Skandapurana 16.106

The Goddess said: / Tell me correctly the procedure for the worship of that Brahman / which has thus been proclaimed in the sense of non-duality.

In the sacred field of Prabhāsa, O god, how is the Grandfather in child-form, / who possesses the nature of the supreme Brahman, worshipped by people?

What are the mantras? What is that procedure? Of what kind are the brahmins there? / How does the fruit of the sacred field accrue to the brahmins residing there?

Of how many kinds are those brahmins residing in the sacred field? / What are their practices, O Mahādeva, of what character are they, and to what are they devoted?

Declare in full this great exaltation of the brahmins!

Īśvara said: / Excellent, excellent, O great goddess, skilled in well-posed questions! / Becoming one-minded, listen to the glory of the brahmins as deities,

hearing which a mortal is freed from all sins, O goddess! / Whatever twice-born ones are spoken of upon the earth bounded by the oceans,

that form of mine is visible upon the surface of the earth, O ruler of the gods; / brahmins are visible deities, while the gods in heaven are invisible.

Brahmins are ever dear to me; brahmins are my own body; / whoever worships them with devotion, always worships me.

Whoever pleases them with devotion, also pleases me.

Those who are brahmins, that am I, without doubt, O beloved; when they are worshipped, I am worshipped. / When they are satisfied, I alone am satisfied; and whoever bears hostility toward them, bears hostility toward me.

And he who might worship my stone image with sandalpastes, aloes, and fragrant garlands /—he does not worship me; indeed, by worshipping the brahmins, I am truly worshipped.

As many twice-born ones as there are on the earth who have performed the Vedic observances, / or even those who have not performed the observances or [studied] the Veda, they too are to be worshipped, O beloved!

One should not examine the brahmins residing in the sacred field at a śrāddha; / very great censure attaches to this examining of brahmins.

One-eyed, lame, dark-skinned, poor, and afflicted with disease— / all of them are to be engaged at a śrāddha, mixed with those who have mastered the Vedas.

Brahmins are worthy of worship by birth, and even more so on account of Vedic study; / therefore, in offerings to gods and ancestors, brahmins should never be disparaged.

A wise man should not despise twice-born [brahmins], even if one-eyed, crippled, hunchbacked, poor, or diseased, / since they are known to be my form.

For many men, excluded from knowledge, do not know / that I roam this earth in the form of a twice-born.

Those who strike brahmins who have my form, make them perform improper deeds, / send them on improper errands, or reduce them to slavery—

When they die, the mighty messengers of Yama cut them apart with a saw, / as carpenters saw wood along a marked line.

And the lowest of men who intimidate [them] with harsh speech, / speak cruelly out of anger, or strike them with a foot—

When they die, [the messengers of] the world of Yama strike them down upon the ground, / trample them with cruel feet, their eyes blood-red with fury,

And Yama tears out their tongue with fire-colored tongs. / Sinful men who gaze upon brahmins with an evil eye—

Such men are unbrahmanical, outcasts, ever hating brahmins. / At Yama's command, terrifying, gigantic crows with beaks like thunderbolts / pluck out their eyes in an instant.

He who strikes a brahmin so that blood flows from a wound, / or breaks his bone, or deprives him of his life,

Must be known as the slayer of a brahmin; no expiation is prescribed for him. / In the fifty-crore hells, in succession,

He is fiercely boiled for many thousands of years. / Therefore, O fair-hipped lady, a brahmin must ever be bowed down to by men.

Twice-born [brahmins] are always to be worshipped with gifts of food and drink; / indeed, all brahmins are entitled to receive all gifts.

None other is worthy [to receive them], O ruler of gods; by accepting, [another] goes to a wretched destination. / O goddess, a brahmin purified by austerity, even if bearing sin,

Does not sink down, [even] while accepting the whole earth bounded by oceans. / There is no evil act [that defiles] a brahmin, O great goddess.

He who is ever established in the spiritual self, always imbued with true being— / indeed, a brahmin is born as a great being from his very birth.

In the world, even the lords of the world are all worshippers of brahmins. / Therefore, one should not despise them, if one wishes for a long life.

Enraged brahmins could slay and turn [all] to ashes by their own splendor; / they could create other worlds and other world-guardians.

By these great souls, the ocean was made undrinkable out of wrath; / their fire of anger does not subside even today in the Daṇḍaka forest.

These are the guides to heaven, the eternal gods of gods; / and the path made by them is called the path of the gods.

They are to be worshipped, they are to be saluted; in them everything is established. / They indeed bring across all these worlds mutually.

Brahmins keep their Vedic study and austerity concealed; they are steadfast in their vows, / bathed in learning, bathed in vows, living without dependent attachment.

Brahmins are to be approached with care, like angered venomous serpents; / blazing with austerity, they could burn up even the oceans.

When the brahmins are pleased, all the deities are pleased. / They are the refuge of all beings, contemplating the path of the spiritual self.

Their doubts are severed regarding knowledge of the beginning, middle, and end; / knowing the difference between the higher and the lower, they lead to the supreme goal. / Therefore brahmins are never to be killed, even if devoted to sin.

And he who would destroy all this [universe] is equal to one who kills a brahmin. / [A brahmin] is fire; he is the sun of great radiance; when angered, he becomes poison.

The brahmin eats first of all beings; he is the highest caste, father, and teacher. / He does not fail, he does not tremble, he never perishes.

What is offered into the mouth of a brahmin is superior even to an Agnihotra oblation. / Residing in the bodies of brahmins, all deities remain.

Therefore, those brahmins are to be worshipped; idols and the like are secondary in their absence.

Whether ignorant or learned, a brahmin is my deity, / just as fire, whether formally consecrated or unconsecrated, is a great deity.

Radiant fire is not defiled even in cremation grounds; / a brahmin, even when devoid of offerings to gods and ancestors, is never defiled.

Except for major sins, a brahmin is to be worshipped, O fair-faced lady; / in every way brahmins are to be worshipped, in every way they are a great deity. / Therefore, with all effort, one should protect a twice-born [brahmin] fallen into distress.

Thus, O great goddess, brahmins are everywhere to be worshipped by men; / how much more so those of conquered self, especially residents of a sacred field?

Now I shall describe, in regular order, the division according to mode of life / of the brahmins dwelling in the sacred field and residing in the four stages of life.

Those twice-born who know the rule of renunciation in the sacred field, / and the division of modes of life in due order, share in the fruit of the sacred field.

How a twice-born must conduct himself while dwelling in the sacred field, / through divisions such as the Prājāpatya and others, listen to that, O fair-faced lady.

Prājāpatyas, Mahīpālas, Kapotas, and Granthikas, / Kuṭikas, and then Vaitālas, Padma-Haṃsas, O fair-faced lady,

Dhṛtarāṣṭras, Bakas, Kaṅkas, and Gopālas, O passionate lady, / Truṭikas, Maṭharas, Guṭikas, and other Daṇḍikas—

These are the divisions of those established in the sacred field; hear their mode of life.

Non-violence, service to the teacher, study of the Veda, purity, self-restraint, / truth, and non-stealing—this is remembered as the Prājāpatya vow.

Because they protect the earth through pacification rites and other rituals / for destruction, prosperity, and enmity, they are therefore known as Mahīpālas.

Those practitioners who gather fallen grains on the ground like pigeons, / and whose livelihood is obtained thereby, are Kapotas.

Those who, having made a house, suddenly abandon good attachments, / are Kuṭika practitioners, devoted to the worship of Śiva.

Attached to sacred fords, with their wives, living on whatever is obtained, / endowed with great daring, they are the practitioners known as Vaitālas.

Restrained, yet attached to desire, accomplishing goals of kingdom and wealth, / constantly devoted to wandering for alms, they are known as Padma practitioners.

Those endowed with the yoga of knowledge and devoted to conduct in the realm of duality, / whose understanding has arisen spontaneously, are known as the Haṃsa practitioners.

Those who, through celibacy, purity of mind, or lack of greed, / sustain the world that has been conquered, are considered Dhṛtarāṣṭras.

Those who secretly pursue knowledge, a vow, or religious duty, / but are solely devoted to their own purpose, are considered Baka practitioners.

Those who, resorting to water reservoirs, dwell there for supreme spiritual perfection, / subsisting on lotus stalks and water chestnuts, are remembered as the Kaṅka practitioners.

Those who wander here along with cows and reside in a cowpen, / consuming the essence of the five products of the cow, are the Gopāla practitioners.

Those who emaciate their own bodies through Kṛcchra and Cāndrāyaṇa penances, / eating only a tiny fraction of food, are considered Truṭika practitioners.

Those householders who make an effigy of a wife from kuśa grass and live in a hermitage, / pure and devoted to the practice of alms-begging, are the Maṭhara practitioners.

Those twice-born who subsist on eight pills equal in size to a mouthful, / made from bulbs, roots, and fruits, are the Guṭikas.

Those who engage in mortifications of their own body and sit in the vīrāsana posture at night / are declared to be Daṇḍins. All this has been described to you.

Whether ordinary or special, of those who maintain their livelihoods or of householders, / these divisions of the dwellers in the sacred field have been fully declared by me.

Endowed with such virtues, the dwellers in the sacred field of Prabhāsa / must worship the divine Lord, the Grandfather [Brahmā] in the form of a child.

Those who are perpetrators of great sins and those who have been expelled by brahmins / should not touch Brahmā in the form of a child.

Always celibate, self-controlled, with anger conquered and the senses mastered— / such are the brahmins declared to reside within the sacred field.

By them the divine Lord, the Grandfather in the form of a child, is to be worshipped; / by those engaged in the study of the Vedas, the Grandfather must be venerated.

Thus ends the one hundred and sixth chapter, entitled 'Praise of the Brahmins in the Intermediate Pilgrimage', in the first section, the Prabhāsakṣetramāhātmya, of the seventh section, the Prabhāsakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.