Skandapurana 15.4

The venerable Prahlāda said: / Having been thus honored by Hari, that best of brahmins / spoke, highly delighted, to Keśava: 'Ask a boon.'

The venerable Kṛṣṇa said: / 'If you are pleased, O venerable one, if a boon is to be given to me, / you must stay here; you must never depart.'

Durvāsas said: / 'If I stay, O Kṛṣṇa, then you also, O Keśava, / stay, endowed with sixteen parts, perpetually by my word.'

The venerable Kṛṣṇa said: / 'Those who behold you and me here with devotion, O best of the twice-born: / what fruit will you give them in the future? Tell me, O venerable one.'

Durvāsas said: / 'A person who, having bathed at the confluence of the Gomatī and the ocean, O Kṛṣṇa, / worships you and me, is freed from all sins.

Likewise hear another thing, O Kṛṣṇa: whatever wealth one will give after bathing here, / O lord of the gods, he will obtain sixteen times what was given to me.'

The venerable Kṛṣṇa said: / 'To that person who, having worshipped you, shall worship me here, / I will grant liberation, which is hard even for the gods to attain.'

Prahlāda said: / Having joyfully given boons to each other, Kṛṣṇa and Durvāsas / stayed in that place from that time on, O best of brahmins; / that sacred ford, granting all desires, is called Varadāna.

A man who bathes in Varadāna obtains the fruit of [donating] a thousand cows, / where the granting of boons between Viṣṇu and Durvāsas took place in ancient times.

From that time forward, O best of brahmins, Hari remains in Dvārakā; / bound by the word of Durvāsas, he never leaves it.

Where the image of Trivikrama stands and where the Gomatī flows, / men united with the Cakra-tīrtha will go to liberation.

When his mortal body was abandoned at Prabhāsa by Hari, / his splendor along with his sixteen parts was placed into that image.

Therefore in the Kali age, O brahmins, Hari is not found anywhere else. / If you have business with Kṛṣṇa, go there without delay.'

The seers said: / 'Well said, O best of devotees of the Lord! Well said, O shower of the path! / That which has been understood by you, no one else knows.

What is the fruit of going to it? What is the fruit of beholding Kṛṣṇa? / Which sacred fords are right there, and which gods? Tell us that!'

In which month, on which lunar day, on which conjunction should human beings / go, [and] what gifts should be given, O bull among Danujas? 16

Sūta said: / Thus asked then by them, that asura, the great devotee of the Lord, / endowed with devotion to the Lord, narrated to the brahmins. 17

Prahlāda said: / O gods of the earth, listen to the supreme, eternal secret, / which has not been told to anyone; that I shall tell in full detail. 18

When one sets one's mind toward going to Dvārakā, / then the ancestors, freed from hell, sing in heaven. 19

For as many steps as a human being walks on the path of Kṛṣṇa, / at every step one obtains the fruit of the horse sacrifice. 20

And whoever urges other human beings to make the pilgrimage / to the God of gods—of this there is no doubt—attains the abode of Viṣṇu. 21

He who offers shelter to one traveling to Dvārakā, / as well as sweet speech, rejoices and plays indeed. 22

He who gives a conveyance to one whose body is exhausted on the path, / that man goes to heaven in an aerial chariot yoked with swans. 23

To one traveling on the pilgrimage, hungry at midday, / whoever gives food with devotion—hear what comes to him as well: 24

Whatever merit a human being gains on earth by a śrāddha at Gayā, / that merit [is gained] by the giving of food, and inexhaustible satisfaction of the ancestors. 25

He who gives shoes to those traveling to Dvārakā, / through Kṛṣṇa's favor, that man rides on the shoulder of an elephant. 26

But he who causes an obstacle to those traveling to Dvārakā, / that fool sinks into the Raurava hell for an entire kalpa. 27

The fortunate person who gives a water jar to someone on the road / obtains the fruit of a thousand water booths. 28

He who offers foot massage and washing of the feet / to one traveling on the pilgrimage shall attain all desires. 29

