Skandapurana 3.3.18

Sūta said:

"Now I shall declare the highest of all duties,

the observance named Umāmaheśvara, which grants the accomplishment of all aims.

There was a certain twice-born man born in Ānarta, Vedaratha by name,

endowed with wife and sons, learned, and born of an excellent lineage.

As that brahmin was living in the householder's stage of life,

a lotus-eyed daughter named Śāradā was born to him.

That young girl of twelve years, endowed with beauty and auspicious marks,

was sought in marriage by a twice-born man named Padmanābha whose wife had died.

Because he was very wealthy, tranquil, and always a friend of the king,

the father gave him the maiden out of fear of refusing his request.

The marriage having been performed at midday in the house of his father-in-law, that brahmin

went in the evening to the bank of a lake to observe the twilight ritual.

Having duly performed the twilight ritual, as he was returning on the path veiled in darkness,

he was bitten by a serpent and died on account of his own karma.

When he, having just been married, died so suddenly, his relatives,

his two parents-in-law, and the maiden, tormented by grief, wept loudly.

Having carried him away, the relatives went each to their own dwelling.

Having met with widowhood, Śāradā remained in her father's house.

Provided with food and clothing, destitute of her husband, the virtuous girl

spent some months in her father's home.

One day, a very old sage named Naidhruva,

who was blind and grasped his disciple's hand, arrived at that house.

When that old man reached the house while the relatives had gone elsewhere,

that maiden approached him, as if he were her personal deity in visible form.

"Welcome to you, O fortunate one; please sit upon this seat.

Salutations to you, O lord of sages! What agreeable service may I do for you?"

Having said this, filled with devotion, she washed his feet,

and by fanning the weary sage, she gave him contentment.

Having seated the weary sage upon a seat and massaged him with her own hands,

and when the sage had duly bathed and worshipped the deity,

she honoured him as he sat upon a comfortable seat with incense, garlands, and ointments,

and respectfully fed him with choice food.

Having eaten well and slowly, satisfied and filled with joy,

the blind sage, well pleased, bestowed a supreme blessing upon her:

"Having sporting union with that husband, and quickly having obtained a son supreme in all virtues,

and having attained great renown in the world, may you become worthy of the grace of the deities!"

Hearing this uttered by that sage whose sight had departed,

the astonished girl, joining her palms, replied:

"O brahmin, your word is true; it can never become false.

How will this come to fruition for me, an unfortunate woman?

Just as good rain upon the highest rock, just as good treatment upon a bitch,

so the blessing even of knowers of Brahman is fruitless upon an unfortunate woman.

Such as I am, a widow, O brahmin, suffering the fruit of bad deeds,

how shall I become a worthy recipient of this word of blessing from you?”

The sage said:

“What was spoken now by me, though blind, without noticing you,

that I shall accomplish. Carry out my command, O auspicious one!

If you perform the observance named Umāmaheśvara,

by the power of that observance you will instantly enjoy welfare.”

Śāradā said:

“Instructed by you, I will zealously perform it, even though hard to perform.

Tell me of that observance, O brahmin; explain the ritual in full.”

The sage said:

“Either in Caitra or in Mārgaśīrṣa, during the bright fortnight on an auspicious day,

one should properly begin the observance with the guru's permission.

On the eighth and on the fourteenth, or on both the new and full moon days,

having duly made the solemn resolve, one should perform the morning bath.

Having satisfied the ancestors, the gods, and others, and having gone to one’s own house,

one should construct a celestial pavilion adorned with canopies and other ornaments,

furnished with archways of fruits, sprouts, flowers, and the like;

and in its center one should draw a lotus with powders of five colors:

with fourteen petals on the outside, twenty-two within that,

within that sixteen, and within that eight.

Having thus drawn a delightful lotus with five colors,

one should then make an excellent square with a circle inside.

In its center a heap of unhusked and husked rice together with a bundle of kuśa grass,

and firmly placing upon the bundle of grass a jar filled with water,

and placing upon the jar a colored cloth,

and having placed on top of it two auspicious golden images of Śiva and his consort,

one should worship them with devotion according to the extent of one's wealth.

Having bathed them with the five nectars and likewise with pure water,

having recited the eleven Rudra verses and one hundred and eight five-syllable mantras,

and having consecrated and again placed them in the middle of a seat, one should worship them accordingly.

The wise person, himself seated on a pure seat and wearing washed white garments,

having addressed the seat with a mantra, should perform breath controls.

There, before Śiva, with joined palms, one should recite the solemn resolve:

‘Whatever terrible sins exist of mine over hundreds of other lifetimes,

for the complete destruction of them all, I undertake the worship of Śiva.

For the increase of good fortune, victory, health, righteousness, and prosperity,

and for the attainment of heaven and final liberation, I will perform the worship of Śiva.’

