Skandapurana 3.3.10

Sūta said:

Wondrous is Śiva's creation; wondrous is Śiva's action;

wondrous is Śiva's māhātmya; wondrous is Śiva's utterance;

wondrous is the conduct of Śiva's devotees, destroying sin,

a true means for heaven and liberation; that I shall declare.

In the region of Avantī there was a certain brahmin named Mandara.

He took delight in sensual pleasures, was subjugated by women, and accumulated wealth. / 3

Abandoning twilight worship and ritual ablutions, fond of perfumes, garlands, and garments,

attached to vile women and following a bad path, he was just like Ajāmila of old. / 4

Sporting day and night with a courtesan named Piṅgalā,

he remained constantly in her house, his senses uncontrolled. / 5

Once, while that twice-born was staying in her abode,

there arrived a righteous Śiva-yogi named Ṛṣabha. / 6

Seeing him arrive and considering their own merit to be powerful,

both the courtesan and the brahmin worshipped him thoroughly. / 7

Seating him upon a grand seat spread with a woolen blanket,

and washing his feet with devotion, they placed that water upon their heads. / 8

With welcomes, offerings, reverent salutations, perfumes, flowers, and unbroken grains,

having worshipped him with attendances, they fed him with joy. / 9

When he had eaten and sipped water, they seated him on a couch with a comfortable bed;

filled with joy, they offered him betel. / 3.3.10.10

Massaging his feet with devotion, impelled by fate,

and performing personal service, they gratified him for a long time. / 11

Thus worshipped by the two, the Śiva-yogi of great splendor,

having passed a single night, honored by them, departed in the morning. / 12

When time had thus mostly passed, that brahmin met his death;

and that courtesan, having died in the course of time, went to the destiny earned by her actions. / 13

Led by his karma, that brahmin entered the womb of Sumatī,

the wife of King Vajrabāhu, the ruler of Daśārṇa. / 14

Seeing that senior wife of the king endowed with pregnancy,

her co-wives deceitfully gave her poison. / 15

Having consumed the terrible poison, she did not die due to the working of fate;

she only suffered supreme affliction, more intolerable than death. / 16

Then, when the time arrived, she gave birth to a single son;

the virtuous woman of fair complexion was tormented by great suffering. / 17

Because that newborn prince had previously been touched by the poison,

he experienced great torment on that account, crying day and night. / 18

The child’s mother too was afflicted with sores all over her body;

both became extremely distressed under the effect of the poison's contact. / 19

Though brought by the king and administered medicine by physicians,

they did not regain their health, despite many efforts applied. / 3.3.10.20

At night that queen, in immense agony, found no sleep;

grieving over the misery of her son, she grew exceedingly emaciated. / 21

When some months had passed in this manner, the king,

seeing the mother and child living yet almost dead, thought to himself: / 22

"These two, my wife and son, have arrived here from hell,

incessantly diseased, screaming, and disturbing my sleep. / 23

Here I shall devise a remedy for these two sinful ones;

reaping the fruits of sin, they are able neither to die nor to live." / 24

Having resolved thus, the protector of the earth, attached to the co-wives and their sons,

summoned a charioteer and banished his own wife and son far away in a chariot. / 25

Abandoned by the charioteer in a desolate forest,

the two suffered supreme agony, violently distraught with hunger and thirst. / 26

Carrying her child, stumbling at every step,

sighing, reproaching her own past karma, and greatly terrified, / 27

at times her body torn by thorns, her hair disheveled, distraught with fear,

at times terrified by the roars of tigers, at times pursued by serpents, / 28

menaced by piśācas, vetālas, and brahmarākṣasas,

running through dense thickets, her feet pierced by sharp stones, / 29

wandering thus in that terrible great forest, the king’s wife

by chance reached a merchants' road frequented by cattle, horses, and men. / 3.3.10.30

Proceeding along that road a great distance with utmost effort,

she saw a vaiśya city frequented by many women and men. / 31

The guardian of that city was a great vaiśya and merchant-leader

named Padmākara, like a second king of kings. / 32

A certain household maidservant of that chief of merchants [saw] the king's wife;

seeing her coming from afar, she approached her.

