Skandapurana 6.3.177

Chapter 177

The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said:
One should then go to Bhūtīśvara, unmatched among all sacred fords,
by the mere darśana of which, O best of kings, sin is destroyed.

At that place formerly, O Pārtha, smearing with ash was done
upon his body by the spear-bearing God of gods; therefore it is Bhūtīśvara.

On Puṣya, or under one's birth constellation, and especially on the new-moon day,
a man who bathes at Bhūtīśvara delivers a crore of ancestors in his family.

He who with devotion rubs ash upon his limbs at that place—
hear, O lord of men, what fruit is declared for him:

As many particles of ash as cling to his body in that abode of Śiva,
for so many thousands of years he is exalted in the realm of Śiva.

Of all ritual ablutions, the ablution with ash is considered supreme;
it is proclaimed by ancient seers as the highest in all scriptures.

Whoever always performs the fiery ritual ablution
once, twice, or thrice a day, his sin is destroyed.

Better than the divine ritual ablution is the airy ablution, O bull among the Bharatas;
higher than the airy is the sacred ablution, and better than the sacred is the watery ablution.

Because the fiery ablution is declared by the self-manifest [Brahmā] to be superior to the watery,
therefore, by every effort, one should perform the fiery ritual ablution.

Yudhiṣṭhira said:
The fiery, the watery, the sacred, the airy, and the divine—
what has been proclaimed? I desire to hear it, for my curiosity is great.

Mārkaṇḍeya said:
The fiery is an ablution with ash, and the watery is by immersion;
the sacred is [reciting] “āpo hi ṣṭhā,” and the airy is regarded as cow-dust.

That ritual ablution when the sun is seen [in rain] is equal to Gaṅgā water;
that ritual ablution is declared the fifth, the divine, O best of Pāṇḍavas.

Therefore, having bathed with every effort at Bhūtīśvara, he who
worships the god Īśāna becomes pure both outwardly and inwardly.

Those who constantly meditate at that place on the supreme state,
subtle, beyond the senses, and eternal, they are fortunate; there is no doubt in this.

That sacred ford is the sacred ford of liberation, unmatched among all sacred fords;
by the mere darśana of it, sin goes to great destruction.

By worship there, a kingdom arises; having praised Maheśvara there,
by recitation comes purification from sin, and by meditation one attains eternity.

Oṃ: whose nature is light; without beginning or middle; unproduced; the unuttered syllable;
dwelling in all beings; benevolent Śiva; Lord of all yoga; Lord of all worlds; free from delusion and grief; accessible by supreme knowledge.

Whichever man goes to that sacred ford and performs a ritual ablution, O ruler of men, / obtains the fruit of a horse sacrifice. / Men who seek liberation do not know of such a place.

Thus ends the one hundred and seventy-seventh chapter, entitled “Description of the Māhātmya of Bhūtīśvara Sacred Ford,” in the Revākhaṇḍa of the Āvantyakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand [verses].