Skandapurana 2.1.12

Now, deliverance from hells such as Tāmisra through ritual ablution in Svāmipuṣkariṇī.

The seers said:

O Sūta, knower of the truth of all matters, who have reached the far shore of the Vedas and Vedāṅgas,

tell us, O lord, the glory of the glorious Svāmipuṣkariṇī,

by merely remembering which a man on earth may become liberated.

The glorious Sūta said:

Those who praise the Svāmitīrtha, bathe in it, or narrate [its glory],

do not experience the hells in their twenty-eight varieties:

Tāmisra, Andhatāmisra, Mahāraurava, Raurava,

Kumbhīpāka, Kālasūtra, and Asipatravana;

Kṛmibhakṣa, Andhakūpa, Saṃdaṃśa, and Śālmalī;

Lālābhakṣa, Avīci, and Sārameyādana;

likewise Vajrakaṇṭaka, falling into Kṣārakardama,

devouring by hordes of Rakṣases, being impaled on a pike;

that named Tirodhāna, O brahmins, and the one named Sūcīmukha;

the consumption of pus and blood, and torment by poison and fire.

This collection of hells, twenty-eight in number,

a man does not go to, O brahmins, on account of immersing himself in the Svāmitīrtha.

A man who plunders the wealth, children, or wives of others,

bound by the noose of Time by the terrifying messengers of Yama,

is cast down into the dreadful hell Tāmisra for many years.

If he bathes in the Svāmitīrtha, he is not cast into that [hell].

The lowest of men who hates mother, father, or brahmins,

in the Kālasūtra hell, ten thousand yojanas wide,

scorched by fire below, and by the sun's rays above,

upon a copper floor, O brahmins, is cast down, afflicted with hunger.

If he bathes in the puṣkariṇī, he is not cast into that [hell].

A man who strays into a bad path, transgressing the way of the Veda,

is cast into the dreadful Asipatravana by the servants of Yama.

If he bathes in the Svāmitīrtha, however, he is not cast into that [hell].

A man who eats cooked food such as soup with partiality in the row,

or eats through delusion without performing the five sacrifices, O twice-born,

is cast by Yama's soldiers into the hell of worm-eating;

being eaten by hundreds of worms while eating hordes of worms,

and becoming a worm himself, he would remain until the exhaustion of his sins.

If he bathes in the Svāmitīrtha, he is indeed not cast into that [hell].

He who steals the wealth of brahmins out of affection or by force,

or the wealth of others, whether a king or his servant,

tormented with tongs in fire-pits made of iron,

is cast into the terrible hell Saṃdaṃśa by Yama's men.

If he bathes in the Svāmitīrtha, however, he is not cast into that [hell].

The lowest of men who approaches an inaccessible woman,

or a woman who approaches an inaccessible man, O twice-born,

both of them, [forced to] embrace a glowing woman made of iron / and a man made of iron,

standing as long as the moon and the sun endure,

are cast into the dreadful hell named Sūcī by the servants of Yama.

And if he bathes in the Svāmitīrtha, he is not cast into that [hell].

He who torments all living beings through various means and afflictions,

is cast down into the dreadful hell Śālmalī, full of many thorns.

If he bathes in the Svāmitīrtha, however, he is not cast into that [hell].

A king or a king's servant who has run after heresy,

a breaker of the barriers of dharma, is cast into Vaitaraṇī.

If he bathes in the Svāmitīrtha, however, he is not cast into that [hell].

Or one corrupted by association with an outcaste woman, devoid of purity and proper conduct,

abandoning shame, abandoning the Veda, always delighting in the behavior of beasts—

he, in [a hell] filled with pus, feces, urine, blood, phlegm, bile, and the like,

is cast down by the servants of Yama into an exceedingly disgusting hell.

Yet if he bathes in Svāmitīrtha, he is not cast down into it.

A hunter who torments wild deer with dogs or with arrows,

pierced with volleys of arrows in the other world by the servants of Yama,

is cast down by the servants of Yama into the hell named Prāṇarodha.

