Skandapurana 6.3.11

Chapter 11

Yudhiṣṭhira said:
Oh, how supremely auspicious and distinguished is she who does not perish here at the end of an age!
Therefore, she is always most worthy of being resorted to by the lords of sages intent upon meditation, worship, and ritual ablution. (11.1)

Having resorted to whom, the seers devoted to dharma have gone to liberation—
those rules of the seers established by the Veda that were spoken of by you, (11.2)

by which diverse observances their attainment of liberation comes to be,
either in ten or twelve, or in six or eight, (11.3)

or in three or four years or months,
they are freed from the blemishes of the Kali age by worshiping the Lord of the gods. (11.4)

Whether worshiping Brahmā, O best of gods, or Keśava, the teacher of the world,
one surely abandons all sin, there is no doubt. (11.5)

Relate all this to me in detail, O sinless one:
how all creatures drowned in this dense jungle of saṃsāra
have attained heaven—resolve this doubt of mine, speak! (11.6)

The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said:
Human birth is obtained only after many previous lives,
and devotion to Śaṅkara arises in it only with great difficulty. (11.7)

The fruit of sacred fords, gifts, fasts, sacrifices, and worship of gods and brahmins
arises for men only through supreme faith, O king. (11.8)

Therefore, faith should be cultivated by men who cherish dharma;
even the Lord is attained through faith, and because of this, faith is pre-eminent. (11.9)

Otherwise, everything devoid of faith is fruitless, O Bhārata;
therefore, one should resort to devotion to Rudra, the supreme deity. (11.10)

Fruitful indeed is the birth of those whose devotion is unwavering;
and that devotion is threefold: sattvic, rajasic, (11.11)

and tamasic for all the world, and one receives a threefold fruit;
they revolve again and again through connection with the fruits of their actions. (11.12)

After hundreds of other births, for those wise men who sacrifice to the gods,
devotion to the triad of deities arises through the destruction of sinful karma. (11.13)

From the Lord, then, liberation is produced without any doubt.
Moreover, those foremost brahmins who take refuge on the bank of the Narmadā, (11.14)

free from doubt on the path of the three Vedas, go to the supreme state.
Those who, with single-minded consciousness, worship Śaṃkara, (11.15)

ever devoted here to the imperishable Śiva, quickly attain perfection.
For embodied beings elsewhere, perfection arises only after a long time, (11.16)

whereas on the bank of the Narmadā perfection is attained quickly.
Those who know the Sāṃkhya achieve perfection in six years; (11.17)

Vaiṣṇavas endowed with knowledge also achieve perfection earlier.
And those who know all yogas, like rivers joining the ocean, (11.18)

become one at the end of a cosmic cycle, having attained the yoga of the Great Lord.
Of all yogas, the yoga of the Great Lord is the foremost. (11.19)

Having attained it, even those of sinful origins are liberated.
Having worshiped Śiva on the bank of the river, they are never born into wombs again. (11.20)

This path is difficult to ascend and destroys all sins;
having taken refuge in the Revā, creatures are swiftly liberated from worldly existence. (11.21)

Therefore, one should bathe daily and smear oneself with sacred ash;
having reached the bank of the Narmadā, one swiftly attains perfection. (11.22)

Whatever calm man reverently worships the liṅga at the three junctures of the day,
freed from all illnesses, goes to the supreme state. (11.23)

He attains perfection in six months, even if he were a sinner;
those, however, of purified mind are purified in three months. (11.24)

Just as snow melts away from a mountain when touched by the sun, / so sin dissolves when touched by auspicious particles of ash.

Just as serpents perish in terror of Garuḍa, / so indeed sins perish when sprinkled with ash.

Those who dust themselves with ash purified by the water of the Narmadā / are immediately freed from the mass of sins; of this there is no doubt.

Those who observe the Pāśupata vow with devotion as prescribed, / abstaining from the food of a śūdra, attain the highest state.

The food of a brahmin is considered nectar; the food of a kṣatriya is remembered as milk; / the food of a vaiśya is merely plain food; the food of a śūdra is considered blood.

Those best of the twice-born who die nourished by the essence of a śūdra's food, / bereft of austerity and knowledge, become crows and vultures.

For the evil deeds of men reside depending upon food; / he who eats the food of anyone eats that person's sin.

