Skandapurana 5.262

Īśvara said: / If, having abandoned tamasic action, one engages in deeds [without attachment], / then the yogin composed of knowledge grants liberation to the living. (1)

When there is absence of mineness in the body, when the mind is exceedingly pure, / and when there is yoga of devotion to Hari, then there is no bondage by karma. (2)

Indeed, when the mind of men is tranquil while performing actions, / then the perfection consisting of yoga arises; there is no doubt about this. (3)

Repeatedly experiencing the greatness and status [of the self], the highly intelligent one, / attaining the nature of Viṣṇu while living, is liberated from attachment to action. (4)

Actions constantly arising, both daily and occasional, / should not be pursued out of desire, for the increase of sorrow and torment. (5)

Know Viṣṇu, O great goddess, to be the master of actions; / renouncing all [actions] unto him, one is released from all of saṃsāra. (6)

This alone is supreme knowledge, this alone is supreme austerity, / this alone is the supreme good: that actions are dedicated to Kṛṣṇa. (7)

For this is pure yoga; it is declared to be devoid of gunas; / actions born of that Viṣṇu demonstrate auspiciousness. (8)

The ancestors intent on the funeral ball wander in saṃsāra only so long / as one endowed with devotion is not born in the family. (9)

Twice-born duties roar so long, sin roars so long, / and numerous sacred fords exist so long, as one does not find devotion. (10)

He alone possesses knowledge in the world; he is the foremost of yogins; / he is the performer of great sacrifices, who is endowed with devotion to Hari. (11)

In the closing of an eye, yoga arises; / and for a yogin, victory over speech is proclaimed as a cattle sacrifice. (12)

In the constant victory over the mind, one attains the fruit of a horse sacrifice; / from the constant victory over mental constructs, one attains the Sautrāmaṇī sacrifice. (13)

From the constant casting off of the body, a human sacrifice is proclaimed. / Having slain the sacrificial beasts of the five senses in the fireless state, in the head and the earrings, (14)

he attains the state of Brahman through the precept of the guru's instruction; / that yogin eats regulated food, holding the three staves. (15)

He is to be known as a bearer of three staves (tridaṇḍin) when the spotless God is known; / the yogin whose staff is the mind, whose staff is action, and whose staff is speech— (16)

that yogin is accomplished even while living, in the form of Brahman; / the ignorant one is constantly afflicted by actions consisting of bondage. (17)

Indeed, even while performing actions, the knower attains liberation; / for when the place of Brahman is explained by gurus, (18)

then he attains liberation, while the body merely remains; / as long as the supreme person proceeds to attain the fruit of Brahman, (19)

so long the activity consisting of action exists inside the tree of Brahman; / intermediate stages are always to be understood by sages. (20)

The path to liberation is known by the twice-born through the combination of Śruti and Smṛti; / this liberation is like a city equipped with four gates. (21)

The four gatekeepers there are constantly peace and the rest; / they alone are to be cultivated first by humans, granting liberation: (22)

peace, right inquiry, contentment, and association with the virtuous; / for him in whose hands these reside, perfection is not far off. (23)

Perfection in yoga is attained by humans, O goddess, through devotion to Viṣṇu / and the practice of true righteousness; they know this to be pure knowledge. (24)

A mortal wanders everywhere in seats of learning for the sake of knowledge; / immediate knowledge comes from a true guru, pure like the flame of a lamp. (25)

Whoever steadily meditates on dissolution even for a single moment, / thousands of his sins vanish at that very instant. (26)

Abandoning passion and hatred, free from anger and greed, / seeing equally everywhere—this is the darśana of a devotee of Viṣṇu. (27)

He in whose heart compassion for all living beings is steady, / endowed with pure conduct—such a yogin experiences no sorrow. (28) / Free from the veils of the power of illusion, detached from unreal things, / and free from bad company: these are the marks of perfection in yoga. (29)

The contact with the fire of 'mineness' that has arisen causes torment to men; / its pacification is the conduct of peace of yogins. (30)

Then, having pulled back the senses, one should restrain them with the mind alone, / just as iron rubbed by iron attains sharpness. (31)

For the intellect in the body is twofold: to be abandoned, and to be adopted as the giver of complete purity. / That which is directed towards worldly existence is to be abandoned; that which is directed towards the Supreme Brahman is auspicious. (32)

Just as the ego, O goddess, bestows sin and merit, / when the reality is known, it is made to unite with auspicious fruit, not otherwise. (33)

