Skandapurana 6.3.51

Chapter 51

Uttānapāda said: / At what time should śrāddha and gift-giving be performed there, O Lord? / On which lunar day should the pilgrimage be undertaken there? Tell that quickly!

Īśvara said: / Just as the tīrtha of the ancestors is holy, granting all desires, and excellent, / so is this holy tīrtha through ritual ablutions, gifts, libations, and the like.

One should especially perform śrāddha on all the beginnings of the yugas. / And listen, my child, to the fourteen beginnings of the manvantaras:

The bright ninth of Aśvina, and the twelfth of Kārttika, / the third of the month of Caitra, and likewise of Bhādrapada;

the tenth of Āṣāḍha, and the seventh of Māgha; / the dark eighth of Śrāvaṇa, and the full moon of Āṣāḍha;

the new moon of Phālguna, and the bright eleventh of Pauṣa; / the fifteenth of Kārttika, Phālguna, Caitra, and Jyeṣṭha.

These beginnings of the manvantaras are remembered as yielding endless fruit. / And at the northern solstice, O king, and at the southern, one should perform a śrāddha;

likewise the [full moons] of Kārttika and Māgha, and the third of Vaiśākha, / and especially the full moon of Caitra and of Jyeṣṭha;

and on the aṣṭakā days, at a saṃkrānti, and likewise on a vyatīpāta. / All these are times for śrāddha; what is given on these is remembered as imperishable.

In the spring month, in the bright fortnight, having fasted on the eleventh day, / one should keep a vigil at night near the footprint of Viṣṇu.

Those who perform worship of Viṣṇu with incense, lamps, food offerings, and the like, with garlands and agallochum sandalwood, / and read an ancient narrative,

and the twice-born who recites a sūkta stated in the mantras of the Ṛg, Yajur, or Sāma [Veda], / being completely freed from all sins, he goes to the realm of Viṣṇu.

In the morning he should perform a śrāddha, having carefully worshipped the twice-born. / He should give a gift according to his capacity: a cow, gold, garments, and the like.

His ancestors are satisfied until the dissolution of all beings, / and the giver of the śrāddha goes there where Lord Janārdana is.

Then, on the thirteenth day, he should go to the liṅga residing in the cave. / Having seen Mārkaṇḍeśa, he is freed from all sins.

Uttānapāda said:
O Mahādeva, inside the cave is a most radiant liṅga.
O god, you ought to tell me by whom it was installed.

Īśvara said:
Renowned in the three worlds is the lord of sages, Mārkaṇḍeya.
For a divine thousand years he practiced very severe austerity.

Having entered inside the cave and resorted to the practice of yoga,
a liṅga named Mārkaṇḍeśvara was established by him.

Having bathed there with devotion, fasting, with senses conquered,
keeping a night vigil there, one should diligently offer a lamp.

One should perform the ceremonial bath of the god with the five amṛtas;
anointing it according to one's ability, one should perform worship according to rule.

Twice-born ones should perform recitation with mantras originating in their own Vedic branch,
either eight thousand or one hundred and eight times the Sāvitrī.

Having done this, O best of kings, one obtains the fruit of one's birth.
Indeed, having bathed on the fourteenth day and performed worship according to rule,

one who desires his own welfare should give gifts after examining the recipient.
His ancestors are satisfied for twelve years, without doubt.

That donor goes to that place where eternal enjoyments are.
Having entered inside the cave, one should roll [on the ground] according to one's ability.

They obtain all that merit which is gained on the Blue Mountain.
He who performs a śrāddha at Śūlabheda on every auspicious festival day,

especially at the end of the month of Caitra—hear the meritorious fruit of that:
Whatever merit is gained at Kedāra and at the confluence of the Gaṅgā and the ocean,

and whatever merit is at the Sitāsita [confluence of Gaṅgā and Yamunā], especially at other sacred fords,
what merit is found at Arbuda, and the merit at the Mountain of the Immortals,

a person obtains the fruit of all sacred fords, such as Gayā.
Endowed with the prescribed mantras, he should offer libations to the ancestral gods.

He delivers twenty [generations] of his families—ten preceding and ten succeeding.
Then, becoming pure and concentrated, facing the southern icon,

having performed the previously mentioned nyāsa, he should offer the eight-flower offering.
Hear how it is done, with the eight mental flowers declared in the scriptures:

The water-born, the gentle, the fiery, the airy, and again the earthy;
the arboreal is the sixth, and the Prajāpati-related is the seventh;

the flower of Śiva is the eighth. Hear the precise determination of these:
The water-born is known to be water; the gentle is honey, ghee, and milk;

the fiery consists of incense, lamps, and the like; the airy is sandalwood paste and the like;
the earthy consists of bulbs, roots, and the like; the arboreal consists of fruit;

the Prajāpati-related consists of recitation and the like; and the flower of Śiva is residual impression.
Non-violence is the first flower; the restraint of the senses is a flower;

compassion is the third flower, and forbearance is the fourth flower;
meditation is a flower, austerity is a flower, and knowledge is the seventh flower;

and truth is the eighth flower: the deities are pleased by these.
Ascetics and men of knowledge should be worshipped with devotion, O king.

One should give an umbrella, an outer garment, and a pair of sandals;
by merely worshipping him, the three Puruṣas are worshipped.

He shall dwell in the heavenly world until the dissolution of all beings.
Those men who with devotion perform the recitation of the Trident-bearer,

and anoint the Lord of Gods with the five nectars, the five cow products,
yakṣakardama paste, saffron, white sandalwood, and aloe,

and who worship the Trident-bearer with various kinds of flowers,
should keep a vigil at night and diligently make an offering of lamps.

One should offer incense and food offerings, and read a Purāṇic narrative.
Those men who, remaining in that place, perform recitation with devotion—

the Śrīsūkta, the Pauruṣasūkta, the Pāvamāna, the Vṛṣākapi,
and the Raudrī or the Bahurūpiṇī with mantras taught in the Vedas—

should worship brahmins with devotion; having worshipped and bowed down to them,
he is magnified in the world of Śiva with various great enjoyments.

He who, being a knower of the Ṛgveda, recites texts to be recited such as "Agni...",
the Rudras, the Puruṣasūkta, the Ślokādhyāya, and the Śukriya,

or, if he is a knower of the Yajurveda, recites with devotion these texts to be recited:
the collection of mantras beginning with "Iṣe tvā...", the Jyotirbrāhmaṇa,
the Gāyatra, the Madhu, and the Maṇḍalabrāhmaṇas,

or the Devavrata, the Vāmadevya, the Puruṣarṣabha,

and the Bṛhat and the Rathāntara, being intent on devotion—
that man goes to the place where God Maheśvara resides.

He who here performs the washing of feet and the application of unguents with devotion
obtains the merit of gifting a cow; there is no doubt about this.

One should feed brahmins there with honey and milk rice.
When one brahmin is fed, ten million are fed.

One should give gold, silver, and cloth with devotion to an excellent twice-born;
by that, gods, humans, and ancestors are satisfied.

Those men who take a bath with devotion during an eclipse of the moon or the sun,
and who perform the worship of the deity, especially recitation and fire offerings,
should give gifts according to their ability to a brahmin who has mastered the Vedas:

a horse, a chariot, an elephant, a vehicle, or the gift of a man-weighed balance,
or a cart filled with seven kinds of grains.

One should give a plough with yoke-ropes and two young draught-bulls.
Cows, land, sesame seeds, gold, and other gifts should be given with reverence to a worthy recipient.

Nothing should be given to an unworthy recipient by a wise person desiring prosperity.
Because the earth indeed sustains all beings,

it should be given to a brahmin, garlanded with masses of all crops.
Now hear another matter, O lord of kings: the fruit of gifting a cow.

As long as the calf's two feet and face are visible in the birth canal,
for that long the cow is considered the earth, until she releases the embryo.

By whatever means possible, one should offer her to a brahmin;
by him the earth, with its mountains and forests, has been given.

Given [in this state], it surely delivers twenty-one generations: / [a cow] with silver hooves, a bronze milking pail, adorned with cloth, and rich in milk.

Those fortunate ones who bestow [her] when the sun or the moon is seized [by eclipse]— / even in hundreds of years, I do not know the measure of their merit.

For in this world there is a count for every gift, O lord of men; / but during an eclipse of the moon or the sun, the gift cannot be counted.

Where a cow is seen, O king, there indeed are all the sacred fords; / there one should recognize an auspicious occasion; no doubt should be entertained here.

Moreover, a man who, remembering that sacred ford, goes there, / or who dies there, becomes an attendant of Rudra.

Thus ends the fifty-first chapter, entitled “Praise of the Duty of Giving at Śūlabheda,” in the Revākhaṇḍa of the fifth Avantī section in the glorious Skanda Purāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand verses.