Especially those who, while following the duty of an ascetic, succumb to greed regarding their austerity, / go to hell without doubt; thus Śaṅkara declared.

And brahmins of such character who remain established in the Pāśupata [path] / burn up a great mass of sin; of this there is no doubt.

Those joined with hypocrisy and afflicted by greed / are not to be received; such is the injunction of the Veda.

Some are ruined by the faults committed by their parents, others by those born of their own actions, / others by the pride of knowledge, and others by egoism.

Those who are set on the dharma of Śaṅkara, though excluded from the ordinances of the smṛti, / being afflicted by Kali [Age], attain the highest state.

Faithless men, fools puffed up with deceit, / wicked-souled and reciting corrupt examples, do not attain perfection.

Even at the great glory of the sacred ford, those who undertake the vow of Śaṅkara / but are filled with greed, go to a degraded birth without doubt.

An evil deed is not wiped out by sacred fords or by gifts; / only sin committed out of ignorance or negligence is destroyed [by them].

Having understood this, the twice-born should act according to the proper rule, / and repeating the Supreme Brahman, they should conduct themselves constantly.

He who recites [the hymn to] the Upward-formed, the Odd-eyed, Rudra himself, / sees Īśāna directly after six months, freed from all attachment.

He who, having restrained himself well, performs ten repetitions of the Saṃhitā / while resorting to the bank of the Narmadā, is freed from all sins.

Or whatever Purāṇa-saṃhitā, whether Śaiva or Vaiṣṇava, / one recites on the bank of the Narmadā before Śiva, he becomes identical with Śiva.

He is honored in the heavenly world until the destruction of all beings. / Formerly, in order to abandon the calamity of transmigration, [this] was spoken by Nandin

in the assembly of celestial seers, siddhas, and gandharvas in the abode of Śiva. / Listen with single-minded focus, O King, to this auspicious song of Nandin,

which grants heaven and liberation, is meritorious, and destroys the fear of transmigration:

“If you wish to abandon this cavernous cave of transmigration, distressed at every step by the torment of worldly existence, / bound by the diverse ropes of your own manifold deeds, listen for your happiness to the one beneficial thing spoken by me.

O Śakra, do not follow a crooked path! O Yama, do not inflict torment! / O Pracetas, calm your mind! O Kubera, abandon greed!

Surrender all your wealth to the poor, the helpless, and the distinguished, / if you are afflicted by the tossing of the waves of the ocean of transmigration.

A man agitated by birth, terrified of death, seized by desire and the rest, / and fallen away from Yama and the others—the purifier holding the Pināka protects him.

Do not be arrogant, O Yama; you will become a laughingstock by tormenting / a living being who has taken refuge in all; he will become your refuge.

What is terrible Time, a mere child? What is Death? What is vile Yama? / What fear could there be for men devoted to Śiva and Viṣṇu?

For living beings afflicted by the burden of worldly existence who reside on the bank of the Revā, / Bharga and the Lord are indeed the dispellers of the fear of worldly existence.

Worship Śiva, meditate on Śiva, praise Śiva, sacrifice to Śiva, / bow to Śiva, O wretched one, if you desire knowledge and liberation!

Read the scripture of the Five-Faced One; recite the five-syllable mantra; / contemplate the fivefold reality; worship the supreme Five-Faced One!

What use are those lamentable sets of rites distinguished by various states of mind, / if the glorious, five-faced Śiva is served in every way?

What use are the roars of the mad elephant of transmigration, even if quieted, / if the five-faced God is attended with the fragrance of devotion?

O fool, why despair upon meeting the torment of your actions? / Recite the name of Bhavānī's beloved, the terrible one, the destroyer of fear!

Worship Bharga, the lord of gods, who dwells on the bank of the Narmadā, / who dissolves the flood of sorrow, and who grants heaven and liberation, O fool!

Having abandoned the Revā served by the river of the gods, and Hara and Hari residing on its bank, / where are you wandering to foreign directions like a madman devoid of devotion, O fool?

Worship the holy water of the Revā; sacrifice to eternal Rudra; / recite the five-syllable spell, and go to the desired abode!

What is the use of tormenting your own body with manifold contrivances? / Worship the Revā; having attained Śiva, [reach] the supreme state that is easily achieved!”

Having thus reached Kailāsa, what he sang concerning the river in the presence of Śiva / to the world guardians has now been told to you by me.