He who listens to a song about Viṣṇu and sings praise on the road, / and gives gifts, O foremost of brahmins—none is more fortunate than he. 30

The best among men who beholds the temple of the divine Kṛṣṇa, / like an abode on the peak of Kailāsa, spotless like a white cloud, 31

seeing from afar the golden pinnacle with its banner, / abandoning his conveyance, lies rolling on the ground. 32

The sin committed through the five slaughterhouses, and whatever was committed by unrighteousness, / the worms, insects, and moths killed while walking on the road, / the eating of another's food, drinking of another's water, and contact with the untouchable— / all that is destroyed by the darśana of the Lord's banner. 34

One should recite the thousand names, or the king of hymns, / or the liberation of the elephant king, walking slowly on the road, 35

singing the manifold manifestations of the Lord, / rejoicing again and again with dancers filled with joy; / dancing oneself, filled with joy, the devotee should go to the city of Hari. 36

A place of play for Viṣṇu, granting worldly enjoyment and liberation, / seen by men in the Kali age, liberation alone arises. 37

Prahlāda said: / Formerly indeed, the noble-minded Bṛhaspati, having been bowed to with supreme devotion, / was asked by the king of the gods, that great-minded one. 38

Indra said: / Graciously tell the māhātmya of Dvārakā, / [and how] through the parts of the four ages people obtain the increase of righteousness. 39

Hearing these words of Mahendra, O best of sages, / Bṛhaspati spoke to that Mahendra surrounded by gods: 40

Bṛhaspati said: / Kṛta, Tretā, Dvāpara, and Kali, O best of gods— / this fourfold age has been explained according to reality by the best of sages. 41

In the Kṛta age, dharma has four quarters, and the fruit of the Vedas and so forth, / sacred ford, gift, austerity, knowledge, meditation, long life, and freedom from disease. 42

All this is diminished by one quarter in the age named Tretā, O Lord; / in the Dvāpara age it has two quarters, of all this, O Vāsava. 43

With one quarter all that remains in the first part of the Kali age; / thereafter will be the destruction of all, of this there is no doubt. 44

Mantras, sacred fords, sacrifices, austerity, divine rites and so forth, / as well as the Vedas and the treatises, will go to complete destruction. 45

Kings will be mostly barbarians, O ruler of the immortals; / the world will revile virtuous people and those observing vows. 46

Prahlāda said: / Hearing this speech of Bṛhaspati regarding the sacred ford, O twice-born, / all the gods trembled from fear arising from contact with barbarians. 47

Endowed with humility, they asked Bṛhaspati, the preceptor of the gods: / The defect born of contact with barbarians is not purified even by the Gaṅgā. 48

Graciously describe a place free from the Kali age, / having gone to which we may dwell and attain supreme bliss, 49

by which, freed from sorrow, we may be rid of distress; / becoming gracious out of compassion, speak of a sacred ford for our welfare. 50

Prahlāda said: / Hearing this speech of the king of the gods, the best of the Aṅgirases, / having meditated for a long time, the priest of the gods spoke this word: 51

Bṛhaspati said: / Five krośas in extent is the sacred ford, the best among excellent sacred fords, / famed by the name Dvārakā, free from the defects of the Kali age. 52

A place fashioned by Viṣṇu, granting the supreme destination to people, / granting liberation in the Kali age even to people devoid of knowledge. 53

A saline ground for actions, a sacred field destroying sins; / sins, once destroyed there, do not sprout again indeed. 54

Three and a half crores of sacred fords are here on the surface of the earth; 55

endowed with such sacred fords, Dvārakā, granting liberation there, / should be resorted to with effort, having obtained the excellent human birth. 56

Prahlāda said: / Hearing Bṛhaspati's words, the performer of a hundred sacrifices then said: / O Lord of speech, tell me the great rise of Dvāravatī: / what fruit is proclaimed for going [there] and for the darśana of the divine Kṛṣṇa? 57

Tell me of the other foremost sacred fords there, O guru, / and likewise what fruit comes from ritual ablution in the Gomatī and at its confluence.

