Skandapurana 2.2.20

Jaimini said:

Thus awakened by that Nārada, the lord of the earth

praised the Lord of the worlds with words full of compassion: // 1

Indradyumna said:

“The pair of your lotus-feet, O Murāri, was not worshipped [by me] in previous lives.

Save me, miserable and experiencing the harsh ripening of those actions, O ocean of mercy! // 2

Where is the spotless pair of your lotus feet, submerged in the diadems of Viriñci, Rudra, and Indra,

Where am I, wretched and base, covered indeed with skin over masses of feces, blood, flesh, urine, and bones? .. 3 ..

Tormented by fatigue through wandering in the worthless saṃsāra, how can I know you, O Lord?

They alone know you, O God of gods, for whom worldly existence is seen as a source of sorrow. .. 4 ..

O Lord, I have suffered many kinds of sorrow earned by the sins of many births.

Whatever particle of happiness is earned through good deeds is illustrated by bitter [medicine] mixed with honey. .. 5 ..

The enjoyment of sense objects acquired through deeds for the experience of pleasure, O God,

that very thing turns into sorrow in the end for me, and there is no other suffering person like me. .. 6 ..

O all-pervading Lord, if I had worshiped you formerly even in thought, I who had a fragmented vision of other things,

how then would I have obtained endless sorrow, to be experienced again and again across many births? .. 7 ..

Through states of lordship, servility, fatherhood, sonship, love, motherhood, and wealth,

and through states of being executed, cruelty, husbandhood, wifehood, the state of animals, gods, and others, .. 8 ..

low and high states have been experienced repeatedly or once, rolling about in this courtyard of worldly existence.

Or is this not indeed the desired fruit of being far from your lotus feet, O Murāri? .. 9 ..

This treasury and army, surrounded by the wealth of the entire earth, youth, beauty, silver,

hundreds of women pleasing to the mind, and my circle of kings free from thorns, .. 10 ..

even the sovereignty is a great burden for me, who am devoid of knowledge of you, like a beast of burden.

Relieve my burden, O ocean of mercy, I who am constantly afflicted by grief arising therein. .. 11 ..

O all-pervading Lord, who show compassion to the wretched, liberation was granted to the elephant merely by remembering you;

you ought to protect me, wandering here like a waterwheel, O Lord, out of your compassionate nature. .. 12 ..

I truly have no other kinsman here, where my nature is like that of a tree carried away by a torrent.

My intellect is most sinful, filled with passions, bound by affection, and deeply engaged in sense objects. .. 13 ..

Day and night let it not wander away from your lotus feet; this alone is my prayer.

Those who, by the fortune of a thousand births, have reached you, the overflowing ocean of being, consciousness, and bliss, .. 14 ..

do they see the illusion of sense objects, with its fraction of pleasure and manifold sorrows?

Where is the bondage through actions, unbreakable with its hundreds of knots that are mines of sorrow for a fraction of desire,

and where is your single lotus foot, endless, without beginning or end, and bestowing bliss? .. 16 ..

In the ocean of your māyā, my sense of 'mine' and delusion are within the pit where evil deeds act as crocodiles.

Bring me, fallen without support, to the shore today by a playful glance of your eye.

To accomplish the cherished goals of those who take refuge in you for the fulfillment of their own duties,

save me, a fool wandering about, having cast aside his own welfare, O you who are inherently compassionate, .. 18 ..

wandering greatly for a petty purpose, not having reached you, the root, the Supreme Lord.

Oṃ! Save me, an extreme vessel of toil, deeply wretched, O Viṣṇu, the sole adorable one of the universe!

O imperishable Lord of the universe, knowable through Vedānta, you are indeed able to destroy the heaps of accumulated sins. .. 19 ..

Protect me, who am of petty resolve, having abandoned you, the sole cause of happiness, O Viṣṇu!

All this fourfold multitude of beings is asleep in the night of delusion created by you; .. 20 ..

and upon the rising of the sun of knowledge of you, it is awakened in the end. I take refuge in you.

You alone are the creator of all the worlds, your form surrounded by thousands of hoods. .. 21 ..

Supreme among the strong through your rotating course, I take refuge in you, the ruler!

By which innate power you create and consume the worlds, O Lord, seated on the lotus of your chest, / to that auspicious form of yours, the refuge of the universe, the kindling-stick of the gods, I bow at her two feet. ..

By whose mass of rays this network of universes is fashioned, held in your hand, O Lord, .. 23 ..

Sudarśana, the slayer of the demon army, named Cakra: I bow to you, Sudarśana!

Having thus praised [him], that best of kings prostrated with all eight limbs. .. 24 ..

[Saying:] 'Rescue [me], O Lord of the universe, drowned in the ocean of saṃsāra!

O friend of the helpless, through mercy [rescue] me, wretched and overwhelmed by darkness!' .. 25 ..

Nārada said:

Victory, victory, O Nārāyaṇa, devoted to carrying [souls] across the boundless ocean of existence; whose divine reality is meditated upon by the foremost yogins such as Sanaka, Sanandana, and Sanātana; by whom all elemental principles have been transformed through the superimposition displayed by your own māyā; / O you who embody the three realities, bearer of the triple staff, whose divine knowledge is sung by the Triṇāciketa, Trimadhu, and Trisuparṇa hymns; composed of Vedic meters, fond of Suparṇa, your own seat; dear to devotees, singularly affectionate to devout people; whose true nature is hidden by the veil of your own māyā; universal-formed, illuminator of the universe, facing all directions, with eyes everywhere, with ears everywhere, with feet, heads, and necks everywhere, with hands, noses, tongues, skin, hair, body hair, and liṅga everywhere; soul of all worlds, bringing happiness to all worlds, benefactor of all worlds, saluted by all worlds; from whose lotus of play millions of lotus-born [Brahmās] arise; to whom all gods and demons of the three worlds bow down, along with Rudra, Indra, the Maruts, the Aśvins, the Sādhyas, and hosts of Siddhas; teacher of the three worlds; ungraspable by anyone's intellect: obeisance to you, obeisance! .. 26 ..

