Skandapurana 4.30

Skanda said:

Listen, O highly fortunate Agastya: that King Bhagīratha,

having worshipped glorious Mahādeva, wishing to deliver his grandfathers (1)

who had all been consumed by a brahmin's curse, that best of royal seers,

brought down to earth by great austerity the river that travels the three paths,

the king, for the great benefit of all three worlds.

Then he led the Gaṅgā to where Maṇikarṇikā was,

the Ānandakānana of Śambhu, the Cakrapuṣkariṇī of Hari,

the supreme sacred field of the highest Brahman, bestowing liberation effortlessly.

The son of Dilīpa, walking in front, brought that Gaṅgā

to where the city named Kāśī is famed, because it illuminates nirvāṇa.

The great sacred field Avimukta is never abandoned by Śambhu.

Indeed, O sage, gold of natural origin from the Jambu river is already priceless by nature;

how much more so if joined with an incomparable diamond?

The sacred ford Cakrapuṣkariṇī was already an abode of blessings;

then it became even more superior through the jewel-earring ornament of Śambhu.

In that Ānandakānana, the Avimukta, the abode of Śiva,

liberation was already accomplished; by conjunction with the Gaṅgā, it grew even greater.

From the moment the Gaṅgā arrived at Maṇikarṇī,

from that moment that sacred field became difficult to attain even for the thirty [gods].

Having performed manifold actions, whether auspicious or otherwise,

casting them aside in an instant, one dwelling in Kāśī becomes immortal.

There, without profound meditation on the one to be known through the Upaniṣads,

without Sāṃkhya or Yoga, one dwelling in Kāśī becomes immortal.

Even without the knowledge that uproots past action, O pot-born [sage],

by the grace of the moon-crested [Śiva], one dwelling in Kāśī becomes immortal.

Relinquishing the body through the force of time, whether intentionally or unintentionally,

by the teaching of the saving mantra, one dwelling in Kāśī becomes immortal.

Even though bound by the primal qualities accumulated across many births,

by connection with the confluence of the Asi, one dwelling in Kāśī becomes immortal.

Abandoning the body here is indeed gift-giving; abandoning the body here is indeed austerity;

abandoning the body here is indeed yoga; in Kāśī it brings the bliss of nirvāṇa.

Reaching the north-flowing river at Kāśī, even a perpetrator of great misdeeds,

relinquishing his own [body] with ease, would go to that highest step of Viṣṇu.

Seeing all those intent upon the path to liberation, the gods led by Yama, Indra, and Agni,

all beheld them and established protection around the city.

Having the form of a great sword, cutting off the evil thoughts of sinners,

repelling the entrance of the wicked, the gods fashioned the river Asi.

And they established the Varaṇā there, which wards off obstacles from the sacred field,

the gods making it bring about the turning away of evil conduct and the right course of good conduct.

Having placed the Asi and the Varaṇā in the southern and northern directions,

the gods attained peace, having guarded the treasure of liberation in the sacred field.

In the western direction of the sacred field, that Dehalīvināyaka

the moon-crested god himself stationed for protection.

To those whose entrance is permitted by the compassionate Lord of the Universe,

they grant entrance, but never to others.

On this matter, I shall recount an ancient legend,

exceedingly wonderful, increasing devotion to Kāśī.

Skanda said:

On the shore of the southern ocean, near Setubandha,

there was a merchant named Dhanañjaya, endowed with devotion to his mother.

His wealth was acquired through righteous ways, and by his wealth he satisfied seekers.

His fame was spread wide by petitioners, and he was a worshipper of the son of Yaśodā.

Though exceedingly elevated by fortune, his neck was bowed low in humility.

A mine of virtues, he concealed his form among the virtuous.

Though eminent in the beauty of his form, he turned his face away from the wives of others.

Possessed of all accomplishments, his rising was ever spotless, like a full moon free of blemishes.

