Skandapurana 6.3.200

Chapter 200 / The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Immediately following that, O Pārtha, is the excellent Sāvitrī sacred ford, / where the highly fortunate Sāvitrī, mother of the Vedas, attained perfection.

Yudhiṣṭhira said: / Who is Sāvitrī, O best of twice-borns? Or how is she propitiated by the wise? / And what boon does she grant when pleased? Tell me.

The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said: / She is Padmā, seated upon a lotus posture, an ascetic woman associated with the lotus; / she resembles the splendor of the sun, and therefore she is called Sāvitrī.

Lotus-faced, lotus-hued, with eyes resembling lotus petals, / she should be meditated upon constantly by brahmins, and by kṣatriyas and vaiśyas according to rule.

Never indeed [should she be meditated upon] by śūdras, out of fear of the sin of killing a brahmin; / by chanting or holding [the mantra], he surely falls into hell.

At the mere chanting of the Veda, the cutting of his tongue / should be performed by kṣatriyas, the protectors of dharma: such is the settled rule.

A young girl resembling the crescent moon, wearing red garments and ointments, / should be meditated upon at dawn during the morning twilight, in the supreme union.

With lofty, full breasts, beautiful-faced, auspicious to behold, / adorned with all ornaments, wearing white garlands and ointments,

clothed in white garments, wearing a white sacred thread, / the midday twilight should be meditated upon as a young woman, bestowing enjoyment and liberation.

At dusk, again, O Pārtha, [she is] white, with pale-grey hair; / when remembered well in an impassable wilderness, she protects like a mother.

Especially, O king of kings, at the excellent Sāvitrī sacred ford, / having bathed and sipped water according to the injunction, through acts of mind, speech, and body,

one should burn away numerous faults acquired across seven lifetimes through prāṇāyāmas; / one should sprinkle one's own body with the mantra 'āpo hi ṣṭhā'.

Nine, six, and three [times] at that sacred ford, O best of kings, / repeating 'āpo hi ṣṭhā' three times, one is not tainted by [the acceptance of] gifts.

Having performed the Aghamarṣaṇa with three verses over water according to the Veda, / one is not tainted by minor sins, just as a lotus leaf is not [wetted] by water.

If a brahmin sips three handfuls of water and makes three drawings [in water], / and he who causes a fourth to be made, removes [even] the sin of killing a brahmin.

And the mantra named Drupadā in the Vājasaneyi Veda, / when recited once while submerged in water, destroys all sins.

Having worshipped the sun with the mantra 'ud u tyaṃ', / one should recite the Gāyatrī, the divine, pure mother of the Vedas.

The twice-born one who recites the goddess Gāyatrī after the twilight worship / is freed from all sins and goes to the world of Brahmā.

With ten [recitations] Gāyatrī destroys the sin acquired in this life, with a hundred that performed in the past, / and with a thousand, the sin of three yugas.

Even a brahmin who possesses only the essence of the Gāyatrī, well-restrained, is superior; / not an unrestrained knower of the four Vedas who eats everything and sells everything.

One who is devoid of twilight worship is constantly impure, unfit for all ritual acts; / whatever other act he performs, he does not partake of its fruit.

The dull-witted brahmin who does not perform the twilight devotions / is a śūdra while still alive, and when dead is born as a dog. // 200.22

The twice-born who reaches Sāvitrītīrtha and chants the Sāvitrī / gains the fruit of the three Vedas; of this there is no doubt. // 200.23

Having bathed with the ancestors in mind, O king, he who makes an offering of rice-balls / satisfies his ancestors for twelve years. // 200.24

He who meets his death at Sāvitrītīrtha / dwells in the world of Brahmā until the dissolution of all beings. // 200.25

And when that time is complete, having returned to human birth here, / he is born, O king, into an immaculate family as a twice-born master of the four Vedas. // 200.26

Endowed with stores of wealth and grain, accompanied by sons and grandsons, / freed from sickness and grief, he lives for a hundred autumns. // 200.27

Thus ends the two-hundredth chapter, named 'Description of the Glory of Sāvitrītīrtha', in the Revākhaṇḍa of the fifth section, the Āvantyakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skandapurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.