Skandapurana 2.5.15: adhyāyaḥ 15

The Blessed Lord said:

The questions that were asked by you before, O best of questioners,

I shall describe them in due order; listen attentively with certainty.

In the month of Sahas, the deity is indeed Keśava, endowed with fame (Kīrti).

Worship of him should be performed as previously declared.

Contemplating the brahmin as Keśava and his wife as Kīrti,

the married couple should be worshipped according to rule with clothes, ornaments, and cows.

When the couple is worshipped, my child, I am worshipped without a doubt.

Therefore, the married couple, who bring me satisfaction, must certainly be worshipped.

And gifts of various kinds should be given, which cause great satisfaction to me:

the gift of a cow, the gift of land, and especially the gift of gold,

as well as the gift of garments, and beds, and ornaments;

the gift of a house should be made, bringing joy to me.

Among all gifts, a triad is traditionally considered distinguished:

the earth, a cow, and likewise the gift of knowledge.

When that triad of gifts is given, my child, my delight is unequaled.

Therefore, people should perform that auspicious triad in the month of Sahas.

The procedure for the ritual ablution was already properly stated by me earlier, O sinless one.

Worship, ritual ablution, and giving gifts—this is the rule, beyond doubt.

Whoever spends the entire month of Mārgaśīrṣa eating only one meal a day,

and who feeds the twice-born with devotion, is freed from diseases and sins.

He becomes a sharecropper with great wealth and abundant grain.

What is the use of saying much here? Hear my supreme secret:

The fire and the brahmin are both my mouth, O giver of honor.

The mouth called 'brahmin' is the superior one; the carrier of oblations is not like it.

What is offered into the mouth called 'brahmin', O son, becomes ten million times greater.

The one called 'fire' is dependent on brahmins, but brahmins are truly independent.

Milk-rice resembling the moon, prepared with sugar and mixed with clarified butter,

should be offered into the mouth of a brahmin, causing satisfaction to me, O son.

Auspicious round sweet dumplings, sweet drinks, together with phenikā-pastries and ghṛtapūra-cakes, O son,

offer into the mouth of a brahmin, causing satisfaction to me, if you desire the happiness of a wife, sons, and the like.

Having a luster and fragrance like a white lotus, mixed with good cooked rice, or mixed with mung beans,

and fragrant, accompanied by an abundance of clarified butter—make this offering into the mouth of a brahmin in the month of Sahas.

Boiled in milk with clarified butter, with abundant dried dates and cāra-fruits, with sugar,

together with camphor, coconuts, mixed with refined sugar crystals, making it white, O son,

and savory dishes, bright, appealing, and well-liked,

should be prepared for the sake of brahmins in the month of Sahas, O four-faced one.

Beloved śikhariṇī should be prepared, and whatever else is pleasing to them.

Having prepared all this, one should feed the twice-born with supreme faith, O son.

In whatever manner they eat, truly relishing the flavors,

in that same manner my delight arises, rarely found on earth.

Therefore, that should be done in such a way that the brahmins are satisfied.

When they are pleased, I too become pleased in this world; of this there is no doubt.

Have faith, O four-faced one; I do not speak falsely to you.

This secret has been spoken by me for your welfare, O respectful one.

Even if they revile you or strike you,

they must nevertheless be bowed to, O respectful one, out of love for me.

This should always be done, O son, especially in Mārgaśīrṣa.

As to what was asked by you, O Brahmā, regarding what should be eaten, hear that:

The remains of my food should be eaten by those wholly devoted to my bhakti;

it brings purification, O son, and grants liberation even to sinners.

He who day by day eats the remainder of my meal,

for every morsel of boiled rice he gains the merit arising from a hundred cāndrāyaṇa penances.

What remains and what is left over: these are the two foods for devotees.

They have no other food; having eaten [anything else], one should perform a cāndrāyaṇa penance.

Whatever food, drink, and the like one consumes without having offered it,

that food is equal to dog feces, and that drink is equal to wine.

Therefore, O son, one should offer to me food, drink, and medicine;

one should consume it with supreme devotion; it makes pure the impure.

Yielding the fruit of sacred fords, sacrifices, and the like, destroying the evils of the Kali age,

the remains of my food grant a good destination even to those of evil deeds.

One should not take what has been eaten by other deities;

and by eating the cooked food of non-devotees, one goes to hell.

Listen attentively to what is to be spoken, as mentioned [before];

out of love for you, I will tell even my more secret [teaching].

My name is to be spoken, especially in the month of Saha;

one should recite 'Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa', which brings me supreme delight.

And this is my vow, O son, which gods and asuras do not know:

He who has taken refuge in me in mind, deed, and speech,

attains every worldly desire in this world,

as well as supreme Vaikuṇṭha and even Kamalā, who is dear to me.

