Skandapurana 5.242

Brahmā said: / A śūdra named Paijavana attained purification through household life, / without conflicting with the path of righteousness; understand that, O wise one. [1]

Formerly in the Tretāyuga, indeed, there was a śūdra named Paijavana, / renowned, devoted to his own duty, a worshiper of Viṣṇu and brahmins. [2]

His wealth was always justly acquired; he was calm, dear to all people, / truthful, possessing discrimination, and his wife was beautiful. [3]

She was married lawfully by the Vedic rite, born of an equal family, auspicious, / devoted to her husband, highly fortunate, and intent on the welfare of gods and brahmins. [4]

Betrothed in Kāśī, the maiden was married in Vaijayantī; / she was skilled in the practice of dharma and observant of the Vaiṣṇava vows. [5]

She sported suitably with her husband, well-disciplined; / he too took delight in her at the proper season, like a great tusker with a female elephant. [6]

Through his past merit, the acquisition of wealth came to that great-souled man; / through his kinsmen, he always engaged in trade, domestic and foreign. [7]

He had it carried out with properties belonging to others and to himself; / thus wealth accrued in many ways to that seer of dharma. [8]

Three sons were born to him, intent on serving their father; / his sons were devoted to their father, free from the arrogance of wealth and the like. [9]

They were devoted to their father's word, excellent, splendid in their adherence to their own duty; / they rejoiced in nothing other than the service of their parents. [6.243.10]

They were well united in marriage alliances by their father, who saw dharma and wealth; / their wives incessantly saw to the veneration of their mother and father. [11]

His mansion was prosperous, endowed with wealth and grain; / he too was constantly devoted to dharma, a worshiper of deities and guests. [12]

No one who came to his house was ever turned away disappointed; / in the cold season he gave money, and in the hot season he provided water and food. [13]

In the rainy season he gave clothes, and he was an eternal giver of food; / stepped wells, wells, ponds, cisterns, and temples [14]

he caused to be built at the appropriate time, steadfast in vows to Śiva and Viṣṇu. / The sacrificial duty practiced by the classes yields great fruit; [15]

he was always the performer of the acts of public charity for those other duties of that kind. / Even though rich, he was not afflicted by vices. [16]

He was continually devoted to devotion to Viṣṇu, especially during the four-month observance. [18]

Once the sage Gālava, surrounded by many disciples, [17]

delighting in knowledge of Brahman, calm, steadfast in austerity, of great self-control, / arrived at the house of the śūdra Paijavana. [18]

He, welcoming him with sweet words, by rising to meet him, offering a seat, and the like, / along with services, deemed himself fulfilled. [19]

'Today my birth has become fruitful; my life has become excellent; / today my dharma has borne fruit, and my welfare has been elevated by you. [6.243.20]

My thousands of sins have been burnt away by your sight, O sage; / my entire house as a householder has been purified by you.' [21]

Pleased with his devotion, his fatigue from the road gone, / the tiger among sages spoke to that virtuous śūdra whose hands were joined: [22]

'Is it well with you, gentle one? Does your mind turn to dharma? / Are your kinsmen, wife, sons, and others constantly attached to wealth? [23]

Does devotion continually turn toward Govinda, and likewise toward giving? / In the pursuits of dharma, wealth, and pleasure, is your mind powerful? [24]

Is the water from Viṣṇu's feet constantly borne upon your head or not? / And the water of the Gaṅgā, originating from his foot, gives the fruit of twelve years; [25]

especially during the four-month observance, that fruit becomes twofold. / Devotion to Hari, talk of Hari, praise of Hari, salutation to Hari, [26]

meditation on Hari, and worship of Hari bring liberation while the deity is asleep.' / To the sage speaking thus, he, having bowed, spoke again: [27]

'By the sight of you, this fruit of the stage of life has certainly arisen, no doubt; / nonetheless, I wish to hear your faultless words. [28]

The arrival of people like you brings about all purposes.' / Then the two of them became filled with great joy, delighted in heart. [29]

The virtuous, esteemed śūdra named Paijavana said to the sage: / 'Tell me kindly, what is the purpose of your arrival? [6.243.30]

Or what sacred ford is the occasion for it, as the four-month observance draws near?' / Gālava said to the virtuous, righteous, truthful śūdra: [31]

'Many months have passed while I have been bathing in sacred fords; / now, as the four-month observance has arrived, I shall go to my hermitage. [32]

On the eleventh day of the bright half of Āṣāḍha, I will undertake my observance at home / for the pleasure of Nārāyaṇa and for the spiritual welfare of myself.' / Thus the sage, answering him whose neck was bowed with humility, explained the duties. [33]

Paijavana said: / 'Bestow on me understanding born of your grace, O eminent twice-born! / For I have no qualification in the Veda, nor in chanting the essence of the Veda, [34]

nor in reciting the Purāṇas and Smṛtis; therefore tell me something / appropriate to my nature, an essence that brings great fruit. [35]

