Skandapurana 2.5.8: adhyāyaḥ 8

Brahmā said:

Describe properly the glorious māhātmya of tulasī, O Lord,

by whose mere presence your affection increases greatly.

The Blessed Lord said:

Flowers made of jewels and gold, as well as those fashioned of pearls,

are not worth a sixteenth part of offering a single tulasī leaf. // 2

Whoever performs my worship with tulasī blossoms

shall not enter a womb: that man shall share in liberation. // 3

Planting tulasī, dear child, and worshipping me with its leaves,

he rejoices in heaven, and in my abode on Śvetadvīpa. // 4

Whoever indeed worships me even once with splendid tulasī, with fragrant, pure, and unbroken leaves,

Yama, after examining his sin recorded on the cloth, then wipes it clean. // 5

Those who have not procured tulasī for my worship on the auspicious day of Ekādaśī—

fie on their youth, life, and stream of wealth! No happiness is seen for them here or in the hereafter. // 6

Having seen my liṅga worshipped in the month of Saha

with heaps of tulasī leaves, one is freed from the killing of a brahmin. // 7

Whoever constantly worships me, the Lord of Ramā, with tulasī,

his great sins are destroyed—what need be said of secondary sins? // 8

Stale flowers are to be avoided, stale water is to be avoided;

a tulasī leaf is not to be avoided, and Ganges water is not to be avoided. // 9

Flowers such as jasmine roar [with pride], O son,

only so long as the holy tulasī, dear to me, is not obtained. // 2.5.8.10

A person who worships me even once with a bilva leaf

shall share in liberation, free from fear, and go to my side. // 11

More than the bilva leaf, the śamī leaf, the jasmine petal, and the lotus,

the tulasī leaf is dear to me, even more than the Kaustubha gem. // 12

An unbroken tulasī, delightful and endowed with blossoms,

born from the milk ocean, is always dear to me like Padmā. // 13

Whether pale or dark, tulasī is dear to me,

just as the twelfth day [of the lunar fortnight], whether light or dark, is dear to me. // 14

Taking a tulasī leaf, whoever worships me with devotion,

by him the entire universe, with gods, asuras, and humans, has been worshipped. // 15

Countless jewels such as the Kaustubha roar [with pride]

only so long as the dark sprout of black tulasī is not obtained, O Kṛṣṇa! // 16

A person who worships Kṛṣṇa with black tulasī with devotion

goes to the radiant world where Viṣṇu dwells with Śrī. // 17

Those who give a tulasī leaf to mendicants for the purpose of worshipping me,

and also to other devotees, reach the imperishable state. // 18

Whether tulasī is dark or fair, whoever worships me with it,

that person, abandoning the body, attains the eternal Vaiṣṇava destination. // 19

Brahmā said:

The māhātmya of offering incense and of [offering] a lamp, O Keśava,

and what fruit a mortal obtains—tell me that truly. // 2.5.8.20

The Blessed Lord said:

Listen, O son, and I will declare what the fruit of offering incense is,

and the supreme māhātmya of offering a lamp, which brings me joy. // 21

Offering agallochum and camphor with the heavenly fragrance of sandalwood

to me in the month of Saha, one delivers a hundred ancestral lines. // 22

The Vaiṣṇava who censes my abode with incense

arising from black agallochum is freed from the ocean of hell. // 23

Whoever offers to me incense of buffalo-bedellium

mixed with ghee and sugar, I grant him his desire. // 24

Guggulu, when burned, destroys all misfortunes;

and agallochum bestows various kinds of desires. // 25

Incense arising from agallochum purifies both body and home;

incense produced from resin destroys yakṣas and rākṣasas. // 26

Jasmine flower, cardamom, guggulu, harītakī,

kuṣṭha, resin, jaggery, śaila, chada,

combined with nakha—these are called the ten-ingredient incense. // 27

If one offers the ten-ingredient incense in the month of Saha, which is very dear to me,

I grant even desires most difficult to attain, strength, vitality, sons, wives, and devotion. // 28

In the incense of nut grass lies affection among humans; jaggery brings auspiciousness and subjugation.

Whoever performs this before me in the month of Saha, having cast off sins, shall attain me. // 29

There is no fear for him arising from heaven, earth, or mid-space,

whose body has been anointed with the residue of my incense.

And no misfortune befalls him; all fortunes attend him,

when incense is offered before me during the month of Sahas with constant faith.

Incense bestows handsome beauty; incense is the supreme purifier,

a divine sap of trees, supreme, purifying, and clean.

Hereafter, I shall proclaim the supreme māhātmya of the lamp,

by performing which a man goes to Vaikuṇṭha—there is no doubt about this.

Fitted with multiple wicks and provided with an abundance of ghee,

whoever performs the waving of lamps would dwell in heaven for ten million kalpas.

Whoever beholds the waving of lamps before me in the month of Sahas

becomes a brahmin for seven births and reaches the supreme abode at the end.

And whoever performs [it] with camphor and with devotion before me,

offering the waving of lamps, O best of brahmins, enters into me, the endless.

Whatever worship of mine has been performed devoid of mantras or rituals

all attains completeness once the waving of lamps has been performed, O son.

He who makes a lamp with camphor in the month of Sahas

attains [the fruit of] a horse sacrifice and redeems his family.

One should offer a lamp before me, for brahmins, and at a crossroads;

a man becomes intelligent, endowed with knowledge, and clear-sighted.

If a man lights a lamp with either ghee or oil

before me in the month of Sahas, hear the meritorious fruit for him:

Having discarded all sin, resembling a thousand suns,

he is exalted in my realm by means of a luminous aerial chariot.

Therefore, a wise man should give a lamp with every effort;

and whoever, having given it, damages it—he will surely fall into hell.

Whatever sinner steals a lamp out of greed or hatred, O best of brahmins,

because of stealing that lamp, he is born dumb and blind.

Thus ends the eighth chapter, named 'Description of the Glory of the Lamp', in the dialogue between Brahmā and Viṣṇu in the Mārgaśīrṣamāhātmya of the second [section], the Vaiṣṇavakhaṇḍa, in the Skandapurāṇa comprising eighty-one thousand verses.