Skandapurana 7.8.34_198

7.8.34_198

56 dadāni - ka kha . 57 cotthāya - kha . 58 varamaprārthayad - ka. kha. . 59 cirayā(mā?) . - kha. . 60 putraṃ - ka kha. . 61 putraśatāgraja - ka,.. jaḥ - kha. . 62 andha - ka. . 63 dayaṃ - kha. . 64 ca - kha. . 65 svakīyaṃ puna (ra) - kha., svayamantaḥpuraṃ - (?) . 66 yaśasvinīm - ka. . 67 prasnutaṃ - ka kha. . 68 saṃvarddhamānaḥ - kha. . 69 yathā - va . 70 ...studaiva - ka. kha. .
435
dhig jīvitaṃ mamāndhasya mṛtyureva varo mama .
yohamandho na paśyāmi gṛha71 saṃbandhibāndhavān . .99..
dhanyāste puruṣā loke ye svayaṃ yāntyaviklavāḥ .
dṛṣṭvā dṛṣṭavā mukhaṃ bandhūnābhāṣya hi72 yathāsukham ..8.73.1 00 . .
kāryaṃ bhavecca loṣṭena tṛṇenātha śavena73 vā .
na mayānugṛhītena dhiṅmāmaśubhakāriṇam . .1 01 . .
sutasnehādayaṃ daityaḥ sadā māṃ rakṣate pitā .
hantavyaṃ na vihantyeṣa koṣakṣayakaraṃ hi mām ..1 02 ..
nāyaṃ snehena saṃmūḍho jānātīmāṃ mama vyathām .
ahameva kariṣyāmi yatkāryaṃ buddhimattamaiḥ74 .. 103 . .
tapo mahatsamāsthāya cakṣuṣmān bhavitā hyaham .
sa evaṃ pariniścintya75 bahudhāndhaḥ subuddhimān ..1 04..
āmantrya sahitaṃ76 mātrā pitaraṃ taṃ praṇamya ca .
jagāma tapase77 dhīmān saṃkalpya kṛtaniścayaḥ . . 1 05..
pitrā śokapariplutekṣaṇamukhenāyāsakhinnātmanā
mātrā cāsakṛdaśrupātamukhayā saṃvīkṣyamāṇaściram .
tattīvrādhṛtikhedadṛṣṭiviraha78 prakṣveḍitondhaḥ śvasan79
dhyāyandevamumāpatiṃ sa80 tapase yāto gṛhādandhakaḥ .. 106 ..
iti skandapurāṇe andhakopākhyāne tapaḥprayāṇaṃ81 nāma trisaptatitamo82dhyāyaḥ

[Apparatus and page number] / “Fie on my life as a blind man! Death alone is better for me, / who, blind, cannot see my home, relations, and kinsmen!
Blessed are those men in the world who walk about by themselves, unperturbed, / having seen face to face their relatives, and conversing with them happily!
There may be use for a clod of earth, for grass, or even for a corpse, / but not for me, though favored! Fie on me, a doer of unpropitious deeds!
Out of love for his son, this father, the daitya, always protects me. / Though I am fit to be killed, depleting his treasury, he does not kill me.
Deluded by affection, he does not know this agony of mine. / I shall myself do what is to be done by the wisest!
Undertaking great austerity, I shall surely become possessed of sight!” / Having thus resolved in many ways, the very wise blind man,
having taken leave of his father together with his mother and bowed to him, / resolute and determined, the wise one departed for austerity.
While being watched for a long time by his father, whose eyes and face were flooded with grief and whose soul was pained with sorrow, / and by his mother, whose face streamed with repeated tears, / crying out in distress at that acute absence from their sight full of anguish and grief, sighing, / meditating upon the god, the lord of Umā, Andhaka went forth from his home to perform austerity.
Thus ends the seventy-third chapter, entitled ‘Departure for Austerity,’ in the story of Andhaka in the Skandapurāṇa.