Skandapurana 6.3.84

Chapter 84

Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya said: / In this very context they cite this ancient history, / spoken by Śiva to the six-faced [Skanda] who asked with devotion on Kailāsa.

Īśvara said: / Formerly, in the Tretā age, O Skanda, Rāvaṇa was slain by Rāma; / fourteen crores of brahmarākṣasas were slaughtered then.

When they were slain there for the protection of the celestials, / great joy arose in the three worlds at that time, my dear child.

Then, having obtained Sītā together with the eminent monkeys, / Rāma, too, came to Ayodhyā, celebrated with festivities by Bharata; / that elder brother of Lakṣmaṇa handed over the kingdom to him.

While he was ruling the kingdom from which thorns had been eliminated, / Hanumān, having accomplished his task, went in ancient times to Kailāsa.

Then Nandī, the gatekeeper, did not permit that monkey, / even though an incarnation of Rudra, to meet with Rudra, the remover of multitudes of sins.

Asked by him then, Nandī [was questioned]: "What sin have I committed, / because of which I do not behold the holy form of Rudra accompanied by Ambikā?"

Nandī said: / "You took incarnation for the sake of the immortal gods, O lord of monkeys; / even so, the sin that was committed is extinguished only through experiencing [its fruit]."

Hanumān said: / "What sin was committed by me, O Nandī, acting for the sake of the gods? / Wicked rākṣasas were slain, who disrupted the sacrifices and the bodies of brahmins."

Then, curious about that conversation, Hara, directing his gaze through the doorway, / spoke again to that monkey of fierce splendor who was a share of himself, seeing the lord of monkeys standing before him.

Īśvara said: / "The Gaṅgā, Gayā, O monkey, the Revā, the Yamunā, and the Sarasvatī— / these rivers remove all sins; perform ritual ablution in them.

On the southern bank of the Narmadā is a most beautiful sacred ford / situated near Somanātha; go there, O monkey.

Having bathed there, your great sin will depart by my command." / Leaping with speed to the southern bank of the glorious Revā,

he went, uttering a tremendous roar, and performed very arduous austerity. / As he was performing austerity, the darkness caused by the killing of the rākṣasas

dissolved in time, O son of Pṛthā, to some extent by the grace of the Lord. / Then the god Hara, along with the gods, went to that sacred ford.

He embraced the monkey and granted him a boon: / "From this day forward, this sacred ford shall be yours; there is no doubt.

Thereupon Kapitīrtha came to be, and Hara himself remained there / by the name Hanūmanteśvara, removing all slaughter at that time.

Whoever, having bathed in that sacred ford, worships the liṅga with devotion, / all his sins are destroyed, according to the word of Hara.

There bones dissolve, and in the offering of funeral balls there is an imperishable destination. / Whatever little is given there becomes multiplied ten-millionfold.

Hanumān also went to Ayodhyā to see Rāma; / he inquired after his welfare and revealed his true nature.

Glorious Rāma said: / "While you were doing the work of the gods and doing my work, / [it was on my account]; therefore I too, being sinful, will perform austerity without doubt."

Right there on the southern bank of the Revā, which removes sin, / the descendant of Raghu then performed austerity for twenty-four years,

residing in the city of Jyotiṣmatī and performing ritual ablution in the glorious Revā. / Lakṣmaṇa too attended upon him by his command.

Then both of them, Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa, installed liṅgas. / By the power of their true austerity on the bank of the Revā, those two wise heroes, / Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa, then attained sinlessness.

Then Hara, leading the gods, went indeed along with the holy lords of sages; / having arrived at the sacred ford, he then granted a boon, leaving his own portion there in that sacred ford.

Water from pitchers containing all the sacred fords was poured on the earth by the sages; / gathered in one place, the name of the liṅga then became Kalākumbha.

Known as Kumbheśvara, he was worshipped at that time by the hosts of gods. / Rāma too worshipped that liṅga attended by the gods.

Then the god granted a boon for the increase of Rāma's renown. / In the twenty-fourth year, Rāma attained sinlessness.

When the lame planet [Saturn] enters Virgo together with Jupiter, / exactly then is this pilgrimage to the gods; thus the gods proclaimed with joy.

Just as the fruit of all sacred fords is obtained at the sacred ford of the Godāvarī, / so it is here for men through ritual ablution in the Revā and darśana of the liṅgas.

Those who perform a śrāddha here for the ancestors on the bank of the Narmadā, / remaining near Kumbheśvara—hear the fruit of that, O six-faced one:

As many pores of the skin as there are on the body of all embodied beings, / for a measure of years equal to that, there is an imperishable destination for the ancestors.

Whatever deities and whatever sacred fords there are on the earth, / mortals obtain the fruit of them all from seeing the three liṅgas.

One without a son obtains a son; one without wealth obtains wealth; / a sick person is freed from disease; no doubt should be entertained here.

Whatever fruit is attained at the Godāvarī when Jupiter enters the sign of Leo, / twelve times that is attained near Kumbheśvara, O Skanda.

Those who, knowing, do not behold Kumbha-Śambhu, the husband of Umā, / on the southern bank of the Narmadā—their birth is useless.

Just as a pilgrimage to the Godāvarī is to be made by ordinance of the sages / in the twenty-fourth year, so is this [pilgrimage] declared by the gods.

As long as the moon and the sun, and as long indeed as the stars are in the sky, / so long does a gift given near Kumbheśvara on the Revā remain imperishable.

Great gifts are to be given there by discerning people of the world; / they praise the gift of cows here, and likewise of gold and silver.

She by whose mere remembrance a multitude of sins is destroyed— / how much more by ritual ablution, O Skanda? It removes even the murder of a brahmin.

Whoever bathes in that sacred ford and performs a śrāddha, O Yudhiṣṭhira, / delivers one hundred and one generations by the command of Śiva.

Whatever sacred fords and lakes extending to the ocean there are, / they are not worth a sixteenth part of the worship of a liṅga of Śiva here.

Thus the gods, led by the lord Hara, having granted the boon, / went previously to their own abode, having pronounced that excellent name.

Having granted a boon to this sacred ford, that Rāma, the elder brother of Lakṣmaṇa, / entered Ayodhyā, made sinless by the water of the Narmadā.

And then, having made a golden Sītā, he performed the sacrifice, / having consulted the sages, the people, the deities, and his own family.

Long ago, in the Tretā age, that sacred ford named Skanda came into being; / therefore, darśana of the liṅga should be performed with regular observance by people.

So long do sins remain in bodies, even those arising from heinous offences, / as long as a living being does not behold that sacred ford frequented by the gods.

They are blessed, they are great souls, their birth is well-lived, / who behold the supreme Hara residing in the city of Jyotiṣmatī.

Therefore, abandoning delusion, people should go with reverence / to the sacred ford named Kumbheśvara, in order to attain the complete fruit of all sacred fords.

Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Having heard these words of Śambhu, the six-faced one bowed with reverence to his father's pair of lotus feet; / reaching the southern bank of the river of the mountain-lord, he beheld the Śivas known as the foremost of monkeys, Rāma, and Kalaśa.

Thus ends the eighty-fourth chapter, named Description of the Māhātmya of Kapitīrtha, Rāmeśvara, Lakṣmaṇeśvara, and Kumbheśvara, in the Revākhaṇḍa of the fifth section, the Āvantyakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.