Skandapurana 4.9

Śivaśarman said:

Who are these women, treasures of beauty, grace, and good fortune,

wearing divine ornaments, endowed with divine delights?

The two attendants said:

These are the courtesans who give pleasure to those who partake in sacrifices.

They understand singing, are skilled in dancing, and are proficient in the art of instrumental music.

They know the arts of love-play and are experts in the science of gambling.

They appreciate aesthetic sentiments, perceive emotional states, and are clever with appropriate remarks.

They know the particularities of various regions and are very proficient in various languages.

They are skilled in the details of lovers' signals and many wander about freely with joy.

They are very well-versed in playful dalliance and jesting, and expert in witty conversation.

With their seductive gestures, they constantly delight the minds of youth.

Long ago, while the Ocean of Milk was being churned, these apsarases emerged,

as the bewitching weapon of the mind-born [Kāma] who conquers the three worlds.

Urvaśī, Menakā, Rambhā, Candralekhā, Tilottamā,

Vapuṣmatī, Kāntimatī, Līlāvatī, Utpalāvatī,

Alambuṣā, Guṇavatī, Sthūlakeśī, Kalāvatī,

Kalānidhi, Guṇanidhi, Karpūratilakā, Urvarā,

Anaṅgalatikā, and likewise Madanamohinī,

Cakorākṣī, Candrakalā, and Munimanoharā,

Grāvadrāvā, Tapodveṣṭrī, Cārunāsā, Sukarṇikā,

Dārusañjīvinī, Suśrī, Kratuśulkā, Śubhānanā,

Tapaḥśulkā, Tīrthaśulkā, Dānaśulkā, Himāvatī,

Pañcāśvamedhikā, and also Rājasūyārthinī,

Aṣṭāgnihomikā, and likewise Vājapeyaśatodbhavā—

such is the foremost group of sixty thousand apsarases.

Other women also dwell in this realm of the apsarases,

whose beauty never wanes and whose youth never fades.

Wearing celestial garments and celestial garlands, anointed with celestial fragrant ointments,

fully endowed with celestial pleasures, they take on bodies according to their own desire.

Having undertaken month-long fasts, if they slip from celibacy

just once, or twice, or thrice by the power of fate,

they become enjoyers of celestial pleasures, possessing the wealth of form and beauty,

and dwell in the realm of the apsarases, endowed with every desire.

Women who perform according to rule optional vows with all their components,

having arrived here, wander freely and become enjoyable to the gods.

Women committed to devotion to their husbands who were seized by a powerful man by force,

and enjoyed him at some time mistaking him for their husband, O brahmin—these are they.

And those women who, when their husband was away, observed a vow of perpetual celibacy,

yet slipped once by fate—these are those fair-eyed women.

Fragrant flowers, sweet-scented sandalwood,

very pale camphor, and very fine garments;

betel leaves that are straight and tender, or cured and firm,

intact with their tips, golden in color, and with prominent dark veins,

abundant with fragrant spices of the betel vine, O best of brahmins;

beds, varied ornaments, and things suitable for the bedchamber,

as well as many curiosities—having honored a brahmin couple,

this gift of pleasures, given out of desire at every transit of the sun,

or at every Vyatīpāta, for the duration of one year,

whichever fair-complexioned woman should give it with the mantra beginning with 'Who gave...?',

saying, 'May the god who assumes forms at will be pleased'—

that woman shall dwell here for a kalpa as the foremost among the apsarases.

A woman who, while in the form of a maiden, was enjoyed somewhere by someone

in the form of a god, and from that time on remained celibate,

meditating upon that very encounter until she meets her end in due time,

is born here assuming a celestial form, partaking of celestial pleasures.

Hearing this origin of the realm of the apsarases, the foremost of brahmins,

riding in the aerial chariot, then reached the realm of the sun in an instant.

Just as a kadamba flower is covered on all sides with filaments,

so was it shining brightly on all sides with the rays of the sun.

From afar he recognized the Sun holding two lotuses,

[seated upon a chariot] measuring nine thousand yojanas,

wonderful, having a single wheel, and harnessed with seven horses.

[The chariot] mounted by Anūru holding the reins in front,

accompanied by apsarases, munis, gandharvas, serpents, grāmaṇīs, and nairṛtas,

by that very swift chariot he bowed down with palms joined in reverence.

Acknowledging his bow with a movement of the eyebrow, that god too,

traversed the far path of the sky in a mere moment.

When the sun had advanced far, Śivaśarman, filled with immense joy,

spoke to the two devotees of the Lord: 'How is the realm of the sun to be obtained?

This I wish to hear; please tell it before me.

