Skandapurana 6.3.190

Chapter 190
Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya said:
Then one should go, O king, to the unsurpassed Somatīrtha, / renowned as Candrahāsa, worshipped by all the gods,

where King Soma, the best of gods, attained supreme perfection.

Yudhiṣṭhira said:
How did King Soma, lord of the world, obtain perfection? / I wish to hear all that; tell me, O sinless one.

Mārkaṇḍeya said:
Formerly, he was cursed by Dakṣa, the best of sages, O Bhārata: / 'Because of not attending to your wives, you will suffer from consumption.'

Those who do not attend to their wedded wives— / what their ultimate state becomes, hear that, O best of men.

From attending to women during their fertile season, a son is born; / from a son come heaven and liberation—such indeed is the Vedic injunction.

Men who do not attend to them in accordance with the duty appropriate for that time— / the sin of killing a brahmin arises for them; of this there is no doubt.

Enveloped by that dreadful sin, one falls into Raurava. / There, sinful beings drink his blood for the intended time.

Then, when that time has expired, into whatever womb he enters, / in that very womb that evil-minded one is always born unfortunate.

The desire of women is always exceedingly active; / especially at the time of the fertile period, she is pierced by the arrows of love.

Disregarded by her husband, she then thinks of another husband; / a son born of her strays from the noble lineage.

By him, the ancestors residing in heaven, who were born earlier, O king, / fall as soon as he is born; therefore he is called a corrupter of the lineage.

By that fruition of past actions, the moon became afflicted with consumption. / Leaving the world of the lords of the gods, he came to the world of mortals.

Having wandered there to many holy bathing places and sacred shrines, / he reached the Narmadā, the destroyer of all sins.

Fasting, gifts, vows, and observances— / he performed these for twelve years; then he was freed from his sins.

Having installed Mahādeva, the destroyer of all sins, / filled with radiance, he went to the unsurpassed realm of Soma.

For as many years as the god installed by a person is worshipped, / for that many thousands of yugas he enjoys that deity's realm.

Therefore, men install gods on earth according to the prescribed rules, / because the fruit becomes inexhaustible and imperishable; it is not otherwise.

He who bathes at Somatīrtha and worships the god Īśvara / becomes a man knowing Soma, handsome in appearance.

One who goes to Candraprabhāsa and performs ritual ablution according to rule / will not be overcome by disease or afflicted with consumption.

A man having bathed at Candrahāsya on the twelfth lunar day, O king of men, / and fasting on the fourteenth, should offer an oblation of milk-rice.

With five mantras, a person should worship Īśāna, Tryambaka. / Having consumed the remainder of the offering himself, he should look upon Candrahāsyeśa.

By this rite, O king, Lord Maheśvara is pleased; / by the rite, in connection with the tīrtha, one is freed from consumption.

He who performs ritual ablution there on seven Mondays / is indeed freed from ear disease, worshipping Śiva.

Likewise, eye disease is destroyed at Candrahāsya, O king. / He who goes to Candrahāsya during an eclipse of the moon or sun / and performs ritual ablution with devotion is freed from all sins.

Bathing and giving gifts there at Candrahāsya, good and bad [actions] / performed [there], O best among kings, all become inexhaustible.

They are fortunate, they are great-souled, their life is well-lived— / the men who, having bathed at Candrahāsye, behold the eclipse.

Vocal, mental, or born of action—whatever sin was committed in the past / is destroyed at that sacred ford merely by bathing, O king of kings. 190.28

Many, possessed by great delusion, do not know it, / though it stands present like the Supreme Self dwelling in the body of all beings. 190.29

Whatever fruit one obtains by going to the western ocean at Somatīrtha, / one certainly obtains all of it at Candrahāsya, without doubt. 190.30

And on a transit, a Vyatīpāta, an equinox, and a solstice, / a man who bathes at Candrahāsya is freed from all sins. 190.31

Fools they are, wicked in conduct, their birth is meaningless, / who do not know Candrahāsya situated on the Narmadā. 190.32

Whoever takes renunciation at Candrahāsya, O king, / his state of existence never turns back from the world of Soma. 190.33

Thus ends the one hundred and ninetieth chapter, named 'The Description of the Māhātmya of Candrahāsyatīrtha', in the Revākhaṇḍa of the fifth section, the Āvantyakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a compendium of eighty-one thousand [verses].