Skandapurana 3.3.14

Sūta said:

Having attained the throne, that heroic king Bhadrāyu

once entered a delightful forest together with his wife.

In that [forest], with blossoming aśoka flowers and fresh tender shoots,

crowded with humming bees in clusters of blooming jasmine,

holding a festival for passionate people with the fragrance of fresh saffron,

within thickets of aśoka and tamāla trees that had just budded,

in bower-pavilions of mādhavī vines bowed down with heaps of flowers,

adorned with mango trees radiant with fresh shoots and blossoms,

resonant with male cuckoos wandering through groves of punnāga trees,

in the delightful springtime he sported with his wife.

Then, crying out and running not far away, a brahmin couple

being pursued by a tiger, the best of kings beheld.

"Protect [us]! Protect [us], O great king! Ah, O king, ocean of compassion!

This tiger of great speed is running to devour us two!

This [beast], resembling a mountain, causes terror to all living beings!

Before it catches and devours [us], protect the two of us, O lord of the earth!"

Hearing this lamentation, the king took up his bow;

meanwhile, the tiger arrived and seized that young woman by her waist.

"Ah lord! Lord! Ah beloved! Ah Śambhu, lord of the universe!"

While the terrible beast seized her as she wept thus loudly,

the king struck the tiger with sharp arrows;

yet it was not pained in the least by them, just like a great mountain by rain showers.

That tiger of great strength, unharmed by the king's weapons,

dragged the woman away by force and quickly departed.

Seeing his wife carried off by the tiger, the brahmin was exceedingly distressed

and wept: "Ah, beloved girl! Ah, darling! Ah, devoted wife!

Leaving me alone here, how have you gone to the other world?

Having lost the one dearer to me than life, how can I endure to live?

O king, where are your great missiles? Where is your praiseworthy great bow?

Where is your strength exceeding twelve thousand great elephants?

What use to you is your conch or sword? What use is the lore of mantras and missiles?

What use is that effort, and what use is your great power?

All of that has become fruitless, along with whatever else resides in you,

since you are incapable of warding off a creature dwelling in the forest!

This is the supreme duty of a kṣatriya: that protection [is given] from injury;

therefore, when the duty proper to your family is destroyed, what is the use of your life?

Earthly rulers protect the afflicted who seek refuge,

with their lives and wealth, knowing what is right; those devoid of this are like the dead.

Beggary is better for wealthy people devoid of giving than the householder's life;

death is better than life for those who fail to protect the afflicted.

Better is eating poison for a king, better is entering into fire,

than failing to protect the helpless, the surrendered, and the wretched!"

Hearing this lamentation of his and the censure of his own valor,

the king, out of sorrow, reflected within himself in this way:

"Alas, my manly prowess is destroyed today through the adverse turn of fate!

Today my fame is destroyed, and a terrible sin has been incurred!

The duty suited to the moment is ruined for me, unfortunate and foolish as I am;

surely my riches, kingdom, and lifespan will come to an end!

For unmanly men, fortunes, enjoyments, children, wives, and riches

arise in an instant by destiny and in an instant vanish.

Therefore, this twice-born whose wife is slain, afflicted by sorrow,

I will make free from sorrow, even by giving my own dear life."

Having thus resolved in his mind, Bhadrāyus, the best of kings,

fell at his feet and spoke, consoling him:

"O brahmin, have mercy on me, a base kṣatriya whose power has departed!

Cast off your grief, O highly intelligent one; I will give you the thing you desire.

Here is this kingdom, here is this queen, and here is this body of mine;

all this is under your command. Say what it is you wish!"

The brahmin said:

"What use is a mirror to a blind man? What use are houses to one who lives by begging?

What use is a book to a fool, and what use is wealth to a wifeless man?

Therefore, I have lost my wife, and I have never enjoyed worldly pleasures.

Let this chief queen of yours be given to me for the sake of desire."

The king said:

"O brahmin, is this your dharma? Is this the instruction of your teachers?

Touching another man's wife prevents heaven and brings ill-fame.

There are givers of wealth, of kingdoms, and of elephants and horses,

or even of their own bodies somewhere, but never of a wife.

The sin that is amassed by enjoying another man's wife—

it is impossible to wash it away even with hundreds of expiations."

The brahmin said:

"Even the dreadful murder of a brahmin, even the drinking of liquor,

I will destroy through austerity; how much more so adultery?

Therefore, surrender this wife to me! Otherwise, certainly,

due to failing to protect those afflicted by fear, you will surely go to hell."

Frightened by the brahmin's words, the king reflected:

"Great is the sin resulting from failing to protect; better than that is giving up my wife.

Therefore, having given my wife to the best of brahmins and being freed from sin,

I will immediately enter the fire, and my fame will be established."

Having thus resolved in his mind, he kindled the fire,

summoned that brahmin, and gave him his wife along with water.

Having bathed himself, purified, and bowed down to the lords of the gods,

he circumambulated that fire twice and meditated upon Śiva with a concentrated mind.

Then, as he was about to fall into the fire, his heart fixed on His feet,

the Lord of the Universe, the Master of the World, manifested and appeared before him:

The king saw Īśvara manifested before him, five-faced, three-eyed, holding the Pināka bow, adorned with the crescent moon, / with a mass of reddish matted locks hanging down, standing in the middle, possessing the splendor of ten million suns,

having hanging masses of reddish-brown matted locks, arrived in their midst, possessed of the splendour of ten million suns,

fair as a lotus fiber, wearing an elephant skin as clothing, his crest sprinkled by the waves of the Gaṅgā, / radiant with necklaces of serpent kings, bracelets, signet rings, crowns, armlets, and earrings,

resplendent with rows of necklaces, bracelets, and rings made of lordly serpents, and with ten million diadems, armlets, and earrings,

his hands holding the trident, the skull-topped staff, the axe, the shield, the deer, the gesture granting fearlessness, the wish-granting gesture, and the Pināka bow, / seated upon a bull, dark-necked, the Lord.

seated upon a bull, dark-throated, the lord manifested before him—the king beheld him.

Then divine showers of flowers fell swiftly from the sky;

the musical instruments of the gods sounded, and the gods danced and sang.

There came celestial seers, Nārada and others, Sanaka and others,

and the lords of the world, Indra and others, as well as the stainless brahmin-seers.

Seated in their midst, Mahādeva along with Umā

showered a stream of compassion upon the king bowed in devotion.

His heart expanded with the joy of seeing Him, his limbs drenched with an overflowing flood of tears, / his hair standing on end, he praised [Him] with words in faltering syllables from his throat, his hands clasped in reverence:

With hair standing on end, his voice faltering in his throat, he praised him with words, having folded his hands in reverence:

The king said:

"I bow to the God, who has no master, imperishable, the primal material cause, whose qualities are unmanifest, the Great One, / uncaused, the cause of causes, the supreme, Śiva, composed of consciousness and bliss, the tranquil;

"He who is causeless, the supreme cause of causes, Śiva, consisting of consciousness and bliss, tranquil,

You are the witness of the universe, the creator of this world, whose abode is widespread, seated within the heart; / therefore, the wise search for You in ritual by numerous yogas with restrained minds.

therefore the wise search for him according to rule, through manifold disciplines of yoga with minds restrained.

To those contemplating oneness of the Self, You are one; to those with diverse intellects, You assume diverse forms. / Beyond the senses, the witness of rising and setting, Your realm is withdrawn from the path of the mind.

Beyond the senses, the witness of the play of rising and setting, your state is withdrawn from the path of the mind.

How can my words be sufficient to praise the form of You who are difficult to attain by speech and intellect, free from delusion, whose nature is the supreme Self, / [when my words are] bound solely to the qualities and dissolved in material nature?

Devoted solely to the qualities, dissolved in material nature, how are my words able to praise your form?

Nevertheless, let them take refuge in devotion at Your lotus feet, which crush the affliction of those who bow down! / Afflicted by the dreadful forest fire of saṃsāra, I constantly revere [them] for the appeasement of the fear of worldly existence.

Afflicted by the forest fire of terrible worldly existence, I worship you constantly for the pacification of fear of transmigration."

Obeisance to You, the God of gods, Mahādeva, Śambhu!"

Homage to the one whose form is the threefold deity, the maker of creation, preservation, and dissolution. (53)

Homage to the primeval form of the universe, the first witness of all,

homage to the reality of pure being, the mass of consciousness and bliss. (54)

To the dweller in all fields, whose inherent power is differentiated by each field,

to you without power, yet appearing as powerful, the immense one, homage. (55)

To the unmanifest, eternal inner self of truth and knowledge,

to the completely pure, the far-distant, who has cast off all action. (56)

Homage to the one known through Vedānta, who dwells at the root of the Vedas;

homage to the one whose deeds are distinct, whose operation of the guṇas has ceased. (57)

Homage to the one of auspicious valour, the giver of auspicious fruit;

homage to the endless, the great, the peaceful, whose form is Śiva. (58)

To the non-terrific, to the very terrific, the tearer of the terrible flood of sins,

to the splendour, the crusher of the seeds of worldly existence, the most venerable,

homage to the dispeller of delusion, whose self-attributes are radiant. (59)

Protect me, lord of worlds! Protect me, eternal Śaṃkara!

Protect me, Rudra, odd-eyed one! Protect me, imperishable conqueror of death! (3.3.14.60)

O Śambhu, whose crest is made of the hare-marked moon, whose form is calm, lord of Gaurī, whose eyes are the sun, moon, and fire!

O bearer of the Gaṅgā, tearer of Andhaka, of holy renown, lord of beings, dweller on the mountain, homage always to you! (61)

Sūta said:

Praised in this way by the king, the blessed god, the great lord,

pleased together with Pārvatī, that treasury of compassion replied: (62)

Īśvara said:

"O king, I am well pleased with your devotion and your holy hymn of praise,

who, single-minded, have continually and always worshipped me. (63)

In order to test your disposition, I arrived having become a twice-born.

She who was seized by the tiger was this divine daughter of the mountain king. (64)

The tiger, whose body was uninjured by your arrows, was made of illusion.

Desiring to see your steadfastness, I begged for your wife. (65)

And by her devotion, that of Kīrtimālinī, and by yours, O giver of honor,

I am pleased: I grant a boon; choose a boon hard to obtain." (66)

The king said:

"This indeed is the boon, O god, that you, the supreme lord,

have become visible to me, who am overwhelmed by the torment of worldly existence. (67)

I choose no other boon, O god, from you, the best among granters of boons.

I, this queen, my mother, and my father,

the vaiśya named Padmākara, and his son named Sunaya—

make all of these always remain at your side, O Mahādeva." (69)

Sūta said:

Then the illustrious queen, bowing down, Kīrtimālinī,

having propitiated Giriśa with devotion, begged for an excellent boon. (3.3.14.70)

The queen said:

"Candrāṅgada is my father, and Sīmantinī is my mother;

for the two of them, O Mahādeva, I ask for perpetual presence at your side." (71)

"So be it," said the lord of Gaurī, pleased and affectionate toward his devotees;

granting them the desired boon, he disappeared in an instant. (72)

That king too, together with the gods having obtained the grace of the wielder of the trident,

enjoyed beloved pleasures together with Kīrtimālinī. (73)

Having ruled the kingdom for ten thousand years with unimpeded increase of strength,

having entrusted the kingdom to his sons, he attained the supreme abode of Śambhu. (74)

Candrāṅgada too, that best of kings, and that queen Sīmantinī,

having worshipped Giriśa with devotion, went to the realm of Śambhu. (75)

This holy, sin-destroying, wondrous recounting of the qualities of Śambhu is the supreme secret;

whoever recites it to wise people or reads it with restrained mind, having attained the abundance of worldly pleasures, reaches Śiva in the end. (76)

Thus ends the fourteenth chapter, named "The Recital of the Grace of Śiva upon Bhadrāyu," in the third Brahmottarakhanda of the glorious Skandapurāṇa, a compendium of eighty-one thousand [verses]. (14)