Skandapurana 6.3.38

Chapter 38

The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Then one should go to the supreme [sacred ford] named Guhāvāsin, O king of kings, / where Mahādeva, dwelling in the cave, attained perfection for one hundred million years.

Yudhiṣṭhira said: / For what purpose, O dear one, O best of the twice-born, did Mahādeva, the teacher of the world, / spend so very long a time in a cave?

Tell me all this in detail, O sinless one. / I wish to hear everything; indeed, great is my curiosity.

Mārkaṇḍeya said: / It is a good question, O great king, an excellent one that you have asked; / its full extent in the Purāṇa cannot indeed [be told] by me now.

to tell in detail, because of my old age, for a long time has passed.
Therefore, my dear, I tell it to you in brief; listen to me.

Long ago, in the Kṛtayuga, O king, there was a great forest named Dāruvana,
filled with various trees and creepers, and adorned with diverse vines.

It was frequented by lions, tigers, boars, elephants, and rhinoceroses,
filled with many birds, divine like the Caitraratha forest.

Certain men of great wisdom, resolute in their vows, dwelt there;
they lived with supreme devotion, devoted to the four stages of life:

The student, the householder, the forest hermit, and the ascetic,
all devoted to their own duties, desiring the highest state.

Meanwhile, in the spring season, for some particular reason,
Mahādeva, seated in an aerial chariot, travelling along with Umā,

saw by the water a hermitage resounding with the Ṛg, Sāma, and Yajur Vedas,
whose entrance and exit were invisible, destroying all sins.

Seeing it, the goddess was delighted and, with a voice choked with joy,
questioned the lord of the gods, who was adorned with the crescent moon:

The goddess said:
Whose hermitage is this, O god, resounding with the sound of the Vedas,
seeing which one is freed from exhaustion, hunger, thirst, and the like?

Maheśvara said:
Have you not heard, O goddess, of the great Mahādāruvana,
where many brahmins live according to the duties of a householder?

Whatever women there are here, they are devoted to the service of their husbands;
no other deity, nor any other duty, is known to them, O daughter of the mountain.

Having heard this supreme speech spoken by the god of gods,
filled with curiosity, she spoke again to Śaṅkara:

Since you have said, O Mahādeva, that the women are devoted to the duty of fidelity to their husbands,
become Love incarnate, O Lord, and agitate their virtue!

Īśvara said:
What you have said does not please me at all, O beloved.
Brahmins are great beings, and one should never do what is displeasing to them.

Brahmins have anger as their weapon; Hari has the discus as his weapon.
Anger is crueller than the discus; therefore one must not anger a brahmin.

No gods, no worlds, no mountains, nor asuras
are seen in the three worlds who have not been destroyed by their glance.

For them there is liberation and heaven, and the fruits on the mortal earth,
with whom the fortunate brahmins, deities of the earth, are pleased.

Knowing this, O fortunate one, abandon this improper obstinacy,
which is forbidden in this world and by which the twice-born would be angered.

The goddess said:
I am not your beloved, O god, nor am I obedient to you,
if you do not bring low their pride, which is well-honoured by the gods.

In this world and beyond, O Mahādeva, there is nothing impossible for you, O Lord;
perform this one task for me, O best of gods!

Thus addressed, Mahādeva, devoted to fulfilling the goddess's word,
assumed the form of a Kāpālika and went toward Dāruvana,

binding his mass of matted hair, wearing the moon as an ornament,
with his throat wrapped securely, wearing earrings in his ears,

clad in a tiger-skin, adorned with a girdle and garlands,
shaking the earth with the jingle of his anklets,

bearing high-piled matted hair, smeared with hide and ashes,
holding in his hand the skull of the great-souled Brahmā,

making the earth tremble with the roar of his great ḍamaru drum,
he arrived at Mahādāruvana at the time of dawn.

At that time, all those virtuous people, seeking flowers, leaves, and fruits,
had gone out everywhere with many others, purifying [the forest].

Seeing that greatly wondrous form of the god, O descendant of Bharata,
the minds of those young women became tainted with passion.

Beholding that handsome man, all those excellent women,
the women of Dāruvana, were overcome with longing and lustful desire.

Many emotional perturbations arose in those wives of brahmins,
upon seeing that greatly wondrous god, O best of men.

Some excellent women, upon seeing him, were not aware of their lower garments;
others, seized by great infatuation, were unaware of their upper garments.

One woman, her mass of hair dishevelled, got up from her seat,
wishing to give alms, but was unable to move.

Another, proud of her beauty and youth, upon seeing Mahādeva,
forgot to nurse the child resting on her lap.

Another, struck by the arrows of love, squeezing her shapely breasts with her arms,
sighed hot sighs and did not answer anything.

Having thus perturbed all those women, the supreme lord,
having caused an extraordinary agitation among them, departed thence.

Meanwhile, all those brahmins, having wandered through the great forest,
returned to their own homes and saw their wives devoid of luster.

Those whose devotion to their husbands in marital fidelity had been supreme—
knowing that they had wavered, the best of the twice-born quickly rushed out.

Reaching a firm understanding, they knew that it was the god Maheśvara
who, having agitated their minds, had then disappeared from sight.

One twice-born, filled with rage, ran raising a stick;
others with spotted staffs, and others with a handful of darbha grass.

Wandering here and there through the forest, O king,
those great-souled ones gathered together and uttered words in anger:

“If any offering has been made by us, if our teachers have been satisfied,
by that truth, let the god's excellent liṅga fall down!

If we all do not abandon [our duties] from stage to stage according to the rules,
by that truth, let the god's liṅga fall to the ground!”

Thus, by the power of truth spoken three times by the twice-born,
as Śiva watched, his liṅga fell upon the surface of the earth.

A great cry of distress arose even in the Lokāloka mountains, O descendant of Bharata,
when the god's liṅga fell and the great destruction of the world [commenced].

As the liṅga fell, there arose a dreadful sound, / meteors fell, the quarters cried in lamentation, and fearful earthquakes occurred.

Mountain peaks fell, and oceans dried up; / when the god's liṅga fell, the gods were dejected in mind.

Assembling together, all approached Brahmā Parameṣṭhin, / and with folded hands, all praised him with various hymns.

Then the lord of the universe, whose face is a fourfold lotus, pleased, / spoke to all the distressed gods: “Do not fall into despondency!

This three-eyed god of gods has been overpowered by a brahmin's curse; / when they, endowed with austerity, are satisfied, he will attain release once more.”

Hearing this, the gods went as they had come, O conqueror of foes; / then all the sages, having deliberated, O Bhārata,

Viśvāmitra, Vasiṣṭha and others, and then Jābāli and Kaśyapa, / assembling together, all spoke to that destroyer of Tripura:

“The brahmic power of the twice-born is indeed mighty, O Lord of the gods; / endowed with forbearance and having performed austerity, you will be freed from exhaustion.

Since this excellent liṅga of yours has thus fallen / through the agitation of the seers, O Mahādeva, it would not be worshipped.

That good is not obtained by the agnihotra nor by the agniṣṭoma / which human beings obtain in worshipping the liṅga.

By the word of the brahmins, it shall be worthy of worship / for gods, dānavas, yakṣas, gandharvas, serpents, and rākṣasas.

It shall be worthy of worship for Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Indra, and Candra, / [granting] whatever fruit belongs to your liṅga here in this world and in the beyond.”

Thus addressed, the lord of the universe bowed down to the best of the twice-born, / and, filled with supreme joy, spoke with folded hands:

“Brahmins are a moving tīrtha, waterless, fulfilling all desires, / by the water of whose very words impure people are cleansed.

There is no kṣetra, no tīrtha, no barren ground, nor Puṣkara waters / where one may go and be purified after causing anger in a brahmin.

There is no treatise not composed by brahmins, no gift not to be given to brahmins; / there is no happiness not from the favor of brahmins, no sorrow not from the wrath of brahmins.

Whatever tīrthas there are on earth, and rivers such as the Gaṅgā, / are not worth a sixteenth part of a single word of a brahmin.”

Having cheered all the twice-born and permitted by the great seers, / the god then went to the excellent bank of the Narmadā.

Undertaking a supreme vow, dwelling in a cave for a hundred million years, / the Lord performed austerity, ever devoted to recitation and ritual ablutions.

When the religious observance was completed, dear one, having installed Maheśvara, / the Lord, praised by the gods, went to Kailāsa.

Parameśvara was installed by him on the bank of the Narmadā; / for that very reason he is called Narmadeśvara.

Whatever ascetic with restrained senses worships Narmadeśvara / and Mahādeva after bathing, shall obtain the fruit of an horse sacrifice.

He who offers water with sesame, flowers, and kuśa grass to the ancestors— / his ancestors up to twenty-one generations rejoice in heaven, O Pāṇḍava.

And he who feeds brahmins at that tīrtha, O king, / with milk-rice mixed with ghee, obtains a fruit multiplied ten million times.

Or he who, standing in the middle of the water, gives gold or silver / to brahmins, O Yudhiṣṭhira, obtains the fruit of an agniṣṭoma.

He who, fasting, dwells there on the eighth or fourteenth day, / having approached Narmadeśvara, shall attain the fruit of life.

He who performs entry into fire at that tīrtha, O king, / shall have no fear of disease for seven births, O Bhārata.

And he who performs fasting unto death at that tīrtha, O king, / shall attain an irreversible state in the world of Rudra.

This rule has been declared to you, along with its origin, O best of men; / its designation has been laid down at length in the Purāṇa, dear one.

A man who recites this origin of Narmadeśvara, / or listens to it with devotion, shall also obtain the fruit of a ritual ablution.

Thus ends the thirty-eighth chapter, entitled the Description of the Māhātmya of the Tīrtha of Narmadeśvara, in the Narmadāmāhātmya of the Revākhaṇḍa, in the fifth Avantī section, in the Mahāpurāṇa of eighty-one thousand verses, the glorious Skandapurāṇa.