Jaimini said:

And the other kings, learned scholars who have mastered the Vedas,

sages, twice-born, kṣatriyas, learned men, and vaiśyas .. 27 ..

praised the lotus-eyed, the strong one together with Bhadrā,

with Vedic hymns, praises, purāṇas, and poetic verses as best they could. .. 28 ..

Then Indradyumna addressed the sinless family priest

to perform the worship of Vāsudeva prepared with ceremonial offerings. .. 29 ..

That best of kings himself worshiped them in proper sequence

according to the instruction of Nārada, following the rules and through mantras. .. 30 ..

With the twelve-syllable mantra he worshiped Balabhadra,

by worshiping whom Dhruva attained the supreme state. .. 31 ..

With the great, purifying Puruṣasūkta celebrated in the three Vedas,

the king worshiped Nārāyaṇa according to his ability; .. 32 ..

with the Devīsūkta [he worshiped] that Bhadrā, and with the Saudarśanī [hymn he worshiped] Sudarśana.

Having worshipped them with devotion according to his wealth, that best of kings,

for their pleasure, bestowed gifts with devotion upon the foremost brahmins:

great gifts, gifts of gold measured against one's weight, the king [gave].

And as ancillary elements of the horse sacrifice, he then gave crores of cows;

he likewise gave other adorned cows accompanied by abundant priestly fees.

From the digging up of the earth by their hooves, O best of brahmins, a ditch arose.

Filled indeed with the water poured in gift-giving, it became a sacred ford yielding great fruit.

Having bathed in it and properly gratified the ancestors and the gods, a man

attains the fruit of a thousand horse sacrifices; of this there is no doubt.

That lake became renowned by the name of King Indradyumna.

If a mortal offers balls of rice here dedicated to the ancestors,

he delivers twenty-one generations of his family and is honored in the world of Brahmā.

No sacred ford is superior to this, since it arose as a part of the horse sacrifice.

Or perhaps the lake of Indradyumna is equal to the Gaṅgā.

Thereupon the king set about the construction of the temple,

at an auspicious time, under a favorable lunar mansion prescribed by astrological rules,

at an auspicious hour, having worshipped the foremost brahmins headed by Nārada.

Having had words of blessing and the success of the undertaking recited, that best of kings

offered arghya at the site of the temple, remembering the Lord of the Universe (Jagannātha).

And having prayed to the Earth for a place to last as long as the moon and stars,

he honored the artisans, preceding it with the sacrifice to the deity of the site.

He also arranged a great festival with abundant singing and musical instruments;

he gave desired objects to the poor, the helpless, and the distressed.

He dismissed the kings with great respect,

who had accomplished their purpose and had their sins destroyed upon seeing that incarnation of Hari.

Then that best of kings gave wealth by the crores for stone-cutting

and for fetching stones from many lands.

Filled with joy, the ruler of the earth said this in the assembly:

"Whatever was acquired by my prowess from the eighteen continents,

all of that has been dedicated to the temple of the Lord of the Universe.

Whatever toil was endured by me in the course of victory expeditions,

may that become fruitful for me through the expenditure of wealth for the temple of Viṣṇu!

What fortune for me could be higher than this, that Hari, the teacher of moving and unmoving beings,

I shall propitiate with the wealth and prosperity acquired by the pair of my arms?

Prosperity is ever in the lotus-eyed one; my prosperity was born of her favor.

What indeed could one do without her favor toward the God of gods, the disc-bearer?

He upon whom his sidelong glance falls has all-pervading prosperity,

and the goddess consisting of the eighteen [sciences] dances at the tip of his tongue.

By worshipping whom, the Lord of the Universe, Brahmā attained the state of Brahmā,

Rudra [attained] the status of Maheśvara, and Indra the kingship of the heavenly world,

having worshipped him who is worshipped by the world, I shall worship the Eternal One.

By that great-souled one the threefold accumulation of sins is conquered,

by whom Kṛṣṇa has been worshipped according to the rule, with all his ancillaries and secondary parts.

This sacred field is the body, wherein the all-pervading Lord assumes identity;

for appearance, disappearance, and permanent abiding are of the Lord.

Here, having directly worshipped in bodily form the teacher of the worlds,

one directly attains one's goal, becoming a recipient of the four aims of life.

Whatever royal prosperity has been acquired by me through great expenditure and exertion,

may that become fruitful at his lotus feet through his very grace!

Having fully worshipped the God with all offerings, with materials brought from the sea-girdled earth,

until the ripening of my deeds is complete, may the undertaking of my sovereignty not be in vain!

What is the use of an abundance of wealth by which, free from taint, one does not offer everything to Viṣṇu?

What is the use of manly prowess if by it the worshipful service of Vāsudeva has not been accomplished by me?"

Thus ends the twentieth chapter in the Praise of the Sacred Field of Puruṣottama, in the Vaiṣṇava Section, in the compilation of eighty-one thousand verses, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, in the dialogue of the sage Jaimini.