Skandapurana 14.15

English (machine translation) 14.15

Language: English

14.15.1

Pulastya said: / Then one should go to Śukreśvara, formerly established by Śukra, / seeing which a human being is instantly freed from all sins.

14.15.2

Having seen the Daityas vanquished by the gods of old, O best of kings, / the intelligent Bhārgava, a twice-born, reflected with regard to them:

14.15.3

'How will the Daityas, having conquered the gods, attain great fame? / Having propitiated Śaṃkara, I shall go to the perfection desired in my heart.'

14.15.4

Having thus made his resolve, he then went to the Arbuda mountain. / Entering a cleft in the earth, he performed very severe austerity.

14.15.5

Having consecrated a Śivaliṅga, with incenses, perfumes, and unguents / he worshipped it day and night, endowed with supreme faith.

14.15.6

Then, at the end of a thousand years, the blessed Śiva was pleased. / Granting him his darśana, he spoke these words:

14.15.7

The glorious Mahādeva said: / 'I am well pleased with your devotion, O twice-born, O best of the twice-born. / Choose a boon—blessing unto you—even if it should be very difficult to obtain.'

14.15.8

Śukra said: / 'If you are pleased, O Mahādeva, grant [me] the lore, O Maheśvara, / by which living beings who have met death even in battle revive.'

14.15.9

Pulastya said: / Having granted him that lore, O best of kings, / Śiva spoke again to Śukra: 'Choose another boon from me.'

14.15.10

Śukra said: / 'Whoever touches this [liṅga] on the eighth day of the light half of the month of Kārttika, / and whichever man, endowed with faith, then worships the liṅga—

14.15.11

by your grace, let there be no fear of premature death for him, / [and] let him obtain his desired wishes in this world and the next.'

14.15.12

Pulastya said: / Having said, "So be it," he vanished right there. / And Śukra too, [when] the Dānavas were slain in battle many times by the gods,

14.15.13

revived them by the power of that lore, the sage. / In front of it there is a great pool, stainless and destroying sins.

14.15.14

A man who has bathed there is completely freed from sins. / Through a śrāddha there, O king of kings, the ancestors depart satisfied,

14.15.15

satiated with mere water, so how much more from the offering of rice-balls! / Therefore, with all effort, one should perform ritual ablution there.

Thus ends the fifteenth chapter, named 'The Description of the Māhātmya of Śukreśvara,' in the third [section], the Arbudakhaṇḍa, of the seventh [part], the Prabhāsakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand [verses].

Linked texts (1)

Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit