Skandapurana 1.4.43: adhyāyaḥ 45

Nārada said: / So also listen to a wonderful tale concerning the holy place Bahūdaka. / For the pool Bahūdaka which is in Kāmarūpa, 45.1

has transferred its presence here; therefore it is called Bahūdaka. / And here Kapila, having performed austerities for very many years, 45.2

installed an auspicious liṅga known as Kapileśvara. / And that liṅga, O Pārtha, a merchant named Nandabhadra 45.3

constantly worshipped three times a day with deep respect. / He knew the distinctions of all dharmas, like Dharma himself in visible form. 45.4

Nothing that is proclaimed in dharmas was unknown to him. / He was always a friend to everyone and devoted to the welfare of all. 45.5

He took refuge in this dharma in action, thought, and speech; / there has been no dharma, nor will there be, nor is there any 45.6

that is flawless everywhere—having thus resolved, he stood firm. / From this ocean of dharma, which had expanded in every direction, 45.7

hear what was extracted after Nandabhadra churned it. / Considering commerce best for livelihood, he then engaged [in it]. 45.8

He had a shelter constructed out of measured wood and grass. / Free from intoxicants, free from discrimination, free from dishonesty, and equitable, 45.9

he carried on trade among all living beings with small profit. / Having acquired merchandise from others without deception, 45.10

he sold it to creatures without any deceit: this was his noble practice. / Some praise sacrifice; Nandabhadra did not approve of it. 45.11

Ascertaining this fault, hear of it, O son of Pāṇḍu: / A greedy, untruthful, and deceitful man, intent on praising himself, 45.12

by performing sacrifices destroys the world and leads himself to blinding darkness. / An oblation properly cast into the fire reaches the Sun; 45.13

from the Sun rain is born; from rain, food; and from that, living beings. / But whenever the patron of the sacrifice, the officiating priest, and the sacrificial goods 45.14

are essentially stolen, the birth of people arises from impurity. / When a sacrifice is performed without the priest's fee, in vain, and contrary to the injunctions, 45.15

the slaughtered sacrificial beasts strike the dead patron of the sacrifice with cudgels. / Therefore, the patron of the sacrifice is considered auspicious [only] with pure barley materials. 45.16

Having thus deliberated upon sacrifice, he adhered to the essence of sacrifice: / worship of the gods performed with faith, reverent bowing, auspicious praise, 45.17

and the food-offering consisting of sacrificial food—this indeed is a sacrifice free from sin. / That alone is truly declared to be sacrifice by which the deities are pleased. 45.18

Some praise renunciation; Nandabhadra did not approve of it. / For one who renounces the objects of sense and yet grasps them again in his mind 45.19

has fallen from both; like fragmented ground, he is destroyed. / But what is the highest essence of renunciation, that was embraced by him: 45.20

He neither curses nor praises the actions of anyone; / observing the world established in diverse paths, he remains absorbed upon earth like the moon. 45.21

He neither hates nor desires; he is neither hostile nor fawning; / stone and gold are equal to him; he is wise, looking upon blame and praise of himself as the same; 45.22

granting safety to all living beings, appearing as if blind and deaf; / having no desire for the fruit of actions—for that is worship of Śiva. 45.23

Seeking dharma by reasonable grounds and not acting out of greed, 45.24

Nandabhadra, having discriminated, grasped its essence among the ways of liberation. / Some praise agriculture; Nandabhadra did not approve of it, 45.25

in which they castrate bulls and pierce their noses, / make them drag heavy loads, bind them, and break them in, 45.26

lead them to regions infested with gadflies and full of thick mud; / oppressed by burdens, the draft animals suffer, and others [perish] unlawfully. 45.27

They consider even the killing of an embryo to be no worse than this work. / In the Veda the name for cows is ‘unslayable’; how then could one torment them? 45.28

The iron-tipped wood strikes the earth and creatures living in the earth. / In living beings endowed with five senses, all divinity resides. 45.29

The Sun, the Moon, and the Wind, after producing them—for one who / sells them, exceedingly foolish, what consideration can there be? 45.30

The goat is Agni, the ram is Varuṇa, the Sun is earth and Virāṭ, / the cow and the calf are Soma; by selling these, one does not attain success. 45.31

Agriculture is always accompanied by thousands of faults of this kind: / A plow should have eight oxen, and one should abandon a thirtieth share of the farm; 45.32

one should give aged beasts for dharma—how could this agriculture ever prosper? / That essence of agriculture was respected by that Nandabhadra. 45.33

Food should be prepared and offered according to one's capacity to the gods and ancestors; / having assigned it to men, twice-born, and living beings, one should always eat.