That maidservant, having herself learned the situation of the king's beloved wife,

who was severely afflicted along with her son, brought her before her master.

Seeing her afflicted with illness and her son in distress, that chief of the vaiśyas

took her into privacy and clearly inquired about her story.

When the entire account had been told by her, that foremost merchant,

thinking 'Ah, what a misery!', sighed repeatedly.

Having lodged her near his own house in a secluded dwelling,

he honored her like a mother with garments, food, drinks, and a bed.

While living well-protected in that house, the king's wife

found no relief from diseases such as ulcers and consumption.

Then, after a few days, that boy, afflicted by ulcers,

defying the power of physicians, died by the force of fate.

When her son died, the queen, overwhelmed by great sorrow,

fainted and fell to the ground like a creeper snapped by an elephant.

By chance regaining consciousness, her breasts wet with tears,

she lamented in deep grief, even though consoled by the merchant women:

"Alas, dear child, dear child! Alas, my son! Alas, protector of my life!

Alas, full moon of the royal family! Alas, increaser of my joy!

Having abandoned this helpless, wretched mother whose life is you alone,

and who has forsaken her kinsmen, where have you gone, O prince?"

With these spoken words that multiplied her grief and sorrow,

who indeed was able to console her as she lamented, her child dead?

At this time, a physician for her pain and grief,

the previously mentioned Śiva-yogi Ṛṣabha, arrived.

That yogi, worshipped by the merchant chief with an offering of water in hand,

went into her presence and said this to the grieving woman:

Ṛṣabha said:

"Why, alas, my child, do you bewail so suddenly, your intellect bewildered?

Who is born, which one in this world, and who has died? Tell me now!

These entities, beginning with the body, have the nature of foam on water;

somewhere is delusion, somewhere stillness, or again, mere continuance.

Therefore, when this body resembling foam has dissolved into the five elements,

the wise do not grieve, for there is no room for grief.

Beings are created by the guṇas, made to wander by their own actions,

then dragged away by Time, and they lie latent in mental impressions.

The three guṇas, beginning with sattva, arise through māyā;

by them alone bodies are born, and once born, they depend upon their characteristics.

A creature attains godhood through sattva, and human state through rajas;

it attains animal state through tamas, helpless, following its mental impressions.

Existing in this worldly existence, a creature, bound by karma,

repeatedly goes to an unfathomable destiny composed of pleasure and pain.

Even for those gods whose lifespan is an eon, there is destruction;

what to say of embodied human beings, bound by countless ailments?

Some say that Time alone is the cause of the body;

some say karma, and some say the guṇas; for this body is common [to all].

This body, consisting of the five elements, is the vessel of time, karma, and the guṇas;

seeing it born, the wise do not rejoice, nor do they grieve when it dies.

A creature is born from the unmanifest, and into the unmanifest it dissolves;

in between it appears manifest, resembling a bubble on water.

When the embodied being enters the womb, its destruction is ordained right then;

by chance it lives once born, or it dies all of a sudden.

Some perish while still in the womb, and others as soon as they are born;

some perish as young men, and some die in old age.

Whatever one's past karma was, such a body one attains;

and indeed, one experiences pleasures and pains conforming to that.

Impelled by the power of māyā, from the passionate union of parents,

a body is born, marked as male, female, or neuter.

Lifespan, pleasure and pain, merit, sin, learning, and wealth—

Bearing what has been written on his forehead by the Creator, a living being is born. 62

Because past deeds cannot be circumvented, because Time cannot be bypassed,

and because material states are impermanent, you ought not to grieve. 63

Where is there fixed permanence in a dream? Where is there truth in an illusion?

Where is eternity in an autumn cloud? Where is perpetual duration in a physical body? 64

Your past births have numbered hundreds of thousands of millions.

Not knowing the supreme truth, this great distress has befallen you. 65

Whose daughter have you not been, or whose mother?