Though having commerce of mixed truth and falsehood, he was mostly fond of truth, O sage.

Though belonging to a caste other [than the highest], he was praised by all with gold in the world.

Covering the path of good conduct, travelling in comfortable carriages, he was capable.

Though not poor, that intelligent man was impoverished in mind with respect to sin.

While he was living in this manner, once, in the course of time,

his mother met her end, being afflicted with disease and suffering from extreme old age.

And she, having reached youth, which is fleeting as the shadow of a cloud,

like the flood of a rainy-season river, her own husband was deceived.

A woman who, having attained youth lasting only three or four days,

deceives her husband out of delusion, goes to imperishable hell.

By the breach of women's virtue, even a husband dedicated to righteousness

falls from the heaven earned with difficulty; therefore, virtue must be guarded by a woman.

And the evil-minded woman falls on her own into a hell that is a pit of feces,

until the dissolution of all beings; then she becomes a village sow,

drinking her own feces, and then a bat hanging from a tree,

or an owl, blind by day, dwelling in a tree hollow.

With great effort this body, a receptacle for merit,

must be guarded by a woman from the touch of another, which appears as pleasure but is of the nature of pain.

Indeed, by this very body committed to her husband,

did not a faithful wife arrest the rising sun by her command?

Did not Anasūyā, wife of Atri, devoted to her vow of fidelity to her husband,

bear the triad [of gods] in her womb by the power of devotion to her husband?

Vast fame in this world, imperishable residence in heaven,

and companionship with Śrī are to be obtained by a woman through fidelity to her husband.

She, having abandoned the eternal duty to her husband through bad conduct,

and having acted as she pleased, died and went to hell.

And Dhanañjaya, O sage, [traveling] with a certain Śiva-yogin,

became devoted to righteousness through austerity, compassion, and the like.

Then the righteous-minded Dhanañjaya, devoted to the worship of his mother,

took his mother's bones and set out on the road to the Gaṅgā.

Having bathed them with the five products of the cow, and then with the five nectars,

having smeared them with yakṣakardama paste and worshiped them with flowers,

having wrapped them with silk cloth, and then with woven silk,

then with fragrant cloth, and then with madder-dyed cloth,

and then with a Nepalese blanket and pure clay,

and having placed his mother's limbs in a copper casket, O, the merchant,

untouched by low castes, pure, sleeping on bare ground,

though feverish in the middle of the road, Dhanañjaya brought them along.

A certain porter was hired by him after paying an appropriate wage;

what is the use of speaking much, O jar-born [Agastya]? Then he reached Kāśī.

Having kept the porter to guard his provisions, Dhanañjaya

went to the market to fetch some items such as food.

Finding an opportunity, the porter took from the middle of the provisions

the copper casket, thinking it was wealth, and went home.

Then, having returned to the lodgings and not seeing him, Dhanañjaya,

hurrying, saw the luggage bereft of the copper casket.

Beating his chest, crying, 'Alas! Alas!', he wept loudly and repeatedly.

Looking around here and there, he went in pursuit of him.

Without taking a bath in the Jāhnavī, without beholding the Lord of the universe,

Dhanañjaya reached the dwelling of that load-carrier.

Now, the porter too, in the forest, seeing the bones

inside the copper casket, sighed, threw them away, and went home.

And the merchant, having reached his house, his throat, lips, and palate dry,

then saw a piece of cloth within the grass hut.

Comforted somewhat by hope, he questioned his wife:

'Speak the truth, do not fear; I will surely give you other

wealth. Where has your husband gone? Return my mother's bones to me.

O good lady, we are pilgrims; we do not cause distress.

Not knowing, under the influence of greed, he took the casket of bones.

This is not his fault, O good lady; such was my mother's karma.

Or rather, it is not my mother's fault; I, her son, am unfortunate.

The duty that should be done by a son—there is no achievement of that for me, O Bhilla woman!

I made the effort, [yet] it does not succeed on account of ill fortune.

Let the forest-dweller come upon my true word; let him not fear.

Let him show the bones quickly; I will give him more wealth than that.'

Addressed thus by him, that Bhilla woman called her husband.

Then he, his head bowed with shame, reported the incident and,

The hunter led that Dhanañjaya into the dense forest.

Then, O sage, the forester forgot that spot by destiny;

having become disoriented, he then wandered about in the forest.

He goes from this forest to that, and would wander from that forest to this;

having roamed from forest to forest, even that forester grew exhausted.

Leaving him in the middle of the woods, he went off to his own hamlet.

Having wandered about for two or three days, that best of pilgrims,

emaciated by hunger, his throat and lips dried up, lamenting, 'Alas! Alas!',

reached the city of Kāśī once more, his face utterly dejected, O merchant.

Having heard of that misfortune from the people, O sage, the pilgrim

performed [the rites at] Gayā and Prayāga, and then departed for his own land.

Even though they had entered Kāśī, O pot-born [Agastya], those bones

went outside immediately, without the command of Viśveśvara.

Thus, even upon entering Kāśī, a sinner who merely clings to piety [externally]

does not obtain the fruit of the sacred field, [and] is cast out that very moment.

Therefore, the command of Viśveśvara alone is the cause for dwelling here in Kāśī.

Where the Asi and Varaṇā were established to protect the sacred field,

from that time forth, O great sage, it became known as Vārāṇasī.

Reaching the confluence of the Asi and the Varaṇā, Kāśī is [so named].

Vārāṇasī is here an embodiment of compassion and divine form; having cast off the body here with ease,

a embodied being enters at once into the splendor of the sight of Viśveśa, and by that form assumes that state.

'O creature, born and dead in many supreme sacred fords, by plunging into them you never found peace;

dead here, you attain immortality and become by my power the Chastiser of Smara [Śiva]'—thus speaks Vārāṇasī.

Elsewhere, a twice-born fallen into the waters of a sacred ford attains the state of a god and the like, but not so in Kāśī;

how marvelous that one who falls here never rises again—even an outcaste, to say nothing of the first-born [brahmin]!

This is no mere city, [but] the far shore of the ocean of transmigration, [established by] the Destroyer of the Cities, the Enemy of Tripura,

in which He, desiring the supreme purpose of human existence, leads the lineage of citizens to perfection.

Bathing all over in other sacred fords, a person, casting off a defiled body, might become a divinity in heaven;

but shedding the body in the precincts of Vārāṇasī, one becomes free of doubt even concerning the attainment of another bodily state.

Even without the harmonization [of breath], Vārāṇasī—dispeller of the torment of living beings—

brings to the hearing of people devoid of yoga that rescuing [formula], and reveals that Brahman whereby there is no rebirth.

Alas, having cast aside in the precincts of Vārāṇasī the body that grants desires, the abode of dharma, wealth, and desire,

and exceedingly delighted in longing for some desired station, what void did one attain where even the principal was lost instead of gain!

Ah, the people dwelling in Kāśī were surely tricked by the One with an eye on his forehead and half a woman's body!

Taking away the cherished body, the vessel made for the twilights, he gives only release that leaves no rebirth!

Vārāṇasī is the sole ground of radiant, boundless virtues, where embodied souls, by the power of the Moon-crested,

all have poison in their throats, an eye on their foreheads, a woman's slender form in their left half, and at last [become] bodiless.

This Forest of Bliss [Ānandakānana] was already bestower of joy of old, and there too is the disc-pool Maṇikarṇikā,

and then the union with the celestial river [Gaṅgā], and the supreme abode of the Lord of the Universe—what is there here that is not for liberation?

Vārāṇasī here has the Varaṇā and the Asi, best of rivers, generating sorrow at their confluence, and the celestial river endowed with radiant beauty;

she is the steadfast resting ground of the pure fortune of liberation; leaving her, why does the foolish creature suffer?