Yet if he bathes in Svāmitīrtha, he is not cast down into it.

A hypocrite devoid of the performance of Vedic rites who slaughters animals in sacrifice,

O twice-born, in the other worlds, into the hell Vaiśasa,

being hacked to pieces by Yama's soldiers, is cast down by the servants of Yama.

Yet if he bathes in the holy pool, he is not cast down into it.

If a man makes his own wife of the same class drink semen,

in the other world he, drinking semen, is cast down into the pit of semen (Retaḥkuṇḍa).

Yet if he bathes in the holy pool, he is not cast down into it.

A robber taking to the road, an administrator of poison, an arsonist of villages,

and a thief of merchants' goods, O best among the twice-born, in the other world,

is cast down for a long time into the terrible hell named Vajradaṃṣṭra.

Yet if he bathes in Svāmitīrtha, he is not cast down into it.

Whatever other hells indeed exist in the other world,

a mortal does not encounter them, by virtue of immersing in Svāmitīrtha.

From bathing once in the holy pool, one obtains the fruit of a horse sacrifice (aśvamedha);

knowledge of the self becomes directly perceptible, as well as the fourfold liberation;

the intellect does not delight in sin, nor does sorrow at all arise.

Whatever fruit is obtained by men through the gift of the person weighed against gold (tulāpuruṣa),

that fruit is attained by people through immersing in Svāmitīrtha.

Whatever merit indeed accrues to men through the gift of a thousand cows,

that merit a mortal gains through immersing in Svāmitīrtha.

Whichever of duty, wealth, desire, and liberation a man desires,

that very one he attains instantly through immersing in Svāmitīrtha.

Whether endowed with major sins (mahāpātaka) or endowed with all manner of sins,

he instantly becomes purified, O brahmins, through immersing in Svāmitīrtha.

Wisdom, fortune, renown, prosperity, knowledge, righteousness, detachment,

and purity of mind accrue to men through resorting to Svāmitīrtha.

Even ten thousand killings of a brahmin, ten thousand drinkings of liquor,

ten thousand violations of the teacher's wife by sinful doers,

ten thousand thefts of gold, and crores of associations with those [sinners]—

swiftly vanish through immersing in Svāmitīrtha.

Those [sins] equal to killing a brahmin, those equal to drinking liquor,

and those that are equal to violating the teacher's wife, O believers,

those equal to the theft of gold, and those equal to associating with them—

all of them perish through immersing in Svāmitīrtha.

Now, the attainment of great hell by those who lack faith in the greatness of Svāmitīrtha:

No doubt should ever be entertained concerning these things that have been spoken;

and [if one doubts,] the servants [of Yama] thrust a heated axe onto the tip of his tongue.

One who says, "All this is mere eulogy (arthavāda)," will surely go to hell;

he is to be regarded as a hog, excluded from all ritual acts.

Oh, what foolishness! Oh, what foolishness! Oh, what foolishness, O best among the twice-born!

While the sacred ford called Svāmitīrtha, destroyer of all sins,

bestower of non-dual knowledge upon men, granter of enjoyment and liberation,

ever bestowing desired wishes, and likewise destroyer of ignorance,

is present, yet people, leaving it aside, delight elsewhere!

Ah, the magnitude of delusion! It is impossible for me to describe it.

For one who has bathed in Svāmitīrtha, there is truly no fear of Death.

Those men who behold Svāmitīrtha, bathe in it,

praise it, laud it, touch it, and bow down to it,

no longer drink mother's milk, O bulls among the twice-born.

Thus has the glory of Svāmitīrtha been related to you, O brahmins;

it grants enjoyment and liberation to men, and destroys all sin.

Thus ends the twelfth chapter, named "Description of the Greatness of the Sacred Ford Śrī Svāmipuṣkariṇī," in the Glorious Veṅkaṭācala-māhātmya, in the second section, the Vaiṣṇavakhaṇḍa, of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa in eighty-one thousand verses.