Skandapurana 14.37

English (machine translation) 14.37

Language: English

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Pulastya said: / Then one should go to the pool of the Nāgas, a sacred ford that destroys sins, / where the Nāgas performed austerity on the pleasant mountain slope.

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Formerly, having heard Kadrū’s curse, all the Nāgas, afflicted with fear, / asked Śeṣa, the king of the Nāgas, with their necks bowed:

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“Tormented by our mother’s curse, O best of serpents, / what shall we do and where shall we go? How might release from the curse come about?”

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Śeṣa said: / “Formerly our mother was propitiated by me for the sake of release from the curse. / By her it was said: ‘Those who are endowed with austerity, righteous, and well-restrained,

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fire will not burn them at the sacrifice of the son of Parīkṣit.’ / Therefore, having gone to the mountain named Arbuda on the earth's surface,

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there become endowed with austerity and well-concentrated, / where that goddess Caṇḍikā, who assumes forms at will, herself resides.

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Even by the praising of her, misfortunes certainly perish. / Worship that goddess constantly according to my word.

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By her grace you will all be free from feverish anguish. / This alone is the means that I see here, O best of Nāgas; / divine or human, there is no other cause of liberation for you.”

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Pulastya said: / Having been addressed thus by the king of the Nāgas, O king, / they bowed to him and then departed toward Mount Arbuda.

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Cleaving the surface of the earth on the mountain immediately thereafter, / they went through a cavernous route, having made a wide opening in the chasm.

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Then, having undertaken vows, all devoted to the worship of the goddess, / they dwelt endowed with devotion for the propitiation of Caṇḍikā.

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They remained there always offering oblations and performing supreme silent recitation: / some taking one meal, some taking no food, and others subsisting on wind;

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some using their teeth as mortars, others crushing food with stones, / others practicing the five fires, and likewise those who wash their vessels immediately.

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Other gods then performed songs and instrumental music before them, / seeing those best of serpents endowed with undivided faith.

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Then the goddess, thoroughly pleased, spoke these words:

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The goddess said: / “I am well pleased with you, my children! For what purpose is this austerity practiced? / Choose a boon from me that rests in your heart.”

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The Nāgas said: / “Tormented by our mother’s curse, O goddess, we are without refuge. / By the command of the king of Nāgas, we have come to you for refuge.

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Protect us from that fear arising from the fire of the curse! / Formerly, for a certain reason, we were cursed by our mother: / ‘At the sacrifice of the son of Parīkṣit, the fire will consume you!’”

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The goddess said: / “As long as his sacrifice lasts, so long remain near me / without fear, and enjoy abundant pleasures.

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And when the rite is finished, you will go again to your own abode. / Since this mountain cave was pierced by you,

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this shall become a sacred ford on the earth’s surface known as Nāgahrada. / Here, whatever man, intent on devotion on the fifth day of the month of Śrāvaṇa,

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shall perform a ritual ablution, for him there will be no fear caused by snakes; / moreover, through a śrāddha, he will deliver his ancestors.

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Whatever pleasures are known on earth, whatever are divine and whatever are human, / a man will always obtain them, without doubt.”

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Pulastya said: / Then they became rejoiced, having been released from that dreadful fear; / having taken refuge with the goddess, they stayed there on the best of mountains.

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Then after a long time, when the sacrificial session of the son of Parīkṣit / was completed, they went, fully at peace, to Rasātala.

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Permitted by the goddess, having prostrated again and again / with difficulty, O tiger among kings, made immobile by their devotion to her,

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even today on the dark fifth lunar day in the month of Śrāvaṇa, O king, / they manifest their presence there, eager for the darśana of the goddess.

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Therefore, with every effort one should perform a śrāddha there, / and a ritual ablution, O best of kings, if one desires welfare for oneself.

Thus ends the thirty-seventh chapter, named “Description of the Greatness of the Sacred Ford Arising from the Nāgas,” in the third section, the Arbudakhaṇḍa, of the seventh section, the Prabhāsakhaṇḍa, in the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa of eighty-one thousand verses.

Linked texts (1)

Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit