[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Purāṇas](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana) › [Skandapurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda) › [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt) › 10 # Skandapurana 10 English (machine translation) 10 - **Language:** English ### [10.p1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.p1) Chapter 159 ### [10.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.1) The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Then, O great king, one should go to the supremely purifying sacred ford, / exceedingly hard to reach on the Narmadā, the perfected Anarakeśvara. ### [10.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.2) A person who bathes at that sacred ford, even if doer of sinful deeds, O descendant of Bharata, / does not behold the terrifying \[portal\] known as the gate of hell. ### [10.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.3) Yudhiṣṭhira said: / Dear father, having experienced their fruits in hell through auspicious and inauspicious deeds, / men are born here with certain bodily marks; tell me of those, O best of good men. ### [10.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.4) Just as the individual soul departs leaving the body and cannot see, / so returning again to a body equipped with the five elements, ### [10.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.5) together with hundreds of layers of skin, bone, flesh, fat, blood, hair, and sinews, / in an aggregate of feces, urine, and semen—what consciousness arises in men? ### [10.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.6) Thus addressed, Mārkaṇḍeya, knower of yoga, / having meditated upon the eternal, the all-pervading god of gods, Maheśvara, spoke: ### [10.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.7) Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Hear, O Pārtha, this profound question; I shall tell you as I heard it / of old in the presence of Brahmā, at the gathering of seers and gods. ### [10.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.8) The guru is the punisher of those who have self-control; the king is the punisher of the wicked; / but the punisher of those with secret sins in this world is Yama, the son of Vivasvat. ### [10.9](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.9) For those who have not performed atonement, in the world of Yama, indeed in various ways, / after enduring tortures through numerous lineages of living forms, ### [10.10](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.10) and then coming to the human condition, they bear the marks of sin. / I shall explain that to you; listen with a single mind, O king. ### [10.11](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.11) Having endured every torture after arriving at the abode of the son of Vivasvat, / those whose tortures were extensive come to this world marked \[by signs\]. ### [10.12](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.12) One who lies becomes a stammerer, and one who lies about cows becomes mute; / a killer of a brahmin is born a leper, and a drinker of alcohol has dark teeth. ### [10.13](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.13) A stealer of gold has diseased nails; a violator of the guru's bed has bad skin; / a partner of a low-born woman is born into a low womb, and one who does not give gifts becomes poor. ### [10.14](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.14) One who performs sacrifices for those unfit to sacrifice becomes a village pig, O king; / one who sacrifices excessively becomes an ass; from eating when uninvited, one becomes a dog. ### [10.15](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.15) One who eats unexamined food becomes a monkey in a lonely forest; / an abuser becomes a cat; one who sets fire to a thicket becomes a firefly. ### [10.16](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.16) He who teaches false knowledge becomes an ox; / giving stale food to a brahmin, one would become a eunuch. ### [10.17](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.17) From malice one becomes blind from birth; one is born blind by stealing a book; / the child of one who steals fruits dies—there is no doubt about this. ### [10.18](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.18) When dead, he becomes a monkey; freed from that, he has a goiter; / eating them without sharing, a person becomes childless. ### [10.19](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.19) Stealing clothes, one becomes an iguana; a poisoner becomes an eater of wind \[a serpent\]; / from having intercourse with a female ascetic, O king, one becomes a wilderness goblin. ### [10.20](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.20) A stealer of water becomes afflicted by wind, and a stealer of grain becomes a mouse; / approaching a girl who has not reached puberty, one becomes a serpent, so says the tradition. ### [10.21](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.21) One who covets the guru's wife becomes a chameleon for a long time; / and a man who damages a water spring becomes a fish. ### [10.22](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.22) Selling things that must not be sold, a man becomes cross-eyed; / one who engages in unnatural intercourse becomes a wolf; an owl from cheating in buying. ### [10.23](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.23) Eating on the eleventh day after a person's death, one is born as a dog; / having promised wealth to a brahmin and not giving it, one becomes a bee. ### [10.24](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.24) From approaching a queen, a wicked thief becomes a dung-eating pig; / a defamer of twice-born people receives the body of a tortoise. ### [10.25](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.25) A temple attendant for hire goes to the womb known as a cāṇḍāla, O king; / a seller of fruit becomes ill-favoured; the husband of a śūdra woman becomes a scorpion. ### [10.26](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.26) Touching fire with one's foot, one becomes a cat; an eater of another's flesh becomes diseased; / from approaching one's uterine sister, one becomes impotent; and stealing fragrant perfume, foul-smelling. ### [10.27](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.27) A village priest becomes an outcaste; an astrologer becomes a donkey; / a false scholar becomes a cat, and a slanderer becomes a dog. ### [10.28](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.28) That very \[fate\] is seen, O king, from revealing another's secrets; / whether it be this or that belonging to another, whether slight or great, ### [10.29](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.29) having taken it, he indeed attains an animal womb; there is no doubt about this. / These and other signs, O best of kings, ### [10.30](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.30) are seen \[as\] ordained by their own deeds, through which men are known. / Then birth, then death among all creatures, O descendant of Bharata, ### [10.31](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.31) is born, there is no doubt, when good and evil have become equal, / through the union of woman and man, when the semen and ovum are purified. ### [10.32](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.32) Endowed with the five elements, the supreme lord is the sixth. / The sense faculties, the mind, the vital breaths, knowledge, lifespan, pleasure, steadfastness, ### [10.33](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.33) retention, prompting, pain, desire, and also egoity, / effort, bodily form, complexion, voice and aversion, existence and non-existence— ### [10.34](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.34) all this belongs to this soul that, though beginningless, wishes for a beginning. / In the first month, it becomes a moist mass, blended with the bodily constituents. ### [10.35](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.35) In the second month it is a rounded mass, and in the third it is endowed with senses: / from space comes lightness, subtleness, sound, hearing, strength, and so forth; / from wind comes touch, motion, burning, and dryness; ### [10.36](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.36) from bile comes vision, digestion, heat, form, and illumination; / from water comes taste, coldness, oiliness, moisture, and softness; ### [10.37](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.37) from earth comes smell, the sense of smell, heaviness, and solid form. / The birthless soul assumes \[these\] first, and in the third \[month\] it stirs. ### [10.38](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.38) By not granting the pregnancy longings, the fetus may incur a defect, / deformity, or even death; therefore, what is pleasing to the woman must be done. ### [10.39](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.39) In the fourth month comes firmness of the limbs, in the fifth the production of blood, / in the sixth strength and color, and the appearance of nails and hair. ### [10.40](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.40) Endowed with consciousness through the mind, covered with hundreds of nails and hairs, / in the seventh and eighth \[months\] it possesses skin and also memory. ### [10.41](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.41) Its vital essence runs back and forth between the fetus and the mother; / hence a fetus born in the eighth month is deprived of life. ### [10.42](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.42) In the ninth or tenth \[month\], driven by powerful winds of delivery, / it emerges like an arrow through the opening of a machine, overcome with distress. ### [10.43](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.43) Endowed with the bodily parts and equipped with major and minor limbs, / there are one hundred and eight vital points, and three hundred bones, ### [10.44](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.44) seven cranial bones arranged by the self-manifest \[Brahmā\], / and three and a half crores of hairs upon the limbs, O Bhārata. ### [10.45](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.45) Seventy-two thousand \[channels\] branch out from the heart; / these channels are indeed called hitā, and among them is the moon-bright one. ### [10.46](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.46) Thus turns the wheel of fourfold classes of living beings; / birth and destruction occur for all embodied souls. ### [10.47](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.47) An upward course comes through dharma, but a downward course through adharma; / it occurs for all classes, O king, from deviating from one's own duty. ### [10.48](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.48) In divinity and in humanity, acts such as charity and enjoyment / that are seen, O great king, are all fruits born of action. ### [10.49](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.49) In the dreadful state caused by one's own karma, acquired through lust and anger \[or\] auspicious, / one may sink into a dreadful hell from which there is no crossing over. ### [10.50](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.50) For the salvation of living beings, situated on the bank of the Narmadā / is this great tīrtha, the supreme Narakeśvara, ### [10.51](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.51) destroyer of hell, immensely meritorious, destroying great sins; / that tīrtha is the best of all tīrthas, hard to attain on earth. ### [10.52](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.52) Having bathed in that tīrtha, whoever worships Maheśvara, / even if possessed of great sins, never sees hell. ### [10.53](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.53) Whoever gives an auspicious Vaitaraṇī cow at that tīrtha, / is freed with ease from Vaitaraṇī; there is no doubt. ### [10.54](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.54) Yudhiṣṭhira said: / That river Vaitaraṇī which is at the terrifying gateway of Yama, / what is its form, what is its extent, and how does it flow, O twice-born one? ### [10.55](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.55) How are people freed from it, who dwells in it perpetually, / and to whom is it favorable? Tell this in detail. ### [10.56](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.56) Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya said: / O son of Dharma, O mighty-armed one, hear everything spoken by me / concerning that great river named Vaitaraṇī at the gateway of Yama. ### [10.57](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.57) It is bottomless, boundless, and terrifying just to behold. / Its waters are pus and blood, and it is made of mire of flesh. ### [10.58](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.58) Its water swirls rapidly, like ghee in a frying pan; / it is full of pus and teeming with worms having adamantine beaks and iron mouths, ### [10.59](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.59) and with dolphins and crocodiles equipped with adamantine shears, / and with other water creatures that are intensely violent and pierce the vital points. ### [10.60](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.60) Twelve suns blaze fiercely as if at the end of a cosmic dissolution. / Mortals fall in there, weeping intensely and dreadfully, ### [10.61](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.61) lamenting again and again, ‘O brother! O son! O mother!’ / Who can protect the one falling into the terrifying Asipattravana? ### [10.62](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.62) Creatures swim, sink, and become exhausted. / That great river must be faced by the four types of living beings. ### [10.63](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.63) They cross over it through noble gifts; otherwise they fall. / Those who do not respect their mother, teacher, and guru, ### [10.64](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.64) the fools who despise them—theirs is a perpetual dwelling \[there\]. / A devoted wife of virtuous conduct, legally married and steadfast in duties— ### [10.65](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.65) those wicked men who abandon \[her\] dwell \[there\] perpetually. / Of those who have placed their trust—masters, friends, ascetics, ### [10.66](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.66) women, children, the elderly, and the helpless—those who seek their vulnerabilities, / those great sinners are boiled in the middle of it, crying out. ### [10.67](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.67) The evil-minded one who obstructs an exhausted, hungry brahmin / is eaten there by worms for three hundred kalpas. ### [10.68](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.68) He who promises a gift to a brahmin and does not give it, / or summons him and says ‘There is nothing,’ dwells there perpetually. ### [10.69](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.69) An arsonist, a poisoner, an informer to the king, a slanderer, / an interrupter of sacred discourse, a false witness, and a drinker of liquor, ### [10.70](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.70) a destroyer of thunderbolts, a taker of what was given by oneself, / a destroyer of dikes in good fields, and a violator of another's wife, ### [10.71](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.71) a brahmin who sells liquids, a husband of a Śūdra woman, / and he who breaks the water embankment of thirsty cattle, ### [10.72](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.72) a corrupter of maidens, one who regrets having given a gift, / a Śūdra who drinks milk from a tawny cow, a brahmin who eats meat— ### [10.73](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.73) these dwell \[there\] continually; do not doubt it, O king. / Hear that by which it may become favorable, O ruler of men. ### [10.74](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.74) At a solstice, at an equinox, at a vyatīpāta, on the day of a new moon, and at other sacred times, this supreme gift is given. ### [10.75](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.75) One should make an auspicious Vaitaraṇī cow, either black or reddish-brown, with golden horns, silver hooves, and milkable into a bronze vessel, ### [10.76](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.76) covered with a pair of black garments, accompanied by the seven grains, seated upon a copper vessel topped with a droṇa \[of grain\]. ### [10.77](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.77) One should make a golden Yama equipped with an iron rod, and having constructed a raft made of sugarcanes bound with silken cords, ### [10.78](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.78) the wise man should place that cow, born from the body of the sun, upon the raft, equipped with an umbrella and a pair of sandals. ### [10.79](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.79) He should present a finger-ring and garments to a brahmin, and, taking hold of the cow's tail, he should recite this mantra: ### [10.80](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.80) “Oṃ. The river that is the Vaitaraṇī at the terrible door of Yama— desiring to cross it, I give this \[cow\]; homage to you, O Vaitaraṇī!” Such is the mantra of preliminary consecration. ### [10.81](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.81) “May cows be in front of me; may cows be behind me; may cows be in my heart; I dwell in the midst of cows.” ### [10.82](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.82) “Oṃ. You who are a form of Viṣṇu, best of the twice-born, earthly god, sanctifier of the row, this \[cow\] is given by me with a sacrificial fee; homage to you, O Vaitaraṇī!” Such is the gift mantra. ### [10.83](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.83) Having circumambulated the brahmin, Dharmarāja, and the auspicious Vaitaraṇī cow, he should present everything to the brahmin. ### [10.84](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.84) Taking hold of the cow’s tail, having placed the twice-born in front, then: ### [10.85](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.85) “O cow, wait for me at the gateway of Yama, which brings great fear! I wish to cross over, O cow; homage be to you, Vaitaraṇī!” Such is the mantra for following after. ### [10.86](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.86) He should follow him as he departs, and bring everything to his house. When this is done, O protector of the earth, the river flows pleasantly. ### [10.87](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.87) By means of that cow, that river which flows with water carries him across. He obtains all desires, both divine and human. ### [10.88](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.88) A sick man would be freed from illness; the greatest misfortunes are pacified. When healthy, \[the gift's fruit\] is multiplied a thousandfold; when sick, it is reckoned a hundredfold. ### [10.89](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.89) The gift given on behalf of a deceased person in their absence is remembered as equal \[to ordinary fruit\]. Therefore, one should give with one's own hand: when one is dead, who will give to whom? Considering this, O great king, what is given by oneself bears great fruit. ### [10.90](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.90) Thus has the gift pertaining to the Vaitaraṇī been spoken to you, O son of Dharma. Whoever hears or recites this properly with devotion goes to the unmeasurable abode of Viṣṇu. ### [10.91](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.91) The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said: When the month of Āśvayuja arrives, on the fourteenth day of the dark fortnight, having bathed, performed the ancestral offering, and worshipped the great lord, ### [10.92](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.92) gifts are given to the ancestors by those endowed with devotion and faith. Afterwards, one should keep a vigil by listening to virtuous stories and the like. ### [10.93](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.93) Then, at dawn, having bathed in the waters of the Narmadā and duly made water-offerings to the ancestors, preceded by the gods, ### [10.94](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.94) one should give to a twice-born a lamp filled with ghee in a golden vessel. Afterwards, free from envy, he should feed the brahmins and himself. ### [10.95](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.95) When this is done, O best of men, a living being does not go to hell. A state of hell must inevitably be seen by mortals, ### [10.96](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.96) yet performing \[it\] by this rite, a man does not see the hells. For men who die at that sacred ford according to the rule, O king, ### [10.97](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.97) their residence in the rarely attainable world of Śiva lasts for a manvantara. In an aerial chariot bright as the sun, adorned with hundreds of small bells, ### [10.98](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.98) he travels, O fortunate one, served by hosts of apsarases; he enjoys various pleasures for the stated time, without doubt. ### [10.99](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.99) And when that time is complete, having attained human birth here, freed from all illnesses, he lives for a hundred autumns. ### [10.100](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.100) Reaching the fourteenth day in the dark fortnight of the month of Āśvayuja, having fasted for a day and night and worshipped the great lord, even if guilty of a great sin, he is freed—there is no doubt about this. ### [10.101](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.101) There are indeed twenty-eight crores of hells, O Yudhiṣṭhira; freed from the sufferings of hell, they go to the world of Śiva. ### [10.102](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.102) Having enjoyed great pleasures there, endowed with divine sovereignty, those mortals attain human birth on earth, which is difficult to attain. ### [10.102\_2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10.102_2) Thus ends the one hundred fifty-ninth chapter, entitled "The Description of the Māhātmya of the Anarakeśvara Sacred Ford," in the Revākhaṇḍa of the fifth Avantī section of the Skandamahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses. ## Linked texts (1) - [Skandapurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda.10.p1) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.skanda~en-mt.10) · Pramāṇa