Skandapurana 6.2.68.43

Īśvara said: / Hear attentively, O goddess, about the lord named Piśāca, the sixty-eighth in number, / which destroys sins through darśana. (1) / In the beginning of the Kali age, O goddess, there was a very wealthy śūdra, / famous by the name of Soma, who was an atheist and a reviler of the Vedas, (2) / unfriendly to brahmins, cruel, miserly, shameless, / a betrayer of trust, and devoted to taking others' property. (3) / He destroyed the three goals of life of others and indulged his own desires; / one day, O goddess, he died with supreme agony. (4) / In the desert region he became a piśāca—naked, miserable, and terrifying, / a destroyer of piśācas, who wiped out his own kind. (5) / Many stronger piśācas were crushed by him. (6) / Then, along that very path, once came Śākaṭāyana, / devoted to sacred recitation, learned, eloquent, and dedicated to tranquility, (7) / resembling the rising sun, possessing splendor like fire; / traveling constantly in a cart, looking around, O Daughter of the Mountain, (8) / as he went along he saw that dreadful and terrifying piśāca. / Overcome by hunger, that piśāca ran up, desiring to devour him, (9) / having seen the brahmin Śākaṭāyana mounted upon the cart. / Hearing the sound of the cart and seeing the form of the twice-born, (5.2.68.10) / that piśāca was deafened in both ears; / intent on saving himself, he fled with difficulty, O Pārvatī. / Seeing him running away, the brahmin said to that piśāca: (11) / "O piśāca, you appear terrified and you seem in haste; / where are you running? Tell me, from where has your fear arisen?" (12) / The piśāca said: / "Hearing the terrifying roar of this great cart, / I have become deaf in both ears and senseless upon seeing you." (13) / The brahmin said: / "Brahmarākṣasas are heard to be the strongest among the piśācas; / you are a famous brahmarākṣasa desiring to devour me." (14) / The piśāca said:

"I am powerful among piśācas, yet I fled upon seeing you. / For death is sorrow for all, and life is exceedingly hard to obtain; / therefore, frightened, I run away for the sake of life and in search of well-being." (15) / The brahmin said: / "Whence is happiness for you, O piśāca? Death would indeed be better for you! / The state of a piśāca is a vile womb, born only to sinners." (16) / The piśāca said: / "For a living soul, wherever it goes, becomes a vessel of happiness; / therefore I desire to live. Be pleased, O brahmarākṣasa!" (17) / The brahmin said: / "I do not wish to devour you; I am a brahmin, not a rākṣasa! / I wander the earth for the welfare of all beings. (18) / A brahmin is said to be the friend of all living creatures; / do not fear me, for I have attained the disposition of a friend." (19) / Hearing his word, the piśāca, his mind reassured, / bowed down and replied thus to the brahmin Śākaṭāyana: (5.2.68.20) / "If you have granted the gift of fearlessness to all beings, / and if you have become friendly in deed, mind, and speech, (21) / I ask you, O fortunate one, a doubt lingering in my heart; / having heard it, you ought to explain it fully to me out of compassion: (22) / By what maturation of action does a human enter the state of a piśāca? / How is liberation from the condition of a piśāca attained by those of sinful deeds?" (23) / Hearing these words of that piśāca, O fair-faced one, / Śākaṭāyana, enveloped with affection, spoke to him: (24) / "Having stolen the property of a brahmin, and especially that of the gods, / through that sin the most sinful people enter the state of a piśāca. (25) / The man who, having deceived father, mother, wife, child, or a twice-born, / steals their wealth, becomes a piśāca. (26) / Having taken the king's property, he who neither sacrifices nor gives, / but nourishes only himself, goes to the state of a piśāca. (27) / Those who are betrayers of trust, and those who take delight in another's wife..."

"Those who revile the Vedas also attain the state of a piśāca. / Those men who always revile the Purāṇas and the Dharmaśāstras, / and who are ever slanderous, become piśācas. / Thus all this has now been told to you on the authority of the Vedas. / Now I will tell you who you were born as; listen to that: / You were a śūdra named Somaka, an exposer of others' secrets, / a betrayer of trust, a defamer of gods and brahmins, / an atheist who broke established norms, even in this seventh birth. / Having caused your family to fall exceedingly into terrible hell, / you have obtained the womb of a piśāca, and you will again go to Raurava, / to the hells named Mahāraurava, Krakaca, Kālasūtra, / the dreadful Yantrapīḍanaka, Mathana, and Kumbhavāluka." / As that brahmin was speaking thus, O illustrious one, / he remembered his own vile previous birth through association with the virtuous. / Overcome with grief, motionless, crying out repeatedly, "Fie! Fie!", / he fell to the ground, O goddess, and then spoke these words: / "Ah, by some merit I have obtained this sight of you— / I who have little merit, who am miserable and wretched! / There is no friend equal to dharma, there is no refuge equal to dharma, / there is no protection equal to dharma, and that dharma I do not possess, O lord! / I am drowned in the ocean of sorrow, I am sunk in the mire of sin; / I have wandered in blinding darkness; therefore I have taken refuge in you! / Reverence to you, O noble one! What should I do? Instruct me! / That which was ordained by the power of austerities has now been attained by me." / As that piśāca was speaking thus, O fair-faced lady, / that learned brahmin Śākaṭāyana related the māhātmya: / "Whatever sacred fords there are on earth extending to the ocean, / and whatever sacred fields exist here, superior in granting great merit to them / is the sacred field Mahākālavana, which remains indestructible even at the cosmic dissolution.

"There in that great sacred field is a liṅga that destroys the state of being a piśāca, / to the south of the god Ḍhuṇḍheśvara, worshipped by the thirty [gods]. / It is the Piśāca [liṅga], which destroys rebirth as a piśāca; / merely by the darśana of it you will be liberated from the state of a piśāca."