Skanda Purana 5.256

Pārvatī said:
Tell me in detail the greatness of the twelve-syllable [mantra], / according to caste, its fruit, and how it is to be performed by me. (1)

The glorious Mahādeva said:
The twelve-syllable [mantra] with the Praṇava is declared for the twice-born; / for women and Śūdras it is preceded by "namaḥ." (2)

For common people the name of Rāma is approved, or the six-syllable [mantra]; / that too must be devoid of the Praṇava: such is the determination of the Purāṇas and Smṛtis. (3)

This order is indeed prescribed for all castes and common people at all times. / But the mortal who recites the mantra disregarding the proper order— / against him the all-pervading Lord grows wrathful, consigning him to hell and the like. (4)

Pārvatī said:
O Lord, by me with the three morae the Lord of the universe is served; / how may I know his form, which lies beyond the reach of words? (5)

Īśvara said:
You have no eligibility for the Praṇava, O fair-complexioned one. / Your perpetual recitation is "namo bhagavate vāsudevāya." (6)

Pārvatī said:
If meditation on the twelve-syllable [mantra] confers [merit] when accompanied by the Praṇava, / why do I have no eligibility for the Praṇava, O Dhūrjaṭi? (7)

Īśvara said:
The Praṇava is declared to be the beginning of all the gods; / Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva dwell [therein] together with their beloveds. (8)

There all beings and all sacred fords reside in their respective portions; / all sacred fords abide [there], which is Brahman itself, absolute liberation. (9)

You will become eligible for it, O goddess, when you perform / austerity during the Cāturmāsya to please Hari, O fair-faced one. (10)

By austerity desire is attained, and by austerity great fruit [is won]; / through austerity everything comes to be, and such austerity is easily obtained by mortals. (11)

Fame, matchless fortune, forbearance, truth, and other virtues / are always easily won through austerity; yet austerity is difficult to practice. (12)

Indeed, when austerity increases, then devotion to Hari arises; / and indeed there is loss of austerity when it is performed without devotion. (13)

Austerities roar continually in this body of mortals / only so long as one constantly remembers Viṣṇu, and the tip of the tongue becomes purified. (14)

Just as dense darkness is destroyed when a lamp is lit, / even so manifold sin vanishes during the narration of Hari. (15) / Therefore, O Pārvatī, diligently practice austerity while Hari is asleep, / when the Cāturmāsya has arrived, together with the Praṇava. (16)

Having become pure of heart, recite this king of mantras; / and that Lord himself, being pleased, together with the twelve syllables, (17)

will bestow supreme knowledge, indivisible, in the form of Brahman. / Through crores of Brahma-kalpas, recite the twelve syllables. (18)

Even he who meditates on the king of mantras with the Praṇava does not see [him]. / Having been thus addressed, she, devoted to austerity, departed to practice austerity. (19)

On the peak of the Himācala, when the Cāturmāsya had arrived, / dedicated to the vow of celibacy, wearing three garments, (20)

meditating on Hari and Śaṃkara at dawn, noon, and afternoon, / emaciating her body just as she had formerly done in the worship of Śaṃkara, (21)

accompanied by her female companions on the delightful peak of her father, / that large-eyed lady, endowed with forbearance and other virtues, practiced austerity. (22)

Gālava said:
She who is to be meditated upon by the lords of yoga, who is worthy of homage, revered by the universe, / and who is the mother of the universe—even she resorted to austerity out of desire! (23)

She whose true form is Prakṛti, possessing the radiance of ten million lightning bolts, / free from passion, herself worthy of worship, beyond the guṇas, performed austerity! (24)

She of whom earth, water, fire, wind, and ether are known to be composed, / she whose form is primordial nature, performed supreme austerity! (25)

She who swiftly pervaded the universe of mobile and immobile beings and remained so, who existed even before Prakṛti, / and who, in the form of desire and the like, grants contentment—while the God was asleep, she attained purification through austerity. (26)

Thus ends the two hundred fifty-seventh chapter, named "Description of Pārvatī's Austerity Preceded by the Greatness of the Twelve-Syllable Name," in the Greatness of the Cāturmāsya within the dialogue of Brahmā and Nārada, in the account of the One Sleeping on Śeṣa, in the Greatness of the Sacred Field of Hāṭakeśvara, in the sixth section, the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, in the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.