Skandapurana 2.4.6

Brahmā said:

Listen, Nārada! I will tell you the great vow of Kārtika,

having heard which, freed from all sins, you will attain liberation.

When the month of Kārtika arrives, one should avoid forbidden things:

anointing with oil, food belonging to another, and likewise food cooked with oil;

fruits with many seeds, and grains that are pulses:

one should avoid them in the month of Kārtika; there is no hesitation on this point.

Bottle gourd, carrot, eggplant, and the fruit of the bṛhatī plant,

stale food, bhissaṭa, lentils,

eating a second time, honey, food belonging to another, eating from bell-metal vessels,

nails, leather, mushrooms, sour gruel, and anything foul-smelling,

food from a group, food from a courtesan, and likewise [food from] a village priest,

food from a Śūdra, contact with a Śūdra, and food from someone in ritual impurity caused by childbirth,

food from a ancestral rite, food from a rite of pacification of the menses, of childbirth, and of naming,

and the fruit of the śleṣmātaka tree—these the observer of the Kārtika vow should avoid.

One should never eat upon forbidden leaves:

Madhūka, palāśa, plantain, rose-apple, plakṣa, and makūṭikā—

upon these leaves one should eat, but never upon lotus leaves.

When the month of Kārtika arrives, whoever dines in a forest

goes to the supreme world of the god Viṣṇu, bearer of the discus.

Morning ritual ablution should be performed, and likewise the worship of Hari;

listening to sacred narrative is especially praised in Kārtika, O sage.

The gift of white sandalwood paste and the gift of a cow to a Vedic scholar

should be made in the month of Kārtika; thereby one will attain liberation.

The gift of plantain fruits and the gift of myrobalan fruits,

and likewise a gift of clothing to a twice-born afflicted by the cold, should be given.

One should give gifts of vegetables and the like, and especially the gift of food;

and the gift of a śālagrāma stone should be made to a twice-born. // 13

He who gives uncooked rice [or] milk-rice with ghee to a narrator of Purāṇas,

attains sovereignty resulting from feeding a hundred brahmins. // 14

He who worships the beloved of Kamalā with lotuses in the month of Kārtika,

obtains religious merit; there is no doubt about this. // 15

He who offers a tulasī leaf with devotion to Viṣṇu in Kārtika

is freed from worldly existence and goes to Viṣṇu's supreme abode. // 16

If one worships the Garuḍa-bannered [Lord] with ketakī flowers in Kārtika,

he is worshipped for a thousand births; there is no doubt about this. // 17

He who makes a gift of a conch shell, and likewise of [a stone] marked with a discus—

his sins are destroyed merely by the gift, without doubt. // 18

He who recites the Gītā in Kārtika, dear to Viṣṇu—

even in hundreds of years, one cannot recount the fruit of his merit. // 19

He who also listens to the glorious Bhāgavata

is freed from all sins and attains supreme nirvana. // 2.4.6.20

He who fasts without food on the eleventh day [of the lunar fortnight]

is freed from sins committed in a previous birth; there is no doubt about this. // 21

[From] food offered to a śālagrāma stone, one obtains the fruit of ten million sacrifices;

having eaten food offered to another deity, one should perform a cāndrāyaṇa penance. // 22

He who sounds a bell at the time of worshipping the deity

causes supreme satisfaction to Hari; a mortal [attains this], no doubt. // 23

He who avoids food from another in Kārtika to please Viṣṇu—

that mortal fully attains the love of Dāmodara. // 24

When a traveller, weary from the journey, arrives at his home in proper time,

he who honors that guest with devotion destroys [the sins of] a thousand births. // 25

Those fools who revile high-souled Vaiṣṇavas

fall along with their ancestors into the hell named Mahāraurava. // 26

If someone sees devotees of the Lord who are brahmins and does not advance to greet them,

Hari does not accept his worship for twelve years. // 27

He who hears insults against the Blessed Lord and against a person devoted to Him,

and does not depart from there, is certainly not dear to Hari. // 28

He who performs circumambulation of Keśava in Kārtika

attains at every step the fruit of an horse sacrifice; of this there is no doubt. // 29

