Skandapurana 6.3.167

Chapter 167

Yudhiṣṭhira said: / On the southern bank of the Narmadā is a sacred ford marked by your sign; / tell me of this sacred ford and its origin, O great sage.

Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Long ago, at the beginning of the Kṛta Yuga, on the excellent southern mountain, / the Vindhya, endowed with all virtues, self-restrained and limited in food,

offered hospitality by hosts of seers, I lived for a long time in Daṇḍaka. / Having resided there for a very long time, for ten thousand years, happy,

having taken leave of those seers and followed by disciples, / I departed, O greatly fortunate one, and came to the bank of the Narmadā,

which is holy, delightful, and the destroyer of all sins. / Having made my dwelling there, accompanied by a host of twice-born,

crowded with celibate students, those well-established in householdership, / forest dwellers, and ascetics of controlled diet and restrained self,

greatly fortunate practitioners of austerities, free from desire and anger, / I performed very severe austerity there for ten thousand years,

worshipping Vāsudeva, the lord, the creator, Īśvara, / with silent recitations, austerities, and observances, resorting to the bank of the Narmadā.

Then those two boon-granting gods arrived, O Yudhiṣṭhira, / manifest like two suns, O king, adorned by Umā and Śrī.

Having bowed down then to the two gods, endowed with devotion, I spoke these words: / 'I pray to you both, worthy of granting boons, boon-bestowing, auspicious,

for the preservation of dharma, O greatly fortunate ones, and for unexcelled devotion to you both; / [that I remain] free of old age and disease, as if twenty-five years old, / and that you always remain in this place along with the gods, without doubt.'

Being thus addressed by me, O Pārtha, those two gods, Kṛṣṇa and Śaṅkara, / greatly pleased, spoke to me regarding their dwelling, O Yudhiṣṭhira.

The two gods said: / 'Know that we remain in this place along with the gods and Indra.' / Having spoken thus, the two gods then vanished right there.

And having established them both, Śaṅkara and the imperishable Kṛṣṇa, / and worshipped them with complete concentration, I was then fulfilled.

A person having bathed in that sacred ford should worship the supreme lord, / Viṣṇu, lord of the three worlds, under the name Mārkaṇḍeśvara.

He goes to the supreme realm, both Vaiṣṇava and Śaiva. / With ghee, milk, or curd and honey,

and with water from the Narmadā, with very beautiful scents and incenses, / offerings of flowers, and food offerings, self-controlled,

thus devoted to Viṣṇu, he should keep a vigil with intent devotion; / likewise [performing] ritual ablutions and the like, O king, restrained and of pure mind.

Having fasted on the fourteenth of the bright half in the month of Jyeṣṭha, / a Vaiṣṇava man should have worship of the gods performed on the twelfth.

Having done so on the fourteenth or the eleventh, O best of men, / a man attains the realm of Viṣṇu and becomes equal to Viṣṇu.

And in the city of Maheśvara, O king of kings, he rejoices like a gaṇa. / And if, steadfast, he performs a śrāddha there dedicated to his ancestors,

they obtain inexhaustible satisfaction, there is no doubt. / A twice-born, having bathed in the Narmadā, silent, with restrained mind,

having observed the twilight devotion while standing there, performing excellent recitation, / and having offered libations to ancestors, gods, and men according to rule,

standing before Kṛṣṇa or Mārkaṇḍeśa, / should diligently recite verses from the Ṛg, Yajur, and Sāma Vedas here.

Whoever chants a single ṛc obtains the fruit of the Ṛgveda; / through a yajus, [the fruit] of the Yajurveda; through a sāman, he obtains the fruit of the Sāmaveda.

When a single vipra is fed, ten million are fed. / A woman whose children have died, or who is barren, or who gives birth only to daughters,

— for her, a brahmin knowing the truth of the Veda, having properly recited the Rudra [mantras], / should set up an auspicious water pot on the right side of the liṅga.

He should bathe [it] with the water from the pot using the eleven Rudra mantras. / [Then] she obtains, O king of kings, a long-lived and faultless son.

Whoever sees the trees of Mārkaṇḍeśvara, even from afar, / is freed from sins such as killing a brahmin; so Śaṃkara declared.

Whoever hears this with devotion or recites it, O best of kings, / becomes purified of all sins; of this there is no doubt.

This brings renown, longevity, and fortune, and destroys suffering; / for those who recite or listen, it grants release from all sins.

Thus ends the one hundred and sixty-seventh chapter, entitled 'Description of the Greatness of Mārkaṇḍeśvara Tīrtha', in the Revākhaṇḍa of the fifth Avantī section in the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa of eighty-one thousand verses.