Skandapurana 14.19

English (machine translation) 14.19

Language: English

14.19.1

Pulastya said: / Then one should go, O best of kings, to the sacred ford that destroys sin, / dear to Hari in his Boar incarnation, which ever grants the happiness of dwelling [near him].

14.19.2

In his Boar incarnation, the Earth was lifted up there / and told by Hari: 'Remain firm; you must never fear.

14.19.3

And I will go from here back to Vaikuṇṭha, O auspicious one. / Choose a boon, O blessed lady, whatever you desire, even if very hard to attain.'

14.19.4

The Earth said: / 'If a boon is to be given to me, O wielder of the conch, discus, and mace, / then remain forever in this sacred ford with this very form, O Hari.'

14.19.5

Hari said: / 'With this form, O goddess, on the mountain named Arbuda, / I shall remain at your word, constantly delighting in the welfare of the world.

14.19.6

Before me is a holy pool filled with very clear water; / in the month of Māgha, in the bright fortnight, composed on the eleventh day,

14.19.7

having bathed there with devotion, a person is freed from the sin of killing a brahmin. / Men who are endowed with faith will perform ancestral rites there;

14.19.8

satisfaction arises for their ancestors until the dissolution of all beings. / Therefore, with every effort one should perform ritual ablution there.'

14.19.9

Pulastya said: / Having spoken thus, O king, Govinda, who has Garuḍa on his banner, vanished. / On that day, O best of kings, having bathed, one should observe a vow.

14.19.10

Whoever, intent on devotion, performs the water offering and the offering of rice-balls, / goes to the world of Viṣṇu along with his ancestors, O king.

14.19.11

They praise giving gifts there after approaching the best of brahmins; / whoever performs the gift of a cow in this sacred ford, O best of kings,

14.19.12

that human dwells in heaven for as many years as the number of hairs [on the cow]. / Therefore, with all one's being, O king, one should perform the gift of a cow.

14.19.13

On the eleventh day, especially, an excellent ritual ablution must be performed; / one should give a gift according to one's ability, and one attains the supreme state.

Thus ends the nineteenth chapter, titled 'The Description of the Māhātmya of Vārāhatīrtha,' in the Arbuda Section of the third Prabhāsakhaṇḍa, in the seventh part of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand verses.

Linked texts (1)

Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit