Skandapurana 16.36

The goddess said: / That which was spoken by you—that the eastward-flowing river is everywhere difficult to reach, / Especially at Kurukṣetra, at Prabhāsa, and likewise at Puṣkara—

How did she, who destroys sins, come to Prabhāsa and remain established there? / Relate the entire sin-destroying māhātmya of that eastward-flowing river, / O great lord, if I am dear to you, O all-pervading one!

Īśvara said: / Well spoken by you, auspicious lady! The eastward-flowing river is everywhere difficult to reach, / At Kurukṣetra and at Puṣkara, and more so than those at Prabhāsa.

At Prabhāsa, however, O great goddess, O ruler of gods, one devoid of merit / Does not know the sin-destroying eastward-flowing river, capable of uprooting karma.

Those men who drink the holy, eastward-flowing goddess Sarasvatī / Are not to be regarded as mere mortals; truly, truly, O fair-faced lady!

Blessed are they, sages are they, and holy ascetics are they, / Who continually drink the water of Sarasvatī day after day.

They are gods, not mortals, who drink the three rivers: / The Candrabhāgā, the Gaṅgā, and likewise the goddess Sarasvatī.

Whether after eating or before eating, by day or by night, / There is no restriction of time where the eastward-flowing Sarasvatī is present.

Even the deer who continually drink the eastward-flowing Sarasvatī / Will go to heaven, just as the best of brahmins do through sacrifices.

That excellent sacred field is for the fulfillment of all desires for human beings / Where the goddess, the eastward-flowing Sarasvatī, is like a wish-fulfilling jewel.

Just as wish-granting cows grant the fruits of all desires, / So does the goddess, the eastward-flowing Sarasvatī, through [bestowing] heaven and liberation.

Eighty-eight thousand sages of celibate vows / Have maintained their renunciation there; what is remembered as higher than that?

Where the self-controlled Maṅkaṇaka attained perfection on the eastward-flowing river, / And where the observance for the slaying of a brahmin was performed by me, O fair-faced lady.

At the extremely holy Vṛṣatīrtha situated on the bank of the eastward-flowing river, / When the Bhārata war had ceased, an expiation was performed in ancient times at that sacred ford / By the diadem-wearer [Arjuna], whose self was prompted by Viṣṇu.

Among all the sacred fords in the three worlds, that sacred ford is remembered as supreme; / It destroys sins, generates merit, and grants holy renown to living beings.

Sūta said: / When this had been said, the goddess spoke to Śaṃkara, who brings welfare to the world: / "How did Pārtha, conqueror of enemies' cities, come to [need] expiation? / How did the sin arising from the destruction of kinsmen go to destruction, O Lord?"

Addressed thus, the lord of the universe, the blue-and-red one [Śiva], spoke again, / Explaining the cause for which he underwent expiation, as it happened.

Īśvara said: / Listen attentively, auspicious lady, to the narrative that destroys sin, / Hearing which with devotion, a mortal becomes purified in soul.

He who is celebrated, O goddess, as the diadem-wearer with white horses— / Having defeated all the Kauravas and slaughtered their horses and elephants,

And after Suyodhana had been slain by Bhīma—went toward the tents; / Together with Nārāyaṇa, that Nara set out from the battle,

To see the son of Dharma [Yudhiṣṭhira]. Seen [approaching], he stood bowing with folded hands. / Having learned that both Nara and Nārāyaṇa were arriving,

King Yudhiṣṭhira said to the doorkeepers standing at the door: / "You must bar both of these men as they arrive and stand at the door!

Nara and Nārāyaṇa are cruel, smeared with the mire of sin." / Having been told thus, "So be it," the two then arrived at the door.

"The king does not wish to see you two, who have committed bad conduct." / Standing there, Nara himself asked the doorkeeper again:

"For what reason does the king not look upon us two, who are obedient to his will?" / Thereupon the king, having bowed, spoke to the doorkeeper standing before him:

"Nara, accompanied by Nārāyaṇa, has no fear of hell. / Because those kinsmen, along with Duryodhana, were slain, / As well as kings who were like fathers; therefore he is truly a receptacle of sin."

When this was said by him, he looked at the face of Hari. / By him [Hari] this was said: "What was spoken to you by the king is true."

When this was said, Nara spoke once again to Janārdana: / "Tell me, O Kṛṣṇa, how can we be cleansed from sin?

Tell me clearly how my purification may be accomplished through bathing in a sacred ford, / and how the Gaṅgā and others [may bring about] the destruction of this sin, O Kṛṣṇa."

Kṛṣṇa said: / "Do not go to Gayā, O son of Kuntī, nor to Gaṅgā, nor to Puṣkara. / Go there, O best of Kurus, where the eastward-flowing Sarasvatī is.

Slayers of brahmins, drinkers of liquor, and whatever other evildoers there are, / are freed upon bathing there where the eastward-flowing Sarasvatī is."

Thus addressed by Nārāyaṇa, Nara, in accordance with his word, / quickly went accompanied by him to that excellent eastern sacred ford.

Having fasted for three nights, self-restrained, he bathed at the three junctures of the day; / through that, he was completely freed from that previously accumulated evil deed.

Having learned that he was purified, the king, the son of Dharma, / quickly arrived with his brothers to see that bull among men.

Then, seeing him bowing down and standing before him, / the son of Dharma, delighted in heart, embraced him and inquired about his welfare.

Surrounded then by his brothers, Bhīma and the others, and by groups of elders, / Nara, endowed with a host of virtues, was joyfully embraced.

For this is that great sacred ford called Prācīna; / it purifies other mortals as well through the performance of ritual ablution.

Even a brahmin-slayer who has fasted for three nights and bathed in this sacred ford, / freed from that evil deed, rejoices in heaven like Rudra.

O Goddess, I dwell constantly in Prācīna accompanied by you, / and particularly so in the great sacred field of Prabhāsa, O passionate woman.

Whoever abandons their body on the northern bank of Sarasvatī / in Prācīna, O woman of lovely hips, does not return here again.

Having bathed, one shall obtain the abundant fruit of a horse sacrifice. / One should emaciate one's body with observances and fasts.

Living on water, feeding on air, living on dry leaves—such are the ascetics / who constantly sleep on the bare ground, along with whatever other distinct observances [they keep].

To those whose death comes while residing in this manner in Maṅki's hermitage— / they are not humans, they are gods; this I tell you truly.

Whoever gives even a truṭi-measure of gold in this sacred ford / with faith to an eminent twice-born man, shall obtain a fruit equal to Mount Meru.

And whatever human beings shall perform a śrāddha in this sacred ford, / they, accompanied by twenty-one generations of their family, shall surely go to heaven.

Gratified with a single funeral ball in this sacred ford beloved of the ancestors, / they shall go to the world of Brahmā, just like one who has performed the śrāddha at Gayā.

Ritual ablution is always prescribed on the fourteenth day of the dark fortnight. / Whoever gives a funeral ball there, even with oil-cake and inguda seeds, / brings imperishable satisfaction to the ancestors, and he goes to the world of the ancestors.

And furthermore, those who bestow food attain the path to liberation.

Whoever also gives delightful curds there to a brahmin / attains the world of Agni and enjoys exceedingly splendid pleasures.

Whoever also gives a woollen garment with devotion to an excellent twice-born man / also attains the supreme siddhi, very difficult to attain by other mortals.

And whatever humans enter the water here to destroy impurity, / to them one may easily assign a fruit equal to the gift of a cow.

Whatever man performs ritual ablution there with sincere disposition, / freed from all sins, is glorified in the world of Brahmā.

Through libations and the offering of funeral balls, ancestors even residing in hells / go to heaven, having been rescued by a noble son.

Having reached the eastward-flowing Sarasvatī, one goes to the sacred ford of Himālaya; / dropping what is in his hand, he would lick with his elbow.

Whatever desire one contemplates as one gives up life's breaths in it, / all of that one attains through the conjunction of the sacred ford's māhātmya.

Another thing, O Goddess, was sung of old by the son of Gaṅgā to Yudhiṣṭhira: / 'In truth, O Yudhiṣṭhira, we were born of the Gaṅgā;

yet of whatever rivers there are in the world, the Sarasvatī is holy.'

Sarasvatī is holy among all rivers; Sarasvatī always brings joy to the world. / Having reached Sarasvatī, exceedingly distressed men never grieve, both in the other world and in this one.

Thus ends the thirty-sixth chapter, named "Description of the Māhātmya of the Eastward-flowing Sarasvatī," in the first [part], the Prabhāsakṣetramāhātmya, in the seventh [book], the Prabhāsakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.