Whose wife have you not been, wandering through millions of worldly lives? 66

Composed of the five elements, bound together by skin, blood, and flesh,

filled with fat, marrow, and bones, the body is a vessel of feces, urine, and phlegm. 67

This other body too is mere filth produced from your own body;

thinking it to be your own son, O foolish woman, you ought not to grieve. 68

If indeed any person could cross over death by effort,

why then did all the wise men of former times perish? 69

By austerity, learning, intellect, mantras, medicines, or elixirs,

no scholar whatsoever can transcend ultimate death. 70

Today is the death of one creature, and tomorrow of another, O fair-faced woman!

Therefore, over that which has perishable parts, you ought not to grieve. 71

Death is constantly near at hand; tell me, what happiness is there for embodied beings?

When a tiger stands in front, can mouthfuls of food indeed please beasts? 72

Therefore, if you wish to conquer birth and old age, O fair-faced woman,

take refuge in the Lord of All, the Conqueror of Death, the Husband of Umā. 73

Terrifying fear of death persists only so long, fear of birth and old age persists only so long,

as an embodied soul does not take refuge in Śiva's lotus feet. 74

Having experienced sorrows here in this exceedingly harsh saṃsāra,

when the mind becomes detached, then the Great Lord is to be meditated upon. 75

For a man who drinks with his mind the nectar of meditation on Śiva,

thirst for the intoxicating liquor of worldly objects does not arise again. 76

When the mind, freed from all attachments and restrained by dispassion,

is submerged in Śiva's abode, then there is no rebirth. 77

Therefore, O auspicious lady, this mind, which is the sole means for meditation on Śiva,

do not let it be overwhelmed by sorrow and delusion; worship Śiva! 78

Sūta said:

Thus gently instructed by the Śaiva yogin,

the queen bowed to the lotus feet of that guru and replied: 79

The queen said:

O venerable one, whose son is dead, who has been abandoned by dear kinsmen,

and who is tormented by a severe disease—what recourse is there for me without death? 80

Therefore, I wish to die together with this child.

I have attained my goal in that today, facing death, I have seen you. 81

Sūta said:

Having heard her words, the Śaiva yogin, an ocean of compassion,

remembering her former benefaction, approached the dead child. 82

Then, taking sacred ash consecrated with the mantras of Śiva,

he cast it into his open mouth and reunited the dead child with life-breaths. 83

Reunited with life-breaths, the child slowly opened his eyes,

regained the former strength of his senses, and wept, craving breast milk. 84

Seeing the resurrection of the dead boy, all the people were amazed,

and all the citizens leading the way in the cities rejoiced. 85

Then the queen, overflowing with joy, her eyes bewildered and maddened,

quickly grasped her son, her eyes agitated with tears. 86

Embracing him then, the slender woman, filled with supreme bliss,

knew neither herself nor anyone else, as if asleep from exhaustion. 87

And once again, the yogin Ṛṣabha wiped the bodies of the mother and child,

which were covered with poisonous sores, with sacred ash alone. 88

And touched by that sacred ash, the two obtained celestial bodies

and bore a form resembling that of the gods, adorned with radiant beauty. 89

Whatever happiness is attained by those of meritorious deeds upon obtaining the sovereignty of heaven,

a hundred times greater than that supreme happiness did that queen obtain. 90

As she fell at his feet, Ṛṣabha, overwhelmed with affection,

raised her up, consoled her who was now freed from sorrow, and spoke:

“Ah, my child, great queen! May you live for eternal years!

As long as you live in this world, so long will you not suffer old age.

This son of yours, virtuous lady, named Bhadrāyus,

shall attain fame throughout the worlds and shall recover his own kingdom.

Dwell here in the house of this merchant, O lady of pure smiles,

until this prince of yours has mastered the sciences.”

Sūta said:

Having thus revived the queen and the young prince

by the power of the holy ash, Ṛṣabha the yogin departed to the lands of his choice.

Thus ends the tenth chapter, titled “The Reviving of Bhadrāyus by Ṛṣabha the Yogin,” in the narrative of Bhadrāyus in the Brahmottarakhaṇḍa of the third [part of the] venerable Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.