Skandapurana 5.260

Nārada said: / "How did the eternal goddess, the renowned consort of Hara, / attain the great perfection of yoga in the four months

by reciting this king of mantras originating from twelve syllables? / Tell this to me in detail, just as it happened."

Brahmā said: / During the Cāturmāsya, while Hari slept, Pārvatī was observant of her vows, / devoted to devotion to Hari with mind, deed, and speech.

Constantly abiding on the lovely peak of her father, dedicated to austerity, / she was devoted to the worship of the gods, twice-born, fire, cows, the aśvattha tree, and guests.

Then, when the Cāturmāsya arrived, on a spotless day sacred to Hari, / she recited the supreme mantra as instructed by the wielder of Pināka.

Viṣṇu, bearing a conch and discus, four-armed and wearing a crown, / dark as a cloud, lotus-eyed, and equal in radiance to ten million suns, / seated upon Garuḍa, delighted, abiding pervasive across the three worlds, / adorned with the Śrīvatsa and Kaustubha, wearing yellow silk garments,

his vast body shining with the splendors of all ornaments, / his face cheerful, addressed the auspicious Pārvatī: / “O goddess, I am pleased; hail to you! Tell [me] your desire.”

Pārvatī said: / “Grant that spotless knowledge by which there may be no return.” / Addressed thus, that Mahāviṣṇu replied to the beloved of Hara:

“He himself, the Lord of the gods of gods, will tell you without doubt. / He alone is the Lord, the Witness, residing inside and outside the body.

He is the creator and protector of the universe, and the purifier of purifiers; / he is dharma without beginning or end, and indeed the lord of dharma and the rest.

He is indeed that whole Brahman to be served by the three syllables. / He who, unborn, assumes birth through embodied and unembodied forms,

I certainly have no authority to speak [of this] to you, no doubt.” / Having spoken thus, the Lord became silent, filled with joy.

In the meantime, Śambhu arrived at the hermitage of the daughter of the mountain, / accompanied by the troops of all beings, in an aerial chariot that fulfills all desires.

By her indeed was the Lord, the Supreme God, worshipped. / Even before the eyes of her companions, a wonder took place:

having praised that Mahādeva, Viṣṇu dissolved into his body. / Then Maheśāna, the Supreme Lord, said to Pārvatī:

“Mount the excellent aerial chariot; I am pleased with you, O woman of good vows! / Going to a solitary place, I shall tell you of the supreme splendor.”

Having spoken thus to the goddess, taking her by the hand, filled with joy, / placing her upon the excellent aerial chariot, he then set forth sportively,

showing mountains composed of various minerals, variegated with various jewels, / rivers, waterfalls, bowers, and streams echoing with the songs of cuckoos,

natural ponds and ponds dug by gods, and rivers such as the Gaṅgā, / and fragrant water lilies, red and reddish-yellow with a thousand petals,

showing also karṇikāras, kovidāras, and great trees, / palmyras, tamālas, hintālas, priyaṅgus, and breadfruit trees,

tilakas and bakulas, many of them flowering, / and showing fields shining like crescent crescents, reddish-yellow.

He went to the bank of the divine river where lay the great forest of reeds, / with blooming kāśa grass, full of gold, filled with clusters of reed stalks,

standing on a tract of golden ground, with beasts and birds having the radiance of fire. / And standing at the front of the aerial chariot, he showed to his wife

the hermitages of the chaste ascetics who had gone to that bank. / And near the forest, Pārvatī beheld the six Kṛttikās,

bathed, well adorned, the wives of the Moon, with clean garments. / With folded hands they said: “For what son is this journey being made?

Let that be told, O fortunate one, and he has come into your sight.”

Pārvatī said: / “By what good fortune of mine could a son take to my lap? / Indeed, through misfortune, there is never continuous happiness for people.

Even upon the name of a son, having seen [this], and from the sight of you ladies— / for what purpose have you come here? Let it be told without delay.”

The Kṛttikās said: / “We have come here, O beautiful one, to give over your son who was deposited [with us]. / During the Cāturmāsya, when the sun was shining, we came to bathe in the river of the gods.”

Pārvatī said: / “This is not a time for jest, friends; speak only the truth! / In an intimate setting, joking arises between one another.”

The Kṛttikās said: / “We speak the truth, O goddess who adorns the three worlds! / Choose the boy standing in the midst of this clump of reeds.”

Hearing the words of the Kṛttikās, Pārvatī, then full of wonder, / saw the boy of brilliant radiance, six-faced, of blazing splendor,

resembling ten million flashes of lightning, endowed with divine beauty of form, / the son of Fire, the son of Gaṅgā, Kārtikeya of great strength.