Tell me what accomplishes liberation, especially during the four-month observance.' [36]

Gālava said: / Those men who constantly worship Viṣṇu present in the Śāligrāma stone, / whose cavity is always marked with the discus, enjoyment is indeed not far from them. 37

Whatever good deed is performed by one whose mind is fixed on the Śāligrāma / becomes imperishable forever, especially during the Cāturmāsya. 38

Where there is a Śāligrāma stone, and where there is a Dvārāvatī stone, / liberation is not difficult to obtain for one where the union of the two is achieved. 39

The ground on which a Śāligrāma stone is worshipped by men, / even by those endowed with hundreds of sins, purifies for five krośas around. 40

For this auspicious mass of light is the very form of Brahman; / merely by its sight, sin is instantly destroyed. 41

O great Śūdra, all sacred fords, meritorious places, and shrines of deities, / and all rivers indeed attain the nature of a sacred ford [from it]. 42

Truly, through its presence, all rites everywhere become splendid / and attain full efficacy, especially during the Cāturmāsya. 43

In whose house the auspicious Śāligrāma stone is worshipped / with tender tulasī leaves, Yama truly turns his face away from there. 44

Brahmins, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, and likewise virtuous Śūdras / have the right to the Śāligrāma, but others never do. 45

The virtuous Śūdra said: / O brahmin, best of Vedic knowers, skilled in all sacred treatises! / A prohibition regarding women, Śūdras, and others is indeed heard concerning the Śāligrāma. 46

Tell how one like me may perform the ritual of worship for the Śāligrāma. 47

Gālava said: / O servant, knower of honor, know that the prohibition applies to unvirtuous Śūdras; / nor is there stated to be an exclusion of virtuous women. 48

Let there be no doubt in you about this; one does not obtain the fruit [of rites] through doubt. / Those devoted to the worship of the Śāligrāma, of pure body and possessing discernment, 49

do not go to the city of Yama; and those who worship during the Cāturmāsya, / who wear upon their heads a garland offered to the Śāligrāma, 50

their thousands of sins dissolve in that very instant. / Those who offer a lamp before the Śāligrāma stone, 51

their residence in the solar city is never lost. / O great Śūdra, those who worship Viṣṇu residing in the Śāligrāma with charming flowers / while Lord Hari is asleep [during the rains], 52

and those men who constantly perform the ceremonial bath with the five nectars / upon the Śāligrāma stone, are men bound no longer to transmigration. 53

He who, having placed Hari residing in the Śāligrāma, the spotless cause of liberation, / in his heart, always meditates on Him with devotion, becomes a sharer in liberation. 54

One should place a garland made of tulasī leaves upon the Śāligrāma; / especially during the Cāturmāsya, one will obtain all desires. 55

A garland made of flowers is not so dear to the Śāligrāma; / the goddess Tulasī is always auspicious and dear to Viṣṇu. 56

Tulasī is always beloved, especially during the Cāturmāsya; / the Śāligrāma is Mahāviṣṇu, and Tulasī is Śrī, without doubt. 57

Therefore, having bathed the god, Hari in the Śāligrāma stone, / with perfumed waters smeared with sandalwood, accompanied by blossom-spikes, 58

and with those born of tulasī, one will obtain one's desires. / In the first leaf is Brahmā, and in the second is Lord Śiva; 59

in the blossom-spike is Lord Viṣṇu; thus the triad always resides in one place. / An auspicious blossom-spike joined with leaves should be taken by wise men. 60

Having offered it with devotion to the guru—the cause of the destruction of rebirth and [other ills]— / and having offered an abundance of incense to the Śāligrāma, devoted to Hari, 61

especially during the Cāturmāsya, a human being never goes to hell. / A man having beheld the Śāligrāma worshipped with auspicious flowers, 62

his soul purified of all sins, attains oneness with Hari. / He who praises Viṣṇu present in the stone born from the waters of the Gaṇḍakī 63

by means of the Śrutis, Smṛtis, and Purāṇas, he too goes to the abode of Viṣṇu. / O great Śūdra, the varieties of the Śāligrāma stone / are twenty-four in number; hear them, O high-minded one. 64

These twenty-four in number are worthy of worship in this world; / I shall proclaim their deity Viṣṇu and their names. 65

The primordial, singular Lord is manifest as four plus twenty; / He is known by the names of the year, He is the primeval God present in the stone. 66

Thus ends the two hundred forty-third chapter, entitled 'Description of the Glory of Worshipping the Śāligrāma', in the episode of Paijavana, in the Glory of Cāturmāsya, in the dialogue between Brahmā and Nārada, in the story of Śeṣaśāyin, in the Glory of the Sacred Field of Hāṭakeśvara, in the sixth Nāgarakhaṇḍa of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a compendium of eighty-one thousand verses. 243