Mārkaṇḍeya said: / He who is devoted to ritual ablution and gifting, always following righteousness, / resorting to the bank of the Narmadā, is freed from all sins.

If devoid of rules, even one who recites all the Vedas daily for a hundred years / or one who is superior in virtues is merely equal to the recitation of the Mṛtyulāṅgala [mantra].

Just as one who is impure in seed and womb does not find Rudra, / so too even the Lāṅgala mantra does not remain with one whose life is gone.

Joined with the recitation of the Gāyatrī, self-restrained, he is indeed superior in virtues, / [reciting] constantly “agnim īḍe”, “iṣe tvorje tvā”, or “agna āyāhi”.

Standing on the bank, one who recites 'śanno devīḥ…' is freed from all sins.

Even by constantly reciting the Vedas along with their auxiliary and secondary branches with a concentrated mind, / one does not attain that fruit which a self-restrained man attains through the Gāyatrī.

Having recited the Rudrādhyāya once, a brahmin endowed with the Veda / is freed from all sins and goes to the world of Viṣṇu.

Or another collection of chants, a hymn or an Āraṇyaka— / [by reciting it] he is freed from all sins and goes to the world of Viṣṇu.

Whatever recitation is performed and whatever gift is given / resorting to the waters of the Narmadā, all that becomes inexhaustible.

Those who constantly resort to the Narmadā with vows of this kind, / upon death, attain the realm of Viṣṇu or the imperishable abode of Śiva.

Some men go to Satyaloka, and others to the solar world, / surrounded by hosts of apsarases until the cosmic dissolution.

While this world was thus enduring, O bull among kings, / ten crores of seers residing in Kurukṣetra,

Resorted to the banks of the Narmadā together with me, O highly fortunate one; / subsisting on fruits and roots, they remained worshiping Śiva.

And that [period was] a hundred divine years according to the calculation of time, / which is twenty-six thousand by human reckoning.

Then, when that twilight period had passed, O best of kings, / one remaining human century of time was left.

Then a drought occurred that caused the destruction of the worlds, / by which the entire universe again suffered terrible ruin.

By the power of those seers who had previously attained perfection here, masters of the Vedas, / the blessed slayer of Bala and Vṛtra made it rain.

A great rain with abundant water was poured down on all sides; / then indeed, by that rain, their sustenance was ensured.

When the end of the yuga arrived again and a little of the Kali yuga remained, / everything, both moving and unmoving, dried up completely.

Devoid of trees, medicinal herbs, and shrubs, and bereft of grass and climbing plants, / the entire globe of the earth was severely struck by drought.

Then all those thousands of seers, afflicted with hunger and thirst, / overtaken by the nature of the yuga, lost their strength, O king.

When the sacrificial offerings and svadhā-calls had perished and the end of the yuga was imminent, [they said:] / 'What is to be done? Where shall we go? Who will be our refuge?'

I said to them in reply, 'Do not fear!' again and again; / 'Many such revolutions of time have been witnessed by me.

Resorting to the banks of the Narmadā, they were all passed by me. / She indeed is our refuge, O goddess, when the destruction of the yuga arrives.

No other recourse exists for us here, O best of the twice-born; / she is the mother of all beings, especially of the best of the twice-born.

The grandfathers, fathers, and whatever other great-grandfathers [there were], / all of them went to heaven by resorting to the great river.

The seven, beginning with Bhṛgu, who were my ancestral forefathers, / and the highly fortunate Dhaumṛṇī of bright smile, my wife, / and she who was regarded as Manasvatī, as well as Bhārgava and Aṅgiras,

Pulastya, Pulaha, Vasiṣṭha, Atri, and Kāśyapa, / and other highly fortunate observers of restraints and vows, / and hundreds of thousands of others have attained perfection here.

Therefore, this highly fortunate [river] must never be abandoned. / No other river is capable of granting the fruits of the three worlds.

From numerous and various dualities, from hunger, thirst, and other great perils, / those men residing on the banks of the Narmadā are instantly freed.

Therefore, with every effort, this best of rivers must be served / by those who desire the highest good in this world and in the next.'

Thus ends the eleventh chapter, titled 'Description of the Glory of the Holy Narmadā,' in the Revākhaṇḍa of the Avantī section, in the Śrī Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a compendium of eighty-one thousand [verses].