Some praise lordly power, but Nandabhadra did not value it: / humans exploit fellow humans in the condition of servitude;

day and night they torment [them] with slaughter, binding, and imprisonment. / Whose own body is this: the Creator's, the mother's, or the father's,

the mother's, the father's, the powerful buyer's, or even of fire and dogs? / Thinking thus, masters lived like the immortals.

The intoxication of lordly power is the most sinful of all, surpassing the intoxication of strong wine; / for a man intoxicated with the pride of lordly power falls and is driven mad.

[Looking] upon all servants as upon himself, he was never intoxicated by wealth.

An embodied soul possessing self-conviction—where indeed is there such a master? / He seized the essence even of lordship; listen to this:

according to his capacity he was never indifferent towards all beings. / Some praise sacred fords, but Nandabhadra did not value [them]:

one should not incur the destruction of the house of virtue through fatigue, confusion, heat, cold, wind, hunger, thirst, / or anger.

Whether through comfort, wealth, or faith, one who has few possessions, / being capable of great merit—where is he who is able to attain [it]?

Always pure, sacrificing to the gods, the essence of the sacred ford is in every house. / Waters do not purify sins, nor do mountains, nor great hermitages;

the self purifies sins if it turns away from sin. / Thus the wise Nandabhadra constantly adhered to / the righteous conduct that manifested here and there, unifying it.

While that virtuous man conducted himself in this manner, even the gods envied [him]. / All, headed by Vāsava, experienced supreme astonishment.

And in this very place there was a śūdra neighbor; / he constantly envied the highly righteous Nandabhadra.

A non-believer of wicked conduct, he was known by the name Satyavrata. / He was always watching for a vulnerability in Nandabhadra:

"If I see an opening in him, then I will turn him away from righteousness." / Such is the very nature of cruel, atheistic, wicked souls:

they cause their own downfall and cause the downfall of others too.

Then, as this wise Nandabhadra was living in this manner, / an only son was born with difficulty, and he died in his old age.

Considering that to be caused by fate, the great-minded one did not grieve: / whether a god or a human being, who indeed is freed from fate?

Then his dearly beloved wife, endowed with all virtues of a faithful wife, / who was the embodiment of household virtue, as if Arundhatī in visible form,

came to destruction, O Pārtha, Kanakā by name. / Then, although he had restrained his senses, due to the destruction of household duty,

he grieved, "Alas, what misery! I am a sinner!" repeatedly. / Seeing that vulnerability in him, Satyavrata rejoiced after a long time.

Approaching and saying, "Alas, what misery!" to that Nandabhadra, / coming near like [the cat] Dadhikarṇa, he spoke to Nandabhadra:

"Alas, Nandabhadra, if such a result befalls even you, / because of this I consider in my mind that even this virtue is utterly in vain.

Speaking thus in various ways, uttering such words from here and there, / Satyavrata, full of [feigned] pity, then said to Nandabhadra:

"Nandabhadra, I have always wished to say something to you, / but due to the absence of an occasion, nothing was spoken by me anywhere.

Speaking words without an occasion, even Bṛhaspati certainly / incurs disrespect for his intellect and contempt like an inferior."

Nandabhadra said: / "Speak, speak! Nothing good and supremely dear should be concealed from me. / Even liberation cannot be compared with the words of those whose minds are pure."

Satyavrata said: / "Free from twice nine faults of speech / and nine defects of the intellect, I will speak faultless words.

Subtlety, enumeration, sequence, and resolution endowed with a purpose— / where these five classes of meaning are present, that is called a proper statement.

What is spoken with aim towards virtue, wealth, pleasure, and liberation / is declared to be the 'purpose,' the first characteristic of speech.

Having specifically made a proposition regarding virtue, wealth, pleasure, and liberation, / stating 'it is this' at the end of a sentence is 'resolution.'

That which must be spoken in sequence, 'this first, this next,' / the wise who know the truth of speech call that the 'application of sequence.'

The measure of faults and merits according to their division, / discerning both purposes—let that be understood as 'enumeration.'