Saying “O child!”, taking Kumāra with her hand in joy, / bringing him into the middle of the aerial chariot and placing him on her lap, she said:

“Live long, rejoice long, give joy long to your kinsmen!” / Having spoken thus, firmly embracing him and smelling that son upon the head,

she was overjoyed at the supremely generous, radiant one with a delighted mind. / Having bowed down to Maheśvara with great love,

thereupon, with folded hands, composed, with a joyful inner self, / Kārtikeya [sat]. That aerial chariot swiftly departed, crossing the lords of rivers and streams.

Having passed beyond Jambudvīpa, which extends for a hundred thousand yojanas, / and then the salt-water ocean, which is twice as large,

and having traversed the Northern Kurus in the aerial chariot with the radiance of the sun, / [they reached] the continent known as Kuśadvīpa, twice the size of the ocean,

pervaded by divine worlds and crowded with divine mountains. / Twice the size of the sugarcane-juice ocean is the continent, and twice that continent again,

having crossed that, twice the size of that ocean is the one named Krauñca; / twice as large as that is the wine ocean, frequented by yakṣas.

Twice the size of that is the continent known as Śākadvīpa; / twice that is the well-fashioned ocean consisting of clarified butter,

full of supreme flavor, where perfected beings dwell on every side. / And twice the size of that is the continent named after the śālmali tree.

Twice as large there is the ocean arising from curd-water; / there the Sādhyas constantly dwell, established in great austerity.

Twice as large as that is the continent famous under the name Plakṣa; / twice as large there is the milk ocean, where great seers dwell everywhere. / These six very divine [places] are proclaimed as earthly heaven; / there the ground is made of gold, and likewise endowed with silver.

having tastes like wine and sugar crystals, bestowing all desires, / where wish-fulfilling trees stand in the home for women and men. (48)

They delight [them] with collections of garments and ornaments. / These are the islands with auspicious marks, O best of sages. (49)

Maheśvara traversed across the sky in his aerial chariot. / And at the border of Plakṣadvīpa lies the milk-ocean, twice as large. (50)

In the middle of it lies a very great island, certainly named Śveta. / The Ramyaka mountain is there, with a hundred peaks and countless trees. (51)

On its great divine peak the aerial chariot was then halted, / which was visited by trees with immortal fruit and possessed golden sands, (52)

surrounded by channels of milk, fully covered with stone slabs, / solitary, charming in every way, and endowed with gems and jewels. (53)

The god of gods, bearer of the Pināka, told Umā; / Kārtikeya also heard the great secret more secret than the secret: (54)

the yoga of meditation in the form of a mantra, known as the twelve-syllable [mantra],

endowed with the praṇava, complete with its crest, accompanied by its esoteric meaning, higher than the Veda. (55)

Īśvara said: / This mantra, composed of three syllables, is imperishable when uttered once. / It is beneficial in the month of Māgha, free from agitation, free from illusion, the purifier of the universe; / attainable by Viṣṇu, centered on Viṣṇu, endowed with three mantras, / served by the entire host of universes through its fourth digit. (56–57)

It is to be resorted to by sages free from desire, attended by the great sciences and the rest; / pervading from the navel to the head, it bestows unbroken bliss. (58)

The utterance of 'Oṃ' to you, O beloved, destroys great sorrow. / Having first meditated on that praṇava, which is of the nature of knowledge, the abode of happiness, (59)

having known the all-pervading brahman, intent on purifying the body, / devoted to the lotus posture, having worshipped, with the eye of knowledge, (60)

having closed the eyes, and having joined the hands at the head, / in the mind one should contemplate the auspicious Śiva through meditation, (61)

resembling ten million lightning flashes, having the radiance of ten million suns, / clothed like a hundred thousand moons, the Puruṣa illuminating everything, (62)

that cosmic form with and without form, the immutable reality of being and non-being. / Having contemplated that cosmic form, one does not drink from a breast again. / Through meditation even once during Cāturmāsya, sins are destroyed. (63)

And thus whoever gazes for a moment upon this form of mine, of Murāri—unfailing in virility and boundless in virtues—in order to destroy sins arising from a hundred births, becomes a master. (64) / Thus ends the two hundred sixty-first chapter, named 'Yoga of Meditation', in the praise of Cāturmāsya, in the narrative of the one who reclines on Śeṣa, in the dialogue between Brahmā and Nārada, in the māhātmya of Hāṭakeśvara sacred field, in the sixth Nāgarakhaṇḍa in the great Skandapurāṇa of eighty-one thousand verses. (261)