Skandapurana 5.257

Gālava said:
While the Daughter of the Mountain engaged in severe and terrible austerity, / Hara, overcome by the god of love, roamed over the earth. (1)

In the shade of trees, at sacred fords, and by rivers and streams, / sprinkling his own body everywhere with water, Maheśvara [wandered]. (2)

Nevertheless, agitated by desire, he found no comfort anywhere. / Once, upon seeing the Yamunā garlanded with billowing waves, (3)

he made up his mind to plunge in, as if to quell the torment of his burning heat; / [and] its water turned black from the fire of Hara's bodily flame. (4)

Scorched instantly by his plunging in, it appeared almost like ink. / She too, who previously possessed a divine body, having become dark-complexioned because of Hara, (5)

praised and bowed down to the great Lord, and spoke once again: / "Grant your grace, O Lord of gods; I am forever subject to your will." (6)

Īśvara said:
Whatever mortal on earth shall bathe in this excellent, holy sacred ford, / his thousands of sins will surely dissolve away. (7)

It shall become famous in the world as the holy Haratīrtha. / Having spoken thus to her and bowed, he vanished right there. (8)

Upon its bank, Maheśa assumed a charming form— / an abode of desire, holding a musical instrument in hand, marked with sectarian lines, wearing matted locks. (9)

At will, he displayed bodily coquetry in the houses of the sages; / in one place he sang songs, in another he danced as he pleased. (10)

He grew angry, and he laughed, standing at times in the midst of women. / As he thus wandered about, the wives of the seers on all sides [gazed upon him]. (11)

Abandoning in an instant their service to their husbands at home and their duties,
they, captivated by delusion, fixed upon him alone in their minds as their husband.

Those women wandered about, laughing aloud.
Then the sages, seeing their unruly state of mind,

all the sages became enraged at his enchanting form:
“Seize him! Strike him! Who is this wicked one that has arrived?”

Thus, picking up pieces of wood, when they went against him,
he fled in various directions out of fear of those great-souled [sages].

He who abides pervading the universe of embodied beings by a portion of life,
is not known, cannot be grasped, and cannot be divided.

When they were all unable to seize that Maheśvara,
then the twice-born, filled with rage, cursed Śiva thus:

“Since you have entered the hermitages like a thief for the sake of the phallus,
carrying off others' wives, may that liṅga fall to the ground!

Immediately indeed may you receive a terrible curse, ascetic!”
When this was said, that great fire of the curse, assuming the form of a thunderbolt,

severed that liṅga of Dhūrjaṭi and cast it down upon the ground.
Pervaded by a torrent of blood, the sovereign Lord fainted.

His blazing body afflicted with pain, his intellect overwhelmed by the great curse—
seeing him fallen thus, those great seers came there.

All creatures in the sky trembled, and the universe shook;
the gods became agitated and fell into great terror.

Recognizing Maheśāna, the brahmins became afflicted at heart;
smitten with intense sorrow, they lamented, for fate is indeed all-powerful:

“What have we done? This is the Lord who is served even by the gods,
the witness of the entire world, yet he was not recognized by us!

We are foolish in mind, wicked, weak in the supreme knowledge!
How was his true self, though heard of, not acknowledged by us?

Such a self was not offered by me to this householder—
changeless, free from sense-objects, desireless, free from afflictions,

without possessiveness, without egotism—which Śambhu was not perceived,
in the midst of whose body all these worlds abide!

This master of the worlds, Hara, was not seen by us!”
Having spoken thus, they sat down, and as they gathered there,

Maheśvara, seeing them, was suddenly alarmed again;
fleeing in fear of the brahmins' curse, the enemy of Tripura went to heaven.

In Goloka, fully self-controlled, he praised the cow Surabhi:
“Homage, homage to the Mother, the creator of origination, preservation, and destruction!

You who invigorate the surface of the earth with fluid essences,
and likewise the hosts of gods and the troops of ancestors;
known by all who are connoisseurs of rasa, grantor of sweet taste—
by you this entire universe is endowed with strength and affection.

You are the mother of all the Rudras, the daughter of the Vasus,
and the sister of the Ādityas; when pleased, you bestow desired perfections.

You are steadfastness, you are nourishment, you are Svāhā, you are Svadhā,
prosperity, perfection, Lakṣmī, patience, renown, and intellect;

radiance, modesty, the great power of illusion, faith that accomplishes all aims.
There is nothing bereft of you, even in the three worlds.

Giver of satisfaction to the fire, and giver of satisfaction to the gods and others,
by you this entire world, both stationary and moving, is pervaded.

Your feet are the four Vedas; the oceans have become your udders;
you whose eyes are the moon and the sun, and the gods are at the tips of your hairs.

All the mountains are on your horns, and the winds are in your ears;
in your navel is nectar, O goddess, and the realms of Pātāla are your hooves.

On your shoulder is the Lord Brahmā; Sadāśiva rests upon your head;
Viṣṇu is situated in the region of your heart, and serpents are at the tip of your tail;
all the Vasus dwell in your dung; the Sādhyas are located in your urine;
all the sacrifices are in the region of your bones; the Kinnaras reside in your secret parts.

All the hosts of ancestors shine ever before you;
all the Yakṣas are upon your forehead, and the Kinnaras upon your cheeks.

Composed of all the gods, you cause the growth of all living beings;
every beneficent to all worlds, be beneficent to my body!

Bowed before you, O ruler of the gods, I ever worship you, sinless one;
I praise you, the destroyer of universal distress: be gracious, granter of boons!

My body has been burned by the fire of the brahmins' curse, O beautiful one;
you ought to recreate it by your own splendor, O you born from nectar!”

Having spoken thus and circumambulated her, he dissolved into her body;
then Surabhi immediately bore him within her womb.

With the passage of time, everything fell into perturbation,
for when the Lord of gods had vanished, enveloped in fear of the brahmins' curse,

the gods suffered great distress, the earth trembled,
the moon and sun lost their luster, and the wind blew furiously;

the oceans were stirred to agitation at that time, O best of the twice-born.

He in whom the world of mobile and immobile things meets dissolution in due time and sprouts again—
when he had vanished, tormented by the twice-borns' curse, the world turned as if virtually destroyed in a moment.

Thus ends the two hundred and fifty-eighth chapter, named 'The Curse of Hara', in the dialogue between Brahmā and Nārada, in the account of Śeṣaśāyin, in the section on the greatness of Hāṭakeśvarakṣetra, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [section], in the Skandamahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.