Men [meditate on] the dark-hued and the seated [one], Śiva beyond forms; / that which resides in the heart and that which resides in the head—both are for the liberation of the bound. (34)

This imperishable, unmanifest, immortal [reality], the whole of yours, / is presented as the embodiment whose form is the form of Viṣṇu, whose form is forms. (35)

Knowing thus, the yogin is liberated from the bondage of worldly existence; / through the guru's instruction, a householder attains [it], never otherwise anywhere. (36)

When the guru's soul is pleased, the universe is pleased with him; / and he by whom the guru is satisfied has satisfied the ancestors and deities. (37)

The instruction of the guru, the image, right reflection, an even mind, / and action conjoined with knowledge—this is indeed the mark of the attainment of liberation. (38)

The lord of ritual action is Viṣṇu alone, who is himself free from action; / and he is the seed of the twelve syllables for the multiform breath. (39)

The twelve-syllabled discus destroys all sins, / subdues the wicked, and bestows the Supreme Brahman. (40)

This very Supreme Brahman assumes the form of the twelve syllables; / it has been revealed by me to you, O goddess, as pure, in Skanda. (41)

This is the essence for yogins, the form of meditation, graspable by devotion; one should contemplate it with faith. / In the Cāturmāsya, having burned away the sin born in ten million births, the enemy of Kaiṭabha grants liberation. (42)

Brahmā said: / In that city, from the middle of the Ocean of Milk, / afflicted by the weight of splendor, [a creature] emerged before the aerial chariot. (43)

Fashioning its arms upon its chest, it approached the presence— / a great fish, unknown before, free from egoism in that presence. (44)

Seeing that fish with the syllable huṃ in its belly, the Great Lord / paralyzed [it] with his splendor and spoke these words: (45)

“Who are you, dwelling in the belly of a fish—a god, a yakṣa, or a mortal? / How do you live, having entered within a body? Tell me, O lord.” (46)

The fish said: / “I was thrown into the belly of a fish in the ocean produced from milk / by my mother at my father's word: ‘He does not belong to my family.’ (47)

Out of fear of the destruction of the lineage: ‘He is born as the destroyer of his own lineage; / born under the Gandānta conjunction, this boy will not perform the duties of the household.’ (48)

Thus cast out by my grieving mother—hear, O offspring of the race— / I was swallowed by a fish, and a long time has passed for me here. (49)

By these nectarean words of yours, a great yoga of knowledge arose; / by that, you, the complete one, having form and seated in form, have been known by me. (50)

Grant me permission, O Lord of Gods, to come forth, / so that, O Brahmā, I may protect my ancestors and Bhavānī may also be beheld.” (51)

Hara said: “You are a brahmin, you have the form of a son, you are worthy of worship.” Speaking thus: / “Come outside swiftly; the great fish has been immobilized.” (52)

Then, head-first, he emerged, expelled by the fish due to churning; / from its distorted mouth, he came out in an instant. (53)

Handsome, well-proportioned, though filled with the smell of fish, / equal in luster to the moon, he became endowed with a celestial fragrance there. (54)

Umā, too, placed that bowing son upon her own lap; / and Hara, exceedingly delighted, gave him a name: (55)

“Since he was born from the belly of a fish, and he is the foremost of yogins, / therefore he shall be known in the world as Matsyanātha. (56)

He shall possess an invulnerable human body, a master of the yoga of knowledge, / free from malice, beyond dualities, without desire, a servant of Brahman. (57)

He shall be liberated while living throughout the fourteen worlds.” / Addressed thus, bowing again and again to the Great Lord, / accompanied by the Great Lord, he went to Mount Mandara. (58)

Brahmā said: / Having circumambulated the goddess and embraced Skanda, he departed. (59)

Then Pārvatī was joyful, having obtained supreme knowledge; / thus she [attained] supreme perfection, the vessel of the splendor of the Praṇava. (60)

The mother of the worlds, having obtained that with the water of the twelve syllables— / and whoever hears this origin of Matsyendranātha, (61)

especially during the Cāturmāsya, attains the fruit of a horse sacrifice. (62)

Thus ends the two hundred and sixty-third chapter, entitled “The Narration of the Origin of Matsyendranātha,” in the Cāturmāsyamāhātmya, in the story of Śeṣaśāyin, in the conversation between Brahmā and Nārada, in the Hāṭakeśvarakṣetramāhātmya, in the sixth section, the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skandapurāṇa, the Great Purāṇa in eighty-one thousand verses. (263)