Friendship with the good is formed in seven steps; therefore, urged by friendship toward me,'

The two gaṇas said:

'Listen, O brahmin of great wisdom! There is nothing that cannot be told to you.

Only from the company of the good does sacred discourse among virtuous people proceed.

The controller of all beings, who is the one supreme cause,

nameless, devoid of lineage, and free from form and the like,

in the dancing of whose brow manifestation and dissolution abide,

He indeed speaks constantly, the Self of all, the Person of the Vedas:

"That person who is in the sun, that [person] am I"—thus clearly.

"And they enter into blinding darkness who worship another."

Ascertaining the meaning of this Vedic revelation, O best of brahmins,

brahmins worship that One repeatedly, having thus resolved.

And he who, having received the supreme Sāvitrī, does not worship [with it]

at the proper time, three times a day, would fall within seven days; there is no doubt in this.

In the morning, one should remain standing and reciting [it] until half of the sun rises;

seated in the evening, keeping silence, one should recite [it] until the stars appear.

Facing the sun, one should recite the midday twilight [prayer] while the sun is present.

One must not let the proper time slip away; therefore one should await the time.

In due time medicinal herbs bear fruit; in due time trees blossom;

in due time rainclouds rain; therefore one should not transgress the proper time.

For the destruction of the bodies of the Mandehas, at sunrise and sunset the sun

desires the three palmfuls of water accompanied by mantra offered by brahmins.

By him who has offered the three palmfuls full of water with the Gāyatrī mantra

at the proper time to Savitṛ, has not the threefold world been offered?

What does Savitṛ not produce when worshipped properly in due time?

Long life, health, sovereignty, riches along with cattle,

friends, sons, wives, and various fields,

the eight kinds of worldly enjoyments, heaven, and even final liberation.

Among the eighteen noble sciences, Mīmāṃsā is exceedingly weighty;

the treatises on logic are weightier than that, and the Purāṇa weightier than them;

the Dharmaśāstras are weightier even than that, and Śruti is weightier than them, O brahmin;

the Upaniṣad is superior even to that, and Gāyatrī is higher than that.

Hard to attain among all mantras is Gāyatrī united with the praṇava;

nothing superior to Gāyatrī is sung in the threefold Veda.

There is no mantra equal to Gāyatrī; there is no city like Kāśī;

there is no liṅga equal to Viśveśa: this is true, true again and again.

Gāyatrī is the mother of the Vedas; Gāyatrī is the begetter of the brahmin;

because she protects the singer, she is therefore called Gāyatrī.

The relation between the expressed and the expresser exists between the two, Gāyatrī and Savitṛ:

Savitṛ is the directly expressed, and supreme Gāyatrī is the expresser.

By the power of Gāyatrī alone, the self-controlled kṣatriya Kauśika,

abandoning the status of a royal sage, attained the rank of a brahmin sage,

and gained supreme power in creating another world.

What would Gāyatrī not give when thus worshipped properly?

One is not a brahmin by recitation of the Veda, nor by reading the śāstras;

only by the practice of the goddess three times a day does one become a brahmin, never otherwise.

Gāyatrī alone is supreme Viṣṇu; Gāyatrī alone is supreme Śiva;

Gāyatrī alone is supreme Brahmā; Gāyatrī alone is therefore the threefold Veda.

He is the triad of gods, the Lord adorned with rays, the sun,

the mass of all splendors, the impeller of time and Death.

With reference to the sun, constantly those who dwell in this world of ours,

discerning the essential from the unessential, cite this Vedic text:

"This is indeed the god who encompasses all directions; he was born first, and he is within the womb.

He alone was born, and he is yet to be born; he stands facing the inner self of creatures, turned in every direction." // 61

They should always worship thus without laziness through the hymns to the Sun.

Those brahmins who bow here become brahmins resembling the Sun. // 62

Whether on a Sunday with Puṣya, or on a Sunday with Hasta, or on a Sunday with Mūla, O twice-born,

or whatever rite is performed on a Sunday with Uttarā, it certainly bears fruit and not otherwise. // 63

He who bathes at the rising of the Sun on a Sunday in the month of Pauṣa,

and performs gift-giving, oblation, silent recitation, and the worship of the Sun, O you of good vows, // 64

having faith, taking only one meal, and free from desire and anger,

he shall dwell here full of splendor, enjoying delights in the company of apsarases. // 65

And during a solstice, or an equinox, or on the days of the four zodiacal transits,

or during a Viṣṇupadī transit, those of good vows who bestow great gifts, // 66

and offer sesamum seeds along with ghee into the fire, and feed brahmins,

and those wise men who perform a śrāddha dedicated to the ancestors, // 67

and who perform a great worship and chant great mantras,

they [dwell] here in the world of the Sun, possessing a radiance equal to the Sun. // 68