He who performs a prostration like a staff before Keśava in Kārtika

attains the fruit of the royal consecration and horse sacrifice; of this there is no doubt. // 2.4.6.30

And he who, endowed with devotion, feeds a family in Kārtika,

O tiger among brahmins, his merit is infinite. // 31

The man who engages in sexual intercourse with another's wife in Kārtika—

the full extent of that sin cannot even be expressed. // 32

When a sectarian mark of tulasī earth is seen upon a person's forehead,

Yama is unable even to look at him, what to say of his terrifying messengers? // 33

Whether vegetables or salt, or whatever little there may be,

that should be given in the month of Kārtika for the pleasure of the Wielder of the Śārṅga bow. // 34

Such and many other duties are dear to Viṣṇu in Kārtika;

one should practice righteousness according to one's ability, giving satisfaction to the Lord. // 35

For the pleasure of Hari, one should make a renunciation of one's favorite possession;

at the end of the month, one should give it to an eminent twice-born to complete the vow. // 36

All vows are on one side, and the vow of truth is on the other;

therefore, by every effort, one should speak the truth at all times. // 37

Qualification for other duties is determined by distinctions of family and caste;

but in Kārtika, every single person is qualified. // 38

Those by whom a morsel of grass is given to cows in the month of Kārtika especially—

even the Grandfather is unable to recount the fruit of their merit. // 39

He who sweeps the temple of Viṣṇu in the morning during Kārtika

attains an enduring dwelling in the abode of Vaikuṇṭha. // 2.4.6.40

If one gives plenty of firewood for sacred purposes during the month of Kārtika,

there is no destruction of that merit, even through hundreds of millions of aeons. // 41

He who plasters white mortar or the like in the temple of Viṣṇu in Kārtika,

or paints pictures and ornaments, rejoices in the presence of Viṣṇu. // 42

A tax levied upon a temple or a sacred ford by wicked kings—

The people who relieve it attain eternal dharma. (43)

In the month of Kārtika, the brahmin who, in the presence of Gabhastīśvara,

Performs the recitation of the Śatarudrīya attains the mastery of mantras. (44)

Those mortals who have resided in Vārāṇasī and for three years have observed the Kārtika observance,

Along with its major and minor limbs, solely intent on devotion, (45)

Directly manifest in this world, indeed, becomes their reward:

Through wealth, progeny, fame, and intellects inclined to dharma. (46)

One should avoid onion, horn, meat, a [soft] bed, and fermented sour gruel,

As well as intoxicating drinks with mustard and flattened rice. (47)

Myrobalan fruit on Sunday, and journeying to a foreign land—

Except to a sacred ford, one who observes the Kārtika observance must always avoid in this world. (48)

Slander of gods, Vedas, twice-born, gurus, cows, and observers of vows,

As well as of women, kings, and great persons, one who observes the Kārtika observance must avoid. (49)

On the fourteenth lunar day of Naraka, one should perform oil massage;

Elsewhere in the month of Kārtika, one must avoid bathing with oil.

[Avoid] water-spinach, radish, pumpkin, and wood apple. (50)

With a menstruating woman, an outcaste, a foreigner, a fallen man, or those without vows,

And with those hostile to brahmins and outside the Veda, the observer of vows must never speak. (51)

Food seen by these and by crows, and food from a lying-in chamber,

Twice-cooked food, and burnt food, the Vaiṣṇava observer of vows must not eat at all. (52)

In succession: pumpkin, nightshade, young shoots, and radish,

Wood-apple, watermelon, and fruit born of the myrobalan tree, (53)

Coconut, bottle gourd, pointed gourd, nightshade fruit,

Eggplant, wild cowpea greens, and that which grows from tulasī— (54)

These vegetables are to be avoided in order, starting from the first lunar day and so forth.

In this very way, in the month of Māgha too, the observer of vows should observe the restrictions. (55)

The merit of one who keeps the Kārtika observance, who performs the vow as prescribed,

Even four-faced Brahmā in this world would not be able to tell. (56)

Thus ends the sixth chapter, named 'Description of the Kārtika Observance', in the 'Glories of the Month of Kārtika' in the second Vaiṣṇava Section of the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, in the collection of eighty-one thousand verses.