Bṛhaspati said: / Listen, dear one, I shall declare the māhātmya originating from Dvārakā, / where the blessed Lord Keśava plays in human form.

Nārāyaṇa, that sovereign lord consisting of the universe, should be meditated upon in the beginning; / he alone, the foremost among deities, resides in the city of Dvāravatī.

With each single step taken toward the city of Dvāravatī, / in the Kali age, the merit of a thousand sacrifices accrues to embodied beings.

Those best of men who go to Kṛṣṇa's delightful city in the Kali age / go to the abode of Hari along with a hundred times ten million of their kinsmen.

Those who mentally contemplate going toward Dvārakā— / their sin committed across ten thousand previous births is dissolved.

That embodied being in whom the intention arises to have the darśana of Kṛṣṇa— / from looking upon his face, their sin is shattered into a thousand pieces.

Those who have gone to Dvārakā and those who have died in the presence of Kṛṣṇa— / there is no return for them as long as the dissolution of all beings lasts.

Mathurā, Kāśī, and Avantī are easy to reach, O gods; / Ayodhyā is easy to reach in this world, but Dvārakā is hard to reach in the Kali age.

Having gone to Kṛṣṇa's delightful city and staying six months in Kṛṣṇa's presence, / they are to be known as liberated while living; this is the truth, O best of gods.

Those who desire with their mind the place that is the site of Kṛṣṇa's sports, O dear one— / the Lord of the Dead washes away the sin residing in their hearts.

Even exceedingly terrible sins remain in the body only so long / as a person does not go toward Dvāravatī in the Kali age.

A tally of the merit of sacred fords, / called gifts and study, was laid down long ago by Brahmā—excepting Dvāravatī in the Kali age.

Whatever person goes to Cakratīrtha, even by chance, / accompanied by twenty-one generations of his family, he goes to the supreme abode.

Whether out of greed, wrongdoing, hypocrisy, or deceit, / whoever goes to Cakratīrtha does not enter mundane existence again.

Whatever fruit is proclaimed by casting bones [of the dead] at Prayāga, / that very same fruit is a hundred-thousandfold from casting bones at Cakratīrtha.

And that sacred ford is proclaimed supreme upon the earth; / known as Cakratīrtha, it destroys [the sin of] killing a brahmin.

Whatever people shall come in the family, as well as those before them on earth— / all go to the city of Viṣṇu from the casting of bones at Cakratīrtha.

What is the use of many sons born merely to fill out a number? / Better would be a single son who goes to Cakratīrtha.

What is the use of austerity severely performed? What of giving, or of study? / In any condition whatsoever one is freed, if one has gone to Kṛṣṇa's city.

Even by the most terrible faults caused by the Kali age, a person / is never tainted, once he has looked upon the face of Kṛṣṇa in the Kali age.

Giving, study, and ritual purity are of no consequence, dear son; / even an outcaste or a sinful soul is freed, if he has gone to Kṛṣṇa's city.

Whatever fruit is gained at Vārāṇasī, Kurukṣetra, and on the Narmadā— / that fruit is obtained in half a twinkling of an eye day after day in Dvāravatī.

Fortunate among the fortunate are they, gods among the gods, / whose mind fixed on Kṛṣṇa is never diminished.

On the conjunction of the Śravaṇā twelfth day, at the confluence of the Gomatī and the ocean, / having bathed and looked upon the son of Kṛṣṇa, one is never tainted anywhere.

Reaching the twelfth day of whatever month, / and seeing the city of Kṛṣṇa's sports, a person is freed from the chasm of saṃsāra.

Those whose vital breaths depart in Kṛṣṇa's abode in the Kali age, O lord of gods— / there is no return for them from heaven, even after hundreds of millions of kalpas.

Human beings on earth by whom the god who slew Kaṃsa has not been seen / in Dvāravatī are to be regarded, dear one, as still trapped in the womb.

