Skandapurana 5.258

Gālava said: / When that liṅga had fallen, extending across a yojana,
the hosts of seers, smitten with dejection, came there by the thousands.

Looking in all directions to see Maheśvara there,
he was not within their range of sight, distraught with fear.

His semen, well accumulated over many thousands of years,
the twice-born saw remaining, pervading the entire earth.

Seeing that very great liṅga smeared with blood and flooded with waters,
the brahmins fell into doubt, while the earth was burning.

Having established that liṅga there, they formed that Narmadā river. / That water has the form of Narmadā, and the liṅga is Amarakaṇṭaka. / When attended upon, it averts hell, removing hell. / And all malevolent spirits and seizing demons will surely vanish into dissolution.

Having bathed there, drunk the water, and likewise satisfied the ancestors, / a person attains all desires that are hard to obtain on earth.

Those men who will worship the liṅgas born of the Narmadā— / their bodies will become composed of Rudra, without doubt. / Especially during Cāturmāsya, the worship of the liṅga bears great fruit: / during Cāturmāsya, recitation of Rudra's [mantra], worship of Hara, and delight in Śiva.

[For those who perform] the ceremonial bath with the five nectars, there is no pain of the womb. / Those who will perform sprinkling with honey upon the head of the liṅga—

their thousands of miseries will surely vanish into dissolution. / By whomsoever a gift of a lamp is offered before Śiva during Cāturmāsya,

he, having delivered ten million ancestors of his family, enjoys the world of Śiva at his will. / And with sandal, agallochum incense, and pure white flowers,

those who will worship the liṅga in the waters of the Narmadā become Śivas indeed. / [When] even stones have attained the nature of Hara, what to say of living beings?

Having properly worshipped during Cāturmāsya that great liṅga arisen there, / which is accompanied by the holding of water, one becomes Śiva.

Those men who, restrained, will bathe in the sacred ford of Amarakaṇṭaka on the Narmadā / during Cāturmāsya, their dwelling is in heaven.

Brahmā said: / Having spoken thus, those twice-born, having established the liṅga according to rule / and the great river Narmadā at the Amarakaṇṭaka sacred ford,

became once again absorbed in thought over the cause of the agitation of the universe. / Seated in the lotus posture and devoted to breath-control,

they meditated with undisturbed mind upon the Great Lord residing within their heart. / Then the gods, headed by Mahendra, having reached Amarakaṇṭaka,

praised the brahmins with their necks bowed in modesty: / “Homage be to you twice-born, knowers of Brahman, great lords,

gods on earth, teachers, and liberated from bondage! / You have transcended the three guṇas, you embody the guṇas, you are mines of virtues.

By states consisting of the three guṇas, [all] are continually bubbles of breath. / By the very water of the words of those [brahmins], even the most sinful attain purity, / and the heaps of sins of sinners are reduced to ashes.

Those whose weapon is made of iron are endowed with only that; / [but] the power of those overcome by sins is surpassed by the speech [of brahmins], which has extraordinary might.

In forbearance you equal the earth; in wrath you have the radiance of fire. / You alone indeed are capable of bringing down manifold powers.

Likewise, for journeying to heaven and the like, you are the sure refuges.

You are the instigators of good deeds and ever devoted to good deeds; / givers of the fruit of good deeds, desiring liberation from good deeds.

You who are devoted to the Sāvitrī mantra, destroyers of sin, / deliver both yourselves and the sacrificer, without doubt.

And likewise the fires, and the satisfied brahmins, accomplish all ends. / Especially during Cāturmāsya, worshipping them bears great fruit.

When angered, they indeed bring about the destruction of the entire body. / Indra's thunderbolt is not such, nor indeed is the trident of the Pināka-wielder;

Yama's staff is not such, as is a curse arising from a twice-born. / What is visible is burned by fire, but [a curse] itself [burns] even those designated by the curse;

it slays the born and the unborn; therefore one should not anger a brahmin. / Burned by the fire of a brahmin's wrath, one is never freed from hell.

Even one wounded by a weapon is freed from hell, there is no doubt of this. / The power of the gods, mead, and grains lies indeed in splitting [external objects];

by a mere word of a brahmin, the entire universe is shattered. / You are our teachers, makers of the cause of the universe; / may you, lords of the world, be ever supremely gracious!

Without the Lord, all of us and the worlds are miserable. / Therefore let it be told: where does that venerable Supreme Lord dwell?”

Gālava said: / Having known that the Lord of gods, who holds the trident in his hand, terrified of the sages,

was born from the womb of Surabhi, the great seers said to the gods: / “Welcome to the gods of gods! Indeed, that Great Lord is known [to us].

