Skandapurana 6.3.158

Chapter 158

The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Then one should go to the supreme sacred ford, the excellent Saṅgameśvara, / on the southern bank of the Narmadā, which removes all sins and fears.

Kubera rested there for a moment, O best of kings, / having come from the realm of the ancestors on his way to Mount Kailāsa.

As proof of this, O best of kings, even today on the earth's surface / black stones are seen shining like crystal.

Coming forth from the waterfalls of the Vindhya, an excellent river of holy waters / entered into the water of the Narmadā, which destroys all sins.

Having bathed at that confluence, whoever worships Saṅgameśvara / undoubtedly obtains the fruit of a horse sacrifice.

Whoever donates a bell, flags, and an awning at Saṅgameśvara, / seated in an aerial chariot harnessed with swans and surrounded by a hundred celestial women,

attains the state of Rudra and becomes an attendant of Rudra. / Whoever covers the liṅga of the god with curd and cooked rice,

dwells in the world of Śiva for a desired length of time equal to the number of grains of boiled rice. / And having become destitute, if one covers the liṅga of Bhava with wood-apple fruits,

he too attains that fruit, having gone to heaven, O lord of men; / his lineage becomes imperishable throughout seven births.

Whoever performs the ceremonial bath of the god of gods with curds, honey, or clarified butter / according to the prescribed rule, hear the meritorious fruit of that person:

Where rivers flow with clarified butter and milk, and where trees exude honey, / there those mortals go when Maheśvara is well pleased.

Whoever offers a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or water to Maheśvara, / enjoys the imperishable fruit of all that throughout seven births.

Among all worthy recipients, Maheśvara is the greatest recipient; / therefore, with every effort, Maheśvara is to be worshipped.

Whoever, established in celibacy, constantly worships Śiva, / lives here as a lord of gods, and on dying goes to the disease-free realm.

The fruit which is obtained by the wise when Śiva is worshipped, O son of Pṛthā, / that same fruit one obtains, O son of Pṛthā, when a lord of yogins is worshipped.

Blessed are they, great-souled are they, well-lived is their life, / in whose homes men devoted to the devotion of Śiva take food.

Wherever a sage may dwell, having restrained the collection of senses, / there are Kurukṣetra, Naimiṣa, and the Puṣkaras.

The fruit that arises when one hundred knowers of the Veda are fed, / that fruit arises, O son of Pṛthā, through a single Śiva-yogin.

Wherever one whose limbs are smeared with ashes eats, whether a fool or a scholar, / there eats the lord of the gods, the bull-bannered god, along with his consort.

The fruit of feeding ten million brahmins who know the Vedas / is attained merely by giving alms to Śiva-yogins.

Whoever gives up his life after reaching Saṅgameśvara, / for him there is never any return from the world of Śiva.

Thus ends the one hundred fifty-eighth chapter, entitled the description of the māhātmya of the Saṅgameśvaratīrtha, in the Revākhaṇḍa of the fifth [part], the Āvantyakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skandapurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.