Having thus uttered the solemn resolve, duly and well-composed,

having then performed the ritual placing of mantras on the body, one should meditate upon Īśa and Pārvatī:

[Īśa,] who has the white form of a jasmine flower and the moon, adorned with serpent ornaments,

with hands granting boons and fearlessness, and holding an axe and a deer;

resembling ten million suns, the cause of joy for the universe;

bearing long, tawny matted locks on account of contact with the waters of the Gaṅgā;

adorned with a great crown formed from the hoods of the lord of serpents;

with an ornament of armlets and a diadem shining with the crescent of the cool-rayed moon;

having a forehead-eye opening wide, and likewise eyes that are the sun and the moon;

blue-throated, four-armed, dressed in the hide of the king of elephants;

mounted upon a jewel-throne, adorned with serpent ornaments;

and the goddess, wearing divine garments, with the luster of ten thousand morning suns,

in the attire of a maiden, slender-limbed, bearing the young crescent moon on her crest,

holding a noose, a goad, the boon, and fearlessness, and four-armed;

the Mother whose face is gracious with favor, delighting in the essence of divine sport;

wearing ear ornaments made of shining kurabaka, aśoka, punnāga, and fresh campaka flowers;

having locks of hair interwoven with blooming jasmine;

splendid with the expansive sweep of hips girdled by a zone of bells;

her two feet rich with anklets and rows of noble tiny tinkling bells.

adorned with jewelled earrings touching the orb of her cheeks,

whose bud-like teeth shine with the red reflection of her bimba-fruit lip,

resplendent with a precious gem-necklace and a sparkling string of pearls,

having lovely bracelets, armlets, and rings made of new rubies,

clad in red garments, anointed [with perfumes] and wearing jewel-garlands, / whose rising, plump pair of breasts reproaches lotus buds,

with playful, restless, dark outer corners of her eyes, bestowing grace upon devotees.

Having thus meditated in the lotus of the heart upon the auspicious parents of the universe,

and having chanted the mantra whose essence is they, one should worship them outside at the end of that.

Having invoked them into a pair of images, one should arrange a seat and other offerings;

and knowing the mantra, one should offer the arghya to Śiva and Śivā with this mantra:

“Salutations to you, O Lord of Pārvatī, bull among givers of boons in the three worlds!

O Tryambakeśa, O Mahādeva, accept the arghya; homage be to you!

Salutations to you, O ruler of the gods, who take away the fear of those who surrender!

O Ambikā, O boon-giving goddess, beloved of Śiva, accept the arghya!”

Having recited this three times, one should offer the arghya with concentrated mind.

One should properly offer perfume, flowers, unbroken rice, incense, and lamps.

One should offer a food offering of milk-rice mixed with clarified butter,

and one should offer an oblation into the fire one hundred and eight times with the root mantra.

Then, having removed the food offering, and having performed incense, waving of lamps, and other rites,

and having offered betel, one should bow down with concentrated mind.

Then, having worshipped them with hospitality, one should feed a brahmin couple.

Having thus performed the evening worship, approved by the brahmins,

one should eat at night, with restrained speech, sacrificial food prepared with milk.

Thus the wise person should perform the observance for a year, in both fortnights.

Then, when the year is complete, one should perform the concluding rite of the observance.

One should bathe the two images with water consecrated by reciting the Śatarudrīya;

and having worshipped Girijā and Śiva with the mantra prescribed in the Āgama,

and having given a water jar accompanied by garments, gold, and the image

to a noble teacher devoted to good conduct,

and having honoured the brahmins according to one's capacity, one should feed them with devotion.

One should also give them a sacrificial fee of cows, gold, garments, and so forth.

Permitted by them, one should eat together with dear ones and relatives.

Whoever performs with devotion this observance famed in the three worlds,

having delivered twenty-one generations and enjoyed pleasures as desired,

certainly rejoices in the realms of the world-protectors headed by Indra;

and rejoices in the world of Brahmā, and in the eternal world of Viṣṇu.

Then, having attained the world of Śiva, and there for a hundred kalpas

having enjoyed vast pleasures, one attains Śiva alone.

This great observance has been taught; you too undertake it with faith;

and you will obtain your desire, even if it is exceedingly difficult to attain.”

Thus instructed by the foremost of sages, that young girl was greatly delighted.

Full of complete trust, she accepted his charming word.

Then her parents and brothers arrived;

they saw that sage seated comfortably, having finished his meal.

Hurrying up, all of them bowed down to the great-souled one;

saying, “Be gracious to us, be gracious!” they worshipped him.

Hearing that the supreme sage had been honoured by that virtuous girl,

and hearing that he was gracious toward her, they experienced supreme joy.

All of them, with folded palms, spoke to that bull among sages:

“Today we are all blessed merely by your arrival;

our entire family is purified, and our household is rendered fruitful.

And this maiden, named Śāradā, has fallen into widowhood

by some overpowering fate of action that is hard to surmount.

This virtuous woman has today surrendered to your lotus feet for refuge.

Deliver her from this unbearable, dreadful ocean of sorrow!

You also should remain right here near our home for that time,

in this hermitage belonging to our house, suitable for bathing, worship, and chanting.

This girl too, O venerable one, performing the worship of your feet,

will practice the observance in your presence alone, O great sage,

until her observance reaches completion near you.”

having dwelt right here until then, make us fulfilled, O guru!"

Thus requested by all her brothers and kin,

saying, "So be it," that best of sages lived there in an auspicious cloister.

She too, by the path instructed by him, Girijā and Śiva

worshiping, performed the vow properly, pure and virtuous.

Thus ends the eighteenth chapter, titled "The Observance of the Umā-Maheśvara Vow," in the Brahmottarakhaṇḍa, the third [section] of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa of eighty-one thousand verses.