He who constantly remembers me, saying 'Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa'—

just as a lotus pierces through the water, so do I lift him up from hell.

Even in jest, deceit, delusion, greed, or pretense,

whoever worships me, dear child, as my devotee, does not perish.

Those who recite 'Kṛṣṇa' when death is at hand,

even if full of sins, O son, never see Yama.

Even if sins were committed completely in early life,

by remembering 'Kṛṣṇa' at the moment of death, one comes to me without doubt.

Even if helpless, should one say: 'Obeisance to great Kṛṣṇa,'

one attains the eternal abode when death is at hand.

If one's vital breaths depart while making the utterance 'Śrī Kṛṣṇa,'

the lord of spirits sees him from afar gone to heaven.

If in a cremation ground or on a street one repeats 'Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa,'

and if one dies, O son, one attains me alone, there is no doubt.

Whoever meets death somewhere on seeing my devotees,

that mortal goes to liberation even without remembering me, O son.

Do not fear the blazing fire of sin, my son;

it is extinguished by drops of water rising from the cloud that is the name of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

What fear can there be from the serpent of Kali's age with sharp fangs?

Burned by the fire arising from the firewood of the name of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, it perishes.

For mortals burned by the fire of sin and devoid of the performance of ritual acts,

there is no remedy other than the remembrance of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

Just as the Gaṅgā is at Prayāga, and the Narmadā at Śuklatīrtha,

and Sarasvatī at Kurukṣetra, so is the praise of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

For human beings submerged in the ocean of worldly existence, dashed by waves of great sin,

there is no refuge other than the remembrance of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

Even at the time of death, for sinners who do not desire it,

as they depart, there are no provisions for the journey without the remembrance of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

There, O son, are Gayā, Kāśī, Puṣkara, and Kurujāṅgala,

in whose house there is daily the chanting of 'Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa.'

The life, the fruition of birth, and the happiness of that person alone are meaningful,

whose tongue constantly murmurs 'Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa.'

By whomsoever the two syllables 'Ha-ri' are uttered even once,

his loins are girded for the journey toward liberation. // 52

As great as is the power of this name of mine to burn away sins,

just so much sin the sinful person is unable to commit. // 53

Neither his body nor his mind shall be afflicted;

there will be no sin and no distress, from chanting 'Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa.' // 54

The mortal in the Kali age who does not abandon the wholesome utterance 'Śrī Kṛṣṇa'—

the disease of sin shall certainly not arise in his mind in the Kali age. // 55

Hearing a man repeating 'Śrī Kṛṣṇa',

the lord of the southern quarter wipes away his sin accumulated over hundreds of births. // 56

The sin that does not depart through hundreds of cāndrāyaṇa penances or thousands of parāka austerities,

that departs through the chanting of 'Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa.' // 57

I find no such satisfaction through ten million other names;

when the utterance 'Śrī Kṛṣṇa' is made, my delight only increases more and more. // 58

The reward that is commemorated from ten million eclipses of the moon and sun,

that reward one fully obtains from the chanting of 'Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa.' // 59

The sin of violating the teacher's wife, stealing gold, and the like,

vanishes from chanting 'Śrī Kṛṣṇa', just as snow heated by the sun. // 2.5.15.60

Even if one is joined with great sins such as intercourse with forbidden women,

one is liberated even at the hour of death by chanting 'Śrī Kṛṣṇa' once. // 61

Even one of impure mind, who lacks customary conduct,

does not become a ghost, through chanting 'Śrī Kṛṣṇa' at the end. // 62

Let there not be an unchaste tongue in the mouth; let it go to the underworld,

if it is not one that declares the virtues of Śrī Kṛṣṇa in the Kali age. // 63

A tongue, whether in one's own mouth or in another's, is diligently to be revered,

if it performs the chanting of the virtues of Śrī Kṛṣṇa in the Kali age, O son. // 64

It is declared to be a creeper of sin in the form of a tongue in his mouth,

which does not recite the praises of Śrī Kṛṣṇa's virtues day and night. // 65

May that tongue, which is disease incarnate, fall into a hundred pieces,

which does not utter 'Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa,' 'Śrī Kṛṣṇa.' // 66

Whoever recites the māhātmya of the name of Śrī Kṛṣṇa upon rising at dawn,

to him I am indeed the giver of blessings; there is no doubt. // 67

And whoever recites the māhātmya of the name of Śrī Kṛṣṇa at the three junctures of the day

attains all desires, and upon death attains the supreme destination. // 68

Thus ends the fifteenth chapter, named 'Description of the Māhātmya of the Name of Śrī Kṛṣṇa,' in the Mārgāśīrṣa Month Māhātmya, in the dialogue between Brahmā and Viṣṇu, in the second section, the Vaiṣṇavakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses. // 15

2.5.15.2 In the Saha month, the deity is Keśava, endowed with Kīrti —

Note on Keśava

References regarding Kīrti