Hard to obtain is dwelling in Dvārakā, hard to obtain is the darśana of Kṛṣṇa, / hard to obtain is ritual ablution in the Gomatī, hard to obtain is the husband of Rukmiṇī.

Austerity is said to be supreme in the Kṛta age, knowledge in the Tretā, / but sacrifice is supreme in the Dvāpara, and the praise of Keśava in the Kali age.

Whatever fruit is obtained by giving thousands of bhāras of gold, / that is multiplied ten-millionfold upon seeing Hari's face, which bestows all things.

What is given at Dvārakā and likewise at Śaṅkhoddhāra, / and what is given at the great sacred ford Piṇḍāraka becomes imperishable.

Whatever cows, female buffaloes, gold, and garments are given, / as well as a bull, a gift of land, silver, and the gifting of a maiden in marriage—

and whatever else one gives in these three places, O lord of the gods, / that is declared to bring liberation to the ancestors and to oneself.

Because this sacred field is renowned in the world as sterile soil, / therefore every gift [given here] is declared by the great seers to grant liberation.

Whatever slight gift, sport, or plunge [into the waters] one performs there, / that yields infinite fruit, so the blessed Lord Madhusūdana declared.

There is no state of being a ghost for him, nor the torment of Yama's hell, / by whom, having gone to Dvāravatī, the sight of Kṛṣṇa was attained.

When a funerary cake is offered in the Kali age with merely the water of the Gomatī, / satisfaction comes to the ancestors for as long as the dissolution of all beings lasts.

Those who, dwelling in their homes, daily remember the charming city of Kṛṣṇa / are worthy of worship by all worlds and by the gods, O best of gods.

Knowledge of Brahman, śrāddha at Gayā, death while defending cattle, / and residence in Dvārakā for men—this is the fourfold liberation.

They are liberated by knowledge of Brahman, or by death at Prayāga, / or simply by ritual ablution in the Gomatī in the presence of Kṛṣṇa.

‘I have accomplished my goal, I have accumulated merit,’ so says the great ocean; / ‘and my body is purified by the rushing waters of the Gomatī.’

Even exceedingly terrible sins remain in the body only so long / as there is no ritual ablution in the Gomatī with its sin-removing water.

A man who has bathed at Cakratīrtha, in the Gomatī, and in the pool of Rukmiṇī, / and has looked upon Kṛṣṇa's charming face, redeems a hundred families.

And those people who constantly remember Kṛṣṇa and Dvāravatī, endowed with devotion to Hari, / their sins shaken off, at the end of their lives certainly go to the supreme realm of Murāri.

With unwashed feet, one should first bow down to the Lord of Gaṇas (Gaṇeśa); / and the destruction of all obstacles occurs, there is no doubt about this.

To Kṛṣṇa, dark as the petal of a blue lotus, the son of Devakī, / one should bow down like a staff with love, and then bow down to his elder brother.

And whatever sin was committed in childhood, boyhood, as well as in youth, / that is destroyed by the darśana of Lord Kṛṣṇa; there is no doubt about this.

And whatever sin has been accumulated by speech, mind, or action / through a thousand births, that is destroyed; there is no doubt about this.

Whatever fruit is obtained by giving thousands of bhāras of gold, / that fruit is multiplied ten-millionfold by beholding the face of Kṛṣṇa.

And having bowed to the Lord of the gods, the lotus-eyed, the imperishable Acyuta, / to Durvāsas, the great lord who guards Dvārakā,

and having bowed with supreme devotion [to the lord] accompanied by the son of Vinatā (Garuḍa), / coming again to the auspicious gate resembling the gateway of heaven,

and having rested for half a muhūrta surrounded by friends and relatives, / calling together the brahmins residing there who are skilled in mantras, / having brought the articles of worship, the wise man should then proceed to the tīrtha.

Thus ends the fourth chapter, entitled 'Description of the Rules for the Dvārakā Pilgrimage', in the fourth [sub-section], the Dvārakāmāhātmya, in the seventh Prabhāsakhaṇḍa of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand verses.