Where non-difference is seen among distinct objects to be known through speech, / because it is the cause of distinction there, one should designate that as 'subtlety.'

Thus of the merits of speech; now hear the eighteen faults of speech: / devoid of meaning, redundant, metre-breaking, superfluous,

harsh, ambiguous, having a heavy syllable at the end of a word, / turning its face away from the topic, untruthful, unrefined,

contrary to the three aims of life, deficient, using harsh and excessive words, / stated out of order, incomplete, groundless,

and purposeless. And hear those faults born of the intellect: / from desire, anger, fear, greed, wretchedness, ignobility,

deficient compassion, or pride, I shall speak nothing. / When speaker, listener, and statement are unimpaired,

and united in the intention to speak, then that meaning shines forth. / But when the speaker scorns the listener in what is to be spoken,

or the listener scorns the speaker, then the statement does not take root. / Moreover, one who speaks what is pleasing to oneself or to the listener, having abandoned the truth,

doubt arises in that, and that statement also becomes faulty. / Therefore, one who, having abandoned what is pleasing to oneself or what is pleasing to the listener,

speaks only the truth—he is the speaker, none other on earth, / having abandoned false statements arising from the web of scriptures."

Because truth alone is my vow, therefore I am Satyavrata.
I shall tell you the truth; you ought to understand it as such.

Ever since you, my good man, have been devoted to worshipping a stone,
from that time on I do not see any good at all [for you].

Even that one son was lost, and your noble wife also perished.
O good man, such indeed is the fruit of deceptive rites.

Where are the gods? This is false. If they exist, they would be visible.
This whole fabrication is made by deceitful brahmins for the sake of wealth.

When they offer gifts in the name of the ancestors, laughter arises in me.
And that waste of food—for would a dead man eat?

As for how the foolish, base twice-born describe in many ways
the entire creation of the universe, listen nevertheless to the truth [about it]:

Both the origin and the dissolution of the universe are false.
In this very way does this entire world always exist.

By inherent nature this universe exists; by inherent nature these [luminaries] headed by the sun revolve;
by inherent nature the winds blow constantly; and by inherent nature this cloud rains.

By inherent nature the variety of grains sprouts; by inherent nature rain, cold, and heat occur;
by inherent nature the earth remains firm; and by inherent nature rivers flow.

By inherent nature the mountains constantly shine; by inherent nature this ocean remains situated;
by inherent nature a pregnant woman gives birth; and by inherent nature these many living beings exist.

Just as by inherent nature, due to the nature of the season, thorns grow crooked on the jujube tree,
even so by inherent nature all this appears; no creator at all is seen.

The world being thus constituted, a fool is bewildered like a madman.
As for human birth being the foremost, which scoundrels declare—listen to that:

There is no misery greater than human birth; may our enemies not have it!
For a human being, there are thousands of grounds for grief at every moment.

Human birth has only an imaginary form; fortunate is one who is freed from it.
Beasts, birds, insects, and worms [live] as they please;

Unfettered, they roam about; their womb is exceedingly difficult to attain.
Stationary beings are free from care; their happiness on earth is great.

What need of much words? Everyone born in other wombs is more blessed than humans.
Recognize that the idea of merit and demerit is merely inherent nature.

Because some are immobile things, worms, birds, and humans and the rest,
therefore, abandoning falsehood, O Nandabhadra, enjoy pleasures at will
and drink along with companions: this is the truth on earth.

Nārada said:
At these words that were unpleasant, unreasonable, and improper,

spoken by Satyavrata, the high-minded Nandabhadra was not shaken.
As if laughing, he said to him, being unshakeable like the ocean:

"As to what you say—that the virtuous are always partakers of sorrow—
that is false; we see webs of sorrows even for sinners.

Slaying, binding, extreme afflictions, and the death of sons, wives, and the like
are seen even among sinners; therefore, dharma is considered supreme.

'This is a righteous man! Ah, what misery, what misery is his!'—great people say this
even of a righteous man; but even such [pity] is hard for sinners to attain.

When a sinner enters a house to seize the wealth, wife, and possessions of a noble person,
even you fear him, hate him, and get angry; so [your philosophy is] pointless.

As for your saying that Maheśvara is not the cause of this world,
that is childish talk on your part: can there be subjects without a king?

And when you say, 'You falsely worship a stone, a liṅga,'
you do not know the greatness of the liṅga, just as a blind man does not know the sun.

All gods beginning with Brahmā, kings of great prosperity,
humans, and sages indeed all worship the liṅga.

They have liṅgas marked with their own names.
Were these [all] fools, and are you alone, Satyavrata, the wise one?

In ancient times, having established Nīlalohita at Puṣkara,
the lord Brahmā attained supreme perfection and created these creatures.

By Viṣṇu too, having slain Rāvaṇa in battle, the Rāmeśvara liṅga
was established on the shore of the ocean; is that in vain?

In ancient times Śakra, having slain Vṛtra and established Śaṃkara
as a liṅga on Mount Mahendra, was freed from sin and rejoices in heaven even today.

The Sun, having established Śiva at the confluence of the Gaṅgā and the ocean,
became free from disease; and Soma [did so] at Prabhāsa on the western ocean.

Yama and Kubera in Kāśī, Garuḍa and Kaśyapa on the Sahya mountain,
and Vāyu and Varuṇa in Naimiṣa, having established liṅgas, were filled with joy.

Right at this Stambhatīrtha, did not the all-powerful Lord Guha, Kumāra,
establish a liṅga that destroys all sins?

Likewise, the liṅgas established by other gods,
kings, and sages—I cannot venture to count them all.

All the dwellers on earth, those who dwell in heaven,
and the dwellers of Pātāla become satisfied through the worship of the liṅga.

And when you say, 'Gods do not exist; if they exist, why
are they not seen anywhere?'—at that I feel great astonishment.

Should those gods beg from you like a beggar for horsegram,
[that] which you wish for, O very wise one? Truly your teacher must be an adept!

If in your view all things are accomplished from inherent nature alone,
tell me, how could [prepared] food and the like be accomplished without a maker?

Thorns are not seen without a jujube tree either;
therefore, everything has a maker, however much [it exists], just so it is.

And when you say, 'Beasts and other animals are happy and blessed,'
except for you, this has never been spoken or heard by anyone.

Alas, [to think of] those that are tamasic and defective as praiseworthy!
Why are humans, who possess all sense-organs and are superior, not the blessed ones?"

"Truly I consider your resolve has been adopted by you for hell. / One should not fear extreme misfortune; this desire of yours will soon be [fulfilled].

From the very beginning, by your mere ostentation, I was certain of your ignorance; / for emptiness is evident in this way from an initial show of ostentation.

The speech spoken by deceitful people is enveloped in pomp, / like a counterfeit coin that is shiny; this should always be examined by the virtuous.

Those whose words are faultless in the beginning, in the middle, and at the end, / would be pure and auspicious even when cut, like gold through rubbing and heating.

You made one pledge, but spoke differently again; / this fault is not ours, but belongs to you, since we listen to your words.

Indeed, this is the quality of atheists, serpents, and poison: / that they bewilder others; but the fault does not belong to another.

Just as water, cloth, sesame seeds, oil, or fragrance / take on qualities by the infusion of flowers, so too are the qualities born of association.

Association with fools here is the source of the net of delusion; / day after day, association with the virtuous is the source of righteousness.

Therefore, association should be made with the wise, the elderly, those of pure intent, ascetics, / and the virtuous who are devoted to tranquility;

not with the low, nor with the unlearned, especially not with those who do not know the Self. / Those whose three things are pure—origin, learning, and conduct—

and especially those who possess knowledge of the scriptures, one should serve. / By seeing, touching, conversing, sitting, and dining with the wicked,

human beings fall away from righteous conduct and do not attain success; / and the intellect of men declines from association with the low.

With middling people it reaches mediocrity, and with the highest it reaches excellence.' / Remembering this righteousness, I do not wish to associate with you again, / since you revile the very brahmins by whom the ocean was rendered undrinkable.

The Vedas are an authority; the Smṛtis are an authority; speech endowed with righteousness and purpose is an authority. / For one to whom these three are not an authority, who would regard his word as an authority?"

Having spoken this word, that noble-minded Nandabhadra immediately / stepped out from the house and went to the sacred Bahūdaka, the pool of Bhaṭṭaravi.

Thus ends the forty-fifth chapter, titled 'The Description of the Merchant Nandabhadra's Account' in the māhātmya of the Kapileśvara tīrtha, in the Kaumārikākhaṇḍa of the first [section], the Māheśvarakhaṇḍa, in the Mahāpurāṇa of Śrī Skanda containing eighty-one thousand verses.