Let the lords of the gods go to that place where the eternal God is.” / Having spoken thus, those great souls then went together with the gods

along the divine path to Goloka, where there is mud of milk-rice, / where there are rivers of ghee, pools of honey, and clusters of rivers;

where all the hosts of ancestors hold curd and nectar in their hands; / where Marīcipas, Somapas, and other hosts of siddhas,

Ghrtapas, Sādhyas, and eternal gods dwell. / Having gone there, those sages saw the son of Surabhi,

resembling the sun in radiance, renowned by the name Nīla, / running here and there, standing in the midst of a multitude of cows:

Nandā, Sumanasā, Surūpā, Suśīlakā, / Kāminī, Nandinī, Medhyā, Hiraṇyadā,

Dhanadā, Dharmadā, Narmadā dear to all, / Vāmanālambikā, Kṛṣṇā, Dīrghaśṛṅgā, Supicchikā,

Tārā, Tāreyikā, Śāntā, Durviṣahyā, Manoramā, / Sunāsā, Dīrghanāsā, and Gaurā, Gauramukhī here,

Haridravarṇā, Nīlā, Śaṅkhinī, Pañcavarṇakā, / Vinatā, Abhinatā, Bhinnavarṇā, Supatrikā,

Jayā, Aruṇā, Kuṇḍodhnī, Sudatī, and Cārucampakā. / Seeing Nīla standing in the midst of these [cows], those sages and gods,

their faces uplifted in wonder that had arisen, moved about him of handsome form. / Filled with compassion, their minds delighted, the lords of sages and Indra and the other gods, / pleased by his splendor, began to sing praises.

The Śūdra said: / How did he come to have the name Nīla, he of wondrous form? / What did those pleased brahmins praise to the cause of the universe?

Gālava said: / He who is red in color, but pale white on the face and tail—

[and] white on the hooves and horns, is regarded as a blue bull (nīlavṛṣabha), / four-footed, the embodiment of dharma, bearing blue and red marks.

One brown at the marks of the hooves is [also] regarded as a blue bull. / For he who is the god Maheśvara is indeed this very bull.

Four-footed, the embodiment of dharma, blue, five-faced Hara— / merely by seeing him one obtains the fruit of a Vājapeya sacrifice.

And when the blue [bull] is worshipped, the entire universe is worshipped; / by giving [him] an unctuous morsel, the universe becomes gratified.

In whose body the glorious, all-pervading Janārdana ever [resides], / whom he constantly worships with the eternal Vedic mantras.

The seers said: / "You are the god of all protectors, the eternal protector of the universe, / the remover of obstacles, the giver of knowledge, the embodiment of dharma, and the grantor of liberation.

You alone are the giver of wealth, the giver of prosperity, the destroyer of all afflictions, / dedicated to the welfare of the worlds, the bestower of gold.

Abode of all splendours, son of Surabhī, of great strength! / Kailāsa, together with Pārvatī, is borne by you on the tip of your horn.

[You are] worthy of praise, composed of the Veda, the self of the Veda, the best knower of the Veda, / knowable through the Veda, having the Veda as your conveyance, having the form of the Veda, a mine of virtues.

Beyond even the three guṇas, who knows your true nature? / You are the bull, the Lord God; whoever commits a sin against you,

is to be known as an outcast (vṛṣala) and is cooked in Raurava and other hells. / If that man is touched [by you], the torments in hell and elsewhere,

he experiences with heaps of sins through very tight bonds. / And those who, without pity, emaciate [him] when exhausted by hunger, overcome with thirst,

and laden with a heavy burden—their intellect is not enduring. / Those mortals who, according to the rite of marriage, [perform]

the marriage of the blue-formed [bull] along with four [heifers], / intended for their ancestors, in their family there is never any dweller in hell.

You are the refuge of all the worlds, and the father, the Supreme Lord; / without you, the entire universe would perish at that very moment.

The wise know you to be the Lord of the four kinds of speech: / Parā, Paśyantī, Madhyamā, and Vaikharī.

Four horns, four feet, two heads, and seven hands, / bound threefold, full of dharma—thus indeed they know you, the bull.

Giving satisfaction to all beings, pervading the universe with energy, / people know you to be Brahman, eternal, full of dharma, the Self.

You cannot be cut, you cannot be pierced, you are immeasurable, of great renown, / you are beyond sorrow, you cannot be burned—so know the people versed in the Purāṇas.

Everything has you as its support; this world has you as its support; / the gods have you as their support, and likewise the departed [spirits] have you as their support.

Pervading the three worlds in the form of the individual soul, you remain eternally." / Thus praised, that blue [bull] by those soma-drinking brahmins,

becoming pleasant-faced, devoted to bowing down to the brahmins— / the brahmins, who had committed an offense against Śiva, spoke these words again.

They gave a boon to the Great Lord in the form of the blue bull, in accordance with dharma: / "For whichever deceased person a bull is not released on the eleventh day,

his state as a ghost remains completely fixed, even with hundreds of śrāddhas offered." / Then, seeing the great blue bull creeping forward again,

filled with a slight anger, the twice-born branded him: / a discus on the left flanks and a trident on the right flank.

They released him among the cows, who was then hidden by the gods. / Then all the hosts of gods, and likewise the hosts of great seers, / the sages free from jealousy, went to their own abodes.

Thus attached to the wives of the seers, his mind afflicted by desire, / even Śiva, having incurred a curse, through devotion became pure stone in the water of the Revā.

Thus ends the two hundred and fifty-ninth chapter, entitled "Praise of the Bull", in the story of Paijavana, in the praise of the Cāturmāsya, in the conversation between Brahmā and Nārada, in the story of the one who reclines on Śeṣa, in the Māhātmya of the Hāṭakeśvara Sacred Field, in the sixth Nāgarakhaṇḍa, in the Mahāpurāṇa of eighty-one thousand verses, the glorious Skandapurāṇa.