Skandapurana 6.3.14

Chapter 14

Yudhiṣṭhira said: / When all those highly fortunate seers, rich in austerity, had gone to the supreme world, / what wonderful thing happened then?

The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Then, when those dwellers on the bank of the Narmadā had departed, / there occurred the terrible dissolution that brings destruction to all beings.

To the eternal Mahādeva, who was on the peak of Kailāsa, / Brahmā and the others praised the god, Śiva, with the Ṛg, Yajus, and Sāman verses:

'Dissolve the universe, O god, together with the gods, demons, and humans! / The end of a thousand ages has arrived, the time capable of dissolution.

Having assumed my form, this was created by you; / having assumed the form of Viṣṇu, this was protected by you.

A single form became threefold—of Brahmā, of Śiva, and of Viṣṇu— / for the purpose of creation, dissolution, and preservation. May it be so, O Maheśvara!'

Having heard these true words of Viṣṇu and Brahmā, / accompanied by his attendants and retinue, together with both of them and with Umā,

having broken through these worlds, the blue-throated Lord, / having pierced the cosmic egg from the earth up to the world of Brahmā, beyond the beyond,

the all-pervading lord entered the divine, unborn abode of Śiva together with them. / There is no wind there, no space, no fire there, and no surface of the earth,

where the god Śaṅkara stays together with Umā; / there is no sun there, no planets, no stars, nor directions,

no guardians of the worlds, no pleasure, and no pain, O best of kings.

That which poets call the state of Brahman, that which poets call the state of Śiva; / and others speak of the Lord as the knower of the field, and the Sāṃkhyas sing of it indeed as primal liberation;

that which some declare to be the primal Brahman, whom [they declare to be] the Lord, all-pervading, unborn, and ancient— / him whose form is one, whose forms are manifold, formless, primal, called the supreme imperishable;

the fourth state, which poets describe as colourless, the true essence, without name or lineage, / composed of meditation, purpose, and special knowledge, very subtle, abiding within the self, the best Lord, worthy of choice.

Then those three, having reached the divine Lord, having contracted, become the essence; / then, with their distinct forms, they themselves again protect the entire universe.

In the state of Rudra, the lord performs the dissolution of all beings; / in the state of Viṣṇu he preserves the worlds; in the state of Brahmā he is the creator of creation.

Joined with Prakṛti, Maheśvara becomes Time; / the highly fortunate [Goddess] whose form is the universe stays at his side,

whom the knowers thereof, discerning in realities, call Prakṛti. / The Supreme Lord is the cause both in the state of Puruṣa and in the state of Prakṛti.

Therefore all this universe, both moving and unmoving, / dissolves into him alone when the end of the age has arrived.

Everything marked by the womb and the liṅga is indeed pervaded by the Supreme Being; / Viṣṇu is the form of the womb, and Maheśvara is the form of the liṅga.

He shines in all the worlds, he is praised in the worlds beginning with Bhūr and Bhuvas; / he has entered into all beings; therefore Viṣṇu is called bhaga.

He is called Viṣṇu because of entering; he is the great one composed of all the gods. / Because of shining and moving, the name bhaga is proclaimed.

That in which the universe, from Brahmā down to a clump of grass, attains dissolution / and merges into oneness—therefore the wise know it as the liṅga.

Then Mahādeva spoke to the goddess who was standing beside him at that time: / 'Dissolve the whole universe; do not delay, O fair one!

Abandon this gentle form, pure as the white moonbeams; / assuming the terrible form, dissolve the moving and unmoving.

Surrounded by dreadful, terrible hosts of beings, O goddess, / devour all this world of living beings, O lotus-eyed one!

Then I will crush and likewise flood the universe; / and having made it a single ocean, I will sleep happily with you again.'

The goddess said: / 'O god, I will not dissolve this universe, O one of great splendour! / Having become the mother, I will not devour [my child] who is helpless and greatly distressed.

By woman's nature, my heart feels compassion; / how indeed can I burn up this universe, O Lord of the universe?

Therefore, do you yourself dissolve this universe, O Śaṅkara!' / Then, thus addressed, the blue-throated Dhūrjaṭi,

becoming angry, rebuked Maheśvarī with a roar. / 'Oṃ huṃ phaṭ you are!' he said, his eyes filled with wrath.

Rebuked with a roar, the large-eyed one, with plump thighs and hips, / instantly became terrible, like the Night of Destruction, O descendant of Bharata.

Roaring with great cries, causing the ten directions to resound, / she grew exceedingly terrible, like a flash of lightning.

Hard to look at like a flash of lightning, flickering like a mass of lightning, / agitated by flashes of lightning, terrible, with eyes resembling lightning and fire, 14.34

with dishevelled hair, wide eyes, a thin neck, and a slender waist, / wearing a tiger skin as a garment, having a black snake as her sacred thread, 14.35

adorned with scorpions resembling heaps of fire and with vipers, / she filled the three worlds with her expanse and height. 14.36

Her body became radiant, wearing a single black serpent as an earring, / her hand raised with a variegated staff, adorned with a tiger skin. 14.37

Terrible, she grew, causing the destruction of the world, / licking the corners of her mouth and uttering fierce hissing sounds. 14.38

With an open mouth, roaring with rattling sounds, agitating the world, / followed by playful spirits, cruel, she breathed in and out. 14.39

Bursting into loud laughter, with a hideous nose, her eyes like fire pits, / raising cries of rejoicing, she burned the entire world. 14.40

Being burned there, the gods fell to the surface of the earth; / the yakṣas and gandharvas fell, along with the kinnaras and great serpents. 14.41

And the hosts of ghosts fell, shrieking 'Alas, alas!' and 'Oh, oh!' / With outcries, claps of thunder, and cries of distress, 14.42

the universe, the three worlds with the moving and unmoving, was then pervaded. / With colliding and falling legions of blazing spirits, the earth [shook], 14.43

with cracking sounds arisen and mountain peaks tumbling down. / In that festival of terror, she arose, heightening the joy of Rudra. 14.44

Striking down creatures, chewing even the immobile ones, / taking in this and that smell, howling with jackal-like cries, 14.45

her face covered with trickling streams of blood, her body smeared, / of fierce nature, Caṇḍī engaged in the destruction of the world. 14.46

Even the great seers like Bhṛgu and others who had reached Maharloka, / and hundreds of brahmins, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, and others perished. 14.47

Gods and asuras, terrified with fear, along with yakṣas, serpents, and rākṣasas, / entered Pātāla, while some hid in caves and other places. 14.48

And that goddess stood like Death, having pervaded all the directions, / appointed by the God at the time that brings an end to the aeon. 14.49

Though single, she became ninefold, tenfold, and tenfold again, / assuming sixty-four forms, a hundred forms, laughing fiercely. 14.50

Śivā was born with a thousand forms, with bodies numbering a hundred thousand and ten million, / bearing various forms and weapons, moving with various musical instruments. 14.51

Such was the goddess by Śiva's command, O king! / In all the directions and in the sky, wielding monstrous weapons, 14.52

the hosts of Māheśvara stood, cutting off those who were fleeing; / trident and spear in hand, they roamed about together with her. 14.53

Then certain mother-goddesses, along with the hosts of Vināyaka, / grew intensely terrible, bringing about the destruction of the universe. 14.54

Then her fangs, gleaming like jasmine and the moon, grew / to thousands, tens of thousands, and hundreds of millions of yojanas. 14.55

Her rows of fangs and her cruel, sharp, and rough nails / scraped the sky, the directions, and the earth with its seven continents. 14.56

By the impacts of her fangs, forests and mountains were pulverized, / and masses of rocky heaps shattered by the thousands. 14.57

Himavat, Hemakūṭa, Niṣadha, Gandhamādana, / Mālyavat, Nīla, and the great mountain Śveta, 14.58

the central platform of Ilā around Meru, with its seven continents and oceans, / along with the Lokāloka mountain, trembled, O best of kings! 14.59

Touched by the thunderbolts of her fangs, great trees were shattered, / and all the directions were pervaded all around with dreadful portents. 14.60

All the stars and hosts of planets, and the beings traveling in aerial chariots, / were overrun by thousands of jackals and the great hosts of mothers. 14.61

She roamed the entire world when the end of the aeon had arrived, / with [beings] wandering, crying out, and howling on all sides. 14.62

The ten directions were filled with crushing, blazing, and fierce [spirits]; / vast ranges of mountains, their trees and rocks violently shaken, 14.63

with smashed city gates, filled with hair and dried bones, / with villages and cities burned down, covered with heaps of ashes, 14.64

the entire three worlds, moving and unmoving, was filled with the smoke of funeral pyres, / filled everywhere with lamentations, echoing with the sounds of distress. 14.65

This entire universe became shelterless and without refuge. 14.66

Thus ends the fourteenth chapter, named 'The Description of the Destruction of the Universe Wrought by Kālarātri' in the recount of the cosmic cycle in the Narmadāmāhātmya of the Revākhaṇḍa, in the fifth Avantyakhaṇḍa, of the Skandapurāṇa, an eighty-one-thousand-verse compilation.