They are never poor, never stricken by sorrow, never afflicted by diseases,

and those devoted to the Sun on transit days are neither deformed nor unfortunate. // 69

Those by whom nothing was given during transits, no bathing done in sacred ford waters,

and no special oblation made with sesamum seeds soaked in brown cow's ghee, // 70

are seen at every door, deprived of eyes and faces,

embodied beings dressed in rags, babbling, "Give! Give!" // 71

The accomplished person who gives gold even equal to the weight of a kṛṣṇala seed

during a solar eclipse at Kurukṣetra, shall dwell here partaking of merit. // 72

All water is equal to the Gaṅgā, all brahmins are equal to Brahmā,

and everything given is equal to gold when the Sun is swallowed by Rāhu. // 73

Whatever is given, muttered, offered into the fire, bathed [for], whatever good deed is performed

such as a śrāddha during an eclipse of the Sun, brings about that [fruit] in the presence of the Sun. // 74

If a planetary transit or an eclipse occurs on a Sunday,

then whatever merit is acquired becomes imperishable here. // 75

When a Sunday falls on the sixth or seventh lunar day,

then whatever righteous deed is performed is enjoyed here. // 76

[He is] the Swan, the Radiant, the Thousand-rayed, the Scorcher, the Heater, the Sun,

the Cleaver, the Shining, the All-maker, the Fire, // 77

the Omniform, the Maker of the Universe, Mārtaṇḍa, Mihira, the Ray-garlanded,

Āditya, the Warm-rayed, Sūrya, Aryaman, Bradhna, the Day-maker, // 78

the Twelvefold Soul, the Seven-horsed, the Light-maker, the Laugh-maker, the Sky-goer,

the God, the Radiance-maker, the Glorious, the Eye of the World, the Lord of Planets, // 79

the Lord of the Three Worlds, the Witness of the World, the Enemy of Darkness, the Eternal, the Pure,

Ray-handed, Fierce-rayed, the Transporter, the Great Battle, // 80

the Jewel of the Sky, the Bay-horsed, Arka, the Possessor of Light, the Destroyer of Fear,

Metre-horsed, to be Known through the Vedas, the Luminous, Pūṣan, Vṛṣākapi, // 81

One-wheeled-charioted, Mitra, the Enemy of the Mandehas, the Destroyer of Gloom,

the Slayer of Daityas, the Remover of Sin, Dharma, the Illuminator of Dharma, // 82

Helika, the Multi-rayed, the Destroyer of the Kali Age, having Garuḍa as His Vehicle,

the Guardian of the Quarters, the Lord of Lotuses, having Lotus-hands, Hari, // 83

the Hot-rayed, Difficult to Behold, the Impetuous-rayed, the Son of Kaśyapa.

With these holy names of the Sun, seventy in number, // 84

prefixed by the syllable Om, ending in the dative case, and accompanied by the word 'namas',

uttering each name while looking repeatedly at the Sun, // 85

holding a very clean copper vessel with both hands,

touching the ground with both knees, having filled [it] with water, // 86

with oleander and other flowers mixed with red sandalwood,

and dūrvā grass blades and unhusked barley grains placed inside the vessel, // 87

he should offer an arghya offering to Savitṛ, who is beyond price, preceded by meditation,

bringing that vessel near the crown of his head, with his mind and gaze directed to nothing else. // 88

With each mantra he should bow to the Sun at dawn and sunset,

with this seventy-name hymn, the secret of great mantras. // 89

A person who acts thus is never poor nor sorrowful;

he is freed from dreadful diseases, even those acquired in other births. // 90

without medicines, without physicians, and without recourse to special diets;

having met death in due course of time, he is honored in the world of the sun. / 91

Thus a mere fraction of the realm of the sun has been told, O best of good men;

ah, who can comprehend the specific nature of this great treasury of splendour? / 92

Making this holy story the object of his ears,

in an instant he caught sight of Mahendra's great city. / 93

Agasti said:

Having heard this tale pertaining to Sūrya, accompanied by the world of the apsarases,

one will nowhere become destitute, nor does one engage in unrighteous deeds. / 94

This supreme narrative should constantly be recited by brahmins;

it yields the same fruit of religious merit as that gained by reciting the Veda. / 95

Brahmins, kṣatriyas, and vaiśyas who listen to this supreme chapter,

having cast off their sins here, will attain an unsurpassable destination. / 96

Thus ends the ninth chapter, titled 'Description of the World of Apsarases and the Sun', in the first half of the Kāśīkhaṇḍa in the glorious Skandamahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.