women, / who are united in his oneness, what room is there for passion and the like?

This is declared to be the right vision, beholding unity in all; / cognition of separateness is only like worldly transaction.

Composed of elements, sense-organs, the inner faculty, primordial nature, and the soul, / this entire world exists; then what is the nature of distinction?

The waves of ocean water arise and dissolve; / they are not separate through difference of water; just so is this world due to unity.

Just as the flames of a fire may be yellow, reddish-brown, red, or grey, / yet are not separate from the fire, so is this world from Brahman.

And that Purandara seeks to cause agitation in us through you— / that is unworthy of those whose minds possess discernment and good conduct.

You, and that king of gods, and the worlds with the suras and asuras, / endowed with oceans, mountains, and forests, exist within the scope of my body.

Just as this woman, beautiful in all her limbs, has been shown / by me before you, in the same way I can show the entire universe.

Let Indra not fall into pride; for whom is the status of Indra ever stable? / And you must not feel haughty; there are women possessed of beauty.

What is handsome or ugly, when no difference is seen? / A gradation in beauty arises constantly from seeing difference.

Thinking of your pride born of the qualities of beauty and magnanimity, / this slender woman was shown by me, so that you may attain tranquility.

Since this blue-lotus-eyed woman was produced from my thigh, / she shall be an auspicious, excellent apsaras named Urvaśī.

Therefore, let this fair-complexioned woman be taken to the king of gods; / and you were sent by him because he desired [our] favour.

And the thousand-eyed one must be told: 'Our practice of austerity / is not for the sake of enjoyment, nor from a desire to obtain unattainable fruit.

I shall show and prepare the good path of this world, / and together with Nara, I am engaged in the protection of the universe.

If anyone causes trouble to you, O Lord of the gods, / I shall check him; be at ease, O Vāsava!

If you do not cause trouble to anyone who is wicked here, / then I, as the chastiser, shall take action against him without doubt.

Knowing this, you should feel no anguish towards me; / I have descended for the benefit of the worlds, O Vāsava!

And this Urvaśī who has sprung from me, O Purandara, / having been obtained in this manner, shall become the cause of the threefold sacrificial fire.'"

Thus ends the one hundred and ninety-second chapter, titled "Description of the Origin of the Lord of Śrī," in the Revākhaṇḍa of the Āvantyakhaṇḍa, within the Narmadāmāhātmya of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.