Skandapurana 5.231

The seers said: / When the God of gods, who bears the conch, discus, and mace, is asleep, / whatever else is to be done—a restriction or a vow,

or an oblation, or recitation, or a gift—tell us that! / Sūta said: / Whatever restriction there is, O brahmins, while the garuḍa-bannered [Viṣṇu] is asleep,

yields infinite fruit—thus the Grandfather [Brahmā] said. / Therefore, with every effort, by a discerning person, some external

restriction, recitation, oblation, Vedic study, or vow / should be performed, O best of brahmins, for the pleasure of the discus-handed [Viṣṇu].

The man who passes the four rainy months eating only once a day / in dedication to Vāsudeva becomes wealthy.

Whoever eats only when the stars [appear], while Janārdana is asleep, / is born wealthy, handsome, and endowed with good intellect.

And whoever passes the four rainy months with fasts on alternate days, O best of the twice-born, / will dwell forever in Vaikuṇṭha.

One who eats only at the sixth mealtime while Janārdana is asleep / obtains the entire fruit of the Rājasūya and Aśvamedha sacrifices.

One who regularly spends the four months fasting for three nights at a time / shall never again be born into this worldly cycle of rebirth.

Devoted to eating only in evening and morning, a man who spends the four months constantly [thus] / obtains the fruit of the Agniṣṭoma sacrifice.

One who eats only unasked-for food while Madhusūdana is asleep / never experiences separation from his kinsmen.

He who gives up rubbing with oil, and especially rubbing with ghee, / during the four rainy months, enjoys pleasures in heaven.

A man who spends all four months in celibacy, / mounted upon an excellent aerial chariot, dwells in heaven as he pleases.

He who takes his ritual ablution for four months without oil, / abandoning honey and meat, always attains liberation.

He who avoids leafy vegetables in Śrāvaṇa, curds in Bhādrapada, / milk in the month of Āśvayuja, and always meat in Kārtika,

is not tainted again by sin committed throughout the year; / O best of brahmins, this is the statement spoken by Manu Svāyambhuva.

Brahmā enters leafy vegetables when the month of Śrāvaṇa arrives; / Viṣṇu enters curds in Bhādrapada, and Hara milk in Āśvayuja.

All three likewise enter meat in the month of Kārtika; / therefore one must completely avoid these while the gods are in them.

The mortal who avoids bronze while the Garuda-bannered [Viṣṇu] is asleep / obtains the entire fruit of the Vājapeya and Atirātra [sacrifices].

And whatever best of brahmins eats food free from alkaline salt, / from that all public works of his likewise continuously bear fruit.

He who performs oblations for four months with sesame and unbroken grains, / using mantras dedicated to Viṣṇu ending with 'svāhā', is never afflicted with disease.

He who, having bathed, recites the Puruṣasūkta standing before Viṣṇu, / his intelligence increases just like the moon during the bright fortnight.

As long as one makes one hundred and eight circumambulations of Viṣṇu / with fruit in hand and in silence, he is not tainted by sin.

He who gives sweet food to the lords of brahmins according to his ability, / especially in the month of Kārtika, obtains the fruit of an Agniṣṭoma [sacrifice].

He who performs personal recitation of the four Vedas in an abode of Viṣṇu / during the four rainy months, will forever be a learned scholar.

And he who constantly performs dance, song, and the like in the house of Viṣṇu— / apsarases perform before him when he has gone to heaven.

A brahmin who offers dance, song, and the like day and night / for the four rainy months attains the status of a gandharva.

O brahmins, if all these observances can be performed / for four months, or even in the single month of Kārtika,

even so it must certainly be done on the full moon of Kārtika / by Vaiṣṇava men here who desire both worlds, O best of brahmins.

Bronze, meat, a razor, honey, eating a second time, and sexual intercourse— / whatever brahmin constantly avoids these in Kārtika,

obtains the fruit of all the previously mentioned observances.

Moreover, O brahmins, he who in the month of Kārtika places a lamp / on the pot atop the temple of the god called Jalaśāyin, / partakes of the fruit of the six previously mentioned observances.

Whatever is most beloved and readily attainable, / an observance of [giving up] that should be made during the Cāturmāsya by those desiring auspiciousness.

And when the observance is completed, he should indeed give that very thing to a brahmin; / the fruit that arises comes according to his capacity from that for which the observance was made.

The foolish mortal who passes the four months without an observance, / a vow, or silent recitation, is truly dead even while living.

Just as wild barley and wild sesame / are celebrated in name only, so too are those men on earth.

Therefore, by every effort, with exertion in Kārtika / even a single observance, however slight, must be undertaken, O best of brahmins.

All this originating from Cāturmāsya has been told to you in detail, / the greatness of the vows and observances, O brahmins.

And he who constantly hears this or recites it with a collected mind, / attains liberation from the sin committed during Cāturmāsya.

Thus ends the two hundred thirty-second chapter, entitled 'Description of the Vows and Observances of Cāturmāsya' in the narrative of Jalaśāyin, in the Māhātmya of Hāṭakeśvara Sacred Field, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [part] in the venerable Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.