Alas, have you forgotten the misery born of the womb, and the binding and beating inflicted by the messengers of Death?

Leaving Kāśī, which is obtained by receiving the grace of Śambhu, why does the fool abandon liberation held right in his hand?

Other sacred fords instantly remove sins, bestow much auspiciousness, and lead to heaven;

but Vārāṇasī, through drinking, immersion, rituals, and the abandonment of the body, destroys [transmigration] at its very root!

Casting off the body at Maṇikarṇikā in the precincts of the city of Kāśī, embodied souls attain a form

possessing an eye on the forehead, the blue splendour on the throat, a charming wife in the left half, freed from all confinement.

Knowing the matchless power of Maṇikarṇikā, whoever casts off the material body smelling of impure pus,

swiftly uniting with the light of self-realization, does not attain separateness even across different cosmic eons.

Those whose mind and senses are filled with faults such as passion, and who consider the city of Kāśī—of matchless, divine, great glory—

to be equal to other sacred fords on every side: those are sinners; one should not converse with them.

Leaving Vārāṇasī, the beloved capital of the Slayer of Smara, where are you going in different directions, O fool?

Having obtained the enduring fortune of liberation, hard even for the Unborn [Brahmā] to attain, why would you desire fortune that is fleeting by nature?

Learning, wealth, mansions, elephants, horses, servants, garlands, sandalwood, and utterly enchanting women,

even heaven is not unapproachable in this world for a person endowed with exertion; but Vārāṇasī—where liberation is [easy] even for moths—is hard to attain. / Balanced on a scale by the Creator to weigh them: the realms headed by Vaikuṇṭha, and Kāśikā,

those rose up because of their lightness, while this city stayed down by its weight—the city here of the four goals of human life.

Dwelling in the city of Kāśī, a person, even while being an ordinary human, is raised to become a unique Rudra here;

dispelling his past deeds through the burdens of afflictions born of diverse obstacles and natural circumstances, he enters the abode of the Supreme Lord.

Leaving the body subject to constant decay, the dwelling-place of the pains of birth and death, why, alas, does not

that foolish creature accept in this Kāśī a form made of light, the abode of steadfast, supreme bliss, [rather than] exchanging it like a cracked earthen vessel?

Ah! Why does the world suffer grief here, its intellect ruined, alas! / weighed down by burdens of misfortune, having essence [only in] constant destruction, its wealth ruined,

when there is Kāśī on earth, where at death Śiva utters [something] into the ear, / by which [a soul] no longer enters the cave of a womb? 92

Among those dwelling in Kāśī, whether one is a forester, eats twice or thrice [a day], or lives on wind alone,

whether one acts willfully or has mastered the senses—ah, preeminence belongs to the person who dwells in Kāśī! 93

Here in Kāśī, there is no different destination for those who commit evil deeds or for virtuous souls when they meet their end;

for in this barren ground, the seeds born of their actions / do not sprout, burned by the gaze of Hara. 94

Rabbits, mosquitoes, herons, parrots, sparrows, wolves, along with jackals,

horses, serpents, monkeys, and men, O daughter of the mountain, who die in Kāśī, attain supreme immortality. 95

Though not Rudras, adorned with rudrākṣas and king-serpents, bearing the tripuṇḍra and the crescent moon, descended to the earth,

the people who dwell continuously in Kāśī, O daughter of the king of mountains, are considered my attendants. 96

As many living beings as dwell here in Kāśī, moving in water or on land, beginning with fish and jackals,

so many, by my grace having Rudra-bodies, having reached the end of the body, enter into me. 97

And the Rudras who have arrows of rain, proclaimed in heaven, O goddess,

those who have arrows of wind in the atmosphere, and those on earth who have arrows of food, O dear one; 98

the ten Rudras each residing in the east, south, west, and north,

and those Rudras residing in the upper direction, who are